Hydroelectric dam being built at HPD?

I used to fish on the lock side up at Clinton on the Allegheny.  When they put the hydro plant on the other side the fishing dramatically dropped off. 

Looooong time ago, like 20 years or more.  Possible 30, things from those days are a little hazy.

It does say that they are going to try and make this fishing friendly but there is only so much they can do. Most likely will completely eliminate the ability to get up into the whitewash from shore. Such a shame. 

I'm getting old, I watched the building of the hydro plant at Raystown, wow, what an engineering feat.

Well, since my boat is 29 years old this year, I would say the power plants at Locks 5, 6, 8, & 9 are between 25 to 27 years old, as I was fishing all of those pools while they were being built. Now it seems the best fishing is on the power plant side. From a boat, you have to deal with the heavy current, and be careful not to go past the buoys toward the dam, or you get yelled at by the Lockmaster with his megaphone. 'Course, now that those locks are only open for very limited hours during the summer, there may not be anyone in there. I used to go inside the lower lock walls on all of them and catch fish 'cause there's always water pouring through and around the wall, and that stirs up a lot of baitfish, which attracts the predators. Now it seems the fishing is better on the power plant sides because besides the current, chopped up bait fish, and the warm water discharge, they put about a half a million rocks in the river all around it to aid in erosion prevention. Be prepared to lose a lot of tackle. It's really aggravating to retie on nearly every cast, but there's definitely fish of all species all around. Lock 5 has the best "pier" type fishing, as you can drive in and park right beside it. 6 is ok, and 8 & 9 have holes below them nearly 50' deep. I never catch anything in the holes, (there's probably some huge flatheads down there), but I can nail a few walleyes and some small mouths down river coming up out of the holes. In any case, be prepared to lose a lot of tackle. Oh! Did I tell you to be prepared to lose some tackle? Hey! You will lose some tackle!
Oh yeah, if you're gonna boat up to the power plant at Freeport's Lock 5, you need to stay way over in the navigation channel nearly up to the lock, then work your way across slowly. It is very shallow from the dam down to the Kiski River mouth on the power plant side of the river. You can do some serious damage.

There is another wrinkle in lower Allegheny River fishing. The Corps of Engineers has not only proposed permanently closing Locks, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, they are floating the idea of completely removing the dams. That would be sheer devastation to anglers, boaters, camp owners, and all of the business' that line the river. The claim is that the only reason the dams and locks are there is for commercial traffic; that the dams have nothing to do with flood control. Now there's not any commercial traffic above Freeport anymore. J.K.Davidson and Glacial Sand & Gravel have been gone for a while. (if it wasn't for Freeport Terminals they might include closing and removing Lock 4 at Natrona too). You think on what would happen with those dams gone; the river level  would drop dramatically. Pool #6, between Clinton and Kittanning is already very shallow, you can jump out of a boat below the Kittanning Bridge and stand up. That is the only pool on the river that has NEVER been dredged. EPA and Fish Commission say that that pool is loaded with many endangered species. What would happen to them, (when they claim to protect endangered species)? Army Corps gives the age old excuse of insufficient funding to maintain the locks and dams. It's amazing the amount of money the government can **** away but can't come up with funding for our rivers. I mean, we've been at war in the Mid-East for 15 years or more; surely the government should be showing a profit by now.

Heyyy PSU....... no spot burning.😋


Geeeez, I miss that river.....

River people are cool.

You upriver guys are being insensitive to our lower Allegheny fishing habitat. Do ya'll run jetdrive upriver? Around Franklin, do ya get out of the boat and drag it to the next hole?

EMitch
You upriver guys are being insensitive to our lower Allegheny fishing habitat. Do ya'll run jetdrive upriver? Around Franklin, do ya get out of the boat and drag it to the next hole?

yes, jet john.  Never fished Franklin area, sorry.  Also never hit a thing in the jet or had to get out & drag around anything "yet" anyway.  Next time out both will probably happen.

Plus after they remove the dams the SALMON will come back!  

The kayak's and canoe's are the WORST. They float 10 wide from City of Franklin launch down to the takeout at Fisherman's Cove. They have no clue how a jet boat works, or how you have to run the riffles, and how jet boat simply cannot stop to appease them and their precious piece of molded plastic.

psu_fish

If the water is high enough and you got a big enough set of cahones, you can run French Creek from the mouth in Franklin to Carlton or Meadville.  

The only problem I had running a 65 HP jet to Meadville was a "BIG gas supply". Could take a couple days floating back to Franklin.🚣