# Fishing unlikely places



## toddparker (Apr 21, 2012)

I'm not an ice fisherman so I wanted to strike up conversation on places that have fish but no one would think so. Something to think about for spring. For example, I have heard from 2 separate sources that there are nice largemouth bass in honey creek in bettsville. Can anyone confirm or deny that?

Another buddy has told me that he has caught a few fishOhio crappie in the Blanchard river in Findlay. Whether you are stating facts, myths, rumors, or answers to previous posts, lets hear what's out there... Are there musky in muskellunge creek? Doubt that one..


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## MuskieJim (Apr 11, 2007)

In my short 28 years I have been on this earth, nothing brings out the adventurer in me like fishing new water that others may not be. At our hunting cabin in PA near Kittanning, I used to catch brook trout on a tiny fly rod in a creek you could almost jump over. When I went to Kent State for my undergrad, a few friends and I creeped onto a university pond that is used for bio studies and were catching 5 pound wipers on topwaters. You never know until you try!


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## AtticaFish (Nov 23, 2008)

toddparker said:


> ...I have heard from 2 separate sources that there are nice largemouth bass in honey creek in bettsville. Can anyone confirm or deny that?.....


I can shoot down the above statment since Honey Creek does not run through Bettsville. It does however run through Bloomville. Have fished the creek around Attica which is not far from Bloomville and would be pretty suprised to find any number of LMB in that stretch of the creek. There are some deep holes if you explore, but mostly is very shallow. LOTS of bullhead in there.


With these internet forums today - you are lucky to find an un-discovered piece of water. I have found in the last few years that there is a healthy population of Redhorse Suckers in the Sandusky River around Tiffin. They have a torpedo shaped body are some excellent fighting fish!!! They will take flies and some small creature baits but are a challenge. When out wading you will frequently see them 'flash' on the river bottom - not sure if they are rooting for food or what.


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## Luns (Feb 10, 2010)

I think the biggest part to the unlikely places though, is they are probably found but arent talked about if there is any good to them. While we would all like to hear the tips and tricks, i dont think its human nature to share information on things that took us a lot of time to figure out ourselves. Id love to know every secret spot in the area for giant largemouth but dont expect to have someone give me gps cordinates. I know personally this year produced some crazy findings for me. Places i fish that i thought the cut off weight was around 5lbs turned out to be completely wrong as i caught six fish over 7lbs this year, i never thought the water held these fish, but i found the trick to bringing these fish up.


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## jlami (Jan 28, 2011)

Once upon a time there was a pay lake in Missouri that was about 50 yards from the bank of the mississippi. Probably 10-15 aces at best. When it flooded back in '93 the owners abandoned the property and the state locked it down. The old timers said the lake was ruined from the flood and kids would sneak in at night and party... Well in '96 I was a freshman in high school and was one of the kids that would sneak down and party. Man we had some good times. My friends would make fun of me for bringing fishing poles to keg parties. (mind you this is N. St. Louis) But I would make fun of them when I started catching huge hybrids, walleyes, small and large mouths, and plenty of 30lb. Cats.(not that big or uncommon on the mississippi) When they wanted to grab one of my poles I would just tell them that they were too cool to fish or charge a fishing tax of beer, whiskey or whatever else they brought to the party. The girls would be amazed at the fish and eventually everyone started sneaking down there to fish instead of party once we got into our 20's and fishing was cool again. Great thing about it was we would fish it out and every spring it would flood and replenish the population from the river. Some years it would be overcome with gar and carp, but hey they are fun to catch too. I can honestly say that I was a little out of place growing up.

posted using Outdoor Hub Campfire


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## Weekender#1 (Mar 25, 2006)

Honey Creek = Honey hole, try smaller floating Rapala where it looks good, it is, no 5 pounders but a few up to 14 inches ultra light tackle and what I call chore boots you will have a fun day. And that would be all Small Mouth no Largies that I have caught. 
Blanchard River= untapped fishery, rumor has it by country club you will wear yourself out on Largemouth bass and I am sure that the tangles hold huge crappie. None of this is for cleaning and eating, trophys yes a dinner no. Try right under the artifical ripples there are 3 sets of them. That is were I catch bass and big crappie on rapala's and roostertails, jigs work well also but snaggy. You can put a small craft into the river behind Brinkmans on Sandusky Street a small motor may work, if a guy had a rowing boat, it would be slam city. 100 bass days have been claimed by those that have done it. I never see anyone fishing the river. Plus it has huge carp if that is your bag.


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## Bowhunter57 (Feb 9, 2011)

toddparker,
Welcome to OGF! 

I've always been one to look for "out of the way" places to fish. Places that people tend to drive by every day of the week, without giving them any thought for a good fishing hole. Especially, those borrow pits along the interchanges of the highways. 

I've joined sportsman's clubs to find out that the ponds and/or lakes on the property, haven't had a decent lure ran through them in years. On several occassions, I've been lucky enough to pull out some slab crappies or some football sized bass. 

Bowhunter57


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## toddparker (Apr 21, 2012)

jlami, great story. Great info weekender. I have a boat and a trolling motor so I will give it a try this spring. Let me know if you want to join. I am mistaken about honey creek being at bettsville. Is it rock creek? I was referring to bettsville though as having bass in that creek. 

I grew up near honey creek and heard that there are bass just northwest of bloomville underneath the old railroad trestle. I guess people used to go out there with bobbers and slam bass. Apparently, the legend is that it's haunted. This was a long time ago but I have snowmobiled over it plenty of times and it looks deep.

Small creeks that have fish in them can be especially interesting for people who occasionally fly fish like myself. Keep the info coming...


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## CoolWater (Apr 11, 2004)

AtticaFish said:


> With these internet forums today - you are lucky to find an un-discovered piece of water.


