Eastern PA Fishing Reports 2024

Quarry Man reply :

I have wanted to create a thread solely for anglers in Eastern PA, with the intention of emulating the Eastern MA thread.

Guidelines

You can input as much or as little as you'd like
to be added in the future...

Hope you find some beneficial information on here!

Tight Lines,

Quarry Man

RugerNiner reply :

Lancaster, PA here.

Quarry Man reply :

Got out on my lake in the poconos for opening day. Caught 16 trout between the two of us, biggest went 3-12, mostly rainbows, a few brookies and 1 brown.

Caught three trout today all raibows. Biggest was 2.5ish.

also caught an 18” pickerel shallow and a bass in 8’ that was 2+ lbs

Water temps are pubs 53*, shallow and weedy lake

Gundog reply :

Susquehanna river is just starting to get good. The big females are starting to feed up for the spawn. Caught the first one of the day no more than 3 feet from shore in a slack water area. Estimated weight was about 3 1/2 pounds.

The total for the day was 7 bass. 2 weighted about 1 1/2 pounds, 4 were in the 2 pound range and the big momma above.

YoTone reply :

April 15 Marsh creek reservoir. Windier than I expected. Having pedals made it barely manageable to get into position. Sun popped out for a few hours and I was targeting stumps and brush with a white chatter bait. Saw one juicy stump and I told my friend before the cast they gotta be holding close to cover. Tossed it right to it and the next second this 3 lbs 15 Oz beauty hammered it.

Quarry Man reply :

On 4/15/2019 at 11:29 PM, YoTone said:

April 15 Marsh creek reservoir. Windier than I expected. Having pedals made it barely manageable to get into position. Sun popped out for a few hours and I was targeting stumps and brush with a white chatter bait. Saw one juicy stump and I told my friend before the cast they gotta be holding close to cover. Tossed it right to it and the next second this 3 lbs 15 Oz beauty hammered it.

Started fishing marsh creek all the time last summer. Only made one trip so far and it was a disaster! Tm broke, fishfinder wasn’t working, my auto off deployed, so I had to wear it like that, and my battery doed! No fish on top of that!!!

YoTone reply :

On 4/16/2019 at 12:06 AM, Quarry Man said:

Started fishing marsh creek all the time last summer. Only made one trip so far and it was a disaster! Tm broke, fishfinder wasn’t working, my auto off deployed, so I had to wear it like that, and my battery doed! No fish on top of that!!!

i rarely fish it. its a real pain of a 1 hour drive for me to get there. but......... cant complain about it that much when you can catch these in it once in a while.

NockermixonNewb reply :

Looking to fish Nockamixon throughout the summer on a regular basis. Camper is right near there, and will be fishing often.

Quarry Man reply :

On 5/4/2019 at 9:47 AM, NockermixonNewb said:

Looking to fish Nockamixon throughout the summer on a regular basis. Camper is right near there, and will be fishing often.

Sweet man! look forward to seeing how you do!

Haven't been fishing as much as I'd like to, It's my final semester as a high school student and I'm really trying to end the year with a good report card. I did get out a couple days ago and it appears that bass are moving onto beds in SEPA, although this was in some ponds, haven't been to any lakes yet.

osummerer23 reply :

fish just over the border in NJ, fishing has been good. Some lakes are 65* and the bite has slowed and bass are sitting on beds. Others are mostly cruising. Hate this time of the year, not a big bed fish guy and it's slow picking with hard baits, my preferred style.

Mikeyslikz reply :

Just fished the susky river this passed week. River was on fire . Biggest fish 19 inches and got about 80 fish between me and my partner . Went out with a guide on a jet boat. Awesome day. Most fish were caught on a 1.5 inch crank . Some on a trd bait like a ned rig and some on a keitech swim bait. Really a great trip!

PAbasser927 reply :

Pulled this big girl out of Beltzville this weekend. Had about 9-10 others as well before my brother and I wrapped it up around noon. Many other bites too, it was an active morning!

Rob96 reply :

Allentown area here. Just started to get out on the Lehigh for some trout action. Yesterday was a mixed bag to include a large turtle.

