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Kiser Lake tips?

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7.5K views 14 replies 9 participants last post by  Baloogala  
#1 ·
Interested in knowing how the summer largemouth fishing has been at Kiser? Making a trip out here soon. Will be on a canoe - usually run a 30lb trolling motor but I hear it's a no motor lake. Read somewhere about a fish kill last year, but nothing on ODNR about water quality warnings as of now.

Hoping to find a top water bite in low light, and then something else or when the sun is up.

Any recent reports or good tips would be much appreciated.....
 
#2 ·
They must have sprayed the lake for weeds sometime early summer. I was up there a few weeks back and all the grass in the middle of the lake was gone. No grass edges to fish anymore. The water clarity was muddy since the grass is all gone. The pads are still there but fishing is now super tough.
 
#4 ·
A friend and i fished it last friday evening, hoping to catch some fish on topwater - and yes, it was muddy. A person at the bait store said the lake had been treated for weeds, i called ODNR and talk to the fisheries biologist.

He said the lake has been treated the last three years for curly leaf pondweed, using a product called Clipper. It was applied to selected areas. i thought maybe that had something to do with the stained water, but he said it is from the peat that surrounds the lake. He did say their studies show Kiser has a very good bass population.

https://www.thepondguy.com/category/curlyleaf-pondweed


They must have sprayed the lake for weeds sometime early summer. I was up there a few weeks back and all the grass in the middle of the lake was gone. No grass edges to fish anymore. The water clarity was muddy since the grass is all gone. The pads are still there but fishing is now super tough.
 
#8 ·
Reporting back after trying out Kiser this weekend......

Fished Friday night from probably 730-11pm.....marina and campground end of lake. Water warm and about 1 ft. visibility which was muddier/murkier than I hoped but was expecting based on this thread (thanks guys). Fished the lily pads on south shore mostly, caught 4 largemouth - 2 on frogs and 2 on texas rigged rubber worms. No dinks but none were even 2 lbs.

Camped there at the lake and was back on water by 6am. Again fished east end near campground and marina. Same visibility, worse results.....caught nothing all morning despite good weather and light conditions. 1 strike on a topwater, but I missed the hook set.

I'd describe the fishing as really tough.......below surface the lake has a ton of weeds, hard to keep even texas-rigs from getting snagged, hung up, weedy. For how awesome that lake looks when you pull up, I thought it was going to be red hot for evening/early morning largemouth.....the water clarity and weeds really make it tough fishing. F

One tragically funny scene, which was absolutely not funny at the time, tried a whopper plopper on a few last casts just because. Proceed to bomb this lure out there (you can throw them a long way...they are heavy). Next thing I know, a big blue heron swoops down and is chasing my lure. Despite yelling, reeling, and jerking like crazy - the darn bird catches up to my lure and scoops it up. Total nightmare. Luckily, the bird manages to mostly spit the lure, but not before getting hooked in the face and wing. Poor thing, it's flopping all over the place and these things are like 2-3 feet tall. I didn't want to cut the line because it's surely dead if we do, so I carefully reel it back to the boat and pin it against the boat inside the net. Had to hurt it to get it completely free, but don't think it was permanently injured. It swam back to it's log perch and eventually was able to flap/fly away after a while. It was 10 minutes of chaos - nearly dumped our canoe while it all went down.
 

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#10 ·
Thanks. I'd be lying if I said I didn't think about it. It was also a whopper plopper on there, so I paid probably $15 for that lure.....that might have been the deciding factor now that I think of it!! joking. If it had swallowed it, it would have been over.....probably would have had to cut. Or take to the state park office, I don't know....

Sure wish the fishing was better. The girl at the park office said down by the dam was better (west end), but most everyone online said the campground/marina east end produced more.
 
#12 ·
any reports on Kiser this year? I yakked it and fished it for the first time ever yesterday, was only out 30 mins or so, twisted my knee real bad at the launch ramp getting in by the marina, BEWARE, it’s slicker then ice right there I had no chance. Lol so that shorted my trip by a lot, was throwing a 1/4 jig with a 3” twister tail had one bite but missed the hook set. Anybody else fishing it with luck? Looking to try for strippers and cats too. Going out tomorrow after work and any reports or tips would be helpful.
 
#13 ·
any reports on Kiser this year? I yakked it and fished it for the first time ever yesterday, was only out 30 mins or so, twisted my knee real bad at the launch ramp getting in by the marina, BEWARE, it’s slicker then ice right there I had no chance. Lol so that shorted my trip by a lot, was throwing a 1/4 jig with a 3” twister tail had one bite but missed the hook set. Anybody else fishing it with luck? Looking to try for strippers and cats too. Going out tomorrow after work and any reports or tips would be helpful.
Kiser has been pretty tough since they killed all the weeds. Last time there I got some strikes on a frog but no hook ups.
 
#15 ·
My son and I usually make the trip once per year and normally catch something every time we go. This year, however, in June...nothing. I missed on a bass that took a shot at a frog along the lily pads, but apart from that, nothing. We kept pulling through weeds and muck.

The downside to that place is if you do not take a boat, it's nearly impossible to fan cast as people will come and plop right beside you. It's a public lake, I know, but any time we go, especially if we catch anything, we get zero elbow room.

In the past, we catch largemouth, nothing big, nothing tiny, but they've always seemed oddly stunted to me.