Up or Down in Reservoirs

[Kolby]

Hello, wondering if any of you ice pros can help a rookie ice mate find some walleye in a small reservoir in Iowa (900acres)?  The upper end is mostly silted in and has a very small, shallow feeder creek, the depth from this feeder to the middle portion goes progressively deeper to about 25 feet deep in the channel and shallower on the flats.  This section is heavily timbered with little to no weeds and no rock.

At mid-lake you have a road bed and a timber strip that meet up with the creek channel (30 ft deep), there are also rock piles on the road bed and an old bridge (over the creek channel). 

Moving torwards the lower end you get some nice points with shallow rip-rap, still no weeds but it opens up to a larger basin that has 40' of water in the channel with 25 to 35 of deep open water, a few brush piles and dirt mounds exist around this deeper section.  The channel swings in close to shore in some areas.  This main lake section has a couple of shallower coves with standing timber but for the most part you lose the wood at this deeper end.  You can catch pre-spawn/spawn fish on the rip-rap dam in April, but I'm not sure where the heck they are in the mean time?

Would you look in the:                       
1.  shallow muddy/woody upper end
2.  Middle of the lake on the road bed/channel/timber junction.
3.  Main lake structures and deep water (30-40FT)
4.  around the dam this early (this is deepest spot in lake 40-45FT


Thanks for any insight fellas...

Creo

[iceintheveins]

Riprap is great for walleyes any time of year. I would fish the roadbeds and bridge rip rap, the points, and the rip rap dam. I would check the dam first evening, and then work the other two in other twighlight periods if you don't find fish. I would fish in 10 - 25 feet of water in the twighlight periods. Really can't tell if an area is good or not unless you fish it in twilight periods.

Tyler

[UnderCoverBrother]

Deep during the day, shallow in the evening and night!

[IceTroll]

Rip rap is always going to hold fish because it holds prey fish. Although it may be tough to fish, I would pay real close attention to that heavily timbered area. Same reason applies. Walleyes go where they can find food and that timber will definetely hold bait fish. Walleyes will also hold in shallow timber areas during mid day periods because there is dark cover available to them. I would think this would be a great place for a big ole marble eye to lay in wait and ambush its prey.

IceTroll

[iceman480]

Are you talking about Brushy creek.

[Kolby]

3 mile lake by Afton.  I've been chasing the eyes hard there for about a week and a half.  I'm finding a few fish in the wood in the middle and lower section.  I'm getting one or two off of primary and secondary points on the mainlake in about 22 feet at midday.  The roadbed in the middle of the lake has been the Sahara desert the times I've tried it.  No signs of much life around there with the Aquaview either.  Not much happening up by the dam in the prespawn areas either.  Not getting much out in the old sunken stumps and logs near the deep creek channel in the mainlake section except hordes of crappies coming in and looking at my presentations and sometimes taking a swipe.  People say big reservoirs are hard to fish, I think they're easier, you've got major creek arms attracting piles of fish.   These little 1000 acre woody impoundments with small silty feeders are tough nuts to crack until fish move into their predictable pre-spawn areas.   

[iceman480]

Yeah at Brushy I'm having a tough go. I have picked a some Walleyes though. I 've been getting them on a Swedish pimple tipped with a Minnow. IN the timber In about 25 to 30 feet of water between 2 and three o'clock. I dont know if this will help at all. Good luck to ya.

[Kolby]

Yeah, It seems the eyes in all of our small iowa reservoirs are widely scattered right now, in both Big Creek and Three mile - the little areas of thicker wood/Brush amongst larger timber flats seem to be about the only thing caughing up a few eyes.  I think the rock will get hot (or wood close to rock) in about 3 weeks to a month.  Pretty sure we'll start to see concentrations and more competative aggressive feeding then.  This is still a good period to try off the wall areas, and locations you might not try otherwise, like a shallow mud-bottom bay or way back in a timbered cove in shallow brush.  Have you been getting your walleyes mixed in with Crappies?  I've not seen to much eye action where the Craps are thick.  But better action where their are fewer Craps, and the few crappies that are there are generally bigger.

[iceman480]

I' gotten afew eyes that were where there was a few Crappies. If there were a good school I haven't seen an eye. I did catch 1 eye on a mud flat in some timber.  I haven't reaaly seen much action on the rock piles. But I suspect that will change. Let me know how things are going. Good Luck.