Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission Biologist Report

Pymatuning Reservoir Crawford County

Spring 2012 Trapnet Survey

One of Pymatuning’s many trophy channel catfish.

Pymatuning Reservoir, Pennsylvania’s largest inland lake, is located in Crawford County (PA) and Ashtabula County (OH). The reservoir is located in Pymatuning State Park, the Commonwealth’s largest state park. The DCNR feature page for Pymatuning State Park is an excellent resource for visitors (http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/parks/pymatuning.aspx). Anglers are urged to carefully review the PFBC special regulations that apply specifically to Pymatuning Reservoir.

Area 1 Fisheries Management personnel performed an annual spring trapnet survey of Pymatuning Reservoir from March 14th through March 28th, 2012. The primary goal of the survey was to sample the reservoir’s walleye, muskellunge and panfish populations and to evaluate the success of stocking programs. A total of 56 overnight sets, encompassing 1293.17 hours of effort yielded a catch of 7,751 fish representing 29 species (Tables 1 and 2).

Table 1. Species, number, and size range of sport fish captured during trapnet sampling in Pymatuning Reservoir by Fisheries Management Area 1 personnel from March 14 – March 28, 2012.

Species Number Size Range (inches) Catch Per Hour Black Crappie 2,695 2 - 15 2.08 Walleye 956 7 - 28 0.74 Bluegill 865 3 - 9 0.67 Channel Catfish 484 9 - 30 0.37 Yellow Perch 265 3 - 13 0.20 Brown Bullhead 221 3 - 14 0.17 Yellow Bullhead 176 7 - 13 0.14 White Crappie 172 6 - 13 0.13 Muskellunge 67 32 - 49 0.05 Pumpkinseed 38 4 - 8 0.03

Table 2. Species and number captured of other species captured during trapnet sampling of Pymatuning Reservoir from March 14th through March 28th, 2012.

Species Number Common Carp 1,110 Gizzard Shad 230 Alewives 115 Spottail Shiners 94 White Suckers 89 Quillback 72 Golden Shiners 40 Smallmouth Bass 12 Largemouth Bass 10 Logperch 8 White Bass 8 Spotted Suckers 7 Golden Redhorse 4 Bowfin 4 Grass Pickerel 3 Warmouth 2 Rock Bass 2 Green Sunfish 1 Northern Hogsucker 1

Unusually warm weather in early March caused a rapid increase in water temperatures and resulted in unusually high catches of some species (crappies and bluegill) and unusually low catches for others (walleye), considering the dates of our survey. Water temperatures jumped from 43oF on March 14th to 63oF on March 24th. Weather patterns returned to normal following our survey, which put fish movement patterns back to “normal” or what is typically observed.

One of many large female walleye we caught this spring.

The early spring warm up followed by an extended cold spell caused the walleye spawning period to extend over a much longer period than normal. We captured large spent (done spawning) females in mid March and hatchery crews were capturing green females (full of eggs but not quite ripe) as late as mid April.

Our overall walleye catch was down slightly from 2011 and was about the same as 2010. Seventy-nine percent (79%) of the walleye we captured were over 15 inches, so plenty of legal fish are available to anglers right now (Figures 1 & 2) and the catch of sublegal walleye suggests fishing should be good for the foreseeable future. Overall the catch rates for sublegal and legal length walleyes are very good and show the joint Pennsylvania/Ohio fingerling stocking program continues to produce a quality walleye fishery in Pymatuning Reservoir.

Figure 1. Catch per hour for legal and sub-legal walleye in Pymatuning Reservoir collected during spring trapnet surveys from 1989 – 2011.

3.5

Legal 3 Sublegal

2.5

2

1.5

Walleye Catch Per Hour Per Catch Walleye 1

0.5

0 1989 1990 1991 1992 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Year

Figure 2. Size distribution of walleye from Pymatuning Reservoir collected during the spring 2011 trapnet survey.

250

200

150

100 Number of Walleye of Number 50

0 <9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Length in Inches

The early warm spell had panfish moving early and they dominated our trapnet catch this spring. We experienced our highest catch rates ever for both crappies and bluegills (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Trapnet catch per hour for crappies, bluegills and yellow perch in Pymatuning Reservoir, 1989 – 2012.

2.5 Bluegill Crappies 2 Yellow Perch

1.5

1 Catch Per Hour Per Catch

0.5

0 1989 1990 1991 1992 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Year

While the catch rate for all yellow perch has steadily decreased since its highest level in 2008 (Figure 3), the number of quality size yellow perch (> 9 inches) has increased (Figure 4). In addition to yellow perch, the high catch rates for quality size bluegill (> 7 inches) and quality size crappies (> 9 inches) suggests this should be one of the best years for panfish fishing ever in Pymatuning (Figure 4).

Figure 4. Trapnet catch per hour for quality size crappies (9 inches), bluegills (7 inches) and yellow perch (9 inches) in Pymatuning Reservoir, 1989 – 2012.

2 Blugill > 7 inches 1.8 Crappies > 9 inches 1.6 Yellow Perch > 9 inches

1.4

1.2

1

0.8 Catch Per Hour

0.6

0.4

0.2

0 1989 1990 1991 1992 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Year

A pair of nice Pymatuning Reservoir channel catfish.

A naturally reproducing, self sustaining channel catfish population continues to be another bright spot in Pymatuning Reservoir. There is a good percentage of large fish available and a high abundance of small fish, showing natural reproduction is sufficient to maintain quality fishing without stocking.

The stocking of muskellunge fingerlings continues to produce one of the best muskellunge populations in Pennsylvania.

Pymatuning Reservoir offers fisherman excellent opportunities for catching harvestable walleye. Very good angling opportunities also exist for panfish, channel catfish, largemouth bass and muskellunge.

A couple of average Pymatuning black crappies. -Area 1