Quarry Man reply :

have been golfing instead of fishing lately. did get out over Memorial Day weekend n the Poconos. few decent fish and a bunch of smaller males. Seems like a post spawn funk. water temps were pretty high around 64*ish.

On 5/14/2019 at 5:48 AM, PAbasser927 said:

Pulled this big girl out of Beltzville this weekend. Had about 9-10 others as well before my brother and I wrapped it up around noon. Many other bites too, it was an active morning!

thats a nice fish. Ive heard that big ones are in there, but they are hard to come by.

Landis Carrier reply :

On 5/14/2019 at 5:48 AM, PAbasser927 said:

Pulled this big girl out of Beltzville this weekend. Had about 9-10 others as well before my brother and I wrapped it up around noon. Many other bites too, it was an active morning!

Nice one! I'm about 20min from Beltzville and rarely fish it anymore.....such a hard lake to fish! Or i'm just not doing something right! ha

PAbasser927 reply :

On 6/3/2019 at 10:59 PM, Landis Carrier said:

Nice one! I'm about 20min from Beltzville and rarely fish it anymore.....such a hard lake to fish! Or i'm just not doing something right! ha

Thanks! Yeah you never know when that lake is going to shut off. That one pictured is 5lb 4oz. A week later I caught a 6lb 6oz. Those are the two biggest I have pulled from that lake. Since then it has been 2 lbers, and in the last week or two the bite has slowed down considerably.

Quarry Man reply :

went to Marsh Creek yesterday. water temps at 73*+ with 2'-3' visibility. no fish on beds that I could see. fish were in the shaded areas. all smaller sized bass, biggest was around 2 lbs.

Landis Carrier reply :

Tried Beltzville last night. Put in at Preachers Point, fished from 5pm till dark. Caught 1 smallie. Was marking bass all over. Most were in the 15-8 ft range or on the bottom. I am just not good at catching bass in the mid range. Tough lake!

Quarry Man reply :

fished Marsh Creek Lake a couple times, water is muddy and about 1' higher than normal, temps at 73* caught like 15 bass on a black and blue jackhammer. Also fished a few small lakes in the Poconos, water was like 63*, normal pool, normal clarity. Caught a bunch on a bhite delight chatterbait.

YoTone reply :

Hit Marsh early yesterday with slick conditions to start. made my way north with only a dink on a swim jig skipped under some brush. decided to scrap my plans half way through and reversed my direction and fished all the way on the southern end. the wind picked up big time after an hour but i managed to catch this tossing a frog at the end of some reeds. btw its an absolute madhouse there. by 6 am there i already counted over 20 boats/kayaks. by the time i finished around lunch time it was full blown madness.

Quarry Man reply :

On 6/24/2019 at 9:36 PM, YoTone said:

Hit Marsh early yesterday with slick conditions to start. made my way north with only a dink on a swim jig skipped under some brush. decided to scrap my plans half way through and reversed my direction and fished all the way on the southern end. the wind picked up big time after an hour but i managed to catch this tossing a frog at the end of some reeds. btw its an absolute madhouse there. by 6 am there i already counted over 20 boats/kayaks. by the time i finished around lunch time it was full blown madness.

nice fish, is that marsh as in marsh creek?

been fishing the last two days for 2ish hours at night. my home pond, nothing huge, a few decent bass around 3 lbs and a few big pickerel around 2.5ishlbs all on bhite delight jackhammer

YoTone reply :

yep marsh creek reservoir

Quarry Man reply :

On 6/25/2019 at 10:49 AM, YoTone said:

yep marsh creek reservoir

Sweet, I fish there all the time, might even do the Tuesday Nighter today. Let me know next time you go, maybe we can cross paths and work together!

YoTone reply :

yeah sounds great and if you need someone to jump on your boat for a tournament or what ever im down!

