Looking for local Catfish or Carp pond - North Pittsburgh area

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Muncie
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2019/06/04 08:23:08 (permalink)

Looking for local Catfish or Carp pond - North Pittsburgh area

G'mornin folks,
I'm trying to nurture my 9 year old sons budding fishing interest. I'd like to take him somewhere local to catch some catfish or carp. He's a high energy kid and as such he limited attention span. I'm not looking for specific spots or any secrets, just somewhere to put the odds in our favor. Are there any ponds or lakes that host a good carp population? We'd like to stay relatively local since time always seems to be limited too. We've gone to Lock 3 dam with a little success catching small channel catfish.
Thank you!
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    Timachro
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    Re: Looking for local Catfish or Carp pond - North Pittsburgh area 2019/06/04 08:33:50 (permalink)
    North Park lake or lake Arthur.
     
    #2
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    Re: Looking for local Catfish or Carp pond - North Pittsburgh area 2019/06/04 08:58:43 (permalink)
    Muncie
    G'mornin folks,
    I'm trying to nurture my 9 year old sons budding fishing interest. I'd like to take him somewhere local to catch some catfish or carp. He's a high energy kid and as such he limited attention span. I'm not looking for specific spots or any secrets, just somewhere to put the odds in our favor. Are there any ponds or lakes that host a good carp population? We'd like to stay relatively local since time always seems to be limited too. We've gone to Lock 3 dam with a little success catching small channel catfish.
    Thank you!




    For the last couple of years, the PFBC has held an event at North Park where they stock a couple hundred channel cats in the old boat house pond.  I took my youngest son - same age as yours - last year and he had a lot of fun.  They're not huge - most were 14-16" - but fun on light tackle.  That's the first and only time I've fished NP, but I would imagine many of those cats go over the spillway eventually (maybe even within a day or two of being stocked) and are in the lake.  I think the PFBC also stocked it with channel cat fingerlings when they refilled it several years back in the hopes of making it a good channel cat fishery.  Not sure how that has worked out though.  
     
    Lake Arthur has a bunch of channel cats.  Sometimes my sons and I crush 'em.  Sometimes we get skunked.  We've caught several up to 10 pounds in the past few years on cut bluegills.  From what I hear, 15# + channel cats near the dam on Arthur are not uncommon, though we've never caught any that big.  I've found that the best way to target them is on flats in the evening near deeper water.  My 9 year old usually peters out right about the time the sun sets and things are getting good, but if you're there in the summer from now through the end of July and the alewives are popping around you, you can easily catch quite a few big channel cats by casting out only 10' from shore.  They will find your bait as they're hunting alewives.  There's usually a bit of lull in our fishing for them around this time as they begin their spawn.  Early to mid May and mid to late September into early October are when we catch the most and biggest.  
     
    There are some HUGE carp in Arthur from pictures I've seen, but I don't see big concentrations of them and have never targeted them there and have never caught one either.  I would imagine though that if you use traditional carp baits particularly in some of the shallower arms and fingers of the lake, you'd probably catch some.  We see quite a few jumping throughout the Muddy Creek arm of the lake at this time of year.  
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    Muncie
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    Re: Looking for local Catfish or Carp pond - North Pittsburgh area 2019/06/04 14:22:54 (permalink)
    Much appreciated. Sounds like North Park would be great for what we're looking for. Perhaps we can get out for a couple hours this weekend. Lake Arthur sounds promising too, I can only imagine his reaction to landing a 15# catfish :)
    Thanks again for the info!!
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    JinxPA
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    Re: Looking for local Catfish or Carp pond - North Pittsburgh area 2019/06/11 21:36:51 (permalink)
    There's a propagation lake on State Game Lands 95 called Glade Dam Lake.  Part of it is open to fishing via shore and all of it is open to small unmotorized boats.  Perfect for a canoe or row boat, it used to be full of big carp, big channels and nice sized bullheads.  There is a small pound around the same area off Calico road 75% of it is fishable from shore or used to be and used to be full of channel and bullhead, nice sized perch and bass.  North Washington Township off route 38 Butler county.  The Game commission site has a good map under the State Game Lands tab. 

    A bad day fishing is always better than a good day working.
    JinxPA
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    Re: Looking for local Catfish or Carp pond - North Pittsburgh area 2019/07/16 16:08:02 (permalink)
    Muncie, just read that the PFBC will be having that cat fishing opportunity this Saturday from noon-11 PM and Sunday all day at North Park Lake. You can find more specific info on their social media or website.
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    Racerx
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    Re: Looking for local Catfish or Carp pond - North Pittsburgh area 2019/07/20 18:28:51 (permalink)
    Yep, going on today.  I've taken my son once.  He hooked into something of decent size, but horsed it too hard and broke off.
      Actually landed a nice 18 to 20 inch channel at the little dam between the little pond and main lake, a week ago, from my kayak.  Just casting into the outflow, he and a bunch of LMB were stacked in there.  Pulled about 5 LMB and that cat, ranging from 1 dink to a 17.25 inch one, in about 1-1/2 hours.
    post edited by Racerx - 2019/07/20 18:30:19
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    pghh_flytier
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    Re: Looking for local Catfish or Carp pond - North Pittsburgh area 2019/07/22 08:31:28 (permalink)
    The Pa Fish Commission event at North Park stocked several hundred small channel cats, and about 40 to 50 huge cats, My grandkids caught several smaller cats Sunday.
     
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