Keystone Power Dam

for me its always tough to fish once the water starts going down...always did the best in may and june.

loom - i think it's postulated that the cause of keystone turning into the dead sea is that the amish guys - and there are lots of them - have devastated the panfish population which are the food base for all larger predtory fish.  they can legally keep tons of gills, crappies and perch, grind them up (bones, guts and all) to make fish patties.
 
i used to go there to specifically target panfish - now it's a waste of time.  for walleye, the only technique i heard that works is to troll hot-n-tots over the deeper areas - mainly very early or very late in the day.  and the walleye caught seem to all be large - very few small ones - not a good sign for the future.
 
i hope the commission does a electro-netting study there - i think there'll be a significant change from the last one.  my prediction is that they'll find a few very large walleye and smallmouth but very few panfish.
 
phish 

tons of smelt in there.............i am not sure just how large they get, but i would think they provide a good food base etc.

Caught my biggest walleye years ago in that body of water working the weeds in the shallow end of that lake.

Okay fellas here is the low down on Keystone have lived 2 miles away from it and fished it my entire life(33yrs). First off there is a super large population of rainbow smelt in that lake the perfect fatty high protien forage for any pan or gamefish. Secondly the the fishing pressure from those who do not practice catch and release has definatley effected the quality and quanity of fish in that lake, the amish amoung others have played what I believe to biggest factor to the lakes decline. Thirdly when Keystone had a nice population of harvestable and short walleye it was due to the stocking program the state had, they used to put several thousand fingerlings (4-6 inches) in the lake each year, they stopped that program in 1997 and have continuously put only fry walleye and fingling/fry tiger muskey in the lake. It is true about the size of the walleye though...when you do luck into one they are normally rather large and healthy. I normally catch half a dozen or so in the early spring while fishing for crappie. I hope this helps....kinda sad that what was once a great fishery has turned into a fair fishery at best....the smallmouth are the most prodominate species in the lake, a little more difficult for the amish to chase down I suspect.

What are the water levels like after all this rain?

forget the flats fry them smelts up

Can't be caught on hook and line (w/o snagging) ?