13 Best Largemouth Bass Fishing Lakes in Ohio

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Ohio offers a wide range of fishing opportunities, but few fish are more sought-after than largemouth bass. It’s not hard to see why. 

There’s nothing quite like watching a largemouth blow up on a topwater lure, or feeling your rod bend double as a hefty green bass slurps up a plastic worm and drives like a bulldozer into deep cover. Bass fishing is just plain fun. 

Largemouth bass inhabit waters of all sizes all over the Buckeye State, but they seem to especially thrive in medium to large lakes and reservoirs, of which Ohio has many. 

The best bass lakes in Ohio all offer great shallow cover, like stumps, weed beds, boat docks and laydown trees. They also provide deeper cover where bass can take refuge during the hottest and coldest parts of the year.

The best time of the year to fish for largemouth bass in Ohio is during the pre-spawn period (roughly March through early May) and the post-spawn period in June.

There’s also a great fall bite on most of the lakes we’ll tell you about, and plenty of big bass are caught in summer too.

Even ice fishermen catch largemouth bass in Ohio, although most do so by chance while targeting other species.

Any of the lakes listed below can provide a great day of bass fishing, and most of them can put a trophy bass on the end of your line. Largemouths weighing 5 pounds are fairly common in most of these lakes, and some harbor fish that are even bigger.

Top Largemouth Lakes

The following half dozen are those lakes that you really should fish if you want to catch big largemouth bass in Ohio.

Portage Lakes

The Portage Lakes in Northeast Ohio are like a giant playground for anglers. This chain of nine interconnected lakes just outside of Akron spans 1,190 acres of water, with 46 miles of shoreline.

Largemouth bass are abundant throughout the chain, and almost all of the lakes feature boat launch facilities and bank access sites. The Ohio DNR’s official fishing map of the Portage Lakes is a handy way to get your bearings.

Turkeyfoot Lake is the largest and deepest in the chain, covering 664 acres and up to 60 feet deep. This lake has produced a lot of largemouths over 5 pounds and has abundant grass flats where bass are right at home.

Try working a suspending jerkbait like a Rapala Husky Jerk over the sunken Christmas tree “reef” in Turkeyfoot Lake. The trees are submerged about 120 feet out from the lake’s lone island.

379-acre East Reservoir is another lake in the Portage Lakes chain that is known for producing oversized largemouths. This lake is a bit shallower, and a lot of bass here fall for crankbaits and soft plastics.

If it’s your first time fishing the Portage Lakes, try 225-acre Long Lake. This particular lake isn’t known for trophy bass, but it produces the highest catch rates in the chain. You can catch 12- to 16-inch largemouths here until your arms are sore. 

All of the Portage Lakes fish beautifully in springtime. Anglers can do well in summer too, but bass tend to become a little more “educated” by this time of year. Prolific weed growth also can create some challenges.

Bass love to hide in the thickest weed beds they can find in summer. Try a floating frog in the morning, or work your way slowly along weed edges, dropping weedless soft plastics into pockets among the vegetation.

Portage Lakes State Park is a great place to start your journey, offering boat ramps and bank access sites on the shore of Turkeyfoot and Rex Lake. 

Clear Fork Reservoir

Built in 1949 as a water source for the city of Mansfied, Clear Fork Reservoir is among the best largemouth lakes in Northeastern Ohio. It’s also known for great muskellunge fishing, and hefty largemouths are known to occasionally grab oversized lures intended for muskies.

Clear Fork Reservoir spans about 1,000 acres and is fairly shallow. The maximum depth is about 25 feet at normal pool, and most of the bottom is gently sloping. 

The lake has an abundance of aquatic vegetation, which not only gives largemouths plenty of places to hunt, but also provides crucial spawning grounds and hiding places for young bass. It’s picture-perfect largemouth habitat.

Along with prolific populations of smaller bass, Clear Fork Reservoir harbors plenty of 5-pound-plus bucketmouths. Bass tournaments are common here, and it often takes a stringer totaling 25 pounds or more to win.

