Pymatuning lake

[mdrski]

Hi, I'm new to this blog as well as being new to fly fishing. I'm travelling up to pymatuning on Tuesday Oct. 4. I've never fished this lake before; I'll be fishing from shore and wading. I'm looking for any helpful suggestions anybody might have.
Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Fishidiot]

mdrski,
Welcome to the Paff forums. It's mostly a trout fishing crew here - not a lot of warm water folks much less those who fish large lakes. With that said, we do have a lot of folks in western PA who hopefully will chime in. I don't fish Pymatuning myself so take my advice as general info. Pymatuning is a world class muskie lake and good for bass and walleyes. Wading it with a fly rod this time of year would, I would think, be tough fishing. I'd recommend hitting the lake shore early in the am and evening. Fish a popper to any obvious cover - blow down trees, weed edges etc. If this fails, try a streamer a bit deeper. If this too fails to stick a bass or two.....I'd tie on some small nymphs and fish 'em under a floating strike indicator (basically a bobber) and catch some bluegills.

 

[mdrski]

Thanks, I appreciate the info. Based on a map I've looked at I'm hoping to hit some crappies. not sure if the fish have come into the shallows yet? Again thanks.

 

[streamerguy]

I don't really have much experience on the lake, but it may be worth a try to fish the Shenango River right below the lake near Jamestown. There's lots of panfish(but mainly small) and maybe a bass or two. Just fish with small streamers. If you would chose to mainly just target the river, you may be better off just heading farther down below Shenango Lake, lots of smallies and everything else.

 

[ryguyfi]

They are stocking the Shenango on 10/3 with trout. There's some nice sections below the dam to fish. I'd head out there if I were you. Can also get into many other speicies... bass, panfish, carp, catfish, walleye, etc.


Pymatuning is a difficult lake to fish by shore because it's so big. Takes a lot of knowledge.


Just a friendly bit of advise, but Erie isn't too far from there and there's some steelhead up there. :-D