Next HFR TBD 2025
Week ending 6/5/24
The “real time” water level for Hoover as of this date is –1.53 feet from full level. Mike Meyer reported surface temperatures on Monday were 73 degrees. There is a New Moon Thursday.
CRAPPIE: On Friday Denny Stone fished the M-E section and reported he, “Caught about 50 fish casting 1/16 oz. Jigs Most fish around 9’. Kept 12 legal fish.” Bill Canfield reported the he and Paula, “fished the M-E and M-W sections from 11:30 am - 7 pm Friday and caught 95 fish, only 15 of them over 9”. Fishing was tough in the middle of the day due to bluebird conditions, but the action picked up between 5 - 7 pm. Most fish were relating to flooded trees. All fish were caught on Jigs/Twister Tails. White or some combination of colors with White in it seemed to be favored.” Pete Wilms said that he and Stu fished, “Friday morning between 9-12 noon and C&R 40 fish on Bobber/Minnow, in 3-5' of water, most near brush. Only 7 or 8 were 9" or more.” Warren Enders and Dan Enders trolled Saturday morning in M-E section. They. “C&R 20 fish, most 8-10” but one at 12” and Warren’s FO (13”). Lures were Flickr Shad, Hot n Tot, Wally Diver, and Perch Shad Rap.” Scott Furst sent us, “I got an early start on Sat. Fished until 11:00am. We did best trolling Reef Runner Little Rippers in Orange and Black Chrome. Blue and Silver Chrome. Running at 14’ deep. We caught lots of small fish. Maybe a dozen over 10".” On Monday Mike Meyer told us, “Multiple fish almost all 10” at 8 to 12’ of water. The lake was filled with schools of shad everywhere up north.”
SAUGEYE/WALLEYE: Denny Stone fished the M-E on Friday and told us that he, “Trolled about 1.2 mph. C&R 2 fish (12” & 15”) on Flicker Shad and Shad Rap. Chrome seemed better.” The Enders on Saturday morning, while trolling for Crappie C&R 2 fish up to 15”. On Saturday Scott Furst C&R a 16” fish while trolling for Crappie. Rick Stelzer fished the N-E section Tuesday and reported that he, “caught 9 fish 15-18” all on wind-blown point less than 10’ depth on Berkeley Realistix Minnow.”
BLUE GILL: Bill & Paula Canfield, on Friday, “caught 5 fish from 6 – 7” plus a bonus 8” Red Ear Sunfish in the M-E and M-W sections while fishing for Crappies with Jig/Twister Tails. All fish were caught in less than 6’ of water. This is the first Red Ear we remember catching in Hoover.”
BASS: Rich Hubbard fished Monday morning and reported, “Got 2 SM in M-E. Middle section. They are in the grass and logs- just where they are supposed to be in 2’ using Baby Bass lure with shallow lip.”
CHANNEL CATFISH: While trolling for Saugeye Friday, Denny Stone C&R a 24” fish. The Enders, on Saturday morning trolled the M-E with Crank Baits and C&R 2 fish up to 23”. Saturday a.m. Scott Furst C&R 3 fish including a FO (30”) while trolling for Crappie.
BLUE CATFISH: On Saturday while trolling for Crappie M-E section with various Crank Baits Warren and Dan Enders C&R 5 fish up to 27”. Scott Furst C&R a “nice size” fish Saturday while trolling for Crappie.
Week ending 5/29/24
The “real time” water level for Hoover as of this date is –1.07 feet from full level.
CRAPPIE: On Saturday Michael Gifford, “Trolled Minnows in Middle section. It was really slow at first. Not much action. Then around 1:00, the bite picked up. Ended up catching 10 fish, all 9" or less.” On Sunday Matt Miller while fishing in North pool reported, “While trolling for catfish, I cast a 1/16 oz. Beetle Spin with a White Swim Bait and C&R 17 fish with only two decent size (11” & 12”) fish.” Bill & Paula Canfield fished Tuesday and Bill reports that they, “fished the M-W section Tuesday, 11:30 am - 2:30 pm. We caught 18 fish, with only 4 longer than 9”. All fish appeared to be spawned out.”
SAUGEYE/WALLEYE: Matt Miller C&R a 15” fish Sunday while fishing for Crappie in North section.
BLUE GILL: No reports.
BASS: No reports.
CHANNEL CATFISH: Several anglers again mentioned getting a small fish or 2 while fishing for other species.
