Three Rivers Fishing

Which river would you mostly like to target??

Public launch ramps in Pgh are limited. You could us the 18th street South Side ramp on the Mon or the 13th street in Sharpsburg on the Allegheny.

I used to be a river rat. There are good things and bad things about the rivers. I personally wouldn't drive an hour to fish them, with other quality options around. That said, they offer probably the most diversity of catches in the area. Here are some tips.

Fish below dams, don't need to be in the white water below. 50 yards to 1 mile hold a ton of fish. A lot of oxygen and the dams stop many fish on upstream migrations. Including baitfish.

Fish right below the mouths of feeder streams. Some feeder streams have some fishable water too. Be careful, many are trout stocked and have regulations.

Waders will help get you to many different fish holding areas. Be careful when wading higher swift water.

Avoid the rivers altogether after heavy rains. Raw sewage gets dumped in, if too much water in the sewer system for the pipes to handle. Biggest reason that I have stopped fishing the rivers.

Know the neighborhood you are fishing. Avoid anything close to McKees Rocks, Braddock and McKeesport. Other neighborhoods further from the city as well. Downtown Point Park gets sketchy too, I'd avoid walking too far from other people. If you don't like people begging for money, then avoid altogether. Probably the same on North Side too, although I have only fished near the Heinz/Del Monte area, and never bothered.

There are a lot of snags in the rivers. Be prepared to loose a lot of lures/rigs. I always had success with 1/8-1/2 oz jigs with curly tail or paddle tail shad. Just enough weight to tick the bottom. Other lures do great, but beware of snag potential to be eating your $5-$10 lures. Sometimes the fish will hit surface or subsurface lures. Same said with streamers. I've caught some of my largest wipers and walleye on Clouser minnows on the fly rod.

Live bait obviously works well too. I'm not much of a sit and wait kind fisherman, but large chubs tossed out and wait work well for those into that sort of fishing. For large flatheads, live bluegills, rockbass or shad tossed out and waiting works too. Cut bait more for channels, but I have caught flatheads with cut shad before. When I used to use live bait, fathead minnows were my favorite. Either tipped on a jig or hook with split shot. Just enough to tick the bottom. Reel in slowly. If you find a school of walleye, sauger or white bass, you can catch 20-30 fish in 20-30 minutes. When the baby gizzard shad are around, depending on how many, fishing can be great or tough. If only a few schools, fishing is incredible. If shad everywhere, it's hard to get them to bit your offering.

Good luck

I'd come north and fish the Allegheny in Venango County, then fish in the city limits of Pittsburgh. WAY better fishing up here for smallmouth, pike, musky, walleye

  Fished from Franklin down thru Lawranceville on the Allegh. over the yrs. Up north you need a canoe, wade, shore or jet boat. Very diffrent types ov fishing. North... very little weeds/grass/ baitfish other than Crawdads/clams. Armstrong--- county deep water, Kittanning down... large water. Not way better fishing up north just a diffrent kind of fishing. Way more FISH & FOOD for 'em to be had below Emellton  to the Burgh.
 
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 It's all good