A look at where walleyes are stocked in Pa. and how to catch them

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission has been fine tuning its walleye stocking program to make sure its efforts are placed in waterways with sustainable fish populations.

“We stock walleye fry and walleye fingerlings across the state every year,” said Tim Wilson, area fisheries manager in northwestern Pennsylvania for the PFBC.

The process has advanced to help get the best return on the investment of raising walleye.

“In the old days we just stocked fish everywhere. We just put numbers out the door and eventually we said, 'Well we need to figure out if we are getting return on the dollars spent,'” Wilson said.

Over the past dozen years, the agency has evaluated all the waters in the program.

“Any water that didn’t meet specific catch criteria were removed from the program,” he said about having sustainable walleye fisheries. “We now only stock waters where we know stocking works."

The lakes where walleyes are stocked in Pennsylvania include:

East Branch Clarion River Lake, Allegheny Reservoir, Pymatuning Reservoir, Tamarack Lake, Hammond Lake, Cowanesque Lake, Glendale Lake,Blue Marsh Lake, Lake Wilhelm, Duck Harbor Pond, Meadow Grounds Lake, Raccoon Lake- Main Lake, Lake Wallenpaupack, Sylvan Lake, Shawnee Lake, Somerset Lake, Woodcock Creek Lake, Lake Arthur, Beltzville Lake, Lake Marburg, Raystown Lake, Lake Canadohta, Frances Slocum Lake, Shenango River Lake, Falls Township Park Lake, Youghiogheny River Lake, Long Arm Dam, Tuscarora Lake, Quemahoning Reservoir, Keystone Lake, Gordon Lake, Harveys Lake, Yellow Creek Lake, Piney Reservoir, Struble Lake, The Giving Pond, Green Lick Reservoir, Howard Eaton Reservoir, Leaser Lake, and Edinboro Lake.

Anglers “can be reasonably assured that if there is a water on the stocking list, it’s going to have walleyes in there to be caught. It’s up to them to figure out how, when and where to catch them,” Wilson said. “Our surveys show the fish are there and available to anglers.”

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Some of the reasons other waterways couldn’t sustain walleye populations included habitat, water level fluctuations, and predator and prey interactions.

“Largemouth bass are considered the big predators of our stocked fingerlings,” he said.

Walleye fry are about three days old when they are put into lakes and reservoirs.

“They are cheaper to produce, but they also don’t survive as well. Most of our lakes now receive walleye fingerlings which are about 35 days old in the one to two inch size range,” he said.

Those fish need about three to four years before they reach 15 inches long which is the minimum size for anglers to keep.

The agency anticipates stocking 1,848,000 fingerlings and 12,875,000 fry this year from the Linesville State Fish Hatchery next to the Pymatuning Reservoir in northwestern Pennsylvania and Pleasant Mount State Fish Hatchery in northeastern Pennsylvania.

In addition, there are waters where fish reproduce naturally.

“The Allegheny River, the Mon(gahela), the Ohio, the north branch of the Susquehanna, a lot of these other waters, they are supported through natural reproduction," Wilson said. "Most of our flowing waters, our larger major rivers have walleye populations and anglers can go there as well."

Lake Erie is also known for naturally reproducing walleyes. Lake Erie is outside of Wilson’s work area, but he said it “has had outstanding reproduction the last few years.”

The commission’s Lake Erie Research Unit evaluates the populations of yellow perch and walleye in the lake annually.

"The 2023 assessment showed that both yellow perch and walleye populations in Pennsylvania waters of Lake Erie remain at levels that don't necessitate regulation changes," Mark Haffley, PFBC Lake Erie Research Unit Leader, said in a news release. "Based on this, the 2024 creel limits are being maintained at the standard limits."

Lake Erie yellow perch will remain at 30 per day and the creel limit for walleye will remain at six per day. The statewide creel limit for walleye is also six fish that are least 15 inches long.

In 2023, 86% of Lake Erie boat anglers targeted walleye, the release said.

Anglers can fish for walleye now in the Pymatuning Reservoir that is open to year round harvest, but other Pennsylvania waters are closed until the start of the season on May 4.

Lures and baits for walleyes

Wilson said jigs with minnows, jigs with nightcrawlers or soft plastics work well with vertical presentations.

