The submerged brushpile, likely a portion of a tree that had been moved offshore by wind or receding ice, lay in around 12 feet of water. A quick scan on the side imaging of my sonar unit showed a smattering of fish suspected to be crappies.

As I stopped the boat a short distance from the sunken cover, my partner for the day, Sid Brown, cast a light, crappie-sized jig toward the target. I soon followed.

It was only moments before a light tap on Sid’s line spurred him to set the hook, an action that resulted in a deep bow in his light spinning rod. A few moments later, a fine 12-inch black crappie was in the net.

That moment took place a couple of weeks ago on Mercer County’s Shenango Lake. It was a trip I’d thought about for a couple of months, one where we would target both walleyes and crappies. The walleyes eluded us. But we ended the day with several more crappies as well as a much better understanding of the lake, one that I’ve fished only a handful of times previously.

As its name defines, Shenango Lake is formed by an impoundment of the Shenango River, and serves as a federal flood control lake. It’s located downriver of Pymatuning Lake, also a Shenango River reservoir. The lake covers over 3,500 acres with a maximum depth between 25 and 30 feet. There is no horsepower restriction on most of the lake, though there are some no wake zones.

As such, the lake sees heavy recreational boating pressure during the summer months. The horsepower exception is the area west of the Penn Central Railway Bridge to the Ohio line, which is under a 20 hp restriction. As a flood control lake, it is subject to variations in lake level which can lead to closures during heavy rain and snow melt events. It also sees a winter draw-down of approximately eight feet.

Unlike Pymatuning to the north, Shenango Lake does not support submerged weedgrowth, likely a result of the pool level fluctuations and its dingy water color, which has only a foot or two of visibility. Structure is abundant, however, with a rich blend of submerged humps, channels, points, and subsurface roadbeds. Wood is present in the form of offshore submerged trees and brushpiles, downed shoreline laydowns, and cribs introduced by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission’s habitat improvement efforts.

Shenango is traversed by several road and railroad bridges, which divides it into a series of broad basins that stretch from east to west. By contrast, the lower end of the lake, which runs directly to the south, is quite narrow.

In terms of its fish population, Shenango is well known for harboring a solid black bass population, both smallmouth and largemouth. It’s the target of many bass tournaments. Hybrid striped bass are present, thanks to consistent stockings by the PFBC, and grow well over 10 pounds. Walleyes, northern pike, white bass, muskies, channel cats, flathead catfish, all are found in various population densities.

However, Shenango Lake is arguably best known for its abundant crappie population. When surveyed by the Fish and Boat Commission in 2017, crappies, both black and white, were collected in sizes up to 16 inches. Panfish Enhancement Regulations apply to crappies on Shenango, which call for a 20-fish limit and nine-inch minimum length restriction.

During my recent trip, Sid and I discovered several brushpiles that we’ll explore on a later date, and I’m sure we only scratched the surface. Most of the fish we caught were taken from Fish and Boat Commission cribs. The location of such cover can be seen via the agency’s website, www.fishandboat.com.

Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle