# Lake Katherine question



## BigSmallieMike (Oct 20, 2005)

I'm heading out to Lake Katherine State Park here in June and I'm looking for anyone's thoughts or insight into this lake. I'll be using the spinning rod and my fly rod, so I'm going with a heavily stocked armory.

I'm actually pretty stoked about the trip. For those who don't know, this is a protected area in Jackson County (basically Chillicothe) where they only allow limited fishing access to non-motorized boating (no bank fishing allowed) at a rate of only 5 boats per day and 4 days per week for only 6 months a year. 

Ahh, dreams of monster underfished bass...


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## Byg (Jun 6, 2006)

Nice place, fish about once a year there.


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## rustyhook36 (Dec 20, 2005)

Great Lake For Bass,and Big Bluegill. The Fly Rod Should Be Fun For The Big Gills. My Parent's Own Property That Borders Lake Katherine Prpoerty So This Lake Was In My Back Yard As A Kid. You Are In For A Great Fishing Trip!!! The Bass Are Huge!!! Good Luck. Be Sure To Let Us Know How You Do.


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## going fishing (Jun 1, 2007)

how do you become one of the boats they let fish it


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## Byg (Jun 6, 2006)

You have to call the last Friday of the month.Start calling about 8:00am cuz the phone is busy until they fill the month up.I dont remember the number sorry....


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## BigSmallieMike (Oct 20, 2005)

You can find the number on the ODNR website, and he's correct - it took about an hour to get through to reserve my permit.


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## seabass (Jun 27, 2005)

Hope you have some help carrying your boat that hill is a bear.


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## rustyhook36 (Dec 20, 2005)

So How Did You Do Mike?


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## johnnywalleye (Jan 27, 2007)

beautiful lake. fish the brush with artifical plastic small black tails for 12in crappie in the summer.


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## BigSmallieMike (Oct 20, 2005)

The lake was gorgeous, but thinkgs did not work out as planned.

I got up at 3:30 Sunday to feed my 5-month-old son before I left. Got him back to bed ant hit the road a little after 4:00. I actually made it down there by a little after 6:00 even with construction around Chillicothe - I wasn't going too fast ;-). Then the fun started, I met my buddy outside the property and it took us almost an hour to find the access road - grrr. 

Once we made it down to the water with all of our gear (about an hour after first light - grrr) we got all excited to get lines wet. We shoved off and started fishing. We fished...and fished...and fished...

There is a tremendouns amount of sumberged timber (read excellent structure) and there are some nice looking rock walls to the lake (again - great habitat) but we had no luck for the first couple of hours. I finally coaxed a small bass to hit a rapala (after trying swimbaits, jigs, creatures, and spinnerbaits). Once I broke the ice we had an ok day - my buddy caught 4 small bass and 5 really nice bluegills (probably over 9" each) and I caught 6 smallish bass and 2 really nice gills (again over 9 inces). All-in-all, totals weren't great, size wasn't great, the weather wasn't great (in looking at weather data it appears a high pressure front blew through although I'm not sure that I'm not just searching for things to blame other than me), the trip wasn't great, I lost my pfd on the drive back, and I never felt a serious bend in my rod.

Despite all that, the lake was gorgeous and I'd like to try it again - I just wish I had better news to report.


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