BLUE CATFISH: Matt Kessler, “Fished Thursday morning trolling Erie Dearies tipped with crawlers, live and cut Bait and caught 4 fish including a 29' and a 30-1/2" in M-E section and a FO (35") in the North pool.” Matt Miller reported, “On Sunday morning I finally got out on Hoover to enjoy some time fishing. I slowly trolled cut Shad in 8-12’ of water in the N-E end of the lake and C&R 6 fish with the largest being a FO (37”).”
FLATHEAD CATFISH: No reports.
Week ending 5/22/24
The “real time” water level for Hoover as of this date is –0.71 feet from full level. Mike Meyer reported surface temperature of 77 degrees on Monday in North pool. There will be a Full Moon on Thursday.
CRAPPIE: Ted Mosure and Michael Burt fished Wednesday a.m.in a cove using Minnows in ~3’ of water near brush and they caught 13 fish with 4-5 of keeper size. On Thursday evening Ted fished with a White Twister/Jig and caught 6 fish in shallow water in M-E. Scott Furst reported, “I fished Sat. morning in Middle section. Spent hours in coves that I know fish spawn in and caught dozens of small males. Using Jigs/Plastics/Minnows with Slip Bobber. Few were in spawning colors. Lots of fish deeper but the ones I caught deeper in the coves were also small males. I went into the main lake. South end. Both sides. Good marks in 14- 20’ of water. I started trolling with Reef Runner Little Ripper 200 Crankbaits got them down to 15’ deep on 10 lb. braided line. Speed was under 2 mph. One in Glow and the other in Orange on Gold Chrome. Both caught fish rather fast. I caught over 60 fish. Around 11:00 am I started catching larger females. The largest of the day, a FO (13 1/2") female. She was all spawned out as were all the larger females. Caught about a dozen over 11" which is what I consider a keeper. All fish released. IMO many of the fish have already spawned.” Saturday Bill & Paula Canfield fished the M-W pool from 2-7 pm. “We caught about 100 fish, but only 20 were keepers. All the larger fish but one were females, and many of them had dropped some of their eggs already. Fish were in 8’ of water or less, and we caught all of them on 1/16 oz. Jigs/Twister Tails.” On Monday Tom Critser and Greg Maguire C&R 30 fish using Minnow/Bobber is M-E section in 10’ depth. Monday, Bill and Paula Canfield, “fished the M-W and M-E pools from 10 am- 2 pm. We caught 111 fish, and only 16 of them were over 9”. White was the best color of Twister Tails/1/16 oz. Jig, sometimes tipped with an artificial grub. It seemed to us that the hotter the day got, the deeper the fish went. We caught many of them over 10 feet of water in the afternoon. Average size continues to be a disappointment this year. Only one fish in seven was legal size today.”
SAUGEYE/WALLEYE: Saturday, Bill and Paula Canfield, “caught 6 fish while fishing for Crappies with Jigs/Twister Tails. The largest fish was 12” long.” Rick Stelzer fished Sunday and Tuesday in M-E and caught 8 - 15” fish and several under in less than 7’ depths and they were caught on Charlie Brewers sliders tipped with Worms.
BLUE GILL: Bill and Paula Canfield, “caught 10 fish 6”-7” while fishing for Crappies near shoreline”.
BASS: On Wednesday a.m. while fishing for Crappie with Minnows, Michael Burt caught a personal best 19.5” LM in a cove in M-E section. On Thursday Michael Gifford C&R, “a 14" SM trolling a Swim Bait in M-E.
CHANNEL CATFISH: Several Anglers reported getting small fish while fishing for Crappie.
BLUE CATFISH: Mike Bloomfield C&R a FO (38”) Monday using a Blue Gill in 20’ depth in M-W section. Sunday evening Matt Kessler fished N-W pool and caught a 20” fish on an Erie Dearie with a Shad head. Michael Meyer fished N-E on Monday in 12’ depth and, “C&R a 12 lb. fish on ultra-light rod and 1/16 oz Jig/Twister”. Thursday evening Michael Cole fished the N-E using cut Bait in 2’-11’ depths and C&R 7 fish including 4 FO (35”-41”). On Friday evening he fished same area and C&R 10 fish including a FO (36.75”). On Tuesday evening Michael C&R a 27.75” fish in 4’ depth using 7” Shad in M-E section..
FLATHEAD CATFISH: No reports.
Week ending 5/15/24
The “real time” water level for Hoover as of this date is –0.96 feet from full level. Bill Canfield found surface temperatures in Middle section Monday around noon of 72 degrees. .
