Waterloo Lakes

[duckboy]

Looking to get out in the morning in the Waterloo Rec Area or close vicinity. Any advice on ice conditions and how the fishing has been would be appreciated.

[CreekChub]

Winawana is always a good bet for pike and some real nice gills there IF ya can get then to hit....have tossed every thing in the box at them and most times I just watch them lookin' at the bait.....sheeeeesh. Mud lake is also good for pike, some gills, and smaller perch......but I get many flags there! gonna check out South lake real soon, as well as Mill.....great Crappie!!!! good luck to ya! :-{ )

[kroppe]

duckboy,

Four Mile Lake in the Chelsea State Game Area is supposed to be good for crappies and pike. The difficulty is that the good fishing spot is a long walk on the ice from the access point. Unless you have a quad or snowmobile it's a bit of a hike. Also I doubt the ice is very good, but haven't seen it.

The "marl pits" next to Four Mile are good for bluegill. Last year we did pretty good on the ice. I fished the marl pits last summer and picked up dozens of small gills and one big largemouth. People say there are pike in the marl pits but I haven't seen any. Also I don't know about the ice conditions.

FYI, the road to the the Chelsea SGA is not plowed so if there has been some snow access might be tricky unless you have 4WD.

[mickfoo]

I fish waterloo lakes often. Green, Cassidy, and clear lake are my favorites. Very rarely will you hammer 'em, but there are some really juicy size panfish, especially in cassidy. Have not been on any of these lakes in the past 10 days or so (been going to metro alot) I am going now with a buddy to cassidy, hoping that ice conditions are safe. I will post successes, or lack there of.

[CreekChub]

Mickfoo, are you talkin' bout Cassidy next to the prison? if so, you will run into a few nice sized perch there as well.....but when I do...I return them in hopes of a growing population.....but you can find some good numbers of larger Gills there! :-{ )

[duckboy]

I've fished Wimmewana in the summer with ok success for bass and gills. The lake was nearly drained in the fall of 2000 and I don't know how that effected the fishery. I always hear that Mill Lake has decent crappie fishing but I never do very well there in the winter. I may try Casssidy this week. Anybody know of ice conditions on any of these or other Waterloo Area lakes?

[mickfoo]

I totally agree about the size 'gills and perch, they are very good sized. Fished cassidy today, from 9 am. untill about 6 pm. A buddy and I had good success, catching a whole mess of real fat 'gills and a fair amount of real fat perch. We kept 12 'gills (9-11inches), and 6 perch (8-11inches). We left with enough to fill both of our bellys tonight. And it is the one by the boot camp. Had to chase after them ALOT. I seen, hooked, fought, and lost a huge perch, which was at least 13-14 inches.

[knockoff64]

Mick, I'm sure your still kickin' yourself over that one!

I thought you weren't getting out today?!

[mickfoo]

Hey knockoff, i screwed my knee up last night, which helped me change my mind about cutting firewood for my old man. The knee is nothing serious, but walking sure was a pain in the as#. Trav called me this morning, and it sounded good so i went. But we really did have to chase them though, that was fun on the knee...^%#&..#$(%.. I noticed that you posted you were going to go, with the fellas from the site, to stony creek. How did you guy's do out there?

[knockoff64]

Nothin to write home about for me, but lot's of fun. Check the thread on the outings forum!

let me know if you wanna hookup this week some time.

If all this snow melts you might change your mind about next weekend.;)

[CreekChub]

OK Duckboy, ya talked me into it...if I don't hit Mud Lake in the morrow before work CASSIDY it is! lol, and maybe I'll keep a few of those perch this time!!!:cool:

[mickfoo]

I fished cassidy yesterday, bite was very slow. Was there all afternoon, seen a number of good size fish, lazily approach my bait, then never even nibbled. I threw everything at them, always seemed like i sas a slight presentation change away. The later it got the better the bite got, ended up catching 4 big gills, and some dinks. Only perch action was watching them not take the bait. About 5 of the old timers that have fished the lake for years, whom usually limit out on big gills, reported poor action as well.

[CreekChub]

Well....a 16 hour day at work...then a 14 hour day at work...never did get to the lake...now the ice is a bit soft......."Prayin'...*beggin'*...for freezin' temps" ooohhhhhhhh and time OFF to fish!!!! :-{ )