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Clarence J. Brown Reservoir

My brother and I are considering the drive from Lima to the N.E. Springfield area to kayak fish the Clarence J. Brown Reservoir.

Who has fished this reservoir and what can you tell me about it?
Would we be better off to fish Kiser Lake instead?

We like to cast and/or troll to catch edible sized fish. Sometimes we keep a few fish and other times we just enjoy letting them stretch our lines. :smiley_bril:

Thank you, Bowhunter57
 

Jackalope

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Got your call late man. I've kayak fished it many times. Plenty of 6 inch crappies and white bass. It's not worth the drive Man. It's not worth the drive for me and I live 2 miles away. Lol. They call it a walleye lake. In the 8 years I've lived here I've only caught a walleye in a cast net and he was about an inch long. Lol. Good catfishing at night though. Between the catfish, stunned white bass, and carp the lake is stunned. I've never even caught an edible bluegill in there.
 

hickslawns

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I tried it around early 2000's. Can't recall catching anything. As I remember, the locals with farm ponds are where it is at around there.
 
Thanks for the heads up, guys! There are plenty of other bodies of water in the state, that's worth spending more time on than this one.

We've always caught decent fish at Kiser Lake and a few farm ponds around the Bellefontaine area. I still have plans to hit Lake Erie, off of the Metzger Marsh area, for some bigger walleye and whatever else we get into while we're there.

Bowhunter57
 

brock ratcliff

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I've never fished it. However, a guy I used to work with fishes it a lot. They troll for walleye and do well. My parents also fish it a couple times a year with a friend of their's. He's an old man that fishes the lake several times a week and apparently knows every stump in the lake. He too trolls for walleye, and the get their limit most every trip. From what I've heard, boat traffic on the weekends is horrible.
 

Jackalope

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I've never fished it. However, a guy I used to work with fishes it a lot. They troll for walleye and do well. My parents also fish it a couple times a year with a friend of their's. He's an old man that fishes the lake several times a week and apparently knows every stump in the lake. He too trolls for walleye, and the get their limit most every trip. From what I've heard, boat traffic on the weekends is horrible.

Agreed on the boat traffic. On the weekend you can't fish the main lake. As for the stumps, all two of them. I've never seen a lake with the lack of structure this one has. lol
 

brock ratcliff

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This old guy that my parents fish with runs essentially the same routes over and over. He knows where the old road beds etc are. Mom told me he tells them when they are about to get hit by watching his chart. Knowledge is golden.
 

Jackalope

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This old guy that my parents fish with runs essentially the same routes over and over. He knows where the old road beds etc are. Mom told me he tells them when they are about to get hit by watching his chart. Knowledge is golden.

Yes there are a couple of old road beds and a creek that runs through it. I'm just not much of a watch the depth finder and troll type of person. Guess that's why I prefer crappie and bluegill fishing. I would much rather rig up a slip Bobber with the cricket or a minnow. Or chunk a beetle spin over a brush pile
 

brock ratcliff

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That's definately a fun way to fish. Thing is, 90percent of water is "dead". Once you find those 10 percent areas, you can repeatedly catch fish. It takes time to learn those places but good electronics will shorten that learning curve a bunch!

A few years ago Sean and I took the boys to Chataqua for the first time. I checked out the lake via his Navionics before we even left the dock. Picked a couple of key locations and we were in fish all weekend on a lake I'd never been on. The lowrance hds series is fairly priced and worth every penney.
 

Jackalope

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That's definately a fun way to fish. Thing is, 90percent of water is "dead". Once you find those 10 percent areas, you can repeatedly catch fish. It takes time to learn those places but good electronics will shorten that learning curve a bunch!

A few years ago Sean and I took the boys to Chataqua for the first time. I checked out the lake via his Navionics before we even left the dock. Picked a couple of key locations and we were in fish all weekend on a lake I'd never been on. The lowrance hds series is fairly priced and worth every penney.

I'm not used to fishing such deprived lakes. You're right. Seems like 90% of a lake here in Ohio is dead. I'm used to oxbows of the Mississippi River that get flooded every year. Packed with fish! Fill a 48 quart ice chest with 12+ inch crappie in a morning and burn through 100 minnows each with gar, white bass, etc. And bluegill so big you barely get your fingers over their back. So many 2 lb white bass you just bounce em off a dock and keep fishing.
 

brock ratcliff

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You are correct! The lakes in our area of the state are not the greatest. However, there are fish if you are willing to look hard enough. Our trips up north are a welcome reprieve from fishing these mudholes. Last year on Black Lake, many of the locals were crying because the bite had slowed a great deal by the time we arrived. However, Mason and I worked at it, found 'em and caught them. It was far better than anything we ever experience around here. It's all in your perspective. Those folks are used to catching fish pretty much anywhere they sling a worm, when you have to hunt them down they lose interest. Their "bad days" are far better than our good.