Broad and shallow, Buckeye Lake is a large reservoir that spans 2,873 acres just east of Columbus.
Buckeye is an excellent four-season fishing lake that offers great spring bass fishing, summer catfish action, and chances to tempt panfish and saugeye through the ice.
One of Ohio’s oldest impoundments, it was originally built in 1830 to provide water for the Ohio & Erie Canal. The South Fork of the Licking River feeds into what used to be a large swampland known as Buffalo Lake, which the dam flooded.
Buckeye Lake has a lot in common with Indian Lake, another great Ohio fishing lake that was built for a similar purpose about 90 miles northwest. Both lakes offer abundant shallow habitat with little depth change but support plenty of fishing opportunities.
In the case of Buckeye Lake, the deepest part of the lake is just 14 feet deep. Most areas are less than 6 feet, which means that anglers can often do just as well fishing from the bank as by boat.
Buckeye Lake Fishing
The following are the most-prized gamefish anglers catch in Buckeye Lake.
Buckeye Lake Saugeye Fishing
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has been stocking saugeye heavily in Buckeye Lake for decades. These walleye-sauger hybrids provide excellent fishing year-round, but especially during the cooler part of the year.
Saugeye share characteristics with both their parent species. They are highly tolerant of turbid waters, and although saugeye like deep, cool conditions, they also thrive in shallow reservoirs like Buckeye Lake. In fact, according to the DNR, no other lake in Ohio produces more saugeye over 21 inches.
January and February are among the most popular months to catch saugeye. The length of Buckeye Lake’s ice fishing season varies, but you’ll find anglers dripping jigs and minnows for saugeye whenever safe ice is available.
The most effective bait is a brightly-colored curlytail grub tipped with a minnow and fished near the bottom. This offering continues to tempt saugeye long after the ice thaws in springtime.
From April through June, many anglers troll for saugeye on the open waters of the lake. Saugeye tend to gravitate to hard-bottomed areas and places where shallow flats drop off to deeper water.
The edge of the submerged towpath is a key trolling area at the west end of the lake near the spillway. The towpath once followed the course of the canal so horses could pull barges. Now inundated, it offers a quick drop-off from 3 to 8 feet that attracts saugeye from spring into summer.
Bank anglers often fish the Fairfield Beach area and from the pier at the North Shore boat launch. The channels around Leibs Island, which are dredged periodically to maintain their depth, are also attractive to saugeye and provide a great bite from the bank.
Saugeye often seek deep spots and open water in summer but return to nearshore haunts in fall.
Stumps, hard-bottomed areas and riprap shorelines are all worth a few casts with rattling crankbaits and blade baits.
When the fishing is tough, a lively leech often does the trick.
Buckeye Lake is among Ohio’s best lakes for saugeye fishing.
Buckeye Lake Bass Fishing
Largemouth bass are abundant in Buckeye Lake but tend to run a little small here. Lots of 12- to 15-inch bass are available, but big bass over 18 inches are rare.
Even so, bass tournaments are a common occurrence, and it can be a fun lake to fish if you’re not too concerned about trophies.
Largemouths have a lot of cover to choose from, including stumps, riprap, and abundant weed beds that proliferate as the lake warms up in summer.
The best bass fishing tends to be in spring and fall, as this shallow lake gets quite warm in summer.
During the hottest part of the year, fishing right around dawn and dusk is the best approach.
Buckeye Lake is an early bass lake because it’s so shallow, and it’s common for largemouths to spawn in April. Canals are good early-season spots, and a wide range of soft plastics, spinnerbaits and crankbaits are effective. Gizzard shad are the main forage.
Regardless of the season, you can do well fishing shoreline cover here. The north shore from Crane Island all the way to Liebs Island features over 4 miles of riprap, and there are hundreds of boat docks around the lake. Dock fishing is often best early and late in the day.
Toward the east end of the lake, the southern shoreline is notched with bays, coves and canals from Snug Harbor and Heron Bay, and this is a productive stretch that includes a lot of prime largemouth spawning cover.
Another key bass fishing area is Cranberry Bog, a marshy island near the center of the lake just north of some of the lake’s deepest water. The island’s shoreline is made up of brush and woody cover and produces a lot of quality bass.
Buckeye Lake Catfish Fishing
Buckeye Lake is an excellent catfish lake, and the fishing for these hefty bottom-dwellers is often at its best in summer when fishing for other species is most challenging. That being said, catches of catfish are common any time from spring through fall.
Channel cats weighing 3 to 5 pounds are very abundant in Buckeye Lake, and channel cats up to 20 pounds are a distinct possibility. Not only that, but the lake provides one of Central Ohio’s best bets for flathead catfish.
Anglers have muscled flatheads over 50 pounds from Buckeye Lake, and 10-pounders are quite common.
Whereas channel cats are happy to scavenge and will eagerly scarf up chicken livers, cut bait, shrimp and nightcrawlers, flatheads are active predators that prefer live baitfish.
The best time to catch big cats is after dark. Flatheads, in particular, usually hide out in Buckeye Lake’s deepest holes during daylight hours, emerging at night to feed.
Look for shallow flats adjacent to deep holes, and you’re likely to encounter flatheads after nightfall. The area just south of Cranberry Bog is a key area in the middle of Buckeye Lake, and the Liebs Island channels also have potential.
There are a couple of good deep holes toward the east end of the lake too. Common baits for big flatheads include live chubs, suckers, bullheads, bluegill and small carp. They’re attracted to a lively bait, so be prepared to change baits as often as necessary.
Channel catfish are more widespread throughout the lake. They’re also more apt to bite during the day, especially if the water is turbid—as is often the case on Buckeye Lake—or there’s some cloud cover.
