Youghiogheny River Lake

It's a beautiful Lake, but as far as the fishing, you're pretty much relegated to early morning hours, as the pleasure boaters will make it unbearable most of the day.  I speak of Sat./Sun. fishing.

ORIGINAL: Texcobb99

I was going on a Wednesday thru Sunday.  What type of fish are the most popular?  Any size?

 
I don't fish it much anymore, prefer moving water these days.  But my family's had a place there for 34 years.  The smallmouth fishing can be awesome, and decent numbers of big boys.  Lots of underwater cliffs and rock slides, almost no weeds except in the far upper reaches in Maryland.  Jig and deep crankbait water.
 
Walleye are a different story.  Some years have been great, some terrible for me.  I have a neighbor up there who consistantly does very very well on them, I'm not so good.  If you can find them, you may do well, I don't know.

Tex i was up there a few weeks ago with my Dad. We tried for crappies but could not locate a good school. We did well on the small mouth bass though. Its a different lake to fish. Hardly any structure except rock cliffs and some man made fish atractors. If you head up to the Maryland waters where the river comes in there are a lot of willow trees to the left. Its a very big shelf averageing about 10 up to 3 ft deep as you get into the willows. Always caught alot of perch there. If you fish deeper water in the lake look for any landslides that have fallen trees in the lake and you will do good there (Small mouth and Crappies). There is a real big land slide as you head towards the dam. as you are going down the lake as you start to see the dam on your left head staight across the lake to the far bank. Do not turn towards the dam. You will see it. there are several trees in the water. We caught most of our smallies there using berkley minow grub, Pumkin seed color.  I caught a few nice pike  trolling rapalas in the shallows in Maryland. You will injoy the lake. The fish are there. The fun is finding them. One more thing if the lake is real busy with boat traffic the wake from the boats causes a mud line to form off of the bank. A good thing to try is trolling the mud line that runs from the bank. you need to keep the lures right at the edge of the mud line where it meets the clear water. I have caught alot of fish that way. They seem to come up there to chase the bait fish hiding in the mud line. If you dont like trolling cast in the the mud line and retieve right under it. I hope this helps. Let us know how you made out. Good luck and enjoy.
 

 

Joedirt is giving away all my secrets.  His suggestion about fishing the mudlines caught me 7 walleyes from 16 to 22 inches not all that many years ago.
 
Roy

Tex, I myself am ready to hit the big pond. got the itch real bad. i love my lund. have no regrets about spending the money. if you decide to go to the Yough stop in Lake Side Marine say hi to Mario. He is a class act when it comes to boats. Everyone there is real helpful from boating to the latest hot fishing spots. plus they are a lund dealer.
 
Yes i did take a chapter from Roys book on how to catch fish at the yough. He has taught me alot. Thanks Roy. we need to get out there and soon. i heard the perch are starting to group up of of conny in 40 ft of water. i am drolling already.

at 4am...it's only 45 mins from West Newton!