On this Saturday after Christmas, as we close out another fantastic fishing season, I reflect back through the misty years and see the jolliest of anglers happily sharing some of his favorite spots on a lake I have grown to love.

The life of a fishing writer includes some stark realities (ha ha). Editors demand exciting stories that require many days of grueling research on unfamiliar waters trying new tactics. It isn’t easy, but somebody has to do it.

So it was that warm Saturday more than 40 years ago when I teamed up with the late Bob Mullen and his son, Dale, at Shenango Lake just across the Ohio-Pennsylvania border near Sharpsville, Pa. My fishing network recommended the Mullens as a great resource for Shenango fishing information.

Bob was the dean of northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania bass waters. From his home in Hubbard, he spread his fishing wings across the region, gaining great experience in tournaments and fun fishing trips with Dale and several fishing buddies.

Known for his quick smile, easy laugh and the mischievous twinkle in his eyes, Bob greeted me at the Shenango ramp on our appointed day. He and Dale launched their Champion bass boat, and together we drove off to explore Shenango’s main lake points and upriver stump-strewn flats.

It was a day that opened my eyes to the great potential Shenango offers to anglers who seek largemouth and smallmouth bass, crappies, walleyes, hybrid striped bass and muskies. Lessons learned that summer day long ago have served well in the ensuing decades. Shenango remains, to this day, one of my favorite fishing waters.

Dammed in the mid-1960s, Shenango features two primary tributary arms: Pymatuning Creek, draining down from north and west of Kinsman through Orangeville on the Ohio side, and Shenango River, which flows in on the east end from the tailwaters of Pymatuning Lake.

The two arms link up around mid-lake and the channel swings south into the Mahaney area.

Much of Shenango is prime largemouth water. On my initial visit there in the mid-’80s, the lake was barely 20 years old and still sported thousands of stumps flooded when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers closed the gates of the dam to fill the reservoir.

Largemouths love to lurk around the washed out roots and hide in the holes created under the stumps. There, they await gizzard shad and yellow perch, two primary forage species. The baitfish population is healthy, which in turn creates a bountiful food supply for the predator species.

Shenango also features hundreds of tree trunks and tops that have fallen off the bank to provide cover for bass and crappies. Anglers score by dragging jigs and plastic worms along the wood cover.

Smallmouth bass prowl the numerous main lake points, rip-rap causeways, bridge pass-throughs and several hard-bottom areas that formerly were building foundations and road beds before the lake was flooded.

My typical fishing day at Shenango starts around the Route 18 bridge, where I work topwater plugs and crankbaits for the early morning smallmouth bite. As the sun climbs the eastern sky, I decide whether I’ll spend the daylight hours in the east end’s no-wake zone or the western arm’s 10-hp area (where I cannot run my 150-hp outboard and must rely only on the electric motor for propulsion). Both the east and west arms offer great fishing opportunities.

If the bass aren’t biting (which hardly ever is a problem), I can count on fast action with the big population of fat and feisty crappies.

Shenango has been a special place for me ever since that day long ago when the Mullens made a proper introduction. It has aged well in the ensuing four decades, and continues to make my investment in a Pennsylvania non-resident fishing license worth every penny.

Jack Wollitz enjoys writing about his fishing experiences on the lakes and rivers around Youngstown and Warren. Contact him at jackbbaass@gmail.com.