Portage Lakes (OH) 08-21-11
It was a fun day over at the Portage Chain of Lakes in Ohio. It’s all part of the Portage State Park.
http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/parks/parks/portage/tabid/779/Default.aspx
I arrived early in the morning and took a quick nap in the truck until Bill (Billy Bastard from our board) arrived to fish with me. We ended up sitting in the truck for a short while waiting on storms to roll through before hitting the water just before 7 am. While we waited, there were two tournaments that went out of the ramp while we waited. It looked like we were going to be sharing some water this day.
I only spent a couple hours on this lake before, so it was basically a new adventure for both Bill and I. We had to piece something together in short order to make the most of the day. Jim (mpd5094 from our board) had given us a rough idea of some places to start. I was surprised to find that most of the weeds had been killed off in the lake, and the water clarity had decreased a lot since last time I visited.
We started off fishing break lines, long points, and turns. This figured to be our best option since the majority of the tournament guys were beating the banks around the docks and boats. I’d say it was about 9 am when we finally started to piece a little something together. We finally boated a good fish that put us on the right track for the rest of the day.
It was around 11 or 12 when Jim (mpd5094) and his son Chase showed up at the lake. We met on the water and shared a few notes, and continued to fish. Below is a picture of the guys in their Ranger boat.

We met up for lunch around 1:30 at a local restaurant on the lake. It was really nice getting to know Jim and Chase a little better. We talked about Nate and his cancer battle. That’s certainly a tough situation, and anyway some of us can help, it would certainly be appreciated.
Jim is throwing a benefit tournament September 18th on the Portage Lakes to raise money.
http://fishtalkfishingreports.yuku.com/topic/8896/Fishing-For-Nate#.TlG0EKhENaU
If you can’t make it, you can do a donation like Bill and I did that will certainly help the cause. Bill may still be able to make the tourney, but for me it’s too far of a drive and I just don’t have an entire day I can get away on these upcoming weekends. PayPal payments can be sent to:
After lunch, Bill and I continued with our little pattern to put some more fish in the boat. We ended up boating 16 for the day with a catfish thrown in the mix. I’d guess that at least 9 were legal length or better. Our best 5 fish went probably 11 to 12 lbs. I’m satisfied with that considering there were two tourneys. Wish I knew the winning weights. Below are few photos of fish Bill and I caught. The best lures were plastic worms and crankbaits for us.