Casting from the bank practically anywhere public access is available can yield good numbers of channel cats. Fairfield Beach and Liebs Island are among the most popular places for shore fishing.
Buckeye Lake Crappie Fishing
Crappie fishing can be excellent in Buckeye Lake. Though this lake isn’t quite a crappie powerhouse on par with Indian Lake (Ohio’s other major canal reservoir), it can be very good, especially in spring.
Black and white crappie are both available, and anglers catch good numbers of both, measuring 10 to 12 inches during an average year.
Some of the best crappie fishing takes place from shortly after ice-out through May.
Crappies gather around shallow cover in early spring, with brush, reeds, boat docks, laydowns, and remnants of the previous year’s lily pad stems being prime spots. A lively shiner beneath a slip float is the best bait.
Stumps are key cover too. Buckeye Lake has a lot of them, but the stump field at the extreme upper end of the lake tends to be an especially good area for crappies. It’s no coincidence that this part of the lake is also one of the quickest to warm up in early spring.
Crappie fishing is often difficult in summer. But areas with a lot of boat docks tend to attract crappies that seek shelter in their shade. Canals are worth trying too, and the best crappie bite in summer is usually right around sundown.
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Other Fish Species
Buckeye Lake is a diverse warm-water lake that also supports a wide range of additional fish species. Other fish you might find at the end of your line include:
Bluegill
Buckeye Lake supports a robust bluegill population, as well as plenty of pumpkinseed sunfish. Both species get pretty big here too, especially bluegills, which commonly measure 8 or 9 inches.
Bluegill are an especially popular quarry among ice anglers, who catch them using teardrop jigs tipped with spikes, wax worms, and other larvae baits during January and February. Buckeye Lake is so shallow that it gets a solid window of ice coverage most years.
But bluegill fishing can be good in any season. Smaller bluegill and sunfish are common in shallow water, but big ‘gills often hang out a little bit deeper.
Schools of larger fish often show up in the Liebs Island channels in spring. The eastern end of the lake is also known as bluegill central. A lively red worm beneath a float or other effective sunfish fishing methods can yield a mess of scrappy panfish around the stumps and lily pads.
Hybrid Striped Bass
The Ohio DNR has been stocking hybrid striped bass, also known as wipers, in Buckeye Lake for many years. These crosses between white bass and striped bass offer an underrated fishing option here.
Most hybrid stripers in Buckeye Lake measure 12 to 16 inches, though they’re certainly capable of getting bigger. The lake’s abundant gizzard shad keep them well fed.
Due to the featureless quality of most of the lake, they can be caught just about anywhere, though deeper areas are ideal places to start.
Spring and fall are the seasons when bank anglers have the best shot at catching hybrid stripers, and many are caught along the riprap that lines the north shore.
Live baitfish account for many of the hybrids caught in Buckeye Lake, though catfish anglers frequently catch them using nightcrawlers and even chicken livers.
Rat-L-Traps, curlytail grubs, and other minnow imitations also do the trick.
Yellow Perch
Yellow perch are fairly common in Buckeye Lake, though they’re not caught as consistently as other panfish. The DNR stocks perch fry every year, but it’s likely that many of them end up in the bellies of saugeye and other predatory fish.
Still, there’s a good chance that you’ll catch a few perch any time you toss a small minnow or bit of nightcrawler from the bank. They’re also commonly caught ice fishing, and winter is the time anglers most consistently target perch.
Perch tend to be a little on the small side here, but every once in a while you’ll see someone leave the lake with a pail of 10- to 12-inch jumbos.
Look for perch on hard-bottomed areas with a mix of rock and weeds.
Planning Your Trip
Spring is arguably the best season to visit Buckeye Lake, as it offers some of the best fishing and moderate boat traffic compared to the summer months. Buckeye Lake gets a lot of recreational traffic between Memorial Day and Labor Day, which can make fishing difficult.
A wide variety of lodging, shopping and dining, bait shops, marinas and other amenities are available on or near the lake’s highly-developed shoreline.
The communities of Buckeye Lake (on the north shore), Fairfield Beach (on the south shore), and Millersport (at the west end of the lake) all offer plenty of options.
Getting to Buckeye Lake
Buckeye Lake lies at the intersection of Fairfield, Licking and Perry counties in Central Ohio. It’s about 30 minutes east of Columbus via I-70, which runs east-to-west just above the lake’s northern shore.
Bank & Boat Access
The primary access to the best Buckeye Lake fishing spots is through Buckeye Lake State Park. Ohio’s oldest state park, Buckeye Lake State Park includes multiple separate units at various points around the lakeshore.
Good areas to launch a boat or fish from the bank within the park include:
- Liebs Island: One of the most popular access points, the Liebs Island unit of Buckeye Lake State Park has two launch ramps and plenty of parking at the west end of the lake. There’s also excellent bank fishing access here.
- Mud Island: Almost directly north from Liebs Island and connected to the north shore of the Lake, Mud Island offers a fishing platform and a good stretch of riprap bank for shore fishing.
- Brooks Park/Castle Island: This spot in Millersport overlooks the southern shoreline of Buckeye Lake not far from the west end. There’s good bank access here but no boat launch facilities.
- Fairfield Beach/South Shore: In addition to a popular swimming beach and picnic area, the Fairfield Beach site also includes a single-lane launch ramp and bank fishing access on the southern shore the lake.
- North Shore Boat Ramp: A very popular launch site around the midpoint of Buckeye Lake, the North Shore Boat Ramp includes a three-lane ramp and ample parking. There is also good bank access here, including a riprap-lined fishing pier.
Camping is not available within Buckeye Lake State Park, but there are numerous privately owned campgrounds in the area.
The nearby Hebron State Fish Hatchery, which raises saugeye and catfish stocked across the state, is also worth a visit.