# Best Musky Lakes



## BiteMyLine (Sep 7, 2006)

What would anybody consider to be the best musky lakes in Ohio?


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## cincinnati (May 24, 2004)

caught 1 @ Clearfork. So that's the best for me!


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## bigfishtommy (Oct 25, 2004)

Check out the Ohio Game and Fish Magazines. I just read that Leesville, West Branch, Clear Fork plus some others are in the top 5 for numbers and size. Dont remember the month, but it was sometime this year.

Tom


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## Weatherby (May 27, 2005)

Leesville seems to always lead the state in numbers and size.


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## vc1111 (Apr 13, 2004)

I certainly can't speak for the entire state but I fish Pymatuning, West Branch, Leesville, and Piedmont. I fish them all very regularly and have done so for many years. I also fish Milton from time to time.

Each has its strong suits and peak times.

Leesville is consistently good (compared to the rest), but it has its tough times too. It is the most beautiful place to fish of the four in my opinion. That counts for me as does the travel time and road conditions and traffic to get there. The Sisson baits work well on Leesville and that is a huge plus for veterans and beginners alike. That bait is cheap to purchase so you can afford to own a bunch and they are easy to cast or troll. Tune them right and they'll troll at some pretty fast speeds too.

West Branch has a big downside...the pleasure boaters. For most of the season, you simply have to put up with a lot of traffic and fish the waters off the main lake, which makes this tough lake even tougher. But it can be fun and I've learned a handful of "hot spots" on the lake where my expectations are usually high for catching a ski.

Pymatuning is a nice lake for trolling, a relatively quiet lake and usually not too awfully crowded, even in the spring walleye season. We don't do as well casting that lake, but that could be because we do so well trolling there.  My partner and I had our best day ever on that lake: hooked 13 and boated seven between the two of us. A day we won't soon forget, especially since my partner caught his biggest, a seriously fat 46 incher!


Piedmont has been good to us. On more than one trip this year we boated four total...not bad. We have located about 5 seriously hot spots were we just about expect to catch or raise fish every time we go. Doesnt' always happen, but it does happen enough that our optimism is always high on that water. Very beautiful lake, and a very, very close second to Leesville in my book for a pristine, pretty place to spend a day. For us, its mostly a casting lake, but we do OK trolling too and we're learning more trolling lanes with each passing season.

Clear Fork and Salt Fork are too far to lure me out there, but I hear good things about them from time to time. It seems that Salt Fork is the tougher of the two to hook up on but that's only what I've heard. Have never fish there.

Hope that helps.


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## BITE-ME (Sep 5, 2005)

If your just getting started and want to boat your first muskie, I'de have to say C-Fork or Leesville are your best bet for success. 

If your willing to put up with the boat traffic, Alum Creek has been very good to me trolling in June & July.


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## BigDaddy300 (Nov 1, 2004)

As usuall excellent info from vc1111. I am still waiting for my first musky while actually targeting them. I have been trying West Branch as of late.


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## Whaler (Nov 16, 2004)

My buddy and I were fishing at West Branch yesterday when we saw a limb floating in the water . It was off of a dead tree as it was dead also. It was about three feet long and an inch thick. My buddy said there was a rope tied to it and he wanted to see what was on the end of the rope so he cast to it and snagged it with his lure. As started pulling it to the boat it pulled back hard. I told him it wasn't a rope it was a stringer. We got a hold of the stringer and started pulling it up and saw a large fish swirl. At first we thought it was a Carp someone had caught and put on their stringer but it was a Muskie. We started to get it close to the boat and were trying to figure out how the guy had attached the stringer when we saw a fish's tail sticking up in its mouth. As we pulled the Muskie closer a 14 inch Largemouth Bass popped out of its throat and the Muskie turned and swam off in a hurry. At that time we know what had happened. Someone had caught the Bass and put it on the stringer and tied it to the limb. The Muskie had come along and took the bass and in doing so broke the limb off the dead tree and swam off. The Muskie was in the 38 to 40 inch range and looked to be in great condition. It was filled out niclely. I weighed the Bass and it weighed 1.25 pounds. 
I had gone out with the ODNR this past Wednesday evening at West Branch to electroshock young of the year Walleyes and we stayed in water a foot to around four feet deep while doing the survey. We shocked up four small Muskie and three small Pike while looking for Walleyes. All these fish were in very shallow water as was the Muskie that took the Bass so it may be a good place to hit now that Fall is here and the water is cooling down ? It might pay to do some shoreline casting for them ?


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## big_b16 (Oct 17, 2004)

Sounds like there was a Bass tournament at West Branch. The honest competitors must have pre-fished (and kept them alive on a stringer) a full livewell so as to get the money. Gotta love that type of sport.


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## Whaler (Nov 16, 2004)

Big B16, I never thought of that but you may be right ! Some people will do anything for money or a trophy.


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## BiteMyLine (Sep 7, 2006)

Whaler, thats an amazing story about the 14" bass. Prolly a good thing you got that bass away from that muskie. Survival rate of a fish in that situation doesn't sound to promising and who likes to see a trophy fish belly up.


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