Old fishing holes that are off limits anymore

[gim]

27 minutes ago, Gera said:

Anyone with a happy story??

I've got one.  And its because an access was either completely rebuilt or a major improvement was made.  The latter happens routinely here in MN when a public access point needs repairs or improvement.

 

A very popular access spot on Lake Minnetonka used to be a private marina that only had a rough in gravel access.  The MN DNR bought the marina and converted it into what I now consider to be the best public access I've ever used.  Its on Gray's Bay and it has 3 concrete ramps, 6 docks, indoor restrooms, a pressure washer, and over 150 parking spots.  Plus the ramps are built on deep water, so even in a drought, the water is a good 6 feet deep right off the ramps.  @MN Fisher and @Deephaven likely know what I'm talking about when I say that this access is arguably the nicest one around.

 

Although you could still access the lake itself prior to this extravagent public access, I would definitely say access has improved after it was built.  Its probably 10 years old but its still in pristine shape and well maintained.

[Swamp Girl]

That is good news, Gimruis. They do many things right in MN. 

[N Florida Mike]

I meant to say this on my other post, but I have a happy story, in that I got to move onto the lake I grew up fishing. So no access problem for me here anyway. ?

We can just barely afford it, but I’m working on it …?

[garroyo130]

On 2/2/2023 at 7:56 PM, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Camped out, swam, catfished with my first GF

 

been there ... "athletic build" my *ss 

[Sam]

A local golf course pond. Great fishing. Lots of three-pounders.

 

No more fishing on Mondays when the club is closed.

 

Bummer.

[Captain Phil]

On 2/3/2023 at 5:57 AM, N Florida Mike said:

I could write a book on this for my area. I grew up in a semi-rural area that is now in the suburbs. Many of the ponds  in the woods back then are now surrounded by homes or businesses. 

The hunting spots are worse ,if anything. A hunt club ran dogs for deer in an area that was wide open, app. 30,000 acres. There is now maybe 8000 acres of it left, and they are developing it as fast as they can.

One example of the fishing loss of spots is the St Johns river system.  One creek off the river is just 15 minutes from where I grew up. Caught a 5 pounder in there once. My friend lived near it , and we would have bb gun wars along it’s banks , and fish in between the trees and brush along its banks. We used to wade all up and down it too, because it had sand bars and little holes in it. At where it went into the river there was a dock we fished on or wade fished in the river. 
It’s been surrounded by a nieghborhood now for many years , with no access.

When it got closed , I started fishing more 20 miles down the river. There was an access at the end of a road that you could hand launch a jon boat. Then they built a house there and it closed.

I went another 10 miles further, and found a great wade fishing area. Went there for years, especially for the huge bream I caught under shrimp platform docks . Where I parked was only 20 feet from the river access. 
The last day I went, someone had put up a white vinyl fence! People had fished there for centuries, and I didn’t see any signs, so I went under the fence, fished, and when I returned, I saw it… A no tress passing sign on a cypress tree facing the river.

I was outraged, to say the least.?

I never went back…

 

This is happening all over Florida.  The once pristine Butler Chain near Orlando is now surrounded by gigantic luxury homes.  Residents attempted to close off public assess for many years. Thankfully, someone willed a piece of land for a public park and boat ramp.  Lake County has thousands of lakes from small ponds to the Harris Chain. At one time, many of these small lakes had ramps that are now private.  The good news is there are still plenty of lakes left where you can fish. A bigger issue is bass tournaments. While they are great for the economy, they max out our public boat ramps from January until May. I avoid them by fishing small lakes during the season.  I have the big lakes all to myself in the summer and fall.  One of the reasons I own a small aluminum boat is so I can launch in these small lakes.

[N Florida Mike]

20 minutes ago, Captain Phil said:

I avoid them by fishing small lakes

Ive done that for years. The Ocala Forest has lots of small lakes and ponds  that people rarely fish. 

