Presque Isle Ponds

BrookieBuster101

BrookieBuster101

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Has anybody ever fished what they call "the ponds" that are located on the presque isle peninsula in erie? Me and the old man are thinking of taking the canoe up there for some late summer bass fishin. From google earth, it seems that there is alot of structure like humps deadfalls and weed lines.

I was just wondering if anybody has experience here and wanted to know what to expect.

Thanks
 
I grew up in the area and fished the Lagoons a lot, but do not live there now.

Without going into a long winded thing about flies and fish and whatnot, keeping one simple thing in mind can help maximize the value of the time you spend up there as well as maximize the quality of the fishing you find:

A lot of the inner lagoons that may fish well early in the Summer or late in Spring will not fish well now because of oxygen depletion and pretty significant stagnation. Same goes for the backwater portions of places like Thompson and Misery Bays as well as the extreme west end of the bay itself (over by the City of Erie Water Plant called Sommerheim Pump). The fish (except for gars, carp and some small panfish) move out of these places in high summer. What you want to find and concentrate on are places that are open enough to the main bay and prevailing winds that they get a good wave-driven water/oxygen exchange. Wherever this co-occurs with decent habitat, you'll find bass. Where it doesn't, you won't. The good news is that much of the Lagoons (especially closer to the outlets to the bay) get this good exchange. The bad news is that a lot of the places that seem the most remote and likely to hold unpressured fish are often too far off the main current/water exchange to be worth fishing once Summer is in full roar.

You'll pretty much be able to tell which is which by simply looking at the water. Stagnant, cruddy and all but totally weed covered versus water with some visibility and the same basic clarity as the main bay.

Good Luck..
 
fished them about a month ago, fun paddling through there, reminded me of the everglades! lots of perch and bgills. some of the ponds are totally weeded in, impassable. there is a main channel that you can take and get through the entire thing from one bay to the other. I got into fish all through there, just have to find them. lots of other folks just paddling. when I was there, I was the only one fishing.
 
Thanks alot guys.
RLeep thats the kinda stuff i was looking for! Ida never thought of the winds having that much of an effect. I did however anticipate the weeds being pretty thick.

While were at it have ether of you fished the Conneaut Swamp? There too the weeds are grown in this this time of year but it seems like it would hold substantial amounts of fish.
 
And if you do ANY walking around there...check yourself thoroughly for ticks at the end of the day!
 
>>While were at it have ether of you fished the Conneaut Swamp? There too the weeds are grown in this this time of year but it seems like it would hold substantial amounts of fish.>>

I'm going to assume you mean what folks commonly call Geneva Marsh, which is actually the outlet of Conneaut Lake on its way to French Creek.

I have fished it, but its been years. I mean years, as in Nixon was President. I guess it has pike, crappie, bullhead, bass and lately evidently, bowfin.

But I went to college in Greenville (U. of Thiel, Greenville Campus) and we used to go up and fish it from shore. I was never impressed, but I would imagine if you had a canoe or whatnot and could wander around some in there, you might find some decent bass fishing.

Actually, as a bass destination, I was much more impressed with the Hartstown Swamp, which is fairly close by Geneva Marsh. We did well there. But that too, was many years ago and i have no idea what it is like now either from a fishing or access standpoint.

I'd give (either) it a go. A lot of the fun is in the novelty/exploring..
 
RLeep2 summed it up pretty good, the lagoons are getting shallower ever year and now with the very hot summer we had look for drop off in misery bay and along the bay the bass will stay deep and early mornings or evenings they will come up to feed on the bait along that ridge. The lagoons were dredged in the 30s and looks like that would really help now days ,also with out motor boat traffic the weeds are growing and dying leading to very stagnet water
 
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