Before I forget them, here are great spots

After writing last week’s column about best bets for autumn fishing in the waters around Youngstown, I got to thinking nostalgically about all of the special local spots I’ve visited over the years.

Some of them yielded amazing numbers. Several of them produced oversized specimens. All of them are places I hope I never forget.

But in case they do slip my mind, I’ll share them with you today. Each experience was a real adventure and the best part was they all were within an hour or two of Youngstown.

The best walleye spot I ever found — bar none — was not out on the vast expanse of Lake Erie. Nor was it one of the honey holes at Mosquito or Pymatuning.

It was on a sand bar at Berlin Reservoir in 1977. The spot was no bigger than the little boat I had back then and it was literally swarming with 14- to 18-inch walleyes.

Four of us found the fish one mid-May Saturday evening, and spent the final hours before dark reeling in one walleye after another. The fish gobbled worm harnesses we cast across the sandbar. And when we ran out of whole nightcrawlers, we resorted to the bits and shreds of bait that littered the bottom of the boat and caught them just as fast.

Our foursome spent the night at Berlin’s Mill Creek campgrounds and arose before dawn to sneak back out to the hot spot, which continued to produce until our sunburned bodies screamed for a break.

Thirty years later, we still call that experience “Walleye Weekend” — for obvious reasons.

Bass notes

Another great spot was not far off the bank of Shenango Reservoir. The biggest largemouth bass I have landed north of the Mason-Dixon line resided there. The fish lived in the roots of a submerged stump on a slow-tapering point.

I was casting a large double willowleaf spinnerbait that afternoon in early October when the 6 1⁄2-pound largemouth struck. The water was low, as it often is in the fall on Corps of Engineer lakes, and the flat top of the cut-off stump was just visible.

The strike itself was as memorable as the fish. As the lure past through the shady side of the stump, the bass blasted it like an alligator taking a duck.

Monster muskies don’t come along very often, especially for a fellow who rarely fishes specifically for them. But I hooked, battled and beached a mega-muskie during a visit to another of my favorite spots, the Mahoning River in Warren’s Perkins Park.

I frequently made lunchtime visits to the river while working in Warren, and caught many smallmouth bass and the occasional muskie. This big one, however, was a wild surprise, especially when it launched itself in a tail-dancing, head-shaking leap that was more akin to something experienced while fighting a tarpon than a fish that lived in downtown Warren.

The best crappie spot I ever found is really no big secret at all. It is off the breakwall at Mosquito Creek State Park’s south end marina. I enjoyed a blustery November afternoon there casting a tiny jig with a one-inch chartreuse twister and catching crappies about every third or fourth cast.

I lost count (thanks largely to not being inclined to fillet them), but I’d say the two hours I spent casting to that spot produced 40 fish. I left them biting, and wonder to this day whether I could have topped the century mark.

Maybe I’ll try to hit that goal this November and add another entry in my nostalgia ledger.

jwwollitz@aol.com