MOONSCAPE LAKE - Final Installment

Author’s note: This is the final installment of the blog I started yesterday. It passes along some details about a visit my wife and I recently made to a reservoir that is now drained while repairs are made to the dam that normally holds water back to form the lake there. While it is dry, we have enjoyed exploring it in a way that is normally impossible.

I wish we had more time on today’s trip. I’d create my own fishing hotspot by dragging some logs into a pile along the drop-off where the basin suddenly slopes down into the main river channel. A few of the big rocks laying around would weigh the logs to keep them captive once the water level is allowed to return to normal levels.

This kind of spot quickly becomes attractive habitat for fish since it concentrates some good cover in a small area. Also, it would provide a current break against the constant flow of the river. By anchoring it on the slope that drops into the main channel, I would create a shallow side and a deeper side – about six feet below the surface up on the bank and fifteen feet deep at the base. This offers fish a piece of bottom structure that connects the extremes – something that experience shows they prefer.

Standing at the launch ramp that now leads only to a dry lakebed, I can see that most fishermen would head downstream like sheep following the rest of the flock. That is because the reservoir is wider in that direction and would appear deeper because the dam crosses the entire basin. By appearance, there is simply “more water” downstream, therefore – in most fishermen’s minds – more fish!

For this reason, I would build my underwater “fish condo” in the opposite direction - upstream - where it would likely go undetected by other anglers for several years. The water in this river is dark enough that the structure would not be visible by eye once the lake refills. An electronic fish locator would be necessary to pinpoint the exact location. That would be sure to help keep my spot a secret.

Of course, I would need some help finding it the first few times as well. For that reason, I would place a discreet marker on the shoreline slightly above the high water mark. Maybe I’d use a couple of the old stumps commonly available here. I could place one at the water’s edge and another some yards up on land so they lined up like rifle sights, pointing to the spot. No-one else would suspect their significance.

As for exactly where on the upstream side of the lake I would build this attractor, the choice is relatively simple: I’d choose a place that is currently devoid of cover – a place no natural competition exists. This creates a new opportunity for the local trout, walleyes, bass, pike, or perch to hide from the relentless current. A place where they can rest as they wait for natural water movement to drift a morsel or a minnow past them.

Placing structure on the bottom of reservoirs in this manner is a common practice in southern states where reservoirs with fluctuating water levels allow access when the lakes are drawn down annually. Similar lakes here in northern states seldom see changing levels so this strategy is not well known.

I’m going to talk to my life-long fishing pal Duane about going up later this fall to take on this project. We could trailer our all terrain vehicles to the reservoir to make pulling the logs together an easy chore. The structure we create could be useful year around, since both open water and ice fishing are practiced here. If we take on the project, I’ll let you how it goes in another blog.

Thanks for stopping by, and I’ll see you on Monday 11-10.

Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008