Quarry Man reply :

On 6/25/2019 at 8:56 PM, YoTone said:

yeah sounds great and if you need someone to jump on your boat for a tournament or what ever im down!

sounds good, I will PM you now

YoTone reply :

Spent a good two hours friday night getting prepped to hit some early morning waters at Marsh. Was hoping to get up around 4 am. Instead woke up around 11 am and spent the rest of the day eating tasty kakes and watching movies with my daughter.

Sunday I got there around 7 am and again seeing the conveyor belt of boaters slowly beating the banks heading north i decided to tried fishing the area past the boat rentals because i didnt see any boaters in that area. turns out they werent there for a reason. winds and the lack of bites made it a frustrating few hours. defeated i headed back. as i approached the rental area i saw a little point and decided to try some hail mary casts with my chatterbait and got lucky with this 2.8 lbers.

TrueNameAmended reply :

Been getting a ton of largemouth at Mauch Chunk in Jim Thorpe, but nothing of any size. Fishing from shore on the far end where the dam is.

Moderate success at Gouldsboro lake, with one about 2 1/2 pounds. As usual, though, the hordes of tourists, and pickerel, make it difficult. Same story at Mauch Chunk.

Tried Pocono Lake for the first time last night. First cast, huge pickerel bit my line in half. Put a leader on, and hauled in a pickerel around 5 pounds. Didn’t get a single bite the rest of the night.

Side note: Anyone fish here (right on 940) or Brady’s Lake right next to it? This was my first time, and I’m wondering if people are pulling nice bass out of either one. There were TONS of good sized fish jumping and breaking the surface around sunset.

YoTone reply :

went to my local ditch in south philly to kill an hour or so. only used the jackall kaera and caught one sweet lmb and hammered some snake heads.

YoTone reply :

On 7/6/2019 at 6:55 AM, TrueNameAmended said:

Side note: Anyone fish here (right on 940) or Brady’s Lake right next to it? This was my first time, and I’m wondering if people are pulling nice bass out of either one. There were TONS of good sized fish jumping and breaking the surface around sunset.

I fished Bradys lake last year for two days. i got bit on the launch side in the middle. decent lake mostly dinks but i did manage some decent bass in the 3lbs area.

that other area are you referring to Arrow head lakes?

Quarry Man reply :

On 7/6/2019 at 6:55 AM, TrueNameAmended said:

Been getting a ton of largemouth at Mauch Chunk in Jim Thorpe, but nothing of any size. Fishing from shore on the far end where the dam is.

Moderate success at Gouldsboro lake, with one about 2 1/2 pounds. As usual, though, the hordes of tourists, and pickerel, make it difficult. Same story at Mauch Chunk.

Tried Pocono Lake for the first time last night. First cast, huge pickerel bit my line in half. Put a leader on, and hauled in a pickerel around 5 pounds. Didn’t get a single bite the rest of the night.

Side note: Anyone fish here (right on 940) or Brady’s Lake right next to it? This was my first time, and I’m wondering if people are pulling nice bass out of either one. There were TONS of good sized fish jumping and breaking the surface around sunset.

think I've fished Brady's before, can't remember. lmk when you fish Pocono again, I am 20 min away, just moved up here for the summer!

JediAmoeba reply :

Barring the rivers, it seems like all the accessible fishing places in Eastern Pa are just Pickerel holes...

I wish everything wasn't private.

Turkey sandwich reply :

On 7/12/2019 at 10:45 AM, JediAmoeba said:

Barring the rivers, it seems like all the accessible fishing places in Eastern Pa are just Pickerel holes...

I wish everything wasn't private.

Not at all. Where in PA are you? There's a lot of great bass water that isn't dominated by pickerel.

TrueNameAmended reply :

On 7/8/2019 at 10:56 AM, YoTone said:

I fished Bradys lake last year for two days. i got bit on the launch side in the middle. decent lake mostly dinks but i did manage some decent bass in the 3lbs area.

that other area are you referring to Arrow head lakes?

The other lake is Pocono Lake Preserve I guess? I’ve heard people call it “twin lakes.” Isn’t Arrowhead private?

TrueNameAmended reply :

On 7/8/2019 at 11:05 AM, Quarry Man said:

think I've fished Brady's before, can't remember. lmk when you fish Pocono again, I am 20 min away, just moved up here for the summer!

