Ice on the reservoir begins to thaw and open up by late February or early March. Ice off usually happens quickly, resulting in the reservoir being open water and ice-free by the middle of March. The water level has typically reached 40% capacity (or more) by this time, allowing boat anglers to launch from both Oasis and Painted Rocks boat ramps. Hazards still exist at this water level, and buoys are usually in place at Oasis to remind anglers to use caution when launching. Spring fishing is fair for shore anglers, and fair to good for boat anglers targeting walleye, channel catfish, tiger muskie, wiper and northern pike. We recommend anglers try using streamers (such as Chip's Northern Magic, Barry's Baitfish 2.0, Lefty's Deceiver and Murdich Minnow), swimbaits (such as the Sebile Magic Swimmer Soft, Castaic Catch 22, Storm Live Kickin' Minnow and Berkley PowerBait Sick Fish) and spinnerbaits (such as Blue Fox Foxtail Super Vibrax, Panther Martin Muskie Marabuck, Mepps Dressed Agila and Mepps Dressed Black Fury). Bait fishing using fresh cut bait (common carp, Utah sucker, Utah chub) can be very effective. We recommend fishing the bait suspended using a pike float rig or slip-float rig. Drift trolling using bottom bounce and three-way rigs can be very effective in April and May, particularly for walleye. We recommend using a bottom bouncer with a crawler harness or spinner harness, a three-way rig with a minnow imitation crankbait (such as a Rapala Shad Rap, Rapala Husky Jerk or Walleye Nation Shaky Shad) or either type of rig with a soft plastic grub (such as a Trigger X Swimming Grub, Northland Impulse Swim'n Grub or Lindy Watsit Grub).