Clear Fork Reservoir is fed by two inlets at its western end, and this is a great area to start fishing for bass. The western end of the reservoir includes a broad area of stump fields that are patrolled by largemouths pretty much year-round. 

This area is especially productive in spring, as it’s one of the lake’s major spawning grounds for bass. Try knocking crankbaits off the stumps early in the season for pre-spawn bass, or working your way through the area with a plastic worm or lizard later in the spring. 

Once weeds start to proliferate in summer, a topwater popper or frog can be a great choice.

Clear Fork Reservoir also has a series of mid-lake islands that can be productive.

There are no horsepower restrictions on the lake, but the city of Mansfield enforces an 8 mph speed limit.

Access facilities, including boat ramps, bank fishing and a campground, are located on the south shore within Clear Fork Reservoir Fishing Area.

Tycoon Lake

Despite its small size, 204-acre Tycoon Lake provides some of Southeastern Ohio’s best bass fishing opportunities. Surrounded by the gently rolling hills of Gallia County, it’s managed as a trophy bass fishery, with a slot limit that requires 14- to 20-inch bass to be released.

Tycoon Lake is a broad, C-shaped lake with two earthen dams. It’s sometimes described as resembling an oversized farm pond, and some parts of its sloping banks feature trees that grow right down to the waterline.

The maximum depth is 18 feet, so Tycoon is a fairly shallow lake. Even so, visibility tends to be fairly good, and weed growth is present but not overabundant. There’s a healthy largemouth population in every size class.

Targeting woody cover is your best bet, and Tycoon Lake has quite a few stumps under the surface. There are also flooded lines of fence posts, still in place from the farmland that was flooded to create the lake.

Shallow-diving crankbaits are usually effective for fishing stump areas. In springtime, try casting around the inundated trees and shrubs along the shoreline. 

From the post-spawn period into summer, bass are commonly caught in the stump fields and the outer edges of weedy areas leading into deeper water. There’s often an excellent topwater bite first thing in the morning. 

Tycoon Lake is located within Tycoon Lake Wildlife Area. As a result, the entire shoreline is public land, and much of it is accessible to bank anglers. 

Boats with unlimited horsepower are permitted on Tycoon Lake, but the entire lake is a designated no-wake zone.

Public boat launch facilities and a wheelchair-accessible fishing pier are located on the southeastern shore on Tycoon Road.

Knox Lake

At 496 acres, Central Ohio’s Knox Lake is a small but mighty entry on the list of the state’s best bass lakes. Few lakes in this part of the state produce more trophy bass. 

As it turns out, the excellent fishing in Knox Lake is very much by design. The Ohio DNR has been managing this lake as a trophy bass fishery for decades, and it’s a prime example of what happens when good management works right.

Thanks in large part to special regulations (including an 18-inch minimum length limit) the proportion of bass measuring over 18 inches in this lake is at an all-time high.

Overall numbers have steadily climbed too, as demonstrated by electrofishing surveys going back to the ’80s.

Angler reports back these findings up. The bass action gets going early in the spring as big largemouths move into pre-spawn mode, often in early to mid-March. 

The best place to be this time of year is the broad, upper end of Knox Lake. This part of the lake is mostly less than 5 feet deep, and was deliberately left littered with stumps and standing timber when the lake was built. 

Once the calendar moves into the post-spawn period, most of the bigger bass in Knox Lake transition toward deeper areas in the lower end of the lake. Numerous trees have been felled along the lower basin to provide shoreline cover for bass. 

Knox Lake has a 10 hp limit on outboard motors, and its small size makes it a great kayak and float tube lake. The shallow stump field, in particular, can be hazardous and difficult to navigate in anything bigger than a cartop boat.

There’s plenty of public access to this lake through Knox Lake Wildlife Area, which includes two developed boat launch sites and one carry-in launch. Ample bank fishing access is also available.

Mogadore Reservoir

Owned and maintained by the city of Akron, Mogadore is a consistent bass lake for both size and numbers in Northeast Ohio. Bass approaching 10 pounds have been caught here, and a few in the 6- to 7-pound range are boated every year. 

