Pinewood Lake

Caught this beautiful rainbow trout, and I decided to have him for dinner because i had never actually eaten a trout before! It was very tasty and a nice meal to have. Catching and releasing the next time though!

I decided to check out Pinewood since it’s clear of ice, and likely hasn’t been fished much this season. I knew the water level was going to be low, but it was even lower than I expected. Roughly half of its depth is empty, which puts its surface area at maybe 25% by my estimation (it appears like 75% of the lake is gone). I hauled the kayak down the muddy and featureless lake bed to the water’s edge. You would think fishing in a reduced pool would make it easier to catch fish, but I think that’s rarely the case. Most lakes in this region are reservoirs with highly fluctuating levels, and my experience is that they’re better for fishing when they are full. Because of the small surface area, I was able to cover virtually all of the water today as I paddled with sonar. I am very confident in saying there is a relatively small number of fish remaining in the lake. My guess, based on previous observations, is that the top reason for the lack of fish is overfishing by catch-and-keep anglers. My second observation is that I did see a couple of huge marks on the sonar, which are ostensibly tiger musky. I theorize that in the reduced pool, a few remaining tiger musky have decimated the population of small trout. Determined not to be skunked on this puddle, I kept working it and did catch one rainbow trout while casting a crayfish imitation. It’s a beautiful spot, particularly when the lake is full. A local resident told me that there are plans to refill it by the end of this month, but I will not attempt to fish it again until at least 2025 to see if fishing conditions have improved. The landscape pic near the end shows Flatiron Reservoir in the distance, and the final pic is from the shore of Flatiron which is below Pinewood.

After striking out at Carter Lake earlier in the morning, I launched the kayak at Pinewood Reservoir and caught 3 small trout while trolling.

They must’ve just stocked Pinewood. I took my daughter fishing this afternoon and we caught fish after fish.

Rainbow