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Salt Fork Lake Fishing Report

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

Salt Fork Lake: a Guernsey County reservoir where Ohio's Division of Wildlife stocks muskellunge and saugeye.

3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Water temp
~74 F est.
Air / High
66 / 66 F
Wind
NE 6 mph

Sources: 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.

Salt Fork Lake sits in the sweet spot of the season: active fish and workable weather. Today brings clear skies, wind NE around 6 mph, steady pressure near 1025 hPa and a high of 66. Water sits around 74 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 10:01 AM-12:01 PM and 10:30 PM-12:30 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.

WalleyeGood

Summer pattern: nightcrawlers and leeches on rigs or jigs near bottom, trolled crankbaits to find scattered fish, and the shallows after dark in clear lakes.

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 65 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.

No live gauge on this water

Conditions here are modeled from weather, season and the nearest stations. Water readings appear when a USGS gauge is available.

5060708090JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~74 F now

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp66 F
High / Low66 / 39 F
WindNE 6-9 mph
Pressure1025.2 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain9% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset07:45 / 18:34
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 Salt Fork Lake this week

The best day on Salt Fork 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
10:01 AM-12:01 PM and 10:30 PM-12:30 AM
Minor period
4:23 AM-5:23 AM
Sun
07:45 to 18:34
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Partly cloudy, 6 mph
Rain chance
0%

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

Species guide

The species that matter on Salt Fork 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.

Walleye illustration

Walleye

Best: spring and late fall, around dawn, dusk and night

A cool-water perch of large lakes, reservoirs and rivers whose reflective eyes are built for low light, so it feeds most at night and in murky water. The Missouri Department of Conservation ranks it among the continent's most important freshwater game fish. Summer pattern: nightcrawlers and leeches on rigs or jigs near bottom, trolled crankbaits to find scattered fish, and the shallows after dark in clear lakes.

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 Salt Fork 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
Walleye
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 Salt Fork Lake today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Muskellunge led the card at excellent. High of 68 F, wind to 8 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Muskellunge led the card at excellent. High of 70 F, wind to 5 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 70 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

Ohio fishing license. 2026-27 Ohio regulations: crappie 30 a day, 9-inch minimum (site-specific list that includes Salt Fork). Statewide inland rules otherwise: black bass 5 a day, 12-inch minimum; muskellunge 1 a day; walleye, sauger and saugeye 6 combined.

Access

Salt Fork State Park and Salt Fork Wildlife Area, main entrance on U.S. Route 22 seven miles east of Cambridge; ODNR's wildlife-area map marks fishing access points.

About this water

A reservoir on Salt Fork Creek in Guernsey County, Ohio, built in 1967. ODNR's wildlife-area map gives 2,952 acres and its fishing map 3,060 acres.

Fishing Salt Fork Lake: the full guide

Salt Fork Creek impounded

Salt Fork Lake impounds Salt Fork Creek in the steep to rolling hills of southeastern Ohio. The Division of Wildlife handles fish, wildlife and public hunting and fishing on the area, and the Division of Parks and Recreation runs the state park's recreation facilities. The main entrance to the 20,542-acre recreation area is seven miles east of Cambridge on U.S. Route 22.

Cover left in the lake

When the lake was built in 1967, trees and shrubs were left standing in many embayments, and an artificial reef was built on the north branch for fish cover. Large boulders line parts of the shoreline and make good fishing areas, ODNR says. The Division of Wildlife nets, seines and surveys the lake each year to plan its management.

Muskellunge and saugeye

Salt Fork is one of nine reservoirs in Ohio's muskellunge program. ODNR's March 2025 fact sheet lists 3,060 muskies stocked each year, 1,342 reported to the Muskie Angler Log from 2020 to 2024, and a largest reported fish of 51.75 inches. The Division also stocks saugeye and compares stocking rates with young-of-year catches in its surveys.

Crappie rules

Salt Fork is on Ohio's list of lakes where crappie must be 9 inches and the limit is 30 a day. ODNR's survey charts compare the lake's crappie growth with district and statewide averages.

Common questions

Are muskies stocked in Salt Fork?

Yes. ODNR lists 3,060 muskellunge stocked each year; anglers reported 1,342 from 2020 to 2024, the largest 51.75 inches.

What are the crappie rules?

Crappie must be 9 inches and the daily limit is 30 under Ohio's 2026-27 site-specific rule for Salt Fork.

How big is the lake?

ODNR gives two figures: 2,952 acres on its wildlife-area map and 3,060 acres with 63 miles of shoreline on its fishing map.

Is fishing good at Salt Fork 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

Piedmont Lake19 miBuckeye Lake51 miBerlin Lake70 miHoover Reservoir70 miAlum Creek Lake76 miMosquito Lake92 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 40.1084, -81.5506 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 7, 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 7, 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.