For more information, contact the ODOW’s District One office at (614) 644-3925, Todd’s Sport Shop at (937) 362-3473 or nearby Indian Lake State Park at (937) 843-2717.

HIGHLANDTOWN LAKE
“Shad are showing up in Highlandtown Lake, and the bass are getting larger,” said Matthew Backhaus, Fisheries Management Unit leader in District Three.

“The bass I saw caught last year looked like they were starting to put on weight. Tournament fishermen told me that these bass are some of the finest fish they’ve taken in years, with some specimens up to 6 pounds and many fish over 15 inches.”

Highlandtown Lake lacks cover, said Backhaus, so the ODOW has placed a variety of artificial structures into the lake.

“I built a reef that is about 60 feet long and put pine trees at the end of it, along with some tube structures in the same area,” said Backhaus. “Plans are to put in some Christmas trees and to fell some trees around the lake for shoreline cover.

“I’d predict good fishing if the weeds come back strong,” Backhaus continued. “If people want to target bass and aren’t familiar with Highlandtown, I’d steer them toward the dam or the bay right off the main launch ramp.”

The western section of the lake has the heaviest concentration of bass. Fish attractors have been placed near the dam and along the north and south shorelines in the lake’s western section.

Bonus crappies have been caught over the last couple of years, with some reaching the 16-inch bracket, said Backhaus.

The boat launch is off Osbourne Road. The lake covers 170 acres in Columbiana County and lies four miles northeast of Salineville off state Route 39 and nine miles south of Lisbon off state Route 164.

For more information and to find out where submerged structure has been placed, contact the ODOW’s District Three office at (330) 644-2293, or the Highlandtown Fish Unit at (330) 679-2201.

PIEDMONT LAKE
“Inland lake fishing in Ohio is largely limited by habitat, and Piedmont Lake is a lake that has it,” said Dave Bright, a fisheries biologist in southeastern Ohio. “Piedmont is the top smallmouth lake in District Four and is normally in the top three waters throughout all of Ohio for Fish Ohio! qualifiers.”

Bright pointed out that the excellent and varied habitat within Piedmont Lake makes it a good largemouth lake as well. Biologists sampling the lake have found impressive bucketmouths along with the big smallies.

The bays provide the most largemouth action, said Bright. Weedy shoreline areas and the shallow stumps on the eastern end of the lake are bass magnets. Smallmouths slam jigs and spinners off the dropoffs. Look for rocky bottoms adjacent to the dropoffs.

Piedmont covers 2,273 acres of water in Harrison, Guernsey and Belmont counties. Ramps are available off township Road 893 on the northwestern end of the lake and off Reynolds Road on the southwest end. Boaters are under a 10-horsepower motor restriction.

For more information, call the ODOW’s District Four office at (740) 589-9930.