Lake Ada Hayden

Located in Ames on Grand Avenue. Ada Hayden Heritage Park.This is a unique site. It is a man-made body of water that functioned as a rock quarry for several decades. It is, on average 50 feet deep, with very steep banks. Due to these conditions fish habitat/spawning zones are virtually non-existent.Black Bass: Catch and release only

Crappie: Possession limit of 5 per person/per day

Bluegill and Sunfish: Possession limit of 10 per person/per day.

Spawning Zones: Establish areas and restrict fishing in those areas during May 1 through June 30 (spawning season).No dumping of live bait.Electric motors only: No boat motors fueled by gasoline allowed on park premises.No fishing from bridge.No fish cleaning at the site. PARK HOURS: 6 am to 10:30 pm It is unlawful to swim at this park. mile hard surface trail (adjacent to the lake) for walking and biking 2 miles of crushed stone pathways Boat ramp for canoes, small sailboats, rowboats, and boats with electric motors only Pedestrian bridge between the lakes Fishing Picnic areas Bird and wildlife viewing Restroom 2 grills

Open Shoreline with light underwater vegetation directly off the shore, then steep drops, down to 75" in some places. The south east corner, near the overflow pipe is a very active bass area. The south west corner of the lake, near the neighborhood parking lot, which is small, is also a very active large mouth bass area, with very good topwater action near dawn and at dusk. the western shoreline of the lake, south of the bridge is very decent for many panfish, and small schooling large mouth bass, but is really only accessible with a boat.minus the tree overhang on the western shore south of the bridge, almost the entire body of water's shoreline has bowling ball or larger rocks up on the shore, until about 3 foot off shore. this makes for a decent amount of panfish like bluegills, crappies, and small mouths schooling.

they recently placed 1400 or so candy bar sized walley in the lake, around feb. or march. of 2010. they have been devastated by local fishermen, who are keeping these small walleyes, to the point that there are probably not enough to make a decent spawn. also, there have been some northern pike's caught in this body of water, a 36" at the end of June. **confirmed if your looking for bass, the best luck that you will have in this lake is natural colored rubber worms on Carolina or Texas rigs, plugs or poppers (rebel pop r , or heddon's of any kind) scum frogs,etc. anything used on the surface that makes commotion will find some lunkers almost anywhere around the lake. small mouths, crappie, and bluegills here tend to like small inline spinners, beetle spins, lightly colored grubs, night crawlers, minnows, and wax worms also have generally great results. if your looking for suckers, or other carp, corn is the only thing i can recommend. lightly weighted, flat on the bottom is the best, though if you can make a floating rig with some corn, there are very large grass carps if you have some heavier gear to work with. while i have seen many catfishing this lake, ive never actually seen one caught. there are some people who have been tube netting them, and catching several well above 27". with the lake water being spring fed ( natural springs in this lake if you didnt know) and so deep, without the ability to stay all night, i believe it would be difficult to fish for them on rod and reel.