That used to be a "secret" lake. The interwebs fixed that.
 

rippinlip
That used to be a "secret" lake. The interwebs fixed that.
 

Nah. Kahle was known in the 80s and 90s and 2000s. Amish moved in big time.

ICE NUT
Me thinks that if u caught 60 largemouth bass in a 251 acre lake and they are all stunted it screams there needs to be a thinning of the herd!!!!!!

how do you distinguish between being stunted and being caught and harvested once they get to 15 inches??
 
phish

Smaller ponds where I have seen stunted growth of bass the fish's head seems bigger as to the body portion size . Seems also to be an abundance of 8-10" fish (bass ) . If the 14" bass are all looking good then it appears the over 15"ers are being harvested steady, but one or two trips is not still enough to judge a lake or pond. Sometimes big bass just are that much smarter or finicky. Caught some big pond Bass on using live Bluegills for bait ...but with Amish around steady overharvesting can hurt !  

CAPTAIN HOOK
If the 14" bass are all looking good then it appears the over 15"ers are being harvested steady, but one or two trips is not still enough to judge a lake or pond. 

the bodies of ALL the bass we caught were of proper proportion to their heads. 
 
one or two trips is defiantly not enough to judge - but we've watched this decline at kahle over the last 4-5 years (look at my previous posts) - and were not the only ones experiencing this - we chatted with a number of angler on the lake who all were catching bass - no one reported a legal one but all were catching them frequently.
 
if a 12 inch limit on bass were imposed, I would bet that you'd only catch 11inchers and the panfish would still be missing.  I still think a 9 inch limit on perch, gills and crappie would definitely help.
 
phish 

psu_fish

Nah. Kahle was known in the 80s and 90s and 2000s. Amish moved in big time.

Yep, I will agree, in the 90s my betterhalf and I would drive from Franklin to fish the lake, on any given weekend, then a short drive down the road for a round of golf.

Great times.

phishfearmeI think a 9 inch limit on perch, gills and crappie would definitely help.
 
phish 

That may become a standard in all of Pa. some day soon....won't hurt that's for sure !

Not that a 251 acre lake is small but I'd imagine it's pretty easy to over harvest Panfish.....they don't get big in a couple of years....I've seen the same results in other lakes,Moraine,Wilhelm use to be my favorite ice time lakes but that was before most of you experts fish biologists where born.....way more fishermen now....Wilhelm would produce 9" gills all day...Moraine had huge 9"-9.5 gills and 14" plus crappie.....Moraine had 5-7 lb plus bass,caught many on tip ups and released all.....hard to catch a 5lb fish there now.....you want big fish....big water.

I live not far from the lake and fish it a few times a year. I think a few things have led to it's decline. Even though this lake has been around awhile it started to get a lot of press after they began holding the ice fishing tournaments there. Reports of nice catches of crappie, perch, and bluegill brought more fisherman to check it out. Then the Amish started to move in and they hammer it. It's rare to go there and not see at least a group or two of them fishing it. They are noted for keeping nearly every fish they catch if legal and sometimes maybe not legal. The lake is just not big enough to handle the constant pressure it receives in my opinion. I used to be able to go there and catch nice sized perch and a few crappie but the last few times they are pretty scarce. Maybe size restrictions would help????

back in the 80's it was a good walleye lake for ice season then wendel Watson from Pittsburgh press outdoors writer started running articles on the fishing there , the pressure ramped up quickly and the fish quality went down hill just as fast. 250 acres is not that big with constant pressure !