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Alum Creek Lake Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

Alum Creek Lake north of Columbus: bass, crappie, muskie and saugeye in a Corps reservoir split between open water and no-wake coves.

3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Flow
5 cfs
Air / High
67 / 67 F
Wind
ENE 5 mph

Sources: USGS gauge 03228750, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

3/5Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Alum Creek Lake sits in the sweet spot of the season: active fish and workable weather. The main inflow is running 5 cfs, on the rise. Today brings clear skies, wind ENE around 5 mph, steady pressure near 1025 hPa and a high of 67. Water sits around 74 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 10:07 AM-12:07 PM and 10:35 PM-12:35 AM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

MuskellungeExcellent

Main open-water season: cast or troll large bucktails, spoons and plugs along weed edges and other cover where muskies wait in ambush.

CrappieFair

Early in this band crappie are spawning in protected coves; afterward they move to docks, brush piles and standing timber near deeper water.

Tomorrow: Similar at 67 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

Before you go

Ohio requires a fishing licence from age 16, from $25.00 for residents. What a Ohio licence costs and where to buy it β†’

Chasing crappie here? Check the size and bag limits with ODNR before you keep anything. The season dates for Ohio, read off the agency, are on the Ohio seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings from Alum Creek near Kilbourne (inflow).

Flow, last 30 days

USGS gauge 03228750.

1330475 cfs09/2310/0310/1310/23

Today’s flow against 33 years of October 23

At 5 cfs, the flow at USGS gauge 03228750 (Alum Creek near Kilbourne (inflow)) is at the 27th percentile for the date: normal. In half of the 33 years of approved record the daily mean on October 23 was below 7 cfs; the highest was 144 cfs and the lowest 1 cfs.

p10 2median 7p90 51

Percentiles of the daily mean flow for this date, from the USGS Water Data Statistics API for gauge 03228750; today’s reading is the latest instantaneous value. Classes follow the ones the USGS used on its WaterWatch maps (retired at the end of 2025): below 10th, much below normal; 10th–24th, below; 25th–75th, normal; 76th–90th, above; over 90th, much above.

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp67 F
High / Low67 / 40 F
WindENE 5-8 mph
Pressure1025.3 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain11% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset07:51 / 18:40
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~74 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunsetPRIMEPRIME

Which day to fish Alum Creek Lake this week

The best day on Alum Creek Lake this week looks like Saturday Oct 24, at 5 out of 5, against 3 today.

Best day this week: Saturday, Oct 24 β€” excellent at 5/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Fair

A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Solunar majors
10:07 AM-12:07 PM and 10:35 PM-12:35 AM
Minor period
4:29 AM-5:29 AM
Sun
07:51 to 18:40
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Overcast, 6 mph
Rain chance
0%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Alum Creek Lake: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Crappie illustration

Crappie

Best: the spring spawn; summer around docks, brush and the thermocline

Two slab-sided panfish, the white crappie and the black crappie, that gather around submerged timber, brush piles, docks and bridge pilings in lakes, reservoirs and slow river backwaters. Texas Parks and Wildlife counts crappie as the state's most popular panfish. Early in this band crappie are spawning in protected coves; afterward they move to docks, brush piles and standing timber near deeper water.

Muskellunge illustration

Muskellunge

Fished from late spring into late fall where seasons allow

Muskellunge are solitary, fish-eating ambush predators of the pike family, holding in weed beds and other cover in lakes and rivers of the Great Lakes, upper Mississippi and Ohio basins. Main open-water season: cast or troll large bucktails, spoons and plugs along weed edges and other cover where muskies wait in ambush.

When to come: the Alum Creek Lake calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Crappie
Muskellunge
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 74 F (estimated, not a reading).

5060708090JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~74 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Alum Creek Lake today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Muskellunge led the card at excellent. High of 68 F, wind to 8 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Muskellunge led the card at excellent. High of 68 F, wind to 6 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Muskellunge led the card at excellent. High of 69 F, wind to 5 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

License

Ohio requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

A valid Ohio fishing license is required from age 16. Limits for bass, saugeye, crappie and muskie: see the current Ohio Division of Wildlife fishing regulations.

Access

Four public launch ramps, plus one for campers only; life-jacket loaner boards at the New Galena, Cheshire and Marina ramps. Alum Creek Marina on Hollenback Road (west shore) has 240 slips. Boaters may swim only in Big Run, the Sailing Association Cove and marked coves next to the US 36/37 bridge.

About this water

A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir on Alum Creek in Delaware County, Ohio, managed for recreation as Alum Creek State Park.

Fishing Alum Creek Lake: the full guide

A Corps reservoir run as a state park

Ohio State Parks gives Alum Creek Reservoir as 3,387 acres of water, with a dam at the south end maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; the ODNR Division of Wildlife fishing map (last updated 2008) gives 3,330 acres and 68.6 miles of shoreline at the normal summer pool of 888 feet. The park describes narrow coves and quiet inlets that produce bass, bluegill, crappie, muskie and saugeye.

Two halves of the lake

South of the US 36/SR 37 bridge the lake has unlimited horsepower and room for water-skiing. The northern part is no-wake, with tree-lined shores, shale cliffs and sheltered inlets that suit paddling and quieter fishing.

Winter

Under proper conditions the park lists ice fishing and ice boating among its winter activities.

Common questions

What fish does Alum Creek hold?

Ohio State Parks names bass, bluegill, crappie, muskie and saugeye.

Is there a horsepower limit?

Not south of the US 36/SR 37 bridge; the northern part of the lake is no-wake.

How many ramps are there?

Four public launch ramps and one more for campers, according to the state park.

Is fishing good at Alum Creek Lake right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Nearby waters

Hoover Reservoir7 miBuckeye Lake33 miDeer Creek Lake42 miIndian Lake52 miCaesar Creek Lake75 miSalt Fork Lake76 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

River and reservoir readings
USGS 03228750 β€” Alum Creek near Kilbourne (inflow)
Read from the USGS Water Data API (api.waterdata.usgs.gov). Latest value timestamped 2026-10-23 at 19:00 UTC.
Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 40.2000, -82.9800 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
Pages checked
The facts in the written guide were checked against these pages, from the agencies and operators that manage the water, on October 6, 2026. Anything we could not verify was taken out.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written text was drafted with AI assistance from the official pages listed above, and its facts were checked against those pages by automated verification on October 6, 2026; anything that could not be verified was taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.