I asked the PFC about them cuz .I was thinking it was too early to be this years crop.The ones we saw were about1"- 1 1/2" long. He said they were from a late spawn last year. sam

Thanks for the tip on the gills,but we have been getting the"bulls" for a while down here. I made the trip up for some slabs.Been hammering the gills using a ice jig with "bro's" bloodworms below a bobber. sam

This weather is gonna put everyone on the lake this weekend...

ORIGINAL: Icastalot

This weather is gonna put everyone on the lake this weekend...

Yep, this past Sunday was bumper to bumper. Toss in a week of 70s and 80s. I couldn't believe the amount of boats on I79 on Sunday.

On Sunday, the North Shore beach area was not open. Not sure when all of that opens. So, anyone planning to make a family trip up soon, you might want to verify what is open. Every other picnic table in the park, that are usually only used on 4th of July, ect. were booked.

Yea Luvin' I've been on both sides ov that spectrum more than I would like to admit, outfishin' or the opposite . I'll wade 95% ov the time because that's my choice for the last 27 yrs. plus on Arthur this time ov yr. Tonight though if I can get my kid to cut the rest ov the grass we will take out his boat since my ankle has been screwed up for a week now

Good Luck
crappy

ya, i know what you mean. i'm always looking for some one to fish with. we have been getting some real nice eye's while striper fishing the last couple weeks. 24" thru 27" mostly on alewifes and a couple on bombers. some decent stripers too. but it is still hit or miss. i think i'm going to give it a try tonight. the wind and moon might throw a curve ball into to it though. you never know.

How'd everyone do at Arthur this past weekend? any reports?

saterday night, to much moon. we did catch allot of fish but not much for size. at least a dozen sub legal stripers, 3 good size cats, 4 large mouth, 1 legal eye and 2 nice stripers. all on alewifes.

actually we have been getting alewife's for over 3 weeks and some very good 10#+ stripers back that far too. what is a Porktown Artie Alewife, did you make your own lures

ORIGINAL: crappiefisher

Decline in Lake Arthur muskellunge fishing has anglers, state trolling for answers
Sunday, October 09, 2011
By John Hayes, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission
Fisheries biologist aide Matt Gordon holds a 50-inch muskie during a 2011 survey of Lake Arthur.
PORTERSVILLE -- The waters of Lake Arthur were calm Monday evening. But in a meeting room at Mount Zion Baptist Church, on the shoreline of Shannon Run Bay, a maelstrom of controversy swirled as anglers, the state Fish and Boat Commission and Moraine State Park management clashed over what's happening beneath the surface.

The 3,225-acre Lake Arthur impoundment has long been considered one of Pennsylvania's premiere muskie lakes, stocked yearly by the state with 3,300 young muskies averaging 6 inches. Survival rates are low, but good forage, a stable weed mass for cover and catch-and-release practices resulted in higher than normal catch rates for what has been called the "fish of 10,000 casts."

But in recent years, anglers have noticed a decline in catches. In a routine survey this summer, Fish and Boat biologists found lots of muskies at Lake Arthur, particularly big ones, but were startled to log a total absence of entire year classes of muskies, those from 26 to 32 inches.

No doubt something is changing at Lake Arthur. The mystery grows as anglers and the agencies that maintain the lake spar over what's to blame for the missing muskies.

At last week's meeting, members of the Moraine Muskie Association presented enterprising informal research they believe shows the impacts of aquatic herbicides used to control weed growth at the lake. Tim Wilson, the Fish and Boat biologist who manages the Lake Arthur fishery, shared research that confirmed some of the anglers' concerns but challenged their conclusions. Following the meeting, park manager Dan Bickel defended the use of herbicides to control the plants, and inferred possible linkage to Moraine's ongoing problems with municipal sewage processed by the park.

Herbicides
"We've noticed a sharp decline in muskie numbers in Lake Arthur. Probably four years ago it started," said Fombell muskie guide and Moraine Muskie member Howard Wagner. "We wanted to see the effects of herbicide use on places we knew had good weed beds, so we went from bay to bay. Portersville Bay, Bear Run, Osprey, under the Route 528 bridge, the five fingers including Muddy Creek Bay -- wherever we went, we found no weeds or poor weed growth."

The group's main concern is the park's use of two aquatic herbicides (trade names Reward and Navigate) to clear the water for boaters. Group members presented photos of de-weeded areas and charts comparing muskie stocking rates and harvest reports. Some feared muskies were directly poisoned by herbicides; others were convinced the weed-control policy destroys habitat for forage fish.

Since Moraine State Park opened in 1971, the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has used Reward and Navigate to clear weeds from the swimming beach, 10 boat launches, marinas and other areas.

"We have to manage for multiple uses -- fishing, swimming, pontoon boats, sail boats, canoes and kayaks, hydrofoils," said Bickel. "We had a lot of complaints from the marina this year from people having trouble getting out of their slip spaces due to aquatic weed growth. . . . When we use it, we use the minimum amount of herbicide that we possibly can."

