Penn’s Outdoors

The trip has been on my to do list for several years.  I first heard about the exploding northern pike fishing ath Shawnee Lake about 5 years ago.  A bass fisherman who went to Shawnee Lake on a family camping trip every year complained about the number of northern pike that would attack his Spinnerbait.  Since then, Shawnee has been on my places to go every single year.  But for one reason or another, I wasn’t able to go.

This year, it was set.  There were going to be no more excuses.  In lieu of chasing northern pike in Ontario on our annual fishing trip, I was definitely going to spend one day on one of PA’s best northern pike lake.  This coming Friday was the selected day for the trip.  Permission was granted from my wife and my work.  My partner for the day also got permission from his wife and work.  Truly, the stars were aligning for a great fishing trip.

Then I started to cyber scout the lake to maximize our time on the water.  After only few articles and message board visits, my eager anticipation turned to gloom. It became quickly apparent that I had missed my window of opportunity to take advantage of the great fishing at Shawnee Lake. An article in the Tribune-Democrat by Joe Gorden discusses the issue.

For years, Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission biologists wondered what it was that made the lake at Bedford County’s Shawnee State Park so productive.

Despite heavy fishing pressure, its 451 acres supported healthy populations of bass, panfish, walleye and pike, and it had enjoyed a reputation as a big-musky water. But fishermen say it hasn’t been the same since a severe drawdown in 1996 to allow reinforcement of bridges, and the fishing seems to get worse each summer.

Nancy Ferguson said customers readily express their displeasure when she waits on them at Shawnee Bait and Tackle near the park.

“They’re really disappointed because they always really liked that lake,” she said. “They’re catching small fish. Some have caught some decent crappie. Carp aren’t hard to catch at all. Other than that, it’s not like it used to be.”

The sentiment that pike and bass have either become uncatchable or gone from the lake is universal.  Usually when you read of a body of water that has lost some of its good fishing, there are at least a small group of people that claim the fishing is still as good as it used to be.  Not for Shawnee.  I’ve not read one person claiming this to be the case.  At least not a fisherman.  The fish commission’s biologist seems to think the fish are still there.  They are planning some surveys this year which should help us gain some insight on whether the fish are still there.  Until shown otherwise, my money is on the anglers reports of the fish being gone over the biologist’s claim that they are still there.

While no one disagrees that there is a problem, it isn’t clear as to the reason.

“The story is, for the last two or three years, we’ve had a cloudy murkiness to the lake water,” explained park manager Bob Bromley.

“At this point, to be truthful with you and the public, I don’t know what is causing this murkiness in the water. But, it’s definitely still here, and it’s not the blue-green algae at the present.”

The lack of answers from officials leads to speculation on the message boards of how this once vital fishery could fall so far so quickly.  The bottom line is that all of our fisheries are so fragile.  When you have the opportunity to take advantage of great fishing at a fishery, do it.  I’ll be kicking myself for awhile for not heading out to Shawnee during its heyday.  I’ll also be hoping that Shawnee can return to its glory as one of Pennsylvania’s best fisheries.