CRAPPIE: “Bill and Paula Canfield fished Saturday, afternoon in the M-W pool and caught about 20 fish on lead head Jigs with Twister Tails, with only 6 being over 9”.”They returned to the area on Monday and reported, “We lost track of how many fish we caught, but it was probably over 75. Only 23 were over 9”. All but one of those fish were females with eggs. The largest was 10.5”. Average size of the fish has been a disappointment so far this year. All fish were caught on 1/16 oz. Jigs with Twister Tails—Pink and White was the best color. 6’ of water seemed to be the magic number for depth. We observed many fish on the depth finder outside the mouth of the coves stacked up and apparently waiting their turn.” Ted Mosure fished from shore in M-E section Monday using White Twister Tail/Jig and caught 8 fish with only 1 being 9”.
SAUGEYE/WALLEYE: No reports.
BLUE GILL: “Bill and Paula Canfield caught 5 fish between 6.5”-7” while fishing for Crappies. All the fish were males. They all hit lead head Jigs with Twister Tails in shallow water (less than 6 feet deep).”
BASS: Ted Mosure caught an 18” LM while using a Crank Bait fishing from shore in M-E section on Monday.
CHANNEL CATFISH: No reports.
BLUE CATFISH: Michael Cole fished the N-E pool Wednesday afternoon in 2’-8’ depths using a Santee Cooper and Slip Bobber rigs w/ cut Bait, C&R 3 fish with 2 of them being FO (37.5”, 41”). On Friday Michael fished the same area and C&R 11 fish with 2 being FO (38.5”, 39”).
FLATHEAD CATFISH: No reports.
Week ending 5/8/24
The “real time” water level for Hoover as of this date is –0.86 feet from full level. Rick Stelzer found surface temperatures in Middle section Sunday of 64-67 degrees. We’re in New Moon phase.
CRAPPIE: Rich Hubbard reported that he and Kevin Winter, “got out Wednesday. Mostly fished the Middle section and C&R 12 fish using Minnows in 10-12’ depths”. Pete Wilms told us he was out with his brother Stu Sunday in M-E section using Minnows/Bobbers and caught about 25 fish, most under 9" in 5-8' of water. They were out again Monday with a friend and, “caught about 60 fish, 12 over 9" in 12-15' of water”.
SAUGEYE/WALLEYE: Rick Stelzer reported that he, “Fished with Jason Jackson Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Boated over 40 fish. Most were small but did manage 14 that were right at 15” or over. The biggest was Jason’s FO (22.5”) which he released. Caught on Swim Baits and Berkeley Power Bait Minnows, 12’ or less in M-W section.”.
BLUE GILL: No reports.
BASS: No report.
CHANNEL CATFISH: Rich Hubbard told us he was, “out Sunday with Rita Shapter in M-E side. Using Minnows. Rita caught a nice catfish. Her first fish caught in over 50 years.”
BLUE CATFISH: On Thursday noon, Rick Dressel fished the N-W section with cut Shad down 6’ in 20’ of water and caught a 6-lb. fish. On Wednesday afternoon Michael Cole fished N-E section with cut Shad/Bobber in 2-5’ depths and C&R 13 fish including 2 FO (40: & 42”). On Sunday afternoon Michael returned to same section and C&R 9 fish including 4 FO (from 35.75”-38.75”).
FLATHEAD CATFISH: No reports.
..
SAUGEYE NEWS - HOOVER
\5/10/23 From Nick Radabaugh, the Fisheries Management Supervisor for District 1 (central Ohio), Div. Of Wildlife: “Hoover will receive a stocking of saugeye fingerlings, likely next week or the week after. It is scheduled to receive a minimum of 100 fingerlings/acre and potentially 200 fingerlings per acre, dependent on hatchery production this year. This will result in somewhere between 290,000 – 580,000 saugeye going in to Hoover this year.”
5/31/23 - From Nick Radabaugh - “I just wanted to provide you with another quick update now that we are done with our walleye and saugeye stocking around the state. Our hatcheries had a good production year, and we were able to stock Hoover with its full complement of 200 saugeye fingerlings per acre. On May 10th Hoover was stocked with 288,957 fingerlings and a week later on May 18th it was stocked with 288,273 fingerlings, for a total of 577,230 saugeye fingerlings. These fish were about one inch long when stocked and will be 8-10 inches by October.”
5/29/24 - From Rich Zweifel - “Our hatchery staff stocked 578,201 saugeye fingerlings into Hoover between May 2 and May 15. That number meets the stocking request of 200 fingerlings per acre. The fish averaged 2,942 to the pound and 26mm, which is about average size.”.
