Page 8 - Fishing Report | 4-10-19

Updates from Area Fisheries Managers

The responsibilities of Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission Area Fisheries Managers
are to survey and evaluate fish populations in the waters of a given region, then

make recommendations for stocking and regulation change based on their biological
assessment. Fisheries biologists Tim Wilson and Brian Ensign have provided survey
highlights from several waters in their respective districts which you should find in-
formative.

Tim Wilson – Area 1

Pymatuning Lake: Our 2018 spring work

showed excellent crappie and walleye popu-
lations, with strong numbers of walleyes of
above legal fish. Since we switched stocking
of walleyes from fry to fingerlings, we have
not had a failed year class. Our survey nets
this spring (2019) indicate a slight dip in
walleye numbers but a much better average

size. Crappies are abundant. And the aver-
age perch size has increased since 2018. Bass are abundant, including high number of
young of year (YOY) bass observed while doing baitfish seining.

Shenango Lake: The new crappie regulation of 9-inch, 20-fish creel went into effect in
January 2019; it may take five years before we can see a positive impact on the crap-
pie population – it doesn’t happen overnight. Shenango has very good hybrid striper
population and we continue stocking every other year depending on availability. We

no longer stock musky in Shenango due to poor returns. But based on our surveys,
Shenango shows itself to be one of the better bass lakes in the state. Walleye popu-
lation is fair at best regardless of efforts to improve it. However, the catfish popula-
tion is very strong. If you keep fish to consume, you should really give channel catfish
a try.

Presque Isle Bay: Crappies and bluegill fisheries are very good. However, our trap net
survey does not show much of an improvement in the northern pike population since
the fish kill of several years ago; part of problem may be not being able to get our
nets set into the shallow parts of Lagoons when pike are spawning.