Thomas hill reservoir. How is the fishing?

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Hi I just saw this on the map. Does it have open water In the winter? How is the fishing? Is it safe to run with a boat?(stumps ect) I’m in Iowa and looking for a place to fish open water. :-)

[20adamsb]

It’s a power plant lake so warm water arm rarely freezes. The main lake does though. There are shallow places and overall not a very deep lake.

[Redog]

It’s a power plant lake so warm water arm rarely freezes. The main lake does though. There are shallow places and overall not a very deep lake.

Thank you so much for responding!! Is there a boat ramp in the warm water arm? How is the fishing? I’m a bass guy but in the winter I don’t care what is biting. Lol

[svh]

It's been several years, but we crappie fished a few times there in January and February, with ice on main body. We tore um up at least twice there. Minnows were absolutely key as they wouldn't even touch anything else !

There is a ramp in the heated arm ..... Thomas Hill Reservoir Warm water Arm Ramp - Boat Ramps on Waymarking.com

[Redog]

It's been several years, but we crappie fished a few times there in January and February, with ice on main body. We tore um up at least twice there. Minnows were absolutely key as they wouldn't even touch anything else !

There is a ramp in the heated arm ..... Thomas Hill Reservoir Warm water Arm Ramp - Boat Ramps on Waymarking.com

Thanks for the info guys!! Does anyone know if it is open now? I’m thinking about next weekend.

[st041986]

You can catch hybrids and crappie in the warm water arm, which is always open. If you have side imaging, you shouldn't have any problem catching fish. Find schools of hybrids and throw swimbaits at them. For crappie, find brush and then vertical jig it. If you don't catch fish pretty quick, then move on. There's plenty of brush in the warm water arm to fish.....

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[COLOR=var(--secondary-text)]Keith Hendrix


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[COLOR=var(--primary-text)]Made the first trip of the new year up to the Hill today. Was quite the mixed bag of results but the star of the day was this 8.47 lb hybrid. Several more in the 4-5 lb range. Still unhappy with one of them that decided to keep my jerkbait. Lol. The livescope shot is showing how they are stacked together-it was game on for a while! Had a bunch of small largemouth with 3 legal ones on the www.marktwainlakelures.com

spinnerbait. Also 10-12 nice crappie. Everything was released to fight another day.

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52You, Greg Cooper, Steve Schaefer and 49 others



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[Redog]

That looks like some great January fishing!! What was the water temperature? Is the hole lake ice free?