Croton Dam Pond Help.

[springlakebassman]

I am fishing the opener in a small tourney on Croton Dam Pond.  Does anyone out there have any suggestions or warnings about fishing this water?  I have never been on the pond. I am planning on going up there a couple of days this weekend to take a boat ride and get familiar with the waterway.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Nitro882]

 I can give you alot of help. I'm actually in the same tournament too, but this series is really fun and we all kind of help each other out. I fished in the series last year and it was great, alot of good anglers fish it and it is competitive but at the same time alot of laughs and good stories at the end of the day. Well anyway you picked a great tournament to start your season off with, now to Croton Pond, I've been fishing it every weekend since the catch and release opened, I've gathered that the pond is about 10 degrees warmer on average than the river portion. if you have a map you can see how there's a long narrow road with a bridge that seperates the pond from the river.The water temp of the pond was 68 degrees and all I can say is that the fish were very active. There's a couple of  islands in the pond that have some great habit for bass around them.The closer you are to where the Little Muskegon dumps into the pond the better. For the river there's only been a couple of good spots f0r me. I guess I can say for me at least the closer I stayed to the warmer water the better. As you go up stream it gets anywhere's from 5 to 9 degrees colder.  The smallmouth were just starting to spawn when I was there on Friday. They seem to be very picky eaters once there in the shallows. They actually were shallower than I would think they would be, usually 6 to 8 feet is a good depth for them to spawn, they were up as close as a foot of water. As far as tackle, any smallmouth method does work, for some reason I didn't have much luck with spinnerbaits, but It was very sunny out and it was pretty calm. I hope this helps, if you have anymore question just ask.

[springlakebassman]

Thank you for the info nitro.  I tried to fish the series last year but found myself sick for the first two tourneys.  Hope you have a great season.

[Cy]

Croton can be a great fishery but at times tough.  Nitro is right the Little Muskegon side is normally good.  Here are a couple of stops to check out.

1.  Go under the bridge and toward the first island on the right, stay left of the island until you pass it and then slowly cut in, there are a lot of stumps in this area.  They run from between the 2 islands on the right (south) side all the way to the shore.  Can be good fishing but the water is clear.

2.  You can also get up the Little Muskegon River, is a shallow slow trip but if you go up the river you will find smallmouth and a good spawning bay.

3.  If you stay in the Muskegon side and run up the lake you will find some nice sand and weed flats.  Ranging from 2' to 6' or 8' feet, I would think this would be a good spawning area, but either way it will hold fish.  These areas are the inside turns in the old river channel.

4.  You can also run up to where is the lake starts to narrow and look more like a river.  There are a lot of docks and some timber that hold fish in the current.

I haven't been out there much this year but I was out a couple weeks ago and caught some smallies up in the Little.  I think they pull water from midnight to 6 or 7 AM.  This means the path into the Little is really shallow in the morning.  You might be able to find the Consumers generation schedule if you look around.

Good Luck,

Cy

[10-10 Bass Busters]

who is hosting the tourney you are fishing?  is it on saturday?  team or single?

[fasttrack]

Are you guys fishing the Kelloggsville Sportspersons Club, or is there another one the same day? Keep writing and giving tips - I could use them! Never been there, but I will also be fishing there on the opener. Sounds like there may be a few stragglers left on beds, but mainly post-spawn.

If you need info about Kelloggsville, send me a PM. I can fill you in since my partner is the tournament director. I guess that makes me the assistant director by association - or something like that. This will be my 4th year in this club and its a lot of fun. It has gotten a lot larger and more competative but that's probably a good thing.

[djkimmel]

I didn't make our 'annual' spring Hardy trip this year, so no chance to ask about Croton. I don't think I have ever fished it?

[Eric]

1.  Launch your boat 
2.  Leave the boat launch, go slightly to your right.
3.  When you get to the set of buoys, take a large bomb with a ten minute fuse and light it.
4.  Throw it towards the dam.
5.  Go back to the ramp, and pull your boat (preferably within 9 minutes).
6.  Watch the fishing at Croton greatly improve.

[fasttrack]

Dan,
I guess you'll have to re-label your 'annual' trip. Something like "when I can squeeze it in every few years' trip. Too bad, according to other postings it sounds like fishing has been good there recently.

Eric,
Sounds like you enjoy Croton as much as Muskegon! That sure doesn't instill any confidence in a newcomer, but I will try it anyways. My partner just spoke with someone last night who lives up there who has ( smallmouth on beds in his 'front yard'. Hopefully they stay for a few more days - I think I know where we will be starting our day!

[kgr624]

Fasttrack,
                I know what you mean. My brother went up there the last 3 weeks and the fish were on beds last weekend, but I don't know that they will still be there this weekend. I hope they are so that we can have another great Kellogsville tourney. My brother and I have a couple places on the river and a couple on the pond that we are going to hit. Hope we can come out with 5 good ones. Going to be a good time no matter what see you there.