I hit Brady’s today for the first time. I went at a terrible time and the bite was slow. Got one dink, had what I believe was about a 3-3.5 pounder spit the hook a few feet from shore, and got this one in the picture. Got them all within the span of an hour once the sun started to sink a little bit.

Granted I only fished Pocono lake once, but it seems the bass are much more abundant at Brady’s than there.

Where are you staying? I live about halfway down that mountain off 115, and my girlfriend’s family has a place in Locust Lake Village.

Quarry Man reply :

On 7/15/2019 at 7:39 AM, TrueNameAmended said:

I hit Brady’s today for the first time. I went at a terrible time and the bite was slow. Got one dink, had what I believe was about a 3-3.5 pounder spit the hook a few feet from shore, and got this one in the picture. Got them all within the span of an hour once the sun started to sink a little bit.

Granted I only fished Pocono lake once, but it seems the bass are much more abundant at Brady’s than there.

Where are you staying? I live about halfway down that mountain off 115, and my girlfriend’s family has a place in Locust Lake Village.

off 115 and 903

near then abandoned motel

JediAmoeba reply :

On 7/15/2019 at 8:26 AM, Quarry Man said:

off 115 and 903

near then abandoned motel

I live right over in Indian Mountain Lakes.

YoTone reply :

Woke up this morning not knowing where to go. i decided to hit Marsh just to catch a fish and post it here in this thread since its been quiet here lately.

launched around 7 and went north but wasnt feeling it so i decided to try carpenters cove for the first time. top water was not happening so i abandoned that and tossed the jack hammer and caught a few. this was my best, didnt bother to weigh her but she was chunky.

JediAmoeba reply :

Went out fishing at the local lake Friday for 4 hours and managed 14 bass, a crappie and a bunch of pickerel. Here's a snap of a few of them.

Imbit reply :

Been the best summer in years on the upper Delaware. Boating 20-30+ smallies every time out - none of exceptional size, just loads of fun on ultralight gear. nose hooked fluke type minnow baits and 3" senko's wacky rigged ... plus topwater bite has been exceptional.

Any other upper Delaware guys here ?

On 7/15/2019 at 7:39 AM, TrueNameAmended said:

I hit Brady’s today for the first time. I went at a terrible time and the bite was slow. Got one dink, had what I believe was about a 3-3.5 pounder spit the hook a few feet from shore, and got this one in the picture. Got them all within the span of an hour once the sun started to sink a little bit.

Granted I only fished Pocono lake once, but it seems the bass are much more abundant at Brady’s than there.

Where are you staying? I live about halfway down that mountain off 115, and my girlfriend’s family has a place in Locust Lake Village.

Last year when the Delaware was too high to fish (nearly all summer), I fished Bradys quite a bit. It gets alot of pressure and is almost always windy, making it very tough to fish from a small boat. Never did that well in the top / weedy section, but the shoreline across from the launch was productive mostly using topwater. Decent lake ... still learning it though - it's deceptively large to fish with an electric motor.

JediAmoeba reply :

On 8/31/2019 at 11:33 AM, Imbit said:

Been the best summer in years on the upper Delaware. Boating 20-30+ smallies every time out - none of exceptional size, just loads of fun on ultralight gear. nose hooked fluke type minnow baits and 3" senko's wacky rigged ... plus topwater bite has been exceptional.

Any other upper Delaware guys here ?

When you say upper Delaware, where at? I fished twice this year just north of Matamoras.

Every year for the past 5 except last year with all the rain has been exceptional for me. 20 is easy in a few hours but you are right, most are pretty small. I need to go hit it up in October.

Imbit reply :

On 8/31/2019 at 2:32 PM, JediAmoeba said:

When you say upper Delaware, where at? I fished twice this year just north of Matamoras.

Every year for the past 5 except last year with all the rain has been exceptional for me. 20 is easy in a few hours but you are right, most are pretty small. I need to go hit it up in October.

