FREDERICKTOWN – Anglers on Knox Lake may have to wait for more than warm weather before they start reeling in the big ones.
“The ice is just coming off,” Steve Dalton, co-owner of Knox Marine, told the Mount Vernon News. “So the fishing right now is not very good. But in a few weeks it will start getting better. The crappie fishing will start getting good quicker.”
Dam repairs on the lake are in their final stages, however, so water levels are low, Dalton noted.
“The estimated completion is May 1,” he said. “It’s hard to give a fishing report for Knox Lake because nobody is really fishing it while the water levels are low.”
Fishermen are still catching catfish on Knox Lake, even with the water levels down, Dalton said. They’re catching them by fishing on the bottom of the lake.
“Chicken livers are very good catfish bait,” he said. “Catfish are very smell-oriented.”
On local ponds there’s no problem with the water levels, Dalton said. Anglers will soon start reeling in bass and bluegill.
“The warmer the days, the better,” he said. “As sun warms the water, the fish will start getting shallower every day.”
In the Mount Vernon area, fishing really starts to get better around April 15, Dalton said.
“The month of May is usually the best fishing on Knox Lake the entire year,” he stated.
The water level on Knox Lake should start rising quickly in May with the completion of the dam project, Dalton predicted.
Knox Lake, located approximately 1.5 miles northeast of Fredericktown, was constructed by the state in 1954 by damming Kokosing River, the State said. The lake covers 469 acres and has 11.4 miles of shoreline.
Dalton started at the marina right after high school as an outboard mechanic.
“Thirty-five years later, I’m still here,” he said.
He can look out the window of his business and see Knox Lake.
Knox Marine sells and services Ranger boats; and during the COVID-19 pandemic, people were buying lots of them.
“Because boat sales were so good last year, everybody is trying to replace their stock,” Dalton said. “We’re doing a lot of special orders. It’s not just us; everybody is short on product.”
