Fish of a lifetime: Fishing report for Middle Creek Lake

Where to go on the first day of bass season? How about we go Crappie fishing? I’m a bit contrary, and felt like trying something different.

Next, the question was where to go. I didn’t want to go more than an hour away from my home in Palmyra. Some of the lakes that immediately came to mind would have too many people out for the first day of bass. I wanted to go somewhere that I wouldn’t be dealing with a crowd.

A long time ago, I knew someone who caught big crappie out of Middle Creek Lake. I tried to do some Internet research to figure out if there was still good fishing at Middle Creek Lake. I didn’t find much but that only tempted my curiosity more.

Middle Creek Lake is a lake located on the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area. The Area is managed by the Pennsylvania Game Commission. The Lake is 400 acres but only has about 40 acres of fishable water. Buoys mark the areas where you can’t fish.

Boating on the lake can only be done with non-powered boats. Canoes or small jon boats are perfect. There were a few other people out on the water with a canoe, a couple of small row boats, and a kayak. It appears that a lot of fishing is done from shore. Through the course of the morning, most of the shore spots were occupied.

The lake is very shallow. Average depth was about 4′. Most of the fishable area was no deeper than 6 feet. Closer to the dam, the depth went to about 10′. We didn’t get too close to the dam. So, it may have even gotten a bit deeper.

The water was very murky and brown. I assume this is due to the shallowness of the lake. I would be interested to know if it stays this color throughout the year. The lake also seemed to have a lot of wood in it, ideal for Crappies.

As far as the fishing, we didn’t catch a lot of fish. But we did catch enough to be encouraged since this was my first time to the Lake in 20 years. Actually, I got skunked, but my son and dad caught a few. Our key was finding one of the few exciting pieces of structure on the lake. We found a very small hump that rose to 3 ‘ with 6′ of water surrounding it. The crappie seemed to be sitting right off the sides of the hump. Our biggest crappie of the day was only about 8 inches. We also caught a couple of small catfish. I was surprised we didn’t catch any largemouth off the spot.

As far as strategy, we used minnows under floats or on jigs. We also caught a few on some Storm Wild Eye Swim Shads. We used light action spinning setups. I have to admit that I know very little about crappie fishing. So, we may have been doing a lot wrong and still managed to catch a few.

So, what about the fish of a lifetime? Well, it didn’t come from our boat. As we approached the launch, I saw a gentleman struggling with a snag from shore. When I looked back, the source of the snag jumped all the way out of the water. He didn’t have a snag. He had a really nice bass.

The bass gave him quite a fight. It was fun to watch. Then, I overheard him say to his partner that he wished he had brought a net. We yelled to them that we had a net and headed to shore to lend a hand. We got there as the bass was at shore, and I put the net under the fish.

As he unhooked the fish, the fisherman, Larry from Ephrata, said that this was the biggest bass he had ever caught. The measurements came in at 19″ and 3 1/2 pounds. Larry retold the battle from the moment he thought he had a snag to realizing that he had a big bass to finally getting it into shore. Larry’s excitement was contagious, and he was gracious enough to pose for a picture with the big bass for this story. Larry, congratulations on your great fish!

Other than the murkiness of the water, I enjoyed my trip to Middle Creek Lake. I’ll definitely be back to try to catch a few more crappie and maybe, if I’m lucky, a fish like Larry’s big one.