Pymatuning fishing report

[FishHawk]

My Dad and I fished from approximately 8:00 am until 2:00pm. Caught 10 walleyes, my best day of the year for bigger fish. We caught (5) fish over 20" the biggest being 23". (3) fish at 19", one 18" fish and 16-1/2". Had one throwback that was right at 15". (2) crappies surprisingly the one crappie had eggs.

Fished in 15'-18' of water using leadcore w/ black and silver hot-n-tots and chartruese topped silver bottom hot-n-tots. We would of had are limit, but my motor was running a little rough and I did not want to chance it so we departed. Hope this helps a fellow angler.

[Stiker]

FishHawk I hope you don't mine me asking but what size hot-n-tots were you using. I think I'm going to start fishing Pymatuning again I've been fishing Mosquito alot with not much luck. Thanks

[TMK1]

FishHawk
Good job on the eyes. To answer your question from a prior post, all of the fish I've been catching at Pymy have been in deep water 18-20ft. Towards the end of last summer, I started getting fish on hot'n tots with fireline in around 12ft.

Stiker
I fish Mosquito a lot, and as similar as the lake is to Pymy, I fish them totally different. I can't even remember catching a walleye at Mosquito in deeper than 10ft of water after late June. I've caught channel cats in deep water, but not eyes. Try jigs and leeches in the weeds. At Pymy I use the smaller sized (3/16oz).

I'm hoping to get out to Pymy this evening. The walleye there are much better sized than the ones from Mosquito.

[Stiker]

Thanks TMK1 for the info. I think your right on as far as catching the eyes at Mosquito in the weeds. I'm going to try my luck on Pymatuning hopefully I can find a decent campground area to camp, and park my boat, then I'll spend a about a week fishing. Thanks again.

[rapman]

if you guys get a chance, stop in and see lenny at haines livery. heard that he had quite a day last week........rap

[FishHawk]

I also use the smaller (3/16 oz.)hot-n-tots such as TMK. The Chartruese topped hot-n-tots were really bangin the fish saturday. I do believe that you can still catch some eyes in the weeds at Pymy cause I have in the past, but the weeds are choked so thick you would probably have to fish the edges or pockets. Stiker keep us posted on your results after the week of fishing. It's amazing as life goes on and you become a more versatile fisherman how you can really extend the fishing season.

[FishHawk]

I also use the smaller (3/16 oz.)hot-n-tots such as TMK. The Chartruese topped hot-n-tots were really bangin the fish saturday. I do believe that you can still catch some eyes in the weeds at Pymy cause I have in the past, but the weeds are choked so thick you would probably have to fish the edges or pockets. Stiker keep us posted on your results after the week of fishing. It's amazing as life goes on and you become a more versatile fisherman how you can really extend the fishing season.

[Steely123]

Hi guys-
Never posted here before. BUT...

I thank everyone for their Pymy/Squito reports. I pay attention
to them religiously.

Anyway. This weekend is the last weekend I lazy out on myself. I am taking the boat out to Pymy next weekend.

One two-part question: where I can I get a spool or two of lead-core and how do I rig to a tot ?...mono leader ?...do you tie leadcore to the reel ?..can you use a spinning-reel for this setup ?...

OR...

Should I just troll with mono....?

AND...anyone getting them jigging minnow/crawler/twister combos in deep water ?...

Guess that is a little more than a one two-part question huh ?...
Again, thanks for all the reports.
Steely123(guest)

[FishHawk]

try this out.


http://www.walleyecentral.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=14&page=3

[Stiker]

OK FishHawk I'll make sure to post when I get back. Thanks for the info guys.

[Invader24]

Im heading up tomarrow morning, it will be my first fishing the lake. Any advice as to where I should launch out of? Are hotntots the only real producer or should I pull some harness's as well, and can I have some direction as to how many colors of leadcore to let out and how lond of a mono leader should i use from the leadcore to the tot. Any help would be greatly appriciated.

[FishHawk]

You could catch fish on harnesses and bottom bouncers. Also you can catch them on shad raps. Hot-n-tots are a preferred lure at the lake, but there are other lures that will catch fish just like on any body of water. As far as how much leadcore line to let out, it really varies on the speed you are trolling. A rule of thumb that I follow is for every 5' one color if I'm say trolling at 2.0. Good luck and post your results.

[Invader24]

Does anyone have a report for this past weekend even though it was a rainy one? Went up on sat morning and no sooner did we pull in it started raining. Didn't bring the rain gear since it was not {forcasted} to start till the afternoon. Seen a decent amount of boats out even though it was raining. Thinking about heading up monday morning.

[Greenvilleye]

Caught 3 fish largest 23in, in 22 fow on wormharness and 1/2 oz snap weights. Lost a nice fish later in the day on a large wally diver. Fished in shallow Saturday night managed 15 perch ( right before dark ) 4 nice gills and 3 cat's, no real biguns. Had a nice fry last night, 1 side of that piggy fed 2 big pigs!! The fish was silver/whitesh looking but it was no doubt healthy and well fed. If they keep growing on this current pace there are going to be some 30 plus inch fish being caught in the next couple of years. I spoke with a nice gentleman that was checking the fish I caught that lives near the lake, and he said last year he lost a eye at the boat that was huge, so there's a few sumo's lurking. The fish I lost on the diver was heavy, and I couldnt budge it, may have been a musky. On another note, I noticed a fish bellyed ( decent size ) up as I passed by 50yards or so out from it, so after I got my lines in I motored over to where I seen the fish and it was gone?

[SJG]

Article taken from Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

Anglers complaining about walleye numbers on Pymatuning can blame Mother Nature, said Fish and Boat Commission biologist Craig Billingsley. The cold wet springs of the past three years hurt fry stocking survival and led to the dearth of young adults now.

"If plankton don't bloom, there's nothing for those little guys to eat and they perish," he said. To make matters worse, an alewife explosion the past two years has caused two problems. Alewives are competing with young walleye for food and they're making a meal of the young walleye. An extra 3.5 million walleye fry were planted last year and again this spring to compensate, said Billingsley, "but there's not a whole lot we can do. We have to play the hand we're dealt."

He suggests that anglers change tactics to target the 5 year-olds in the water now.

"Go to larger lures and choose an alewife patter," Billingsley said.

And hope that this fall's young of the year survey brings encouraging news.

[FishHawk]

Thats what I have heard also. Hope the stocking takes this year or else they should investigate other alternatives. Although I don't mind the size of the fish. I believe the 5 year old walleye are really chowing down on the alewives. Hopefully we have a hard winter to kill some of them off.

[Greenvilleye]

The 23 inch fish I caught had alwives/minnies about 2 to 2.5 spitting up. I also noticed at night there were a lot of fish feasting ontop of the water.

[Invader24]

I made if up monday and we got two, both nice fish 22 and 23. Both fish had alot of fat in them as well as bait fish. Got one on a crome and chart hot n tot back 150 and a black and silver ripshad back 160 in 20 to 22 fow. We went out of orchard and ended up heading south anyhow, is it best to launch out of snobgrass insted? Is the fishing better around snobgrass?

[Greenvilleye]

As the water warms the deeper water ( cooler temps ) is at the south end, which would make sense to launch at Snodgrass. I had no luck at Orchard and headed down towards Snodgrass and the dam. Note: There is a hump straight out and towards the left where the river channel splits, take caution when trolling, it sneaks up on you. As for better fishin, Ive Limited on eyes in the north end in the stumps in the dodg days of August? Sometimes the eyes dont play by the rules.