Anyone fish there recently and any suggestions about what to try? Thanks.
Anyone fish there recently and any suggestions about what to try? Thanks.
lake is loaded with 10-14 inch fish. get into the weeds with the usual selection and you'll have 10-20 in a night but larger than that is very tough to come by. Dragging a jig around works fine, texas rig worms, 10ft cranks, frog some of the slop and catch a few.
Thanks for the information. Fished it yesterday and caught several bass in that size range. It seems like Pennsylvania's Big Bass Program which allows keeping bass only if they are over 15" is the cause of this. Why remove the bigger fish that should be among the breeding population? Just doesn't make sense to me. Interested to know what others think.
Absolutely agree. Even the conservation officers that patrol that lake agree. If you took out half the population of the bass in there you would be better off.
Yup, you guys have it right. Chunk has been this way for at least 20 years.
All I can say is that I caught better quality fish (size) there 20 years ago. Maybe it has just just been over fished the past two decades? Much of the lake bottom is real thick with mucky black/brown slop; not good green weeds. Anyway, I agree - you'll catch fish, but it's rare to catch one over 12-14 inches. I used to land a few 4-5 lb fish many years ago. But can't find one now.
1993 Champion 190
1991 Evinrude Intruder 150
8 MIN from my house have't been there in 2 years!!
Vince Dart- Jim Thorpe PA
I just fished there on Friday the 25th with two friends. We caught a total of 45 bass, pickerel, and panfish on a variety of different lures, mostly small minnow baits, crankbaits, and small soft plastics. We caught fish all over the lake, but mostly in shallow weedy areas on the shoreline across the lake from the main launch. The vast majority of the bass were in the 10" range, with a couple up to 14" or so. The fish look healthy, but it's hard to understand why there are so many undersized bass.
They gotta clear 75% of the bass out of there and then watch it prosper in following years. The big bass program doesn’t work for this body of water.
Reminds me of some of the unmanaged farm ponds I have fished in the past. Lots of small bass, rarely anything over 13". Maybe the Fish Commission prefers it like this, since it gives more anglers the opportunity to catch bass.
My personal observation about the lack of bass over 15 inches in Mauch Chunk is due the demographics of the area. I believe that most of the anglers who fish the lake are "multi-species" anglers who spend a lot of time fishing for trout. A 7 inch trout is legal to keep, therefore a 15 inch bass is legal to keep also. They don't realize that bass are not "put & take" like trout. I see the same scenario at Kaercher Creek Lake in Berks County, near Hamburg. I've never seen a 15 inch or larger bass released in Kaercher Creek. Perhaps a slot limit would help?
Reply With Quote