I usually launch quite a bit lower, at Bushkill. Some really nice water, but weekends are a mess in the summer with the campers and armada's of canoes that all the outfitters dump in & constantly disrupts everything around 10 AM. Do you have to deal with all the canoe floatilla's up around Matamoras ?

JediAmoeba reply :

On 8/31/2019 at 11:55 PM, Imbit said:

I usually launch quite a bit lower, at Bushkill. Some really nice water, but weekends are a mess in the summer with the campers and armada's of canoes that all the outfitters dump in & constantly disrupts everything around 10 AM. Do you have to deal with all the canoe floatilla's up around Matamoras ?

The armadas of canoes, kayaks and rafts are so abundant you could walk from shore to shore. You go out of a yak or a boat? I usually take a yak out.

Sometimes I go around the bushkill area - I landed a few small Musky by the Eshback launch. I live down by Brodheadsville so Bushkill is closer.

Imbit reply :

On 9/1/2019 at 3:04 AM, JediAmoeba said:

The armadas of canoes, kayaks and rafts are so abundant you could walk from shore to shore. You go out of a yak or a boat? I usually take a yak out.

Sometimes I go around the bushkill area - I landed a few small Musky by the Eshback launch. I live down by Brodheadsville so Bushkill is closer.

I have a small boat so I'm limited but Bushkill has been productive - prefer the stretch downstream that doesn't get as much pressure. I think I had a small muskie on earlier in the year - saw the profile as it swam by the boat - figured it was a small muskie or pickerel ... but lost it & didn't get a chance to see it up close. Even caught a small largemouth recently - first time I ever saw a LMB in the Delaware.

YoTone reply :

The week before I was at Marsh and got I my butt handed to me big time. I must of made a thousand casts with one dink to show and got drenched in the rain to boot. It left a bad taste in my mouth the whole week and i wanted revenge.

Hit the water around 7 and found out there was a tournament happening so that threw me off a little. I tried my best to deal with it, moving and giving up spots once I saw a boat competing. Headed north towards the bridge then going back dodging boaters and making casts with my chatterbait where i can. made my way to the rental area but right as i approached a boater got there first as i watched them land a nice one by the reeds. Drifted into carpenters cove for an hour or so with nothing to show and started to have that feeling of defeat. was contemplating on giving up after 4 hours on the water but made a last ditch effort and make my out of the cove and slowly drifted towards the southern end casting my jig. few hundred feet from the cove I tossed a jig at a stump and saw a nice one take it. I set the hook an broke off, great. retied a gambler swim jig and continued down the bank then all of a sudden i noticed those asian lantern flies landing on me and onto the water. next thing i knew i heard fish crashing left and right eating on those flies . hopped my swim jig a few times and hooked into a 3lber a few yards from the shore. felt good to get the monkey off my back. they were still feeding and a few minutes later and i hooked into another one. my scale pooped out but it was significantly bigger than the one i just caught.

Bruce424 reply :

sooooo i guess ill be making lantern fly topwaters....????

Turkey sandwich reply :

On 9/8/2019 at 8:34 PM, Bruce424 said:

sooooo i guess ill be making lantern fly topwaters....????

I've hardly heard of anything really eating them, but this thread is definitely encouraging me to start tying them.

YoTone reply :

to be fair i didnt see if the fish that was smashing them were bass. they could of been crappie or bluegills and maybe that bass may have drawn in to the commotion from the feeding frenzy and was there to pick off the feeding fish.

Quarry Man reply :

going to school in Lock Haven, haven't had much of a chance to fish (priorities, ugh). I did however get a few chances to catch some trout. That has provided a nice break from a stressful couple days.

Coming home in the 21st to reclaim my tournament trophy for the 4th time in a row this year. Would be a clean sweep if I hadn't tried to boat flip what would have been the winning fish with 2o minutes left in the first tournament...lesson learned use a net, always!

Turkey sandwich reply :

On 9/13/2019 at 8:53 AM, Quarry Man said:

going to school in Lock Haven, haven't had much of a chance to fish (priorities, ugh). I did however get a few chances to catch some trout. That has provided a nice break from a stressful couple days.

Coming home in the 21st to reclaim my tournament trophy for the 4th time in a row this year. Would be a clean sweep if I hadn't tried to boat flip what would have been the winning fish with 2o minutes left in the first tournament...lesson learned use a net, always!

Lock Haven is a short drive to so much great water. Before you graduate, you're going to want to pick up a 5wt fly rod.

On 9/12/2019 at 7:44 AM, YoTone said:

to be fair i didnt see if the fish that was smashing them were bass. they could of been crappie or bluegills and maybe that bass may have drawn in to the commotion from the feeding frenzy and was there to pick off the feeding fish.

I've seen that happen a ton. Hatches can set things off for every fish in the water. Lantern flies don't hatch under water, and I'm yet to see them near a stream.

YoTone reply :

fished a few hours at marsh again. few on a popper and one on the chatterbait. nothing big enough for me to post up but as i was loading up i asked an elderly couple who was packing up their boat and asked how they did. the guy was like i didnt catch much but my wife caught like a 7 or 8. i was like catfish? then she whipped out her phone and showed me one monster bass. i dont know if she was an 8 but it was definitely a 6+. she said she was just pitching a jig in some brush and boom. crazy.

YoTone reply :

put my daughter to bed at 8:30 and since i live a block away from the park i went out to make a few casts before the park closes at 9. first cast i get struck and caught a solid 1 lber. next cast i toss my jackhammer to the same spot i caught a 5 on a buzz bait a few years ago. ripped the chatterbait out of the grass and got slammed. too bad my scale pooped out but im thinking its the biggest of the year for me.

YoTone reply :

i guess im going to hog this whole thread for a little big longer. my kid was at a friends house so i took advantage of the time by going fishing. 4.2 on the chatterbait.

Feng Zheng reply :

Hey, I'm new to the whole fishing and I just recently got my fishing kit. Can anybody here show me some skills on how to fish ? or show me around some nice fishing spot ? I'm in the lehigh valley PA.

Imbit reply :

Nice fish Yotone ! Bigger than anything I've got this year for sure. Getting alot of smb in the Delaware, but no size...

Sideline question ... hopefully, what I'm about to ask isn't frowned upon akin to asking to dance with another guys wife ... another eastern PA fishing discussion board (EPFR.net) has been off the grid for over a month - I can't find any reference to whats going on anywhere on the web. I know most of us die hard fishermen frequent other boards ... just curious if anybody has heard anything about whats going on with EPFR.net or if its DOA ?

I found this in my computer cache - just a reminder of what their web site used to look like ... thx for any intel

tracker01 reply :

Bassresource and EPFR were my must read sites. I also would like to know what’s up.

Eric Rybak reply :

grew up fishing Promton Dam, Lackawanna State park (before they drained it and made it a trout only fishery), Lake Wallenpaupack, White Oak, and Delaware River. I used to do really well for smallies in Promton Dam

Quarry Man reply :

haven't been able to fish in a while

Eric Rybak reply :

double post

YoTone reply :

On 12/3/2019 at 4:01 AM, Quarry Man said:

haven't been able to fish in a while

how did marsh treat you that time?

Quarry Man reply :

didn't catch anything, marked fish in like 30' only stayed for a hour or two, few other boats, only guy I talked to said they were there all day and caught one

Megastink reply :

Quakertown here! Fish mostly Nockamixon and do fairly well there.also have a honey hole in Dingmans Ferry (where I grew up) and drag my boat up that way sometimes.

wife and I had our second baby in August, so fishing time has been about non-existent since then. Hopefully spring will be better!

YoTone reply :

On 12/9/2019 at 9:46 AM, Megastink said:

Quakertown here! Fish mostly Nockamixon and do fairly well there.also have a honey hole in Dingmans Ferry (where I grew up) and drag my boat up that way sometimes.

wife and I had our second baby in August, so fishing time has been about non-existent since then. Hopefully spring will be better!

Nice. i plan on trying my luck on the nox this new season. i spent most of my time at marsh and i want to switch it up a little bit. hopefully the traffic isnt as crazy as marsh is.

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