Hello,
Got skunked at willard today and were thinking of trying to fish from shore at Pineview and/or Mantua tomorrow. Any advice on where to go and what to use? Any help is appreciated - we are new to the area! Thanks!
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Welcome aboard. Willard can be a cold mistress. But some folks seem to learn her wily ways. You got some good tips before you went, but there's no guarantee. Where did you try and what did you use?
Both M&P offer some good shore access. Here are a couple of TubeDude's marked up maps you might find helpful. They've added some new docks at Mantua around the N and S sides of the lake. All along the dike on the west you can access the lake. Other sides have a lot of shrubbery along the shore. With this warming trend I'd expect the Gills and Bass to be moving in shallower (finally!). You should even be able to see them in the weeds along the shore.
Can be tough to get past the weeds/shallows to get to the dropoff. Early morning or dusk is probably your best bet for action. But pitching a bobber out should gain you access to some trout action too. Worms, Powerbait, plastic grubs and jig-heads will all work. Spinners and crankbaits would probable necessitate some floating.
Pineview has some good shore access, and you can find Crappie, Bass and TigerMusky (C&R required on TMs!) in the shallows and weed beds. Browning point and Cemetary point offer pretty good access. Check some of the recent posts and you'll see some nice smallmouth - some of those dudes have that lake down pat! There are some spots nearer the damn where you can park and hike down to the shore. Deepest water there.
Good luck - let us know how you do. Wish you better luck than the Willard Skunk Monster offered.
Hey [url "../../../cgi-bin/community/community.cgi?do=user_page;pg=user_profile_view.html;username=lflemmer"]lflemmer[/url] and welcome to the board. I'm thinking that both Pineview and Mantua are heating up but I only know for sure that Mantua is. I fished the east side of the lake on both sides of the hill this morning and can firmly say that the bass and gills have moved in next to shore.
I caught bass on senkos rigged wacky and texas style. Wacky had the most looks. Only the little bass wanted to play though, I saw plenty of bigger ones but the biggest that I could get to take my offering was about 11".
I caught gills on any thing that they could fit in their mouths. I actually caught so many gills that I had to stop once they had tore up my last small jig.
Hopefully someone will chime in about Pineview for ya. I haven't been there since the beginning of last week and that was from a boat hunting muskies so I don't know what the other fish are doing up there or if they're accessible from shore. The muskies are starting to warm up and they'll be following the smaller fish around if you can find them.
Attached are picture of a couple fish from today in case somebody doesn't know what a tiny bass and a big gill looks like [laugh]
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Mantua should really heat up after tomorrow. The fish are anxious to spawn but it's been too cold. Warm weather should bring them in shortly. Don't forget to fish the North end (in the trees) they love to spawn there. You may need a boat to reach the North end trees though.
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I can tell you right now that there is almost no bank access at pineview unless you wanna fish the swimbeaches..water is too high, 8ft deep at the edge of the trees and bushes!! The whole lake is unfishable without a boat right now
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Good info, thanks bud. You and Wildcat sure put the spank on them bass up there (as usual!!).
Are the crappie up in the shallows/weeds?
Chickendude - thanks for the positive Mantua report. That's good news too. Hey - maybe spring is finally here, now that it's officially SUMMER!!!
Panfish are going nuts now at Mantua. I was there yesterday afternoon. Just walk the shore looking IN THE FLOODED TREES for gravelly bottoms and the bluegill are stacked up in there, with lots of medium-sized bass hanging around the periphery....
I got a nice pile of bluegill wading in the trees and pitching worms or tipped jigs into any open spot. They liked them moving, and the big ones were hesitant. I caught most of my fish on a 7' rod with 3' of line hanging off the end just doodling for them and then backing out into the open to land them ( you can't set the hook or try to reel them in or you'll tangle). Basically, don't even think about casting or retrieving.
Remember that place has "swimmer's itch" so wade with waders.
I got maybe 24 bluegills over 8", and two bass about 12-14" long.
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I can verify that shore fishing at Pineview is a nightmare right now. Went there from 11:30 to 4:00 (I know bad time to fish) tried 3 different places and only ended up catching one 12" smallmouth bass! At the first spot saw some bass cruising the shallows and at the next two spots it was carp city! It would be a bow-fishers paradise! I like to catch carp on the fly but the carp right now only had one thing on their mind and it wasn't eating. How I wish I'd gone to Mantua instead! I brought two family members with me who bought day licences and they ended up getting skunked [
]. I thought for sure we'd be able to find at least a few dinky perch to play with.
Thanks to all for all the great tips! We plan on trying Mantua this afternoon - hopefully we'll have good luck! If anyone else has any tips on some other good shore fishing spots, we'd really appreciate it!
Thanks!
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