5 day forecast
District Fishing Report: 7.6.12
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Lake Erie (Erie County): Lightening kept anglers off the water for several days, but as the perch began to school up charter captains reported some active trips. The smallmouth fishing started slowly from Presque Isle to North East, but it has picked up. While some anglers blamed the absence of winter ice at Presque Isle Bay for continuing muddy waters, nice smallmouths in the 18-24 inch range were reported.
Pymatuning Reservoir (Crawford County): The walleye bite slowed, but anglers reported several caught in deeper water on Hot n Tots and worm harnesses. Steven Fryer of Butler boated four crappies up to 13 inches caught on jigs.
Conneaut Lake (Crawford County): Drop-shot rigs were the ticket for bass, and one sublegal musky was released near the Rte. 322 bridge.
Tamarack Lake (Crawford County): Largemouths were caught on plastic worms jigged near shoreline structure. Perch, crappies and bluegills hit on live bait.
Shenango Reservoir (Mercer County): Several sublegal muskies were released, and one fishing party reported a dozen nice bluegills and two foot-long perch.
Lake Arthur (Butler County): Anglers boated hybrid striped bass up to 8 pounds, most often in the evenings. One fisherman said his kids caught two bullheads on hotdog bits and a big bluegill on red worms near the Rte. 528 bridge.
Raccoon Lake (Beaver County): Warm weather brought many anglers to the shady banks of Raccoon Creek State Park. June 29 Clarence "Doc" Bunner of Carnegie caught a 21-inch, 5-pound walleye.
Allegheny River (Allegheny County): Wayne McNeill of Homewood hauled in a 20-inch, 14-pound flathead near the Highland Park Bridge June 30. He used a medium-weight spinning rod and 12-pound test line rigged to fish deep with a crawler.
Ohio River (Allegheny County): Another report of big walleyes in the Ohio: Frank McQuillan of Mckees Rocks landed a 10 pounder (30 inches): June 24 near Chartiers Creek using a purple curly-tail worm.
North Park Lake (Allegheny County): Several hand-size panfish and a 15-inch catfish were caught on a busy Independence Day. Shore anglers fished deep for cats, while lots of kids suspended worms under bobber for bluegills.
Cross Creek Lake (Washington County): Bass are down in numbers overall, but some nice fish in the 2 1/2 pound to 5 pound range were caught off weed beds on rubber frogs, 3-inch black rubber tails and live shiners. Bluegills were suspending at 6 to 18 feet and best caught by jigging maggots, and schools of crappies were caught in the coves at 12 to 18 feet on jigs and live minnows.
Youghiogheny River (Somerset County): Solid brown and rainbow trout action was reported following the June 29 state stocking from the dam to the Casselman River. During periods of good flow between rain events, trout were caught on streamers and nymphs.
High Point Lake (Somerset County): Lots of panfish were caught -- mostly bluegills and pumpkinseeds -- and two 19-inch northerns were released.
Spring Creek (Centre County): With water temperatures in the comfortable 50s, flow was good for this time of year and fly anglers were taking advantage of the trico hatch with spinners ranging from No. 22 to No. 26. Anglers who've fished the Delaware River or Youghiogheny at Ohiopyle were urged to clean invisible didymo algae spores from boots with bleach or salt water before stepping into environmentally sensitive Spring Creek.
Report your catch to fishingreport@post-gazette.com. Include angler's name, age (for children), place of residence, species, size, body of water, date of catch and phone number (not for publication). Send hi-res digital photos for publication on the PG Rod & Gun Club blog.
First Published July 5, 2012 7:43 pm
