Kinzuavanians Out There?

I used to fish the Kinzua creek DHALO area quite often, but its gone downhill BIG TIME in the last three years. The bottom of the stream has been covered with a heavy orange silt off and on with little oil slicks around the rocks for a while now. The big white fly hatch isn't coming off the way it used to in August either. Maybe its in better shape now. I sure hope so, I'll be taking a trip out soon, as the DHALO area is getting stocked tomorrow.

Water is very low and 2/3 of the ice is gone on Kinzua
Marilla Brook had a nice flow with lightly stained water Thursday between PITT and Mutant Beach.
 
Kinzua is beutifull in the summer and has little boat traffic during the week.
In PA fish Sugar Run or South of Redbridge.
Willow Bay is an nice campground with a launch for big boats
On the reservation fish ~!@#$% -sorry local secret.
KInzua has little NY water, North of PA is Seneaca Reservation and requires their licence.

this is the website for the chamber of commerce for the Olean area, license fees for the reservation are listed near the bottom of this page....

http://www.oleanny.com/26

I fished there and did well about 4 yrs ago in early May (for walleye), stayed at Willow Bay and like it OK but the campground wasn't fully functional yet so it was primitive... Willow is close to the Indian portion of the lake, so if you don't want to pay for a reservation license or NY license then you should realize you will need to go south on the lake from the campground. It is a beautiful area though.. and worth a few days just to enjoy it... and the fishing below the dam is great also.
Karen

$45 dollars for adults (it went up $10 from last year); $25 for juniors (10-16). There is a senior rate (65 and older), but I can't remember what it is.

Thanks for the info been thinking about cave run lake in kentucky but i have always wanted to fish kinzu thinking i might spend my week up there give it a try

I've been going there all of my life...and I always will. With rare exception, I have never gone out fishing - be it in a stream, the reservoir, the dam - and not caught something. IMO, the streams don't get the pressure that streams "down here" get. And even during the height of the summer, despite the boats zipping up and down the reservior, the place is generally peaceful and quiet. Just a great place year-round. I can never wait to get there, and I can't stand coming home.

Fished the DHALO section of Kinzua Creek today. It was stocked within the last few days, so there were quite a lot of fish throughout the section. Between the 3 people in our party we caught 18, and lost a few more. 10 on single pink egg patterns (McFly Foam Strawberry. the electric pink colored stuff), 2 on pink crystal meth, 1 on a prince nymph, 2 on a GRHB, 2 on otter's soft egg clusters,and 1 on a pink sucker spawn. We talked with guys who did well on small caddis imitations as well. Water looked awesome, a little high but just the right color. Get out and wet a line if you can.

ORIGINAL: mohawksyd

I've been going there all of my life...and I always will. With rare exception, I have never gone out fishing - be it in a stream, the reservoir, the dam - and not caught something. IMO, the streams don't get the pressure that streams "down here" get. And even during the height of the summer, despite the boats zipping up and down the reservior, the place is generally peaceful and quiet. Just a great place year-round. I can never wait to get there, and I can't stand coming home.

Wow!.... I too had been fishing in the area my whole life (I was raised in Marshburgh-- 6 miles from sugar bay)  and although I'll go on and on about the beautiful scenery.  I'd NEVER say, that you can just COUNT on Catching fish.  Fact is for ME, the reservoir and the river beyond it, have a flighty personality.  Somedays you just Can't catch nothing.  Its no Big secret that the zoo is relatively infertile with limited forage and ALOT of water. 

I love the enthusiasm.  its a beautiful place.  The STocked streams are truly an asset to the area and the trout fishing is significant and diverse (from tiny small streams with brookies bigger than many people would guess to the large alleghany tailwaters with its trophy brown and rainbows).   But to imply that a person would never skunk seems a bit dishonest.  I'm still bugging out about it, are you telling me, that you have regularly fished in these parts and never, ever had a "no fish" day??  

Maybe you have a boat- maybe you have some dynamite???  maybe jerminator and others whom might go to kinzua need to know that the fishing round these parts can be danged tough.  and incidentally fishing at the Zoo is Definitely harder than other places (even locally).

I'm not trying to flame.  I'm just being real, do a search about this place.  its skunked many a tourist.

too further fill in jerminator, the zoo is known locally more for the size of the fish, than its quantity.  It boasts a trophy pike, musky and walleye population.  (I believe it holds the current PA Northern pike record and the NY walleye record).   Smallmouth bass are underappreciated but more plentiful.  As I said, its not that fertile, but if you spend some time working structure, you should find something (if only a fish finder).  Keep close tabs on water levels that can change everything.  As the reservoir fills up in the spring, fish will slowly move into the arms. 

Panfish in Kinzua are few and far between but often when you find them, they are bigger than normal.  I've seen recent photos of 15" perch.  Crappies are particuarly rare.  Big trout are also present in the dam but very rare.

PghMarty knows the lake well, and he's been answering questions about it for years and years.  His general recommendations are the places to start looking.

I prefer the fishing below the dam, but I don't have a boat. so my options in the zoo are limited. 

The delta between inference and implication can be huge. Re-read my post.

Where is the dishonesty in posting what one has personally experienced? The question was, "How good is the fishing - any type, any species?"

Personal experiences are merely that, and not the law of the land. Mine (upon which the post was based) have rarely been shy of successful. Of course, after nearly 40 years, I'm also there frequently enough to consider myself anything but a tourist...I'm more of a "quasi-local." So the words "with rare exception" are relative to what you put into it, and what your options really are. The more options you have, the more opportunities present themselves. And options mitigate challenges.

I don't need dynamite; I have options.

The reasonable man asking a general question knows that the answers he receives in this or any forum do not exculpate him from doing his own research and gaining his own experience. Nothing is absolute; if it was, I could read any Erie post and expect to land steelhead (having never tried it, having never fished a trib) like it's my job. Such belief is foolish naivety, as is any interpretation of same.

Giving anyone who reads my post the benefit of common sense, I'd like to think that relating positive experiences gained over almost four decades is enough to encourage one to make a further determination as to whether or not they want to try Kinzua for themselves. I stand behind what I wrote 100% and I encourage anyone to try the Kinzua area for themselves. If that bugs you out, well...

All good.