Well said.

There's a lot of small water gems in NW Ohio but the more "unlikely" and overlooked it remains - the better fishing will be. 

Just about every creek in NW Ohio can be amazing in the spring with all the spawning species... always amazed at the stuff that gets stuck when the water recedes as well.


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## toddparker (Apr 21, 2012)

Coolwater, that's probably true. By the way, it's Wolf Creek in Bettsville.


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## ejsell (May 3, 2012)

Weekender#1 said:


> Honey Creek = Honey hole, try smaller floating Rapala where it looks good, it is, no 5 pounders but a few up to 14 inches ultra light tackle and what I call chore boots you will have a fun day. And that would be all Small Mouth no Largies that I have caught.
> Blanchard River= untapped fishery, rumor has it by country club you will wear yourself out on Largemouth bass and I am sure that the tangles hold huge crappie. None of this is for cleaning and eating, trophys yes a dinner no. Try right under the artifical ripples there are 3 sets of them. That is were I catch bass and big crappie on rapala's and roostertails, jigs work well also but snaggy. You can put a small craft into the river behind Brinkmans on Sandusky Street a small motor may work, if a guy had a rowing boat, it would be slam city. 100 bass days have been claimed by those that have done it. I never see anyone fishing the river. Plus it has huge carp if that is your bag.


I agree the Blanchard has a lot of potential. I would also not eat anything out of it. I started fishing it a lot about half way through this past summer and caught a ton of rock bass, several smallies and a couple of large crappie. I've seen a lot of very large carp which I plan on targeting this summer. I also found a large school of sheephead and caught several on a fly rod. I've only fished the wadable areas in town and by the reservoir but have also heard the area around the country club is a good spot if you have a boat.


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## eye-man (Aug 8, 2010)

"quote"
With these internet forums today - you are lucky to find an un-discovered piece of water.

I can't see how the internet is running around sniffing out all the honey holes and then fishing them out? I would have to say it is harder to find undiscovered water because the population is getting bigger and we have basically explored all of the earth. The forums help the people that want to fish in new areas and meet new people that enjoying fishing. I don't think the forums hurt spots nearly as much as people say. I have reported numerous times on different fishing spots and haven't seen a very big uptick in fishing pressure. The main exception would be Lake Erie. It does seem if you post a general location there will be a pack of boats in the area pretty quick. But that is the goal of these forums and when you post that info you expect that to happen. There is plenty of space on Lake Erie to handle the big crowds.

Now back to the original topic. I really like fishing the Maumee and have found plenty of good fishing with easy access from Maumee/Perrysburg all the way to Mary Jane/Turkeyfoot area. There are a lot of species and different techniques that you can use to keep things interesting. If your willing to walk/wade/canoe/kayak a little you can find some really nice spots that don't get fished very often! In the past few years I have focused mainly around Bluegrass/Buttonwood. Great smallie action and plenty of channel cats with the occasional random species thrown in. Take your pick just about every fish that lives in Northwest Ohio has been caught in that river.


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## Sid.hoover (May 4, 2012)

Agreed Blanchard is under rated! Theres big bass lm and sm in there. Ive caught some 13 and 14 inch crappie also, but they were real, real skinny. I would like to find some fatter ones. I've only caught one sheephead in the Blanchard below the waterfall. I would be interested in hearing more about this school of them! Also, One time i saw a guy catch some huge cats and take them home to eat out of the Blanchard, not to sure if thats safe haha!!!! If you want a another "hidden gem" try eagle creek around findlay. It feeds into the Blanchard just have to find the right holes. Ive caught some big smallies and lmb in Eagle creek also rock bass and giant carp.


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## DeathFromAbove (Oct 21, 2008)

In answer to your first question, unfortunately there are no muskies in Muskellunge Creek.


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## meathelmet (Aug 4, 2008)

eye-man said:


> "quote"
> With these internet forums today - you are lucky to find an un-discovered piece of water.
> 
> I can't see how the internet is running around sniffing out all the honey holes and then fishing them out? I would have to say it is harder to find undiscovered water because the population is getting bigger and we have basically explored all of the earth. The forums help the people that want to fish in new areas and meet new people that enjoying fishing. I don't think the forums hurt spots nearly as much as people say. I have reported numerous times on different fishing spots and haven't seen a very big uptick in fishing pressure. The main exception would be Lake Erie. It does seem if you post a general location there will be a pack of boats in the area pretty quick. But that is the goal of these forums and when you post that info you expect that to happen. There is plenty of space on Lake Erie to handle the big crowds.
> ...


Eye-Man,

Your on target about kayaks and canoes. I have found more places with these rides than anything else, especially the Maumee, Metzger Marsh and occasional pond if you can get permission.


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## ejsell (May 3, 2012)

I've been eyeballing Eagle Creek for a while but haven't ventured into it yet. Anyone fish Aurand Run near Oakwoods? I was thinking about taking my fly rod back there this summer. PM me about it if you are willing to share any info.


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## Troutchaser (Jan 1, 2013)

I mainly fish the Auglaize. There are HUGE numbers of big rock bass and pretty good size smallmouth. I've had 25+ fish days.........all on an ultralight set up and a #1 mepps.


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## plinder (Jan 19, 2009)

I grew up in Wapakoneta. Graduated high school in 1981. During my high school days, we used to set turtle hooks and traps in Pusheta Creek off Canning Factory road. We used to catch creek chubs out of the creek to use for the traps and hooks. Much to my suprise one day, i caught 1 smallmouth that weighed about 1 pound. We started fishing for smallmouth in that creek after that, and ended up catching very very many, some in the 4 pound range. This creek flows in the Auglaize near the fair grounds in Wapak. Both have excellent numbers of smallmouth. You just have to find the holes.


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