Mogadore Reservoir is a 1,100-acre reservoir with depths up to 24 feet and excellent water clarity. Bottom structure includes ample rocky areas and a few productive shallow humps, and abundant healthy weed growth develops in summer. 

Some of the biggest bass are caught in the east end of the lake during the early spring pre-spawn period. Try casting a jig-and-pig as close as possible to the bank. 

The western portion of the lake—using the Route 43 causeway as the dividing line—also offers some outstanding bass water. There are several small islands in this area, and you can pick off a lot of bass by casting tubes and jigs around the islands’ shoreline habitat.

There are some shallow brush piles near the causeway as well, which are productive for both bass and crappie. Try running a spinnerbait just over the tops of the brush. 

Vast beds of lily pads and other weeds develop in the summer, and fishing weed edges becomes the go-to tactic. Try a topwater along the length of weedy points in the summertime, or toss a popper or weedless frog right into the pads. 

The Mogadore Boathouse and Marina, operated by the city of Akron, is a great place to launch a boat on the lake. The marina is located just east of the Route 43 causeway, and offers boat rentals, bait and tackle. Only electric motors are allowed.

Bank access to Mogadore Reservoir is a bit limited, but some fishing is available at each of the lake’s several boat launch sites. The Buckeye Trail also follows a portion of the northern shoreline, offering foot access to a few secluded spots. 

Alum Creek Lake

Central Ohio’s Alum Creek Lake is one of the most popular bass fishing destinations in the Columbus area. This large 3,300-acre reservoir offers a lot of options, including ample cover along its 96-mile shoreline.

Alum Creek Lake is a really solid fishery for both largemouth and smallmouth bass. As is often the case in lakes where both species thrive, they tend to separate themselves based on habitat.

While smallmouths favor the deeper, rockier southern part of Alum Creek Lake near the dam, largemouths are more widespread. They inhabit shallow and mid-depth areas all over the lake, but especially in its upper end.

There’s a boat ramp just above the Route 72 causeway that’s a great place to start fishing for largemouths. Work your way from here up into the Big Run arm of the lake, targeting the tree stumps that line the main drop-off.

Texas- and Carolina-rigged plastic worms in natural shades like green pumpkin and black often prove irresistible to largemouths in Alum Creek Lake. Soft plastic jerkbaits and finesse crankbaits also work well early in the season. 

In spring, largemouths often seek out the warmest water they can find in the shallow upper parts of Alum Creek Lake, gathering in small clay and gravel-bottomed coves. Come summer, the bigger bass tend to drop down a little deeper. 

The Alum Creek Arm can be great for largemouths too. Lots of bass are caught in the many small cuts and coves above and below the Route 37 causeway, and there’s a bank access site with a gravel boat ramp at the west end of the bridge. 

Alum Creek State Park encompasses most of the lakeshore and includes multiple bank access sites and boat launches. Camping is also available in the park. 

Overall, Alum Creek Lake tends to be more of a numbers lake than a trophy fishery.

Ohio DNR surveys bring in loads of bass in the 12- to 16-inch range. But strong year classes over the last 10 years indicate that the number of larger bass in the lake could be on the rise.

Alum Creek Lake also is among the best places in Ohio to go saugeye fishing.

More: Complete Guide to Alum Creek Lake

Honorable Mentions

The list of great bass lakes in Ohio could go on and on. From farm ponds right up to massive impoundments, it’s hard to find a body of water in Ohio that doesn’t offer largemouth potential.

All of the following honorable mention lakes should be on your radar next time you plan a bass fishing trip in Ohio.

Acton Lake

Southwestern Ohio’s Acton Lake is one of the most well-known bass lakes in the Cincinnati area. Though the lake is fairly small at 592 acres, it has a reputation among Ohio bass anglers as a top spot for both size and numbers. 

Acton Lake has gently sloping bottom contours, with only vague traces of its original creek channel. It drops to a maximum depth of about 30 feet near the dam, but the upper end of the lake is quite shallow. 

There’s a lot of emergent vegetation that spreads around the shoreline, along with quite a few laydown trees and areas of rip-rap along the bank. Early in the year, targeting shoreline cover is often productive.

