# Pymatuning 9-18-21



## forrest r (Mar 14, 2020)

Went to the small beach on the north side of the causeway on the Ohio side and put the kayak in. Paddled out so that I was a little past the bridge and 200yds off the causeway, was setup and fishing by 7:45am. Using nothing more than crawlers and a simple modified drop shot with ul poles/reels I was targeting yellow perch. Pretty much ran out of stringers/stringer room and came in by 1:00pm.









Ended up with 22 yellow perch, the biggest 1 was 12"+











Caught 7 catfish, I keep and eat them when they are 12" to 24" long. Nothing better the catching a 20"+ catfish on ul equipment!!! It take 5 or 6 minutes to land a big catfish with the ul equipment in the kayak & can take longer at times if they're able to get to the bottom and lay down.











There were 3 bluegill in there and unfortunately 11 white perch. I don't care how small the white perch are, I keep and eat them. Most of the white perch were small but I did catch this 10" white perch. Really don't like seeing them get this big, not good!!!









All in all, Pymatuning provided me with another excellent day of fishing Along with several bags of fillets in the freezer and a catfish I'm looking forward to enjoying for dinner tonight. Hard to beat pan fried catfish.


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## set-the-drag (Jan 13, 2013)

Easy to beat pan fried cat.... Pan fried perch!!! Good haul sucks to see them white perch in there they are ruining every lake it seems. Looks like im going to have to hit the ice there for them yellow bellies id die for 22 of them right now its been a while


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## dwmikemx (Mar 22, 2008)

Nice job !


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## matticito (Jul 17, 2012)

Nice catch! Too bad about white perch. Saddens me. Seem pretty well established at 10 inches.

I went Friday nite and there was enough stuff surfacing but nothing biting for me. I guess I needed minnows 🤷🏻‍♂️ I left about 930 bugs were driving me nuts. Just midges or whatever but I was hungry or up to inhaling them


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## forrest r (Mar 14, 2020)

Ya last year it surprised me when I caught a white perch and posted on this website about it along with pictures. About 11:30 a school of the white perch came thru and every other fish shut off and that's all I caught for a 1/2 hour was white perch. 11 of them with the biggest being 10"s.

Me & a couple friends are talking about renting a pontoon boat for a day. If we do we'll end up drift fishing and using crappie rigs with crawlers on the bottom hook and minnows on the top 2 hooks.

There's simply too much junk in the way already to use minnows in the kayak. Got 3 stringers out and an anchor rope in the way already. The big cats will get tangled up in any or all of them every now and then. Having a minnow bucket just adds 1 more thing to get tangled up in.

Good luck & good fishing


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## matticito (Jul 17, 2012)

I'm always on shore, but it sounds like throwing out crappie rigs right now would work. Sometime this week I'm calling work with a fever. 😂


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## bdawg (Apr 14, 2009)

That sucks to hear about the white perch! We were there 2 or 3 years ago and didn't catch any white perch. Just lots of cats and some walleye and some decent yellow perch. 

We were at Lake Chautaqua, NY this summer and couldn't keep the white perch and sunfish off the line long enough to catch anything else! Especially if we anchored along the weed edge. Then, it was a feeding frenzy! Some of those white perch were 12-14"!!! Had to move away from the weed edge to get yellow perch. Caught the occasional walleye and bass mixed in with the others. Just using a jighead and half a nightcrawler.


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## Shed Hunter 365 (Dec 3, 2007)

Those are whitebass


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## forrest r (Mar 14, 2020)

Thank you shed hunter, 

I never really bothered to actually look up the difference between the 2. Just know I don't like seeing them & it doesn't take a lot of hot sauce to eat them


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## set-the-drag (Jan 13, 2013)

Yeah second look at the stringer pic that looks like a wht bass. I can see brolen lines down the side. Wht perch have no lines


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## UNCLEMIKE (Jul 23, 2014)

I know that the white bass from that lake taste great if pulled thru the ice. Never kept any in the summer as I always heard they were mushy.