Since 1971, DCNR has treated as many as 43 acres of Lake Arthur per year, at 1 gallon per acre, depending upon need. In 2004, a year with a high muskie population, no herbicides were used. But in another peak year, 2007, 39 acres were treated. In 2010, DCNR used herbicides on about 12 acres. This year control agents were used on nearly 23 acres of the lake.

The herbicides used at Lake Arthur are common. Neither directly kills the plants -- they cling to plant surfaces and disrupt growth. Both are approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and used by some 40 states, other governmental bodies and private landowners. Both are used by DCNR throughout Pennsylvania. Fish and Boat does not use the herbicides in the wild, but employs far higher doses at its hatcheries.

Sewage
Like many parks in Pennsylvania's state park system, Moraine's sewage processing system takes in pre-processed sewage from a nearby municipality. At Moraine, outflow from Prospect Borough is processed in the park's system and released below the dam into Muddy Creek.

Bickel said cement-encased sewage pipes cross the lake bottom at two places before entering the park's processing system, which is inspected monthly by park staff. But long-standing problems with the municipality's incoming sewage remain unresolved.

"Faulty equipment in Prospect's system before it comes to us -- yes, that's an ongoing problem," said Bickel.

Prospect Borough sewage officials did not immediately return calls from the Post-Gazette.

It's unclear, however, how potential sewage releases might relate to Lake Arthur's muskie problem. PFBC biologist Wilson said if biological matter was leaching into the lake, it would be a problem for all fish, yet only the muskies are experiencing sharp losses of entire year classes. Biological waste would likely decrease water clarity, he said, which would in turn impact aquatic vegetation.

Habitat
For many years, Lake Arthur's forage fish, game fish and angling success rates were directly linked to the aquatic plant milfoil. An invasive species that choked out native growth, milfoil nevertheless provided perfect cover for little fish. Big fish lurked under and at the edges of weed beds waiting for a snack, giving anglers an easy casting or trolling target.

Since about 2007, when muskie catch rates began to decline, a new invasive plant species has quickly spread through Lake Arthur. Hydrilla, sometimes called Esthwaite waterweed, entwines in thick beds on the bottom, crowding out the less dense milfoil.

"It's too thick. The little fish can't use it to hide, and the big fish don't use it as a point of ambush," said Wilson. "Like other game fish, muskies are cannibalistic. Baby muskies need weeds to survive and without the good milfoil, they're more susceptible to predation from big muskies."

In fact, Wilson said the 2004 and 2007 spikes in muskie population that anglers sorely miss could be responsible for the current absence of later year classes. He cited a Wisconsin study showing that in lakes with unusually large numbers of big muskies, little muskies were eaten at such levels as to cause the collapse of the entire muskie population.

Wilson theorizes that the loss of some weed beds to herbicide is small potatoes compared to the sea change that rocked Lake Arthur with the arrival of hydrilla and subsequent demise of milfoil. The resulting muskie cannibalism, he speculated, may have caused the population changes experienced by anglers and detected in PFBC surveys.

Wilson said he will recommend doubling the number of young muskies planted in the next state stocking, but it may take a while to get the muskies back on track.

"Even with the hole in the population, it's still a pretty good muskie fishery now," he said. "The population is about the same as it was before those two really good years. The guys who adapt to the new conditions and change their gear and tactics will eventually come upon a formula that works."



Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11282/1180530-358-0.stm?cmpid=sports.xml#ixzz1hgs89YO3

Just a thought, with the throw net getting more & more popular every yr. at the lake could be another reason in the decline in smaller Muskie & Bass. Seems every yr. when I check peoples bait buckets from using nets to catch bait a good bit ov the time I'll find multiple sm. Muskie,Bass,Walleye,Cats & Panfish. This yr. seems to be no different When stocking Muskie & Walleye do they just stock easy access areas around the lake?? If that is the case might get a better return if they stocked from boats in less traffic areas like the propagation area & so forth.

IDK, Just a thought that might help with better returns.

Hey Pork u get out today??
lEtt mEa noE

Perhaps some/most should just learn what they are keeping for bait if coming from the lake? Simple solution huh?????



Smitty

Anyone getting into any walleyes up Arthur? heading up this weekend to give it a shot and maybe some crappie fishing, any general depths or baits people are having success with ? Thanks for the help guys!

Anyone out today or see the water? Wanted to get out tomorrow not sure about water/mud content. I know it's always a little stained. Anyone ever target channels during the day with a drift and bait?

Went out targeting walleyes this evening, for the first time this year.  Only managed one.  Saw another boat drifting and picking a few up.  Hooked a big striper and handed the rod to my 6 year old and pulled him over, then came off.  He blamed me.  I'm used to it though. 

It was the dead sea on Thursday and Friday (nights at least). That cold front shut the alewife spawn off. There was some movement at dusk, but dead from then until 2AM both of those nights. Wednesday and Saturday were ok though, definitely not incredible. Disappointed in not getting anything on my homemade lures (besides a few alewifes getting their groove on... The daytime bite, panfish and largemouth were fun. We had a herum of little ones out, and were able to keep them pretty well entertained.