CATFISH NEWS - HOOVER
5/10/23 From Nick Radabaugh, Div. of Wildlife sent us this “The Catfish regulation is changing this year at Hoover. In this year’s regulations you will see there is no longer a special regulation for Channel and Blue Catfish in Hoover. That is because we have removed the previous regulation and reverted back to the separate statewide regulations for Channel and Blue Catfish. As a reminder the statewide regulation for Channel Catfish is no daily limit, but only 1 fish over 28” can be harvested. The statewide regulation for Blue Catfish is no daily limit, but only 1 fish over 35” can be harvested. This regulations are currently in effect for Hoover and replace the previous split limit of 1 fish over 28” and 3 fish under 18” for Blue and Channels.” He added, “We are still stocking Hoover with Blues, but on an every other year basis. Last October, Hoover received 28,859 advanced Blue Catfish fingerlings that averaged about 5 inches. We will stock Hoover again in 2024 and continue to monitor and adjust our management to maintain the exceptional Blue Catfish fishery we see today.”
11/1/24 From Rich Zweifel, Div. Of Wildlife - “It was not a good production year for blue catfish at our St Marys hatchery. The program lakes all got about half the number of blue cats that were requested. Most years we have all of the requested fish, if not more. Not really sure why, but this was just a rare bad year for catfish. Hoover was stocked with 11,547 advanced fingerling blue cats on October 9th. The fish averaged 5.5”.”
From Rich Zweifel - We have conducted numerous surveys of gizzard shad, blue cats, and channel cats at Hoover over the last several years. These surveys have provided a lot of insights … I’ll try to briefly summarize.
Gizzard shad:
We have done a lot of shad surveys at Hoover. In fact, we conducted a shad survey last Monday night (8/12/19). There are lots of shad in Hoover. Preyfish don’t appear to be limiting.
Blue catfish:
We have been surveying the Hoover blue catfish population every year since 2016. Stocking success of blue catfish advanced fingerlings has been high in Hoover. We stocked fish in every year from 2011 – 2017 (except 2014 because of hatchery production failure) and have gotten returns from all of those stockings. We recently started alternate year stocking at Hoover because 1) the initial stockings have developed a good population there, and 2) also to allow us to expand blue cat stocking to other reservoirs. The blues are growing fast and are starting to produce the trophy-size fish we were hoping for.
We have been assessing the Hoover blue cat population every year for the last 4 years and there is no evidence that they are successfully reproducing in Hoover. Which is fine; we don't stock blue cats (or any fish really) to establish a self-sustaining population. That is not the goal. The goal is to diversify the catfishing opportunities and to provide some trophy-sized fish. It seems as though we are meeting that goal at Hoover
10/23/19- Marty reminded me yesterday that we did not plan to stock blue catfish in Hoover this fall. We are happy with the current population of blue cats in Hoover and have pulled back the stocking to every other year. So from here on out, Hoover will be stocked with blue cats in even-numbered years (stocking in 2020, 2022, etc...). The every other year stocking approach allows us to expand the blue catfish program to other reservoirs throughout the state. We are still trying to expand this program, so switching to the every other year approach after a good population is established following 5-6 years of annual stockings gives us the flexibility to stock more total acres of water. We have been assessing the Hoover blue cat population every year for the last 4 years and there is no evidence that they are successfully reproducing in Hoover. Which is fine; we don't stock blue cats (or any fish really) to establish a self-sustaining population. That is not the goal. The goal is to diversify the catfishing opportunities and to provide some trophy-sized fish. It seems as though we are meeting that goal at Hoover
Channel catfish:
There are a lot of channel catfish in Hoover; it’s a high density population. Hoover channels can live into their early 20s, but they don’t grow super fast. Growth appears to have been average long before blue catfish were ever stocked in Hoover. It takes 18-20 years for channel catfish to get to Fish Ohio size in Hoover, on average. Generally, what we’ve seen with channel catfish populations throughout Ohio, is that the more fish there are, the slower they grow. Its not surprising that the channel catfish growth in Hoover is average.
Also, reproductive success of channel catfish appears to be very inconsistent from year to year, which is pretty typical for most freshwater fish populations. While there are some fish spawned in every year, the spawns in a few years produce a majority of the fish. It appears that there were big spawns in 2002-2004 and 2008-2011, so most of the fish in Hoover right now were produced in those 7 years. Catfish don’t live forever and there are just very few of those older/larger fish in the population right now. The fish from the 2002-2004 year classes should just now be starting to reach some trophy sizes.