If you’re beating the banks, be sure to make a pass by the marina on the western shore of Acton Lake. Located within Hueston Woods State Park, the marina has a large expanse of boat docks that attract bass. 

Electrofishing surveys by the Ohio DNR regularly produce lots of bass in the 15- to 17-inch range, which typically weigh up to 3 pounds. There are also plenty of 20-inch-plus bass in Acton Lake, many of them tipping the scales at 5 pounds and up. 

Acton Lake’s water tends to be fairly stained, and it gets even murkier after a rainfall. Be sure to bring spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, and other lures that produce flash and vibration. 

Lake Erie

Smallmouth bass have long been the marquee game fish of Lake Erie. But in some parts of the lake—particularly in its relatively shallow Western Basin—largemouths are showing up more and more in anglers’ catches. 

There are even “largemouths only” bass tournaments held in some areas of Lake Erie. And for shore-bound anglers who often have a hard time catching smallmouths once these fish vacate the shallows in summer, largemouth bass offer a welcome alternative. 

Nearshore areas in Lake Erie are populated by more largemouths than most anglers are aware of. That includes a lot of 3- to 5-pound bass. The best places to target largemouths are harbors and bays.

Neighboring Sandusky Bay and East Harbor are both largemouth strongholds, with plenty of shallow weed beds, overhanging trees, and boat docks that hold fish. East Harbor State Park is a prime access point on the latter spot. 

Tube jigs, wacky worms, and soft jerkbaits are top largemouth lures on Lake Erie and its bays. Fish close to the bottom, and choose colors in the olive-brown spectrum to mimic the invasive round gobies that have become staples of bass’ diet.

Of course, Lake Erie also is famous for its outstanding walleye and yellow perch fishing, among other game fish.

Appalachian Hills Wildlife Area

Encompassing a little over 38,000 acres in Southeastern Ohio, the landscape that makes up the Appalachian Hills Wildlife Area has a long and tumultuous history. 

This former mining land has been gradually returning to its natural state for decades. It was opened to the public initially by the American Electric Power company (AEP) before being bought by the state and turned into a wildlife area. 

The region spans multiple counties and is dotted with over 300 lakes and ponds, the majority of which offer excellent fishing for largemouth bass and bluegill.

Created from the flooded pits left over from the mining days, these lakes and ponds are mostly nameless. 

Those that do have names tend to simply go by “Pond 90,” “Pond 91,” and so on. A lot of locals still refer to them collectively as the AEP Lakes. 

There are tremendous fishing opportunities here. Most of these waters support abundant largemouths in the 12- to 16-inch range, and many have trophy potential. This is a great place to explore from a kayak or float tube, or simply fish the banks. 

Boat launch facilities on two of the larger lakes are located on A-C Hull Road and Tilton’s Run. Many ponds are accessible only on foot, and there are several campgrounds in the area.

Appalachian Hills Wildlife Area is one of the best places in Ohio to spend a weekend fishing off the grid.

Pymatuning Reservoir

Straddling the border between Ohio and Pennsylvania, Pymatuning Reservoir spans a little over 17,000 acres, making it the largest reservoir in either state. It’s best known in both Ohio and Pennsylvania for its outstanding walleye fishing.

But there’s great bass fishing here too. Smallmouths and largemouths are both present, though the latter are much more common. Few anglers come here to target bass though, making this a relatively untapped resource. 

Pymatuning is a typical flatland reservoir, with a gently sloping bottom. The water is fertile and off-color, and most of the lake is shallow.

Ohio’s portion of the reservoir is roughly bisected by the Route 85/285 causeway, which divides it into a shallow northern basin and (slightly) deeper southern basin. 

You can expect to catch a lot of 2- and 3-pound largemouths here, but 5-pounders are not outside the realm of possibility.

Woody cover tends to be a big factor along the Ohio portion of the lake, especially shoreline laydowns. Try flipping jigs, creature baits and worms around the laydowns.

Pymatuning State Park provides a lot of great access, and there’s also a popular shore fishing area along the causeway.

