Northwest Region
Butler County
Lake Arthur
Hybrid Striped Bass are running shallow for Alewife. Anglers are catching these Hybrid Striped Bass using live Alewife starting at approximately 10 p.m. and lasting until 1 a.m. Many of these fish are jacks, but still put up a good fight. Try areas such as the mud flats near the dam, Bear Run boat launch area, Rt. 528 access area, etc. A reminder that Hybrids must be a minimum of 20 inches and the creel limit is two per day. Anglers are catching Walleye and Channel Catfish by using night crawlers on the old Rt. 422 roadbed during the day and night. Try using just a hook trailing the crawler’s body and just drift with the wind.
Trout Stocked Waters
The second in-season stocking of Slippery Rock Creek in Butler and Lawrence County was cancelled due to high water temperatures. The next scheduled trout stockings in Butler County are Harbar Acres Lake (SGL 95) in October and Glade Run Lake in November.
Glade Run Lake
Anglers at Glade Run Lake are not allowed to keep warm water fish species until further notice. The only legal species to keep in season are trout. Please review the regulation signs posted at the lake before recreating.
Erie County
Presque Isle Bay
Smallmouth fishing is hot and heavy right now in the bay. This spring, anglers from 16 different states were fishing the bay for a chance to land those 6-pound Smallmouths. Please remember that until June 15, the creel limit is one bass at or over 20 inches. On June 16, the creel limit goes to four bass at or over 15 inches.
Lake Erie
Walleye fishing near shore after dark has been productive for anglers. Some anglers are hitting the deeper water in search of Walleye during the day and have caught a few. Anglers are searching for Yellow Perch with little luck so far. Some anglers have found some Yellow Perch out from Shades Beach. Anglers are catching Lake Trout out of the Northeast Marina in 100 feet of water with plugs. Anglers are catching Smallmouth Bass at the W’s east of Northeast Marina in 30 feet of water. Drop shot rigs and jerkbaits are seem to be the baits of choice.
Warren County
Kinzua Reservoir
Anglers are catching Walleye at the mouth of Willow Bay and Sugar Run. Devil’s Elbow is another good spot on the reservoir for catching Walleye, Smallmouth Bass, and Northern Pike.
Northcentral Region
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Tioga County
Anglers are still catching Crappie in lakes across the County. The majority of the fish are spawned out, but a few are still close shore. Anglers on all of the lakes are catching a lot of smaller fish. Live minnows are working best. Trolling with shad raps and similar baits has yielded bigger fish. Shad colors, purples, and firetiger patterns are all working.
Bass fishing across the county continues to be good. Most of the fish are post spawn now. The topwater bite is good with whopper ploppers, poppers, and buzzbaits producing fish this week. Various plastics and crankbaits are working subsurface too. Bass anglers are catching a few Musky on Cowanesque Lake using spinnerbaits and crankbaits.
Tioga River (Spillway)
Following the heavy rains, the flow at the spillway is ideal and anglers are catching a lot of Yellow Perch, Crappie, and Walleye. Successful anglers are catching walleye early late at night and/or early morning(2-4a.m.), using green curly tail jigs, white curly tailed jigs, and different crank baits. Large shiners fished under a bobber are effective as well. Bouncing nightcrawlers, shiners, or larger fatheads off the bottom is also producing fish.
Anglers are also catching Smallmouth Bass, and the occasional Striper or Pickerel.
Hammond Lake & Tioga Lake
Find structure and find fish! Anglers are catching larger Crappie close to shore and in deeper areas of each of the lakes where the bottom is rocky and ideal spawning habitat. Baits to consider are small jigs, wax worms, meal worms, and live minnows.
Hills Creek Lake
Fishing is still good at Hills Creek, but anglers reporting heavy weed growth in the lake. This makes boating with an electric motor challenging and sometimes even challenging fishing. Anglers utilizing kayaks and fly fishing gear are catching a lot of bluegills near the dam breast. Anglers using minnows are catching Yellow Perch off the sand bar, out from the Pines Boat Launch.
Babb Creek
Local sportsmen’s groups involved in the PFBC Cooperative Nursery Program are still stocking trout and supplementing trout fishing in Tioga County.
Babb Creek was recently stocked and these fish are being very under-utilized. If you are a trout angler and don’t want to compete with the crowds, take a trip to Babb Creek and you will find solitude and wonderful trout fishing.
Pine Creek
Water levels are perfect right now!! Green Drakes are hatching!! Sulphurs, Caddis, and Stoneflies are also in the mix. Anglers are catching trout throughout the day on a variety of dry flies and nymphs. March Brown emergers and dun patterns are working well in the afternoon. Mop flies, and various streamers continue to work well too.
Spin anglers are doing well with butterworms and live minnows. Roostertails and Mepps spinners are also working. Smaller sizes and brighter colors are popular. Silvers, golds, firetiger, and chartruese are working well.
Potter County
Anglers are enjoying the height of Potter County Fishing! First day of trout season pressure is over, steady rain and cool water temperatures continue to provide anglers with success in the stocked trout waters, as well as, Class A streams. The panfish and cool/warmer water fish species are active!
Anglers fishing streams are seeing good hatches coming and are catching trout using dry flies. Anglers fishing lakes are catching Crappie and other panfish, using a variety of baits, including jigs and live baits.
Good water levels are providing steady paddling in the streams and rivers.
Centre County
Foster Joseph Sayers Lake
Anglers, fishing structure (e.g. fallen trees, PFBC habitat structures and rocky areas) around the lake are catching Crappie, Bluegill and Yellow Perch. Anglers fishing Hunter Run Cut, the Causeway, Upper Greens Run and the Marina are also catching bass, Bluegill, Yellow Perch, Pumpkinseeds and Crappie along the shores. Target the habitat structures, downed trees, rocky areas.
