By Brian Boog
This month in small waters, I’m writing about Beaverdam Lake in Gloucester. Beaverdam is a 635-acre reservoir that was constructed in 1989 and reached full pool the following year. The only fish that were stocked were bluegill, redear, channel cats and black crappie. The largemouth came from several surrounding streams and farm ponds. Beaverdam also has yellow perch, white perch and gizzard shad. Beaverdam is electric motor only. The average depth is 14ft. and it is 25ft at its deepest.
This reservoir has two boat ramps. The Rt. 606 ramp, on the north end (9537 Fary’s Mill Rd.) is for season pass holders (bought at the 616 ramp office), has a smaller ramp than 616 and plenty of parking. It’s perfect for jon boats and kayaks. The water here is very shallow, but there are channel marker sticks that get you out to eventually deeper water. There are plenty of stumps and standing timber on your way out to the main lake.
The Beaverdam Park 616 entrance (8687 Roaring Springs Rd.) has tons of parking for boats and trailers, bathrooms, Jon boat rentals and an office to buy a day ($6) or season pass ($60), rent a kayak, canoe, pedalboat, Jon boat and get a lake map. The boat ramp itself is bigger and has a dock next to it to tie your boat off when you park your trailer. You have to sign in and out at both ramps. Summer fishing hours are 6a – 8p.
First-timer advice: if you don’t know your way around at Beaverdam, GO SLOW! There are a ton of submerged stumps.
On to the fishing. My first day, I launched at 5:30 a.m. from the Rt. 606 ramp not knowing what to expect. I had no idea of which way to go and immediately got stuck in the mud. The water was only a few inches deep. I grumbled to myself for a few minutes until I saw another boat come out using the marker sticks. Lesson learned.
I very slowly started making my way out and saw a large group of standing timber on my left that looked very fishy. So many stumps. I stopped and casted a chrome Evergreen Shower Blow 125 and my trusty white, nine-inch M.S. Slammer wake bait from there all the way out to the end of the cove. I caught four in the high 3 to 4 ½ pound class. Great start.
Based on the breaking, fish were starting to school everywhere. Everywhere! Everywhere that was just out of casting range, that is. You basically had one cast per school before they disappeared. I caught nothing off of the schooling fish. Everything came going by stumps or trees. The water temperature was 83 degrees.
At the end of the cove, I crossed to the shady shoreline, went to the right and started to throw a 6.8 Keitech in bluegill on a 3/4oz Owner Flashy Swimmer. I was casting parallel to the shore in 5-6 feet of water. After 20 minutes of casting, I had the rod almost ripped out of my hand by a 5-8. The day was getting better.
Nothing happened for the next couple of hours with the swimbaits, so I switched between flipping a 1/2oz black and blue Bizz Baits jig w/ a black and blue Rapala Crush City Cleanup Craw at bushes and a 1/2oz Evergreen Jackhammer in spot remover with a 5.5 Hog Farmer Spunk Shad around any wood I found. There was a lot of it. I
I caught nothing on the jig and a couple of small ones on the Jackhammer. I crossed the lake when I got to the Rt. 616 boat ramp to a point that had tons of stumps and trees on it. Trying my best not to get hung up, I threw a Spro KGB Chad Shad swimbait, chopping it by the stumps. I had a few come up and bump it and finally had a four-pound even commit. Then I went a few hours without a bite and decided to head back to the ramp.
I went by “Fish Attractor “11”. As I passed it, I decided to turn back around and make a few casts at it. I’ve never seen one of these before. Made a long cast past the attractor, let it sink to the bottom and slow rolled it back. Halfway back to the boat, I got bit buy a 5-14. Yes sir. Hmm…maybe these fish attractors do hold fish! I ended the day with 20-8 on my best five. Not bad.
As I was just about at the ramp, an absolute giant of a fish was digging in the mud. Looked like something out of a movie. Thing was giant! Can somebody tell me what the heck it was? Didn’t look like a carp and it wasn’t scared of me.
I’ve been back to Beaverdam five or six more times without the same results. I lost a fish in the seven-pound class reeling a chrome Whopper Plopper 130 past a stump. It hit so hard and came right at me, I couldn’t catch up to it. It jumped twice and got off. Funny how a fish can hit a lure with two big Owner st-36 treble hooks on it and 50-pound braid and still find a way to come off. The moral of this story: change your hooks more often than you normally do.
Beaverdam is a special place. It checks all the boxes. It’s got tons of wood, points, turtles (tons of turtles), bushes, shallow flats, trees, rip rap, sandbars (they sneak up on you quick), deep water, coves, and bathrooms.
There’s a reason so many clubs do their tournaments at Beaverdam. It’s fantastic. If you’ve fished Beaverdam before, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, you really need to. Seriously. I’ll be coming back soon and often to see if I can catch a giant now that I’m getting familiar with the lake. They’re in there for sure.
See you on the small water.
If you have any suggestions of where I should fish, email woodsandwatersmagazine@gmail.com
