Speedwell Lake

[Deleted]

Just wondering if anyone has had any luck or fished Speedwell Lake yet for that matter? It's so close to my home and over the years I have loved taking a few trips there each season. Now that the lake is repaired and somewhat restocked I was just wondering if anyone has been there. I just watched a YouTube video of someone fishing it late last season and was surprised to see a few of his catches. I was under the impression that they only stocked it with fingerlings but there were bass caught in the 1-2 lb range. To me this is very good news. As per the gentleman in the video the lake is loaded with 1-2 pounders. I bet they sure are hungry in that lake since I doubt many have fished it since it was refilled. Plus; the cover available in that lake now is ridiculous. It looks more like a nice southern lake in Texas than a Pennsylvania Lake. It's LOADED with flooded brush and trees right now.

[Spatterdock]

I didn't consider fishing there until next year at the earliest because I figured the bass wouldn't be big enough until then. I drove by the lake a few weeks ago, and your right, there are a lot of trees and brush still growing from the bottom of the lake. I'm happy to see the lake is making a comeback. I used to fish there as a kid/teenager back in the 90's. Although I never really caught anything in the lake, I had more luck fishing the spillway and Hammer Creek back then.
From what I remember, most of the lake was pretty shallow, and there wasn't much of any structure before they drained it. Hopefully they dug it a little deeper before they filled it back up.

[Deleted]

Actually they did dig the lake out before they refilled it. That whole upper end (above the bridge) was awful. But again; they did dig all of the silt out so that should be good. I used to fish it several times a year before they drained it since it was only a short drive from my home. I cannot say I ever caught huge numbers there but I have caught numerous decent size bass out of there (above 3-4 lbs).

I was amazed when they did drain the lake; there really was some good structure and cover in the lake. Nice laydowns and a few stumpfields that most were not aware of. There were also a decent amount of cribs placed in the lake as well. I took several trips down there as it was draining; even found one of my jigs I lost in a huge tangled mess of tree limbs. Under the bridge the water is about 10' deep and there is a HUGE stump sitting right in the middle; I never knew that was there.

I told myself as I was walking around that it would be a perfect lake for some deeper crankbait fishing. If you head up the lake and hug the shoreline from the lower ramp the water drops off pretty rapidly with a bunch of tree limbs and rocks etc. which would be perfect to bang the bottom with. Before the lake was drained I always had my best success fishing the laydowns with a jig-n-pig in Black/Blue.

But if that lake is loaded with 1-2 lb Bass it may be worth a trip there; maybe once the water warms a little bit I might have to throw some wacky worms along the flooded brush.

[icemole]

Looking at the habitat map it looks like they added a bit of cover while it was drained(they've done that at other lakes too). Up in my area when they put the stuff in Leaser Lake I walked around with my hand held GPS and marked a lot. May have been a waste of time because they put the GPS co-ordinates on the maps LOL. They also left the "forests" that grew up pretty much intact - which pretty much rules out wading anymore, especially my hotspot.(Leaser was dry a lot longer)