The problem is that homeless people set up on some of them…

[Tackleholic]

I was 4 when my Father came home from WWII.  He leased some property from Peabody Coal Co..  It was 8 miles from town, had strip mines and a small river.  We put a house trailer there and other amenities for weekend and summer hunting and fishing.  Twelve years later the Boy Scouts acquired the property and we lost our lease.  Fast forward 45 years and I located another paradise for Smallmouth fishing.  Ironically, it was another Boy Scout Reservation.  In exchange for cash contributions and other favors I was allowed sole access to fish.  Nine years later, having a cash crunch, the Boy Scouts began Land Leasing the property to Deer and Turkey Hunters who did not want me around;  paradise lost again.  Today I am relocated to the Ozarks and only life's end can take that away.

[Will Ketchum]

I thought of two more.

 

We used to gain access to the river by parking alongside a road that fed a rural area. It was one lane more or less because it was along a steep rock-cut in the mountain, and one lane was adequate at the time. There were pull-offs out of necessity so cars going the other way could pull over so that's where we parked to fish.  (My  father helped with the construction during the depression with the WPA so we called it Pa's road.)

 

Eventually the Dept of Transportation decided to widen the road and took away the pull-offs as part of the new road. No place to park = no place to fish.

 

Another place was a small spring fed lake with absolutely crystal clear water. It was in the woods but we had to cross the corner of a homeowners property. They never complained but their beagle did but he kept his distance. Of course the lake and some property was bought by a lawyer from Philadelphia and he erected a fence around it and that was that.

[a1712]

Birch Run Reservoir in PA. There was an issue with the dam, so instead of repairing it, they drained it. It was bank fishing only and had some big fish in it, the PA State record was caught out of it. I was away at College and coming home for a weekend, I couldn't wait to fish it. I arrived in the dark, worked my way through the woods and low and behold, it was gone. Brian. 

[Captain Phil]

7 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

Ive done that for years. The Ocala Forest has lots of small lakes and ponds  that people rarely fish.

 Caught this bass in Wildcat lake off Highway 40.

 

 

[TOXIC]

2 come to mind.  1 was a state owned and stocked lake that was a water supply for the city of Manassas, Virginia.  It was electric only and bordered by a Robert Trent Jones designed golf course on one section.  When 911 hit it got closed because it is a water supply lake.  When everything opened back up the city refused to reopen the lake.  Word has it that the golf course heavily influenced that decision.  The other was on the Shenandoah river where you had to drive about 1/4 of a mile back through the woods.  Owner finally gated it off when the piles of trash got ridiculous.  Everything from diapers to beer cans and all the remnants of what looked more like a homeless camp than river access.  People were catching, cleaning cooking and eating making a total mess.  We usually picked up 7 or 8 garbage bags worth of trash every time we went out there but the owner finally had enough.  He cable locked the road access and someone cut the lock, he then put up solid metal bars. ?

[N Florida Mike]

44 minutes ago, Captain Phil said:

 Caught this bass in Wildcat lake off Highway 40.

 

 

Very nice! I fished wildcat once but it was super windy that day so we moved to another more sheltered lake.  My favorite lake is close to wildcat ( crooked lake). Ive fished South and North grasshopper lake in that area too…

What did you catch it on?

[Captain Phil]

14 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

Very nice! I fished wildcat once but it was super windy that day so we moved to another more sheltered lake.  My favorite lake is close to wildcat ( crooked lake). Ive fished South and North grasshopper lake in that area too…

What did you catch it on?

 

Wildcat is a deep clear lake without much cover.  Most big fish are caught on shiners.  This bass was caught on a plastic worm.  Forest bass are beautiful!

[Swamp Girl]

On 2/7/2023 at 6:13 AM, Captain Phil said:

 

Wildcat is a deep clear lake without much cover.  Most big fish are caught on shiners.  This bass was caught on a plastic worm.  Forest bass are beautiful!

 

That is a beautiful, dark bass. It deserves the name "black bass."

[Captain Phil]

42 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

That is a beautiful, dark bass. It deserves the name "black bass."

