Pinchot Lake Level

The park has lowered Pinchot lake after the rains. They opened the spillway gate 80% for 1 1/2 days. The lake was up to where the parking lots had water in them. Now the lake is down to about one foot above normal pool level. That should make the lake one of the best choices for a fishing trip this upcoming holiday weekend.

I caught one 17 inch largemouth on a 1/4 oz spinnerbait in Gray Shad color before I came into work today at noon. It was on the right side of the main boat ramp in the flooded reed bushes. Tons of bluegill are around the banks in all areas. Due to the high water and then lowering of the lake, the weeds are broken up and floating in most areas of the lake.

After the shop closed tonight at 8 pm, I went back down to the lake and fished for about a half hour without a bite. A few anglers were bank fishing and there were quite a few boats out this evening.

Enjoy your holiday weekend and be safe! We are fully stocked with live bait and tackle to meet all of your needs.

Tim

Creek Pictures - Flooding

My wife and I took a drive and took a couple pictures of the Conodoquinet Creek in Mechanicsburg. We turned around due to water over the road. It was blocked on the other side but not on our side of the road. This is near Route 114, at a level of 2 feet over flood stage.

Tim

Susquehanna River Forecast

The river forecast has changed slightly for the Susquehanna River at Harrisburg now. They have lowered the forecasted level to a flood stage of about 20 feet sometime Thursday.

Here is the official website for river forecast levels. A good website to view any time of year but especially during high water. When clicking on the following link, please make sure to hit the refresh button so that it displays current information.

http://newweb.erh.noaa.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=ctp&gage=harp1&view=1,1,1,1,1,1

Rain, Rain Rain!

We needed some rain and we sure got more than we can handle. All rivers/streams in South Central PA are expected to crest well above flood stages during the day on Thursday.

The Susquehanna River at Harrisburg is forecasted to crest sometime Thursday evening at a level of just over 25 feet! This means major flooding in the Harrisburg area. What this means for river anglers is unfishable water for a period of at least 2 weeks.

Pinchot Lake levels continue to rise. Hopefully in the next day or two the park will open the spillway and lower the lake level some. The end of the lake by the bridge, where Beaver Creek comes in, is very brown in color. The rest of the lake has some degree of brown stain but it is very fishable.

Anglers that stopped in our shop today reported excellent catches of largemouth bass on plastic worms. They targeted newly flooded shorline brush and found quite a few nice largemouth bass, over 18 inches, that were very hungry.

Crappie anglers also reported good catches of some slab crappie along the banks in newly flooded brush. Small shiners seem to be the best bait for crappies. Quite a few between 12 and 15 inches were caught late Monday and this morning.

All local streams are expected to be over flood stage by an average of a couple of feet. The good news is that once the rain stops, the creeks and streams drop in level and clear up much faster than the river. Fishing streams is a possibility by the weekend. Please use caution and exercise all safety measures.

The best bet for the next week or so will be area lakes including Pinchot lake.

Tim

Water Conditions After The Storms

We had some pretty bad thunderstorms roll through last night. At the shop we received just over 1 1/2 inches of rain. That brought the level of Pinchot up and the upper end is quite brown. With the storms we are expecting this evening, the lake level should rise a little bit more. There is a tournament on the lake Saturday morning from day break until 2 pm.

I crossed the Yellow Breeches on my way to work this morning and it was up quite a bit and chocolate brown in color.

The Susquehanna River is supposed to go up over the next few days and reach just over 5 feet at Harrisburg Monday morning. That is a perfect level for boating the river but anglers wading the river should use extra caution. There was a fellow that drowned this week on the Juniata River. He was wading across the Juniata and got caught up in a swift channel and drowned. And that was at low levels so be careful wading!

Below the mouths of creeks you will probably find the water to be heavily brown stained. If you fish the river, target mud lines and don't be afraid to fish that muddy water either.

Have a great weekend!
Tim

Pinchot Report

Bass fishing on Pinchot this week has been a little tough. It should pick up the next few days as the weather cools down a bit and we get some much needed rain.

Anglers doing best this week used a variety of baits. Rainbow Trout 5 inch Senkos worked well for some anglers. White Pearl soft jerkbaits worked well for others. The most consistant action is still on plastic worms though. Either 5 inch Slop Sticks in Junebug and Green Pumpkin, 10 inch Power Worms in Junebug or Zoom U-Tale worms in a variety of colors should get you some bites from hungry bass. The key the last few days has been to fish extremely slowly around isolated patches of grass and scattered rocks.

The grass beds on the flat (between the bridge and the campground) are starting to thicken up and that's where most of the bass are being caught. Tuesday night started off the Lunker tournaments. This past Tuesday there were 40 some guys that fished the tournament from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm. 13 bass were weighed in. Winning bass weighed just over 2 1/2 lbs and second place was just over 2 lbs.

Crappie anglers are finding very few crappie and that is typical for this time of year. If you are going for crappie, target water at least 15 feet deep on main lake points. The fish seem to be suspended between 10 and 20 feet and are biting slowly.

Night action could be a little better. We did not hear of any hybrid stripers being caught this week. Catfish anglers reported doing pretty at night on chicken livers and shiners. One angler landed a channel cat pushing 15 lbs this week.

I waded a small creek Tuesday night for smallmouth bass. I caught quite a few smallmouth bass, some chubs, fallfish and a couple rock bass. Most were caught on a 1/4 oz Gray Shad spinnerbait. I also caught a couple of bass on a small AC Shiner 202 lure, a Baby Griffon Megabass crankbait in Ito Shrimp color and one or two on a MegaBass Pop X topwater bait in color Moth LA.

