The river was a far better fishery then the lake imo even pyme for easy access anglers iv never caught more then maby 20 eyes at pyme either casting or on a boat iv had many 20-100 fish days/nights at the river, I also find it weird that after x date the fish are to dirty to be eaten but yesterday they where ok? I'm not buying it

CAPTAIN HOOK 
 
As far as the 100% best interest of fishermen ....how in the sam hill is that snagging fest up on the spillway every spring on spawning fish in the best interest of any fishermen ?
 
The PFBC totally "allows" it to continue year after year. I guess when you pump in 4 million walleye fry and fingerlings every year in Pymy. you don't worry about a few hundred snagged adult fish. 
 
100% best interest .....How about the year 2015, Shenango Lake only received only 1,800 Walleye !!! They shorted Shenango Lake 70,000 fish ! ( nice working program )
Did they make it up the following years ? .....not one bit !
 
I still show 67 million less Walleye stocked over the past 9 years just in those areas I posted, so how that's the same as years past is beyond me....something is fishy !
 

Read what I wrote again, I did not say 100% best interest. I know it was a switch of words but please don’t put words in my mouth.

About the law enforcement on pym, I don’t know. Maybe people are getting busted, maybe not. Pym is likely a put and take fisheries and “catching” (snagging or not) won’t hurt the spawn.

When it was said state wide stocking of walleye was about the same I believe it. The number of fish isn’t perfectly the same. In your case your main concern is only areas you fish, not what’s happening in the Far East part of the state. I get it, people are concerned with #1. I’m not innocent of this by any mean.

So what’s the value of 10 million fry vs 8k fingerling vs 5k of bigger fingerlings? I made those numbers up. But it’s a comparison to make you think of the net value of each size of fish that can be stocked.

I can speak better for musky than walleye, I became the Ambassador for walleye because I asked a few questions and posted the answer.

They are stocking fewer musky, omg the sky is falling. Btw it’s every other year, what are they doing they are screwing me... the fish are 200-250% bigger and healthier and have expected survival rate of X vs Y just 2 years ago... wait so I will get a better return on those fish. Well I like that.

They are stocking bigger walleye, they are tracking the progress. It’s early on in this. They need the fish to grow to do this.

It isn’t going to change what you lost, I believe they have the best interest of the anglers in mind, but like I said tough decision need to be made and some people will get hurt. They don’t have unlimited budgets, things do happen. Those little fish are fragile, something bad could happen and wipe out half the tanks. They are human, they work hard, they are learning new and better ways to do things. If you don’t believe that that fine. Your opinion is just as valid as mine.

I think walleye fishing is better suited to the western part of the state. We know there's 'eyes in Wallenpaupack out east, maybe a few in the Susquehanna, (even though it's very wide and basically shallow), but the western side of the Allegheny Plateau has the most available water and habitat for 'eyes. Until the commission comes in and says "we need to get some large mouths or small mouths in there, and maybe more crappie and 'gills". Wait! What? Now we gotta feed 'em, so we need a forage base, so let's put some alewives and gizzard shad in there for chow. Funny thing, the walleye and the crappie population is goin' down. They're not takin' off, so let's stop stockin' them. Let's put in more alewives and gizzard shad. Maybe some carp to help clean up the lake. Oye!! How can we ever understand modern science?

 Thunder, Maybe they shouldn't have aloud fishing so close to the dam (SR) 150-200 yards maybe? The fish stack in there (dead end) & would have kept stringer after stringer from being taken daily.
 
 They have been catching some nice Eyes there lately.

crappiefisher
 Compared to 3,801 Eyes, 2nd best yr. on record. 
 
https://pfbc.pa.gov/biore...1x05-11-Pymatuning.pdf

 Yea Crappie on Shenango Lake a limit of Walleye is unheard of ...for years ! Unless I invest in some trap nets !...lol Just proves my whole point about stocking more fish ....not less !
 
Pymy gets close to 6 million Walleye "every year" stocked between two states....and I'm not complaining at all I think that's great , but in comparison to the other local lakes that basically get crumbs.
 
