Page 7 - Fishing Report | 3-28-18

It’s the annual March Kick-Off issue, so here’s…

Good News for NW PA Anglers from PFBC Area Fisheries Biologists

Tim Wilson (Region 1)

Perhaps the biggest news out of Region 1 is how well the Muskies at Pymatuning Lake are do-
ing – in both number and growth rate. Last spring 90% of the Muskies we sampled were be-
tween 32 and 42 inches. We believe the Muskies being stocked now have built up a better re-
sistance to Red Spot, which devastated the Musky population at Pymatuning some years ago.
Our new strategy is to stock bigger Musky yearlings but fewer of them, and in alternating years.

There are very nice Bluegills at Shenango Lake. Last year 78% of Bluegills sampled were over 7
inches; in all our previous Bluegill sampling we never caught a 7 inch Bluegill. Also, more Flat-
head Catfish are showing up in Shenango. Hybrid Stripers are doing very well, too.

Presque Isle Bay has a very good year class of Largemouth Bass approaching 15 inches. Look
for bass fishing to improve over the next couple years.

When trout stocking below Shenango Dam was stopped due to contaminants found in fish in
the river downstream of the dam, we moved the stocking of those allocated trout to a section
of the Shenango River from Hamburg down to the power line crossing above the Big Bend
Bridge. This was the best outcome for a bad situation, but keeps the trout in Mercer County for
anglers.

Brian Ensign (Region 2)

The Keystone Select Trout program allows us to stock larger size rainbow trout in certain stream
sections. One of those areas is Oil Creek from Petroleum Centre Bridge in the State Park to the
Railroad Bridge at Columbia Farm. This section gets a special spring stocking of 14 inch to 20
inch Rainbows. With good parking and fishing on both sides of the stream, this is a great oppor-
tunity for kids and parents to fish for larger than average trout. Learn more about Keystone Se-

lect Trout program on the PA Fish & Boat website.

Sugar Lake is another lake to highlight. It’s under Big Bass regulations and it’s a stocked Musky
lake. Again last year the lake met our benchmark to continue stocking Muskies. We netted 8
Muskies in the 90-acre lake between 32 and 39 inches, and we know from angler reports there
are larger ones in there. The lake also has a high Black Crappie population, yielding 1,001 in 470
hours of effort (one week) with lengths ranging to 12 inches. We also captured Bluegills to 8
inches. And in one night electrofishing we got 172 bass of which 74% were over 12 inches.