Belvadeer Review

At Belvadeer lake, was an odd day to fish. Half the fish in the image were caught the first five minutes, the other half in the next three hours. It was an odd steep decline, I thought we’d catch hundreds in this very day, but we only ended up with few, but really nice fish. Belvadeer is very well known for its huge bluegills and crappies produced there. A friend of ours fished there at midnight, after a late shift at work, and caught approximately 20 giant crappies, and a two pound bullhead, which a two pound bullhead is something you don’t see every day. Bullheads are closely related to flatheads, and in the winter flatheads hibernate and huddle in a giant group to do nothing but face the current. However, surprisingly enough, that friend of ours caught a bullhead during ice fishing season, which makes that two pounder special.

If you plan on going to this what I call this the underwater forest, I would go super early, maybe not even sleep, otherwise you’d be in that drowsy trance. It’s important to be alert, and watch that tiny spring bobber move, and then you’ll get your fish that took the lure slowly. The fish are slow during the ice season; it’s just the normal way of life. If you’re fortunate enough, you might come across some two pound crappies, or better, your possession limit of bluegills all over ten inches. The water is very clear, and if you fish eight to nine feet, you can see the bottom, but the fish prefer the 15-18 feet range. It is just solid ten inches of ice up to this day, and no snow, so it is a frictionless floor, it’ll be hard to drill the auger, because you’ll have no grip on the ground, especially hauling your ice fishing tent.

If you don’t ice fish, well that’s too bad. You should, because if there are ATV’s and big guys walking out there, so can you, it’s not like you’re going to join the polar bear club. It takes a lot to even break 4 inches of ice, think of it as you’re throwing a rock on it, jumping on it, and try to break the ice without an auger, let’s see how you can finish it. That’s how confident I am that you’ll be safe on ice. I was nervous at first, but all the mistakes happened during early winter and late winter, when the warm climate comes in. Not because the ice melts, but the warm water underneath shortens the thickness of the ice. Almost all of the deaths occurred when there were fast currents underneath, and kept the water warm where they weren’t aware of.

Oh and the crappies were tasty!