Ohio and Pennsylvania have a cooperative agreement that allows anglers to fish any portion of the reservoir with a license from either state, as long as they’re fishing from a boat.

More: Complete Guide to Pymatuning Lake Fishing

Rocky Fork Lake

Completely surrounded by Rocky Fork State Park, Rocky Fork Lake is a popular recreation lake in Southern Ohio. This reservoir spans nearly 2,000 acres, providing anglers with a lot of water to explore.

This is a great multispecies lake, and bass anglers can expect to catch a mixed bag of largemouths and smallmouths. Largemouths are more common though, with many fish in the 2- to 4-pound range.

While smallmouth bass favor the rocky banks and steep drop-offs of the lower (eastern) end of the lake, largemouths are most common in the shallower upper end. This part of the lake supports healthy weed growth, and also includes a lot of submerged stumps. 

Six boat ramps are scattered around the lakeshore, making it easy to find a spot to get out on the water.

No horsepower restrictions are in place, and anglers would be well-advised to avoid busy summer weekends, when the lake is often overrun with pleasure boaters.

Instead, visit Rocky Fork Lake in the spring and fall, when there are fewer visitors.

There’s a great pre-spawn bite as bass seek out the warmest available water on sunny spring days. Come fall, big largemouths are stocking up for winter and are more than willing to engulf a crankbait.

Lake La Su An

Lake La Su An is one of the go-to destinations in Northwest Ohio for largemouth bass fishing. This part of the state doesn’t have a lot of trophy bass spots, but La Su An is, if nothing else, a truly excellent numbers lake. 

DNR surveys of 79-acre Lake La Su An always turn up abundant numbers of largemouths. Most fish measure between 11 and 14 inches, but a few bass up to 20 inches are caught here every year.

A lot of bass in this lake fall for spinnerbaits and plastic worms, but the biggest bass are wily, and often refuse to bite the traditional offerings. Throwing something unusual is the best way to nab one of La Su An’s lunkers.

Boats are allowed on Lake La Su An with unlimited horsepower, but no wake speed is enforced. This is also a great lake for bank fishing, with a hiking trail that encircles the shoreline and affords ample access.

Some of the biggest sunfish in Ohio are also caught in Lake La Su An. It’s not out of the ordinary to find a 10-inch bluegill latched on to your finesse bass jig. 

Lake La Su An is located within Lake La Su An Wildlife Area, which also includes three neighboring ponds: Lake Sue, Lake Lavere, and Lake Ann. All three also offer bass and panfish, and are great for kayak and float tube fishing. 

Pleasant Hill Reservoir

Located about halfway between Columbus and Cleveland in North-Central Ohio, 789-acre Pleasant Hill Reservoir is a great place to catch a mixed bag of largemouth and smallmouth bass. 

It’s not one of the best places in Ohio to target trophy bass, but you’ll find an abundance of both species in the 1- to 3-pound range, with a few largemouths that push 5 pounds.

Like a lot of lakes, early spring is the best time to tangle with a big one. 

Largemouths and smallmouths share habitat throughout a lot of Pleasant Hill Reservoir, but largemouths are most prevalent in the shallower upper end of the reservoir. 

Pleasant Hill Reservoir is shaped a bit like an upside-down letter V.

There’s a steep, rocky drop-off near the bend in the V along the south shore of the lake that routinely ranks among the best fishing spots on the lake. Bass of both species often suspend right along the creek channel in this area. 

Try a Rat-L-Trap or similar lipless crankbait to imitate gizzard shad, which are the primary forage in Pleasant Hill Reservoir. Buzzbaits also do well around shoreline cover like laydowns and docks.

Pleasant Hill Reservoir is a fairly small lake with no horsepower restrictions, so the recreational traffic can get heavy between Memorial Day and Labor Day. The best months to fish the lake are May and September.

Catch More Bass

Follow the special tips for each location and you’re well on your way to catching bass in Ohio.

But if you’d like to learn more about the techniques, gear, and lures that crush bass just about anywhere they swim, check out our easy guide to bass fishing.