Walleye move to shallow waters to spawn and then they still move to shallow waters at night to feed.

“My best advice is to fish in low light conditions. Dusk and dawn are your best times for sure," Wilson said. "A good sonar helps. Look for rocky points, rocky humps like that because they will move up onto those structures at dusk and dawn and that’s usually a good place to pinpoint them. A lot of guys like to troll, especially later in the season.”

Anglers can find a variety of walleye baits and lures at sport shops.

“Baits for walleye are going to be Berkley PowerBait worm, like a 7-inch Powerworm,” said Jennifer Payne, owner-operator of Hagemann’s Bait & Tackle in Shohola, Pike County. A popular color is one that’s similar to the color of motor oil.

The Keitech Swing Impact swimbait that is about 3.5 inches long and replicates the color of alewives, a small baitfish, is another popular choice at Paybe's store, which is near the Delaware River.

“Night crawlers are really popular,” she said about live bait and some anglers use live minnows, too.

When it comes to fishing line, Payne recommends 6- to 10-pound test depending on where the person is fishing.

“Fishing in the river in general, I don’t go below 6-pound test. Personal preference, I rarely go above 10," she said. "When people come into the shop and they don’t know what they want, I say 8 is safe, 8 is going to cover 90% of the bases from whatever species you’re going for.

“I prefer flouro(carbon) line because it has less stretch to it,” she said comparing it to monofilament. “It’s pretty much invisible (in the water), we’ve had good luck. I have a lot of tournament guys come in and that’s one of their favorites, too."

Payne also likes fishing at dawn and dusk.

“Either at first light or right before dark seems to be that perfect golden hour for walleye,” she said. “It’s also perfect photo time, it’s like the perfect photo opp. You get the sunrise, you get the sunset and, if you’re going for walleye, that’s the time they will be biting."

Fishing for walleyes

Wilson said walleyes are classified as a cool water fish.

“So spring and fall, they are usually the most active depending on water temperatures. In the height of summer sometimes they are less active. So a very hot sunny July day, that may not be your best day," he said. "You want overcast. There is such a thing called a walleye chop, they really bite much better when there’s a chop on the water. When it’s flat and calm, you’re more likely going to catch something like catfish, bluegills or bass."

When it comes to targeting walleyes, Wilson, said, “It’s not so much as finding the right perfect lure, it’s being able to locate the fish.”

He said there’s a lot of instructional advice about learning to fish for walleyes on television and the internet to help get people started.

For anglers not having luck, they need to be willing to try something different.

“If what you are doing isn’t working, then do something else,” Wilson said about techniques and lures. “You want to give them something that they are already feeding on, but if you aren’t catching anything, that’s the perfect time to experiment with something else."

John Joivell of Joivell’s No Slack Guide Service on Raystown Lake, has been fishing for walleyes for decades.

He has been guiding people since 1980 for striped bass and lake trout but has caught many large walleyes in the massive reservoir in central Pennsylvania.

“We catch walleyes when we are fishing for stripers,” he said.

His heaviest walleye weighed 13 3/4 pounds and measured 32.75 inches long.

“I had one bigger than that but he got off,” he said, estimating that one to be at least 35 inches long. “I was in a boat by myself. There are a lot of walleyes in Raystown.”

One of the challenges anglers have with walleyes in Raystown is dealing with the plentiful white perch that take the bait before the walleye have a chance. Another challenge is that the reservoir has a lot of standing timber where the fish hang out during the day.

“It’s hard to get them,” he said about the structure protecting the fish.

The 73-year-old said anglers will fish at night for walleyes with imitation minnow lures like Husky Jerks and Shad Rap Rapalas. “They do catch a decent number of them,” he said.

Anglers also fish with night crawler harnesses and live alewives, too.

“People that target walleyes could probably come here with good electronics and target these walleyes and probably catch them,” Joivell said.

Good eating

“For table fare, they are one of the tops,” Wilson said about walleyes. “It’s personal preference. For me, the very best fish is bluegill and then probably perch and walleyes are next.”

Payne agreed they are a good eating fish. “It’s one of the few fish that’s pretty much unanimous. Everyone knows they’re delicious.”

Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on this website's homepage under your login name. Follow him on Facebook @whipkeyoutdoors, and Instagram at whipkeyoutdoors.

This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Where can I fish for walleye in Pennsylvania?