Fish gone? Consider quality of the habitat
One of the more misunderstood factors in fishing, and probably the most important when it comes to a fishery's health, is habitat.
Anglers often wonder what happened at their favorite lake when the fishing undergoes a steady decline. Or they struggle to understand why one lake is so productive when a nearby body of water seems barren by comparison.
The answers to such questions usually revolve around the quality of the habitat.
Habitat essentially is where the fish live. It is a combination of cover, structure and water quality. When all of them converge in some degree, they create habitat that is suitable for various species of fish.
Terms
"Cover" and "structure" are two terms that are often misused -- even by knowledgeable anglers. Structure generally refers to the features on the bottom of the lake; examples include channels, humps, ledges, points, rock piles, sand bars and sunken bridges, road beds and building foundations.
Cover, meanwhile, includes the various objects that either grow in or litter the lake bottom. Examples are stumps, weeds, toppled and standing timber, brush piles, docks, rip-rap and manmade fish attractors, which often are built from wood pallets or plastic panels. Even an old rusty steel barrel can serve as cover for a catfish or bass that might use it as an ambush point.
Most of our local lakes, built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers between 1940 and 1965, have lost much of their natural cover. Stumps and logs may remain intact for many years, but they eventually deteriorate, especially when exposed to the air during low-water periods.
The deterioration of the wood cover and the sediment that collects in channels and settles on other structures as reservoirs age have negative effects on that body of water's habitat. As a result, the fishery often suffers and anglers' fortunes decline.
Aquatic vegetation has flourished in several local reservoirs, effectively augmenting the wood cover and serving as nurseries for all species' young and as feeding grounds for the dominant predators.
'Weed lakes'
West Branch and Mosquito Creek reservoirs are two of the better "weed lakes" this year. Anglers have found walleye relating to the points, pockets and deeper edges of the coontail and milfoil and other vegetation at the two lakes, while bass fishermen work the tops of the sprawling beds and probe the holes for largemouths.
Anglers often find the best fishing where varieties of cover converge with appealing structure. That is why certain docks, points or other locations always outproduce others that look similar.
A dock, for instance, that has good weeds and a sandy or rocky bottom will support more catchable fish than a similar-looking dock that has none of the other fish-attracting features.
Manmade cover is not a new development. Anglers have for years resorted to planting their own brush piles, though it's always advisable to check with lake management authorities before dropping objects into their waters. And just this week Ohio Department of Natural Resources' Division of Wildlife placed 50 wooden pallet structures in Mosquito to replace the natural cover that has disappeared.
Such efforts go a long way to improve fisheries.
So next time you wonder where your fish have gone, consider the quality of the habitat. Pick a lake with good cover, structure and water quality and you'll go a long way toward improving your fishing trips.
jwwollitz@aol.com