 

There are subtle differences in Florida bass coloring depending upon the water they are caught in.  The darkest bass come from water stained with tannin from cypress trees.  The blackest bass I have seen come from Blue Cypress lake near Vero Beach.  Bass caught offshore in the Harris Chain can be almost white (see below).  Lake Okeechobee bass are dark green with very black eyes. Bass caught in backwaters look different than those caught near the main lake.  With experience, it is possible to tell where someone has been fishing by viewing the fish at the weigh-in.  Many years ago, a major tournament cheating scandal was uncovered by someone with this ability. 

 

 

[Swamp Girl]

Whoa, that  Lake Okeechobee bass's eyes look like something from a horror movie!

[geo g]

Early 8o's you could fish the warm water discharge at Port Everglades Power Plant  full of big saltwater fish.especially during the cooler months.  No more, long gone fishing there!

[Munkin]

Kemp Mill is now off limits here. I have fished there for 30 years and if I owned it I would not allow fishing either. It has always been private property but the guy who owned it was cool with fishing. All he asked was to not trash the place. He put trash cans out even a picnic table. Well people threw the trash cans in the creek and set the table on fire along with trashing the place. He shut it down for a couple years then gave people a second chance and put up signs saying private property don't trash it. The signs were torn down and burned so now a large fence is being installed. 

 

Allen 

[geo g]

15 hours ago, Munkin said:

Kemp Mill is now off limits here. I have fished there for 30 years and if I owned it I would not allow fishing either. It has always been private property but the guy who owned it was cool with fishing. All he asked was to not trash the place. He put trash cans out even a picnic table. Well people threw the trash cans in the creek and set the table on fire along with trashing the place. He shut it down for a couple years then gave people a second chance and put up signs saying private property don't trash it. The signs were torn down and burned so now a large fence is being installed. 

 

Allen 

Only takes a few to ruin it for everyone!

[WRB]

The local lakes I grew up fishing as a young teen were public are now mostly private.

Lake Sherwood now a gated community.

West Lake private and patrolled.

Bouquet Canyon now a guarded, water supply lake.

Rail Road Canyon, now a private community.

Vail lake now closed to public fishing.

Irvine lake, open for shore fishing only.

Matillija dam was breached, gone.

Bard Reservoir near me closed water supply.

Livingston Rock quarry lakes, gone.

Just to name a few that I have caught lots of bass from years past.

Tom

 

 

[N Florida Mike]

I thought of a couple  more. One is Kingsley lake. Almost perfectly round, and is , I think, the deepest natural lake in Florida. Christal Clear water. Half of the lake is owned by private homeowners, and the other half by the national guard. Back in the day, Strickland’s landing was a beach with water slides and a dock around it. . Old man strickland was the son of a Baptist preacher, and maintained a family atmosphere. Right next door was Kingsley beach, that had separate management, and was the party spot . As young men, We usually went to stricklands because the slides were better. Anyway, Both were sold to private ownership, now a subdivision. So we lost the ramp access .  A 15 pounder was caught in there fairly recently.

Another spot lost was at  St George Island at Government cut, near Apalachicola . Back in the day there was a dirt road that went west on the Island all the way to the cut. We would park and clamber out through the rocks to the tip. The first day I ever went, we caught over 70 fish there, including redfish, drum, whiting. Even snagged some big mullet swimming by. The last time we went , they were almost finished with a new , high end subdivision. The guard at the new gate let us in , but said not to come back again , as it was private from then on. We didn’t.?

  In one way, it is very sad what has happened to old Florida . But at least it’s been good for businesses…

 

[a1712]

On 2/11/2023 at 12:50 AM, Munkin said:

Kemp Mill is now off limits here. I have fished there for 30 years and if I owned it I would not allow fishing either. It has always been private property but the guy who owned it was cool with fishing. All he asked was to not trash the place. He put trash cans out even a picnic table. Well people threw the trash cans in the creek and set the table on fire along with trashing the place. He shut it down for a couple years then gave people a second chance and put up signs saying private property don't trash it. The signs were torn down and burned so now a large fence is being installed. 

 

Allen 

That's a shame. I fished there a bunch with my Grandfather as a kid. It's horrible how people will destroy something. Brian.