Raystown Lake

TimMurphy

TimMurphy

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Joined
Sep 9, 2006
Messages
2,718
Dear Board,

My wife and I along with our dog rented a cabin near Raystown Lake from Memorial Day weekend to the first weekend in June.

I've only ever driven around the lake and know nothing about it, but we plan to take a small boat and/or kayaks and do some fishing. We may even take kayaks and float tubes and leave the boat at home. I can't even say that I will be fly fishing but I do intend to try to fly fish. My wife will fish for anything and I'm not particular either.

Is there anything anyone can offer me about places to fish and/or places to avoid? If we don't fish the lake are there any other places nearby, say within an hour, that would be worth visiting for either fishing or sightseeing?

Thinks in advance.

Regards,

Tim Murphy :)
 
Raystown can be a tough lake. If you are going to use small boats/float tubes I would probably focus and fish around Aitch. I would personally go to Point Access or somewhere and spend my time screwijg around in the Juniata. That would afford you better fishing and no dealing with tons of large powerboats and whatnot.
 
Agree that you ought to stay around Aitch or some of the back bays and coves if you're paddling/tubing.

Your timing might be good for striped bass as they can be close to shore around that time, but this is something of a night fishing game. Weed beds should be up by then and you might still be able to find some panfish on beds in some of the shallow spots as well as other species that would otherwise be deep or suspended later in the summer.

Do some prospecting around shoreline cover for panfish and trade it out with some big streamers for big predators and go to it.

Write a report if you care to. We get few lake reports and I can't remember the last time someone wrote a report here on PAFF about Raystown.
 
Took my father in law on a charter one time. He caught a Laker. That's it. After he left my brother in law and I decided to go over to a short wall to the left side of the marina (if are facing the water) and see if we could grab some panfish from the beach. We caught about a dozen really nice sized smallmouth in about an hour or so. We were glad his dad had left or he'd have chewed us out for spending money on him when we could have just fished from the bank for free.
 
Thanks guys. I think I'll bring the tin boat the the float tubes. That why we can range a little in the boat but if we find better fishing in the coves we can use the float tubes. I'd even sit out a night with cut bait and chicken livers for catties if that is what it takes. My buddies that fish the tidal Delaware say stripers don't mind chicken liver either!

Regards,

Tim Murphy :)
 
Raystown is a fickle mistress. Smoking hot one day and can’t get so much as a hello the next. I fished the Aitch area about 15 times last year. Stripers can often be seen busting baitfish along the banks at first and last light. I fish the Puglisi gizzard shad in 2/0 and and an alewife imitation in 1/0. I spend the rest of the day fishing for bass up tight to cover and steep drop offs. You may still fiend bass Bass still on their beds that week. I’ve found Puglisi sunfish in 1/0 are good at this time.

 
Tim.....I still think have about 75 annotated photos(on the back of them with the approximate location...unfortunately no gps then) taken while Raystown was being impounded..It might help because most of the photos were of cabins and hills,etc.

We had 2 ft of water in our basement about 10 years ago and I threw away a ton of wet boxes with"stuff"in them.I'll rummage around down there in the next week or so, to see if they survived.They may be helpful though most of the cabins probably are not there after almost 50 years of submersion.

I will pm you one way or another after I check.
 
Dear Tom,

Good luck on finding them but rest assured that one way or another it will be nice to hear from you again.

Regards,

Tim Murphy :)
 
Tim:checked for the Raystown impoundment photos yesterday.
They must have been in a wet floor box during our flood 10 years ago and were tossed.
Regards,
Tom
 
put the chicken livers in a mesh bag and tie to hook, works great for cats and stripers.
 
Dear AFISH,

Thanks for trying. I also have boxes of photos that got wet over the years that I need to throw out.

Dear Sandfly,

I definitely will try the chicken livers. Years ago I used them a lot but always put them on treble hooks. I'll have to find some mesh and lash them to a single hook because treble hooks can get messy for both the fish and the fisherman.

Regards,

Tim Murphy :)
 
I have been told that Raystown is similar to the lake I grew up on, Smith Mountain, down in VA. Around late May up here, the fish will be active at night, especially around new and full moons, and they will be susceptible to flies that swim like Rebel Redfin plugs on or near the surface. The bait in these kind of reservoirs tend to gather on the surface (I have been told to spawn) on these nights, and the stripers tee off. It used to be pretty predictable on SML. I would recommend setting up on a main lake point where a creek channel meets the main river channel and bait is present. This time of year the bait in these reservoirs will be plipping on the surface, and it will sound like rain. With any luck, it will soon thereafter sound like someone is tossing cannonballs off a bridge as the stripers erupt. If there are submerged islands near a main river/main creek channel point, then you know where to be. If you know when the dam will be generating, then you also know when to be there. The increased flow gets the fish eating. Best of luck.
 
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