Launching the boat at Pymatuning had an odd feeling to it. Not that the lake is unfamiliar, but fishing it so early in the year was. Early March and the lake was ice free and had been for at least a couple of weeks.

After surveying three areas relatively close to the Jamestown access area, I stopped the boat along the edge of a mid-lake hump, one that’s been productive over the past few years. The sonar screen showed both baitfish and larger fish nearby.

It wasn’t long before I had a strike on my ¼-ounce jigging bait. A modest-sized yellow perch came to the boat. Soon afterward, my boat partner, Sid Brown, added another one. Hovering the boat along the edge of the hump, we continued to catch fish — perch, crappies, pumpkinseeds and undersized walleyes — particularly when the boat was over what appeared to be a small brushpile. Schools of baitfish displayed intermittently.

When my fish counter topped 40, and we’d yet to catch a legal-sized walleye, it was time to resume the search. I headed the boat south toward the dam. A primary food source on Pymatuning is gizzard shad, a species that doesn’t fare well in cold water. During the winter months, shad tend to migrate to the deepest part of the lake where the water is warmest.

As we approached the extreme lower end of the lake, huge schools of baitfish began appearing over the deepest water in 25- to 30-plus feet, basically over the old Shenango River channel. Larger gamefish-sized marks were visible near the bottom.

The remainder of our day, one cut short by an approaching line of thunderstorms, was spent plying these baitfish-rich depths. We never did connect with the legal-sized walleyes we hoped for but did catch several quality-sized smallmouth bass, channel cats and yellow perch. All the fish appeared packed with baitfish. The forked tails of shad extended from the gullets of some. The fish counter read 54 as we high-tailed it to the ramp under darkening skies.

This winter I’ve experienced excellent fishing on the deep end of Lake Arthur, again keying in on fish fattening up on gizzard shad. Though targeting crappies, outings have also produced yellow perch, walleyes, a couple of muskies and channel cats, several of which were over 10 pounds. The best areas have been brushpiles and cribs in 25- to 30-feet of water, the most consistent ones often hanging along the edge of the old Muddy Creek channel.

Interestingly, in contrast, I’m not finding fish in the deeper waters of Keystone Lake. During prior years, starting around Thanksgiving, a consistent pattern has been to target 25- to 35-feet depths in the lower end of the lake for bass (mostly smallmouth but some big largemouth as well) and big walleyes. But this has fizzled for the most part the past couple of falls/winters. I’m seeing little in the way of baitfish in this part of the lake and wonder if the population of rainbow smelt, which has been the deep water draw, has crashed. Perhaps it is due to the dramatic drawdown that took place a few years ago?

This winter nearly all the baitfish presence I’ve found on Keystone has been in the upper half of the lake, thick swarms of food fish that sometimes are packed tightly around brushpiles and cribs and look like bees around a hive. Again, the bulk of the activity has been on cover right along the old creek channel, in this case the Plum Creek channel.

As the waters warm there will be a movement of fish to the shallows. But in the meantime, “channel surfing” areas holding cover and baitfish should remain productive.

Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle