NORTHEAST REGION
Pymatuning Reservoir is not the only water undergoing a walleye study. The North Branch Susquehanna River has the reputation of a fine walleye fishery, and a recent state survey confirms that fishing should be good, at least in the short term.

Robert Wnuk, Area 4 fisheries manager, concluded the annual assessment of walleye reproduction in the North Branch with both good and bad news. The bad news is that the study team was able to recover only 14 young-of-the-year (YOY) walleyes per hour. This is well below the 12-year average of 61 YOY per hour. And back in 2005, the survey team found approximately 125 YOY walleye per hour.

“Nevertheless,” Wnuk said, “strong year-classes produced in 1999 and 2001 continue to provide quality fishing for large walleye.”

The state team encountered walleyes up to 25 inches in their survey.

“And a strong year-class produced in 2005,” Wnuk continued, “should be reaching legal size in 2007 and 2008.”

Francis Slocum Lake in Luzerne hasn’t been studied for a few years, but according to the latest PFBC report, anglers seeking to catch their limits of walleyes in northeastern Pennsylvania should consider a trip to the 165-acre impoundment within Frances Slocum State Park.

An earlier trap-netting survey confirmed that the lake’s walleye population continues to thrive on the abundant alewife forage base. During the survey, PFBC biologists captured 95 walleyes ranging from 17 to 26 inches long, for a catch rate of 0.37 walleyes per trap-net hour.

NORTHWEST
Don’t let the concern for walleye stocking put you off fishing Pymatuning Reservoir. A spring trap-netting survey by state biologists found a good number of adult fish and sizes to match.

According to Freeman Johns, Area 1 fisheries technician, 917 walleyes were captured in the late-March to early-April survey of 34 sites over 785 hours. Captured walleyes ranged in size from 8 to just over 28 inches in length.

“Legal-length fish made up over 98 percent of the catch,” Johns noted, “while 71 percent of the fish were over 18 inches and 32 percent were over 20 inches.”

Of the total number of captured walleyes, 82 percent were male, with an average length of 18 inches. The remaining females averaged 22 inches long.

“Ten years ago,” Johns noted, “the average walleye in Pymatuning was 15 inches.”

When the study team conducted its walleye survey, the fate of walleye stocking was definitely on biologists’ minds.

“It is not uncommon for walleyes stocked in a particular water to exhibit very high survival rates, such that walleyes from one or two year-classes predominate in the population,” Johns said. “Those year-classes currently predominating in the (Pymatuning) population were largely derived from the 2000 and earlier year-classes. Because survival of more recently stocked year-classes have exhibited below-average survival, the number of smaller fish, below legal size, in the population is comparatively lower.

“The PFBC annually monitors survival of spring stocked fry in fall at Pymatuning Lake. Through that monitoring, the agency recognized the recent series of low survival years and took unprecedented steps in 2006 to stock marked advanced fry into Pymatuning Lake.”