Lake Recommendations Near Hardy Dam Pond

[Coop]

Hey everyone. please give me some good bass lake recommendations for this upcoming Friday near Hardy Dam Pond area. Im doing the Pond on Saturday, but i wanted another lake or 2 to fish on friday and sunday as well. Please let me know! thanks

[Redbone]

Pretty good fishing in every direction. Like Hardy, Croton is just a ways away that can be very good fishing.

You can just point at the map and pick a lake and the fishing should be pretty good. Keep in mind that Canadian lakes are private and Tamarak lake in Lakeview had a pretty big fish kill last year. Good Luck!

[djkimmel]

How far is Fremont from there? I'd go there if I was in the area with an extra day or two! I've never been there but the reports and pictures are always impressive.

I'll be up for my annual Hardy Dam Pond trip in a couple weeks. Not sure when I will get to Fremont yet. Still working out the schedule of 'have to do's' so I know what days are available for hitting up the lake todo list!

[Coop]

Hey Dan, since your farmilar with Hardy Dam Pond.. Whats the best launch for me to head out on?

[Coop]

Dan, or anyone else, I will be there on Hardy fishing Saturday. For god sake im not asking for hot spots, just curious since i have never been there before, at this time of year on that specific body of water, what areas should I concentrate on for the smallies?? Im thining shallower water, Points and entrances to the small creeks and channels I see on the maps. Or do they act differently here and go super shallow? Just want to get an idea so i can squeeze my time and get more fishing in than searching. thanks

[Redbone]

The Brower park launch is what I and most tourneys always use. Your going to be hard pressed to get info out of anyone this time of the year. The fish will be prespawn

[Slipkey]

If I were making the trip, I would suggest fishing Hardy both days and really getting to know the lake.  The upper end and lower end fish differently and there are a lot of types of water to fish.  I've had some really great days in early spring out there. If you absolutely want to go somewhere else, Croton is probably your best bet.  I've had my best fishing on Croton in early spring on the upper end - before the weeks really start coming in and, sometimes, down by the dam in the east arm past the bridge.

On Hardy, I would suggest looking at every flat on an inside bend or with an upstream current break and fish deeper to shallow until you find the zone.  The two big bays down by the dam can also fish well this time of year, though the fish get really spooky when the water is clearer.  We've had a bunch of rain over the last few days, though, so that might be just the thing. 

If you're going to fish the upper end of Hardy, use Brower Park.  If you're fishing the lower end, the launch on the west side of the dam is small and doesn't have a lot of parking, but it's my favorite. Good luck!

[Coop]

Slipkey thanks for the solid info. I will probably do that then, spend 2 days there. Redbone, I'm not asking for GPS coordinates, darn! Not to mention no tourneys (until end of May) and CIR didn't think it was too much to ask what the fish could be doing. I forgot, I don't want to catch ALL the bass in the lake so you won't have any to catch yourself..

[djkimmel]

It's a 'competitive' lake with lots of 'guarded' spots. I fish mostly with someone who fishes tournaments on the lake and they are mostly his spots so I can't share much specifically or I'd be inconsiderate to a good friend.

We always launch from Brower Park too. We fish hard flats and points if the bass are moving in already and go into some of the side cuts and streams if the bass are really moving in (if we go later in the spring sometimes).

If it's colder still we are fishing main lake drops near hard flats and points looking for cover down the break. There's some wood here and there to snag on. A few rocks. We fish the middle section of the lake a lot because it's closer to Brower Park probably.

I have fished upriver myself in the fall a couple times and caught river-like bass up past the bridge but I've never really gone past the bridge in the spring with my friend. We don't go down near the dam a lot unless bass are moving in but not on beds really yet. We are going earlier again this year so I don't expect a lot of beds this year but you never know about these bass...

There are a few rock bars you might hit running the lake the worst and biggest being down towards the dam. It's generally a fairly safe lake to run the middle from Brower Park to the last big turn towards the dam.

There's some points and islands from Brower Park to the bridge to watch out for, and I don't know much at all about running up past the bridge since I haven't gone far that way yet. I've seen a few people run that way but I imagine they know exactly what they're doing.

[Waterfoul]

Do you have gps with mapping in it?  If so you can see the long skinny point coming our from the west shore near the dam that Dan is talking about.  DO NOT RUN OVER THIS POINT.  I can't emphasize that enough.  But it can be a good spot to fish any time of year.

If I wanted to fish main lake or the dam end I'd launch out of the state park.  Free if you have the "P" on your license plate.  Brower is like $8 or $10 to launch.

You could split your weekend up too.  Fish the dam end of the lake one day, then head up river (most of us consider "up river" to mean anything upstream of Brower Park) the other day.

[Coop]

Excellent info guys! Appreciate it! I pulled up lake master and see the point your talking about, and will make sure not to run over it! Thanks again for the info, I will do all of Friday on the lower section and Saturday on the upper. Should be a fun weekend as long as the weather holds as anticipated. I will post a report as soon as I get back. Again thanks a ton gentlemen!

[Coop]

I wanted to update all of you on my 2 days on Hardy. First off water temps on Friday 46-52. Today 46-49. Let me tell you, hammerhandle city... On Friday fished points and edges and tops of larger flats. Threw a jerk bait most of Friday with around 15 pike (varying sizes with a 30" beast towards late morning). Also manged to get 2 nice 3.5-4 lb Smallies (very very very lethargic). And 1 walleye as well on the jerk bait. Fish just seemed in a funk due to the weeks coldfront. On Saturday fishing was much worse. Managed 4 total. 2 pike and 2 Smallies. Both Smallies being 13 & 14 inches only. Both them came on Rage Bugs and the pike both on jerkbaits. I tossed everything at them. When I could manage to find any rock I was fairly successful. Fish still need about a week or 2 to get out of this post coldfront funk. Lake is beautiful. I can only imagine that in a couple of weeks things could be on fire. I hit most of the creek channel moths and points along with most of the breaks on the major flats. I figured because of the front most of the fish would be holding on the edges first out. If they were they weren't very hungry or interested. Pretty much the same from everyone out there. Slow... The occasional pike or bass, nothing consistent. I plan on heading back in a few weeks to give it a try again. Hope this helps if your planning on going soon.