Winter 2008
This past year has been a great fishing year for Lake Somerset. Most of the summer the fish appear to be deeper than past years. I fish for panfish most of the summer (I also fish for bass and pike -- but only on a catch and release basis). The bluegills held close to the bottom in the 16-20 ft range for most of the summer. Crappie tend to be more suspended at the 15-16 foot range during the summer months. It's pretty easy to identify the species of fish you see on a good fish finder. Having just finished a nice bluegill/crappie dinner tonight -- I can attest to the wonderful flavor of these fish!
This past summer I spent a lot time snorkeling around the lake -- it's a most interesting and fun thing to do on a nice warm sunny day. Mornings are usually best as there is less boat traffic and wind. This past summer I spent a lot of time trying to photograph and observe our catfish spawning activities. In early to mid June the male catfish begin scooping out indentations in the sharp drop-offs in certain areas around the lake. The males guard these very closely -- keeping all other fish away. Usually during the night time hours -- the larger female fish come to these nests and deposit eggs -- which are fertilized by the males. The male fish then aerate these eggs and protect them until they hatch out -- usually in early July. I attempted to get some pictures of the newly hatched catfish fry -- but was unsuccessful. I thought this was pretty neat and interesting.
This fall's fishing was pretty good. One thing I might be changing -- is my theory on pike reproduction. I have caught several small 20-23 inch pike. As we have not been able to get any pike for stocking for the past couple of years -- they may well be the young of some naturally reproduced pike. The DNR fish growth tables show a year 3 pike to be around 23 inches -- in our lake they generally grow a little faster.
Looks like the Lake Somerset ice fishing season is fast becoming a repeat of last year. The lake froze over in early December and reached about 5 inches in early January. Then the warm air moved in and as of today (January 9, 2008) -- the lake is pretty much free of ice. Haven't seen any boats out yet -- but it wouldn't surprise me if somebody launched their boat! From talking with some of the fishermen in front of the park, they have been doing very good on the bluegills and crappie. I've caught fish every time I've gone out this winter -- though some days they seem to be on the small side. My last trip (just before the ice started to melt) resulted in a limit (25) in about 45 minutes. Almost all of these fish were redear or redear/bluegill/pumpkinseed hybrids that ranged between 8 and 9+ inches. They bit hard as soon as the bait (waxworms) hit the bottom in about 8 feet of water. Never caught so many large fish so quick in my whole fishing career! Hopefully this may be a sample of what we can expect this coming year?
As to the fish stocking in 2007: As I said in the last report, we stocked about 800 3-4 inch smallmouth bass in early August. These fish will probably not be of legal size (14 inches) for another 4-5 years. If anyone catches any of these fish -- I'd like to hear about it -- and know what size they are. We also stocked about 1,100 walleye (6-8 inches) in October. These should keep our walleye fishery going for next few years. The plans for next year are for some pike in the spring and another stocking of walleye in the fall.
As always -- if you catch anything unusual or interesting -- please give me a call at 688-3384 or let me know via email at grausch@comcast.net. Pictures are always appreciated for the lake association web site.
Good luck fishing!
George Rausch
A map furnished by George Rausch showing Lake Somerset with depths indicated.
A chart furnished by George Rausch showing the history of fish stocking in Lake Somerset since 1984 is available as an Adobe PDF.