# What's gone wrong with Dillon?



## Snookhunter52 (Apr 1, 2019)

Can anybody tell me what's happened to Dillon Lake? I've fished it about 10 ten times total this year and last year in varying spots including the spillway, the riprap and even the western side of the lake and I have yet to catch anything of any size. I have also seen others never catch anything since I came back to ohio. Before that, the last time I fished it was 6 years ago and I could catch a mixture of bass, crappie and catfish all day long. Now all I catch are stunted bass and green sunfish. I've gone fishing for wipers and saugeye in the spillway which this time of year, years ago used to be on fire. Is the heavy rain we've been receiving past couple years been flushing all the fish odnr has been stocking down the drain or has the amount of fish odnr has been stocking dropped?


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## RiverWader (Apr 1, 2006)

We caught 9 Catfiish last night on the upper ,3 of them were over 10 lbs. and the biggest came in just shy of 17 lbs.


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## FortySix (Jun 13, 2019)

Snookhunter52 said:


> Can anybody tell me what's happened to Dillon Lake? I've fished it about 10 ten times total this year and last year in varying spots including the spillway, the riprap and even the western side of the lake and I have yet to catch anything of any size. I have also seen others never catch anything since I came back to ohio. Before that, the last time I fished it was 6 years ago and I could catch a mixture of bass, crappie and catfish all day long. Now all I catch are stunted bass and green sunfish. I've gone fishing for wipers and saugeye in the spillway which this time of year, years ago used to be on fire. Is the heavy rain we've been receiving past couple years been flushing all the fish odnr has been stocking down the drain or has the amount of fish odnr has been stocking dropped?


I’ve been wondering the same thing about Salt Fork. Been able to hit it about a dozen times this year and I’ve only picked up two rather small largemouth bass. I’ve thrown so many different things at them just trying to figure out some sort of pattern but without much luck. If anything, I keep picking up those little 8 to 10 inch saugeye consistently. It makes for a good challenge I suppose.


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## Shad Rap (Nov 10, 2010)

Used to catch monster shovelheads at that spillway...but that's been 30 years ago.


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## Snookhunter52 (Apr 1, 2019)

Yes, thanks for the feedback. It kept me from thinkin that the tactics I was using was the problem. I fish plenty of other bodies of water and have lots of success even in highly pressured areas. If that's the case it's sad to see a body of water where I learned how to fish go downhill so quickly.


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## Jonathan_R (Apr 10, 2013)

ive been fishing dillon ever since i could remember and this is the first year that its been this bad.. its about an hour drive for me and ive left Dillon without catching jack atleast 3 times this year. mostly targeting the spillway for wipers. had pretty good luck for channels cats at the spillway tho. since dillon is a flood control lake, i think the culprit is the rain. maybe the constant raging water from the spillway isnt allowing the weak bait fish to reproduce properly below the dam or maybe it isnt allowing them to peacefully congregate there. in turn the predators are seeking other stretches of water to find where the bait fish are congregating. because every-time ive been there this year, i barely noticed any schools of shad. if any at all. just a thought.


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## Snookhunter52 (Apr 1, 2019)

Yeah I'll have to agree with the lack of baitfish. I'll try fishing the muskingum river in zanesville once the water goes down. Hopefully, things will start to dry up soon.


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