I did see one angler catch and keep a 19 inch smallmouth in the creek Tuesday night using minnows. Try to remember that some of these small creeks can only hold a small number of large smallmouth so put them back to fight another day so everyone can enjoy them in the future.

Have a great weekend!
Tim

Opening Day Of Bass Season

Today, Saturday June 17th, was opening day of Bass season. Lake Pinchot was loaded with anglers today. All of the fisherman out today coupled with the bright sun and warm weather made for a pretty tough day of fishing for most folks.

Anglers reporting the best success were using Senkos, white pearl Jerk Shads and Super Flukes, 1/4 oz Chatterbaits in white and shad colors and black/blue jig-n-pigs along outside edges of scattered grass. Most bass caught today were on the small side with a couple caught over 15 inches. Anglers lined the banks in many areas and boats of all kinds were out today. Folks that stopped in the shop after they were done fishing said they caught most of the fish early in the morning before the sun got high in the sky.

(Just a reminder, USE YOUR SUNSCREEN WHILE OUT ON THE WATER! Lots of folks came in with some having pretty bad cases of sun burn. Remember that the effects of the sun are magnified on the water. Stop by our shop before your trip to pick up some sunscreen to protect yourselves and especially your children.)

Expect fishing to get better as the week progresses and there is less fishing pressure on the lake. It's going to be a pretty hot week coming up so we recommend heading out early or later in the evening as your schedule allows.

As the weather continues to warm up, bass fisherman will find better success targeting deeper water in the 8 to 15 foot range. Move your boat off the bank a good ways. If you can reach the bank with your cast, you are fishing too close to the bank. The larger fish will be hanging on deeper water drop offs. The bank areas get pounded hard so if you fish deeper water, you should be rewarded with some nice catches of largemouth and smallmouth bass.

Striper action at night the last few days has been slow from what we are hearing. Not much action going on. But with the warmer weather coming in the next week and beyond, the stripers should get much more active after dark.

A couple crappie anglers reported catching between 6 and 8 crappies up to 12 inches the past few days. Target points that have large boulders (south side of the lake towards the dam) with twister tails on small jig heads. The plastic jigs are producing more bites from the crappie than minnows.

Have a great week!
Tim

River Smallmouth Report

A group of us got together at Ferry Boat Campground on Route 15 this weekend for some smallmouth fishing. We had anglers from PA, NJ and DE show up and for the most part, everyone caught quite a few smallmouth. Saturday was the best day with just about everyone landing 50 smallmouth each, all on spinnerbaits. The water had a nice stain to it and the smallmouths were hungry. The biggest smallies caught Saturday were a pair just over 19 inches caught by Greg from Northern PA.

Sunday was a bit of a different story. The cold front that came through Saturday night shut down the spinnerbait bite for the most part. I fished with my buddy Tom on Sunday and I think we caught the most of anyone. I had 8 or 9 smallmouth and Tom had 5 smallies. A couple of mine came on a 1/4 oz Gray Shad spinnerbait and a 3 1/4 inch Mudpie Purple tube and the rest came on a MegaBass Cyclone SR-X crankbait in color OGS. The fish we did find active on Sunday were chasing the crankbaits back to the boat and it was not uncommon to have 2 smallmouths fighting over it at the side of the boat. But still very few fish were caught Sunday with some anglers only getting a couple of fish.

The water level had dropped overnight and cleared up some. Those conditions along with the cold front made for a tough day on the water.

Tim

Pinchot Lake Grass Beds

The grass beds on Pinchot are starting to grow up nicely compared to last year. Most anglers are doing well on 10 inch plastic worms, spinnerbaits, Chatterbaits and soft jerkbaits. Early morning/late evening - fish the Chatterbaits, spinnerbaits and soft jerkbaits around the edges of any grass patches and grass beds. In the middle of the day, plastic worms dropped into holes in the grass are catching some nice largemouth.

Hybrid stripers are still providing lots of late night excitement between the hours of 1 am and 4 am. The main boat ramp and the main beach being the best two areas. The main beach area is only accessible by boat as the access roads to the day use areas are closed at night. Anglers are reporting some frustration as most lures go ignored even though the hybrid stripers are boiling the water chasing after shad. Stick with it and your patience should pay off with a nice fish. This week an angler brought in a picture of a 31 inch hybrid caught on 6-6-06. It weighed a little over 15 lbs.

The river level is dropping and it is also clearing up a bit. Spinnerbaits, Chatterbaits and crankbaits are catching most of the fish. The smallmouth are just about done spawning now and the best action is around grass beds. Start on the downstream side of the grass bed and work your way around to the top of the grass bed for some awesome strikes from hungry smallies.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Tim

Water Is A Little Dirty

Due to recent rains, the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg has a brown color to it. It's not unfishable from a boat but dark colors will be best for smallies now. The level at Harrisburg is forecasted to be around 6.6 feet by Wednesday and then drop slowly. Wading in most area will be better in a week and a half or so. The river up near Sunbury is very brown with floating debris including trees/branches.

Pinchot Lake is brown in color up near the lily pads, in the upper end of the lake by the Rossville bridge. Mid lake and down near the dam is still fairly clear. Panfish are spawning and can be found in large numbers in shallow areas near the bank, especially in the backs of small coves.

Area streams and creeks are still running a bit high and muddy but should clear up and drop to good fishing levels by the end of the week.

Tim