I dare the PFBC to stock Pymy with only 1800 fish one year like they did Shenango. Then tell me a few years later the Walleye numbers are down on Shenango so we may have to reevaluate whether it's worth it to keep stocking. How can they justify their fish surveys doing that.....but that's exactly what they do ! Totally false reporting to justify the stocking cutbacks. 
 
Your right Thunder the best #1 Walleye fishing in a hundred mile radius for overall catching steady nice size Walleyes was the Shenango River, yet in 2007 the PFBC decided to stop stocking it even before the PCB news came out in 2016 !  That showed me then as now that the PFBC likes playing politics on stocking in certain areas only ! Had anyone of them ever got out and actually fished that river or talked to the locals they would have known what a gold mine they had there ....but they didn't. They jump into a survey boat and float the worst area of the river for fishing and shock a few fish then come up with their false reports ! 
 
What blows my mind is why did the stop stocking the upper Shenango River (Pymy outflow ) there are no PCB's detected there. Once again I'm sure the have some fancy excuse from the biologists as to why they no longer stock that. 

There's no room in the truck with all them trout they keep planting captain...yea why wouldn't they take those resources and stock the upper stretch???? I hear from the old heads that got me into fishing such sections that they would kill it walleye fishing in there day 20 years ago .....and is that section of river (from pyme to shanango) considered shanango river lake? Or shanango river?? My buddy's and I where talking this yesterday

 Think it makes a difference they can basically walk across the street & stock Pymy from the Linesville hatchery plus getting the fish from there in the first place. Being the largest inland lake in the state also helps. I'm sure if the hatchery was across the street from Arthur it would be stocked heavily with Eyes. Hope things change & they fix the problem with water quality at the SR.
 
crappy

Psssssst, I know yinz don't like spotburning but I think this secrete will be safe on this thread.

Have yinz noticed how good walleye catchin can be at the outflows of impounded water. Wilhelm, Pymie, Shenango, and that great big place muup north, just to mention a few.

Then suddenly, the catching dies off. Especially where trout might/are/were stocked. Stupid fish!!!



Capt. I'm thinking, maybe them Shenango River Walleye could be contaminated making them unsafe for consumption.

Them Walleye likely been consuming all those trout for too many years.

Like I said I'm glad for what Pymy has ...the best Walleye and Musky fishing in the area or the state other than Erie walleye . ...but it helps tremendous to have high stocking numbers regularly.
 
Thunder , we always called it upper Shenango river since the 70's when we fished it. Yes we had some awesome nights catching walleyes there also. Some years were better than others but it seemed to always hold fish steady. Had a few holes down river that produced some nice Eyes especially in springtime. Usually on opening night of Walleye season it was normal to see limits of Eyes caught not only in our group but others as well. Still it never compared to the lower Shenango outflow for steady catch numbers of Walleye.
 
Seems that's disappeared up there at Pymy past 10 years or more. Hardly catch any of those cigar size eyes in that river anymore....not a good sign. Now and then you see a few decent eyes caught, but nothing like the past days. The river has filled along the banks with fallen trees so it makes for almost impossible fishing in a large stretch, but you think that would make good cover for more Walleyes to survive but apparently not so. I don't think they stock it or have for many years and it shows. Last several trips up there past few years we caught zero ! Too bad it's a nice area to fish even has a beautiful handicap dock there....just no fish.  
 
Like the hunters say you can't shoot what you can't see ......and you can't catch what isn't in there either !.....lol  
 
I know this is going to sound somewhat stupid but (IMO) makes way more common sense, they should put all those Trout in that area (Pymy ) instead of the Shenango River Hamburg area. At least the access is way easier for all fishermen young , handicapped , and old at Pymy. Hamburg is about a waste of Trout stocking due to river conditions. Problem is different counties Mercer / Crawford.  Being a true put and take program I think it would be highly welcomed by most at the Pymy outflow or upper Shenango.  

Upper Shenango River aka Pymy outflow river............