Fishing Claireville Reservoir Dam ???

[Johnnyfishing]

Hey hey .. This is my first post!

Anyhoo... I've driven by the Claireville dam countless times on the 427 and have seen people fishing it...

Anyone here fish it before and more importantly, how can you access it??? Do you have to go in through the Trailer park?

I tried the upper reservoir with little to show for.

[Deadfisher]

I fished Clairville regularly for a decade but haven't been there in almost 7 years.
Those who didn't want to pay parked on the side of the southbound off ramp and walked across the field to the spillway.
When I started fishing there the Conservation Authority kept the reservoir level high. The water in the spillway was clear and full of bass, crappie, rockbass, pumpkinseed, bullhead and carp.

After a few years they lowered the reservoir levels, exposing huge areas of mud flats that muddied the waters with the slightest breeze. The visual predator population suffered greatly from the perpetual "chocolate milk" enviroment. I'm not sure what the official reason was but it screwed up the river and an awesome urban fishery.

[Johnnyfishing]

WOw.. This really sucks.. I remember hearing about how good it used to be back before I really got into fishing ... It's a shame as it seems many Urban fisheries have suffered due to human intervention, and not just from overfishing but Humans playing God altering these environments for whatever reason.

[tweedwolfscream]

(07-10-2016 11:38 PM)Johnnyfishing Wrote:  WOw.. This really sucks.. I remember hearing about how good it used to be back before I really got into fishing ... It's a shame as it seems many Urban fisheries have suffered due to human intervention, and not just from overfishing but Humans playing God altering these environments for whatever reason.

It is indeed a shame when a good fishery gets screwed up, especially one so easily accessible... but if we're going to wax philosophical, let's remember that this is a reservoir... it only EXISTS due to human intervention, humans "playing God" and altering the environment for whatever reason (by building a dam to create the lake). If humans had never intervened in the ecosystem it would just be a river, possibly with a good fishery, but a completely different sort.

[Ping]

Hey Johnnyfishing, did you end up checking out the damn? I was thinking of bringing my nephews there sometime next week. I actually drove in through the camp grounds today to check it out, it's $6.50/adult, free for kids. Last shore spot I took them to we got skunked, just looking for a good place to throw in a worm and bobber to put the kids on their first fish.

[Ping]

Went to check out the spot with a friend just now. The water was really merky. Tried everything from meps to jigging with no luck but saw a few bass and carp jump out of the water right by us. Little bait fish were jumping all over the place. Definitely going back with my nephews with live bait.

[Deadfisher]

This is probably too late to help anyone this year, but it took some time to find on my old computer. It's at least 12 years old but should be mostly the same.