Memorable Elk County Fishing Spots

[flintauqua]

I didn't do a lot of fishing as a youth, but here are some of my memorable fishing spots:

My parent's pond on what we called the Womacks pasture.

Brace's Pond

Crigger Bottoms

The upper end of the Mound Branch watershed lake.

[larryJ]

Good ol' Uncle Pete was the caretaker at Polk Daniels, so I did most of my fishing there.

Larryj

[Catwoman]

I used to travel through Elk County, taking in the sights, and saw lots of ponds.  How do you know a good one from a bad one?

[flintauqua]

Water coming out of the draw-down pipe, weeks after any significant rain would be a good attribute.  Means the pond is just below, or directly over a spring or seep, allowing it to maintain a more consistant water level, and not "go dry".

[Wilma]

The best ever bull head pond was in the middle of the half section we owned in Union Center Township.  The old timers swore there was a spring in the bottom of it, that the pond had never gone dry.  There was also a well close to the pond that the old timers said watered all the neighbors cattle during dry spells.  It had filled in and we never had it cleaned out, but we knew the location.  We could almost always catch all the bullheads that we wanted within a hour or two.  We never caught anything else out of that pond.  I am not going to give the location because I don't own it any more and the present owners might not appreciate the location being sent out into never, never land.

[sixdogsmom]

We spent many weekends at Polk Daniels, always caught a carload of bluegill. Had lots of fun, Dons' girls were all prissy about bait and such but found out how much fun it was to catch fish. It didn't take long for them to figure out it was a lot more fun to bait yourself than to wait on somebody to do it for you. The tackle took a little longer though, and hook removal longer still. Besides the boys didn't seem to be impressed with an able bodied girl whinin' for dad to take off their fish. Ha!

[flintauqua]

I am not going to give the location because I don't own it any more and the present owners might not appreciate the location being sent out into never, never land.

Good point, wasn't thinking that way.  I redacted the locations on my post.

[Ole Granny]

We spent many weekends at Polk Daniels, always caught a carload of bluegill. Had lots of fun, Dons' girls were all prissy about bait and such but found out how much fun it was to catch fish. It didn't take long for them to figure out it was a lot more fun to bait yourself than to wait on somebody to do it for you. The tackle took a little longer though, and hook removal longer still. Besides the boys didn't seem to be impressed with an able bodied girl whinin' for dad to take off their fish. Ha!

Here I am again missing out on the fun.  Bullheads are my favorite fish.  My mouth is drooling, just thinking of them.  Best eating there is.  MK&O use to have a bullhead pond.  There was nothing else in it either.  So many and you could not keep ahead of them so there were so many tiny ones all the time.

Fishing spots:  Polk Daniels has many fond fishing trips and memories.  Old Moline City Lake was great as was the Santa Fe Lake.  Spent many hours on the river behind Nelson's, I believe or could have been the Olson's or both.  Did a lot of fly fishing at the New Moline City Lake.  Or it was new back then.  Spent my childhood on the Wildcat, catching crawdads, frogs and tadpoles.  Fished some at the Plum but that was mainly for swimming.  That was our Day Care.  Does anyone swim there now?  The Basin at Elk Falls was always a fun time.  Swimming and fishing the same area.  Depended on the weather and how the creeks and rivers were running where we went.  Wow-Now I will never get to sleep....

[Tobina+1]

I don't mean to be a kill-joy and I'm not accusing anyone on here of doing it, but we've had a lot of problems with people trespassing to go fishing.  Even going as far as cutting locks on gates, taking down water gaps (and cattle getting out), and being in locations they had no business of being.  I suppose "back when", it was OK to just drive into a neighbor's pasture and fish, but people probably had more respect for the land (and probably OK'd it with the landowner first, too).  Now, people leave beer cans and trash and gates open.  Also, like hunting, land has been leased out for fishing rights to people who PAY, and other people who think they have a "right" to be there only interrupt that business transaction.
I would say that 99% of landowners would grant you permission if people only ASKED (and also be respectful of cleaning up after themselves).

[larryJ]

TRESPASSERS WILL BE MOLESTED!