One thing we anglers can count on is that change is inevitable for our lakes and rivers.

The Berlin Reservoir of 45 years ago is considerably different from the Berlin of today. The same goes for Milton, Mosquito, West Branch, Pymatuning, Shenango and, well, you get the picture.

Rivers and lakes everywhere ebb and flow every day and every season, changing as the seasons advance. Weather is a major factor. Age is another. Aquatic plants, water clarity, invasive species and a myriad of other factors contribute to our waters’ quality and productivity.

It’s interesting to me that though a river might have flowed through a valley for thousands of years, the changes we see from one year to another might seem to be enormous. Our local reservoirs are relatively young compared to the rivers that deliver their waters, but they experience great changes, too.

Consider Berlin. It’s been around since World War II, when it was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with federal money secured by U.S. Rep. Michael Kirwin.

While Berlin was dammed to help manage the flow of the Mahoning River to satisfy the steelmakers in Warren, Youngstown, Struther and Campbell, it quickly gained popularity as a fishing lake.

The Corps holds water in Berlin during spring and summer, and typically releases much of the volume in late summer and early fall. The up-and-down cycle has been consistent year over year for as long as I have been familiar with Berlin.

I fished Berlin frequently in the mid-1970s, and enjoyed fine catches of walleyes, crappies and yellow perch during the spring months. In the mid-1980s, I started fishing for largemouth and smallmouth bass and found Berlin to be OK, but not great, for bass compared to other lakes in the Youngstown-Warren area.

One of the interesting features of Berlin in the 1970s was the flooded willow bushes in many offshore areas where today none exist. I recall willow “islands” on the main lake sandbars north of the U.S. 224 causeway, on the flats near the railroad causeway, and here and there in many locations upstream of Ohio 14 and even beyond Ohio 225.

The willows were great spots to probe for crappies. I also caught a lot of walleyes while casting the edges with spinner rigs sweetened with nightcrawlers.

Berlin has continued to be a fairly good lake for walleyes, especially in the spring and fall. By the 1990s anglers also were catching good numbers of big muskies. I recall one season in particular during the 1990s when milfoil grew in lush green expanses in the Mill Creek, Island Creek and Willow Creek arms, providing great cover for the lake’s growing population of largemouth bass.

Berlin in 2025 provided very good bass fishing. Anglers hooked up with lots of big largemouths. Smallmouth bass have grown in numbers and size, too, with many tournament anglers catching heavy limits compared to years past.

While many anglers long for the “good old days,” the truth is the fishing at Berlin and most of our other lakes in Northeast Ohio is pretty good today. The tactics we use may be different than those our parents used, but that just underscores the fact that as time changes our lakes, so must we change our approach to fishing them.

Jack Wollitz has written this column and hundreds of feature articles about fishing in northeastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania for many years. Contact him at jackbbaass@gmail.com.