Anglers continue to have success using twister tails, mini streamers (chartreuse and/or olive colors), live minnows, worms and waxworms.
Bald Eagle Creek
Anglers are catching Rainbow and Brown Trout using nymphs, dry flies and wetflies. Anglers are also catching trout using minnows, streamers, spinners, nymphs and red worms.
Spring Creek
Water temperature is in the mid-50s. Water clarity is good.
Sulphurs, tan caddis, blue wing olives, crane flies and midges are all hatching. Anglers are catching trout using dry flies (e.g. Sulphers #14-16; Tan Caddis #14-16; Blue Wing Olives #18-22; Crane Fly #14-16 and/or midges #22-26). To catch the sulphur hatch, plan to fish into the night hours!
Anglers are also catching trout using nymphs (e.g. Hot spot sow bug #14-16; Baetis emergers #18-22; olive scud #14-18; walt’s worm #12-16; sulphur patterns #12-14).
With rain in the forecast for this coming weekend, make sure you bring along streamers (olive/black #4-8). Target the stream banks and/or structure.
Northeastern Region
Southern Pike and Wayne Counties
So far, despite heavy rain events, anglers are having a great Black Crappie year the region. Anglers have been doing well fishing with any number of small lures and live bait
Monroe County
Small, unpowered watercraft season is upon us once again with warmer temperatures starting to creep in. Please make sure to check your life jackets for holes and tears before launching that kayak. Also make sure that you have a life jacket on board for each person. A seat cushion does not count as a life jacket and paddleboats are watercraft too.
Southeastern Region
Chester County
Soon the kids will be out of school and looking for something fun to do. Take them fishing at Hibernia County Park! If you do not have any fishing equipment, you can borrow everything that you need from the park. In conjunction with the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission and the park, the park has been selected as a designated Fishing Tackle Loaner site. The park has a number of Pennsylvania Fish & Boat trained fishing instructors to help you decide where to go and what to use to help you. The Park has two bodies of water, one is the West Branch Brandywine Creek, a “Stocked Trout Waters”, a heavily stocked metro designation waters, which winds its way through rapids and boulders in the upper part of the park into wider, deeper and slower pools in the center of the park. The second is Chambers Lake, a roughly 90-acre warm water impoundment that holds catfish, sunfish, crappie, Muskellunge, Chain Pickerel and bass, both Largemouth Bass and Smallmouth Bass. Call 610-383-3812 for more information on the fishing equipment loaner program.
Bass season opens on June 16, and here in Chester County, we have some great lakes to catch some nice ones. We have two Big Bass Waters regulation lakes, Marsh Creek Lake and Chambers Lake. Marsh Creek Lake in Marsh Creek State Park is located near Eagle in Upper Uwchlan Township and is 535 acres. It has two boat ramps and lots of shoreline and structure to fish. It can get busy on a warm or holiday weekend, so you might want to get there early to get a chance at some quieter fishing. Chambers Lake, located in Hibernia County Park in West Caln Township is a smaller lake, about 80 acres in size, has one boat launch and does not have as much opportunity to fish structure, this mostly because it is a much newer lake and the structure, fallen trees etc. have not had the same amount of time to develop. Both lakes are Big Bass Waters, so the minimum size to keep a bass is 15″ and the daily limit is 4. There are three other great bass waters in Chester County; Coatesville Reservoir in West Caln Township near the Coatesville Country Club, Struble Lake in Honey Brook Township, and Octoraro Reservoir near Oxford in Lower Oxford Township. Struble is just slightly larger than Chambers Lake but has been established much longer with structure and shallow points and drop offs. Fishing from shore is limited, so consider bringing a boat to have better access to the fish at this lake. Coatesville Reservoir does not allow boating, is well established and does have many cleared areas that you can fish from. This lake seems to produce less fish; however, because of less fishing seems to produce some lunkers, and I have seen a number of four and five pound bass come out of this lake. Last, Octoraro Reservoir, is very well established in terms of structure and fish populations. They hold tournaments there throughout the year and the weigh ins are fun to watch and many trophy size bass, 5 pounds and up to 8 pound bass have been brought to the scales. Shoreline fishing is available all over the lake. You can launch a boat at Neary’s Bait & Tackle on Spruce Grove Road, the lake extends into Lancaster County, there is a $4.50 launch fee. Try natural bait, large crawlers and minnows; or rubber worms and scented and unscented lures. Good luck!
Lancaster County
Conestoga River Clean Up
Saturday, June 9 ~ 9am – 1pm
Join Lancaster Water Week and our partners at one of seven locations along the Conestoga River to remove as much trash and litter as possible! Bring your waders and volunteer for the morning to help us work towards a cleaner, safer, and more beautiful Conestoga River! From 9am to 11:30am volunteers will be cleaning up debris in and along the river with a goal of filling up as many dump trucks as possible! Then, join us at noon for a FREE after-clean-up lunch to celebrate the day at Lancaster County Park! Hosted by Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay and Eurofins.
Follow this link to register:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/conestoga-clean-up-lancaster-water-week-tickets-45006874774
SE Montgomery County/W Philadelphia
May was a busy month in the district with plenty of anglers and boaters out on district waterways enjoying the nicer weather. Trout are still being caught out of Stocked Trout Waters in Southern Montgomery County. Walleyes and Striped Bass are being caught in the Schuylkill River tidal waters, as well as bass in area lakes. Boating activity has seen a large increase since last month and all boaters, but particularly those new to boating are reminded to review the boating handbook and stay current on applicable rules and regulations.