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## chaunc (Apr 11, 2004)

I’ve heard of white perch being caught from Pymatuning last couple seasons but those fish on the fence are definitely white bass. I’ve only fished there one time since mid May. I don’t like when they start spraying those chemicals to kill the weeds. They should leave the weeds alone and focus on those white perch that are destroying the crappie bite.


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## Ron Y (Dec 2, 2020)

Do you have any updated Pymatuming perch info??? Erie been too rough to try for perch.


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## forrest r (Mar 14, 2020)

Hopefully I'll be able to get out later this week, been busy doing other things along with the weather is affecting the days I could go.


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## flyphisherman (Jul 7, 2009)

I fought the weather, whitecaps, and wind. Tying knots and rigging lines was borderline impossible, but if you could get nightcrawlers to the bottom they were hot to trot.


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## esox72 (Jul 25, 2005)

chaunc said:


> I’ve heard of white perch being caught from Pymatuning last couple seasons but those fish on the fence are definitely white bass. I’ve only fished there one time since mid May. I don’t like when they start spraying those chemicals to kill the weeds. They should leave the weeds alone and focus on those white perch that are destroying the crappie bite.


Chaunc, our club has been following the work done to control the Hydrilla. They have been trying for 5 years now. Sad to say but it will be a never ending and expensive battle. If left unchecked it will leave vast areas of the lake unfishable and unboatable. It is now in Mosquito and coming to a lake near you.


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## matticito (Jul 17, 2012)

flyphisherman said:


> I fought the weather, whitecaps, and wind. Tying knots and rigging lines was borderline impossible, but if you could get nightcrawlers to the bottom they were hot to trot.


Some fine looking perch!


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## matticito (Jul 17, 2012)

esox72 said:


> Chaunc, our club has been following the work done to control the Hydrilla. They have been trying for 5 years now. Sad to say but it will be a never ending and expensive battle. If left unchecked it will leave vast areas of the lake unfishable and unboatable. It is now in Mosquito and coming to a lake near you.


Shame. I'm not aware the other lakes it's in, as I dont boat. If people dont wash their boats off, it'll get worse.


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## chaunc (Apr 11, 2004)

For some strange reason, the weeds don’t grow in Shenango lake. But neither do the perch and bluegills. Rarely catch more than two ten inch perch in a day or eight to nine inch gills. I caught nine bluegills today while crappie fishing and not one was over six inches. Fat but not long. Threw em all back. We got 26 crappies between the two of us.


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## c. j. stone (Sep 24, 2006)

Shed Hunter 365 said:


> Those are whitebass


Not


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## The Fishing Addict (Mar 19, 2014)

Do you anchor when you fish out of the kayak in front of the causeway bridge by chance?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Ron Y (Dec 2, 2020)

I think I was anchored just north of you the other day, caught dozen keeper perch, some smalls, dozen small white bass and channel cat. What rig were you using as bite was very light?


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## Eyes on te ice (Dec 7, 2018)

I fished there in my kayak on Sat. Sun. and monday caught 40 keeper perch 9 -12 inches about 10 cats some nice pumpkinseeds a few tiny whitebass and some nice shinners that I put on a bigger rig and caught some nice perch and cats on. I was using two pound line on a 4 foot ultra lite rod with two ice jigs ( the ones that lay horizontal ) with a half a red worm ( crawlers the first day ). I got a few double headers but they were usually shorts. I probably caught 100+ throw backs. A lot were boarder line in size so we should have another good run next year.


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## matticito (Jul 17, 2012)

c. j. stone said:


> Not


Some on the stringer look like it but the one on the cutting board I dont see much for lines... looked more white perch than white bass to me.


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## Eyes on te ice (Dec 7, 2018)

I went back to the same area on Saturday and I did not catch a single keeper perch! I saw a few caught from the breakwall but all I got were shorts and a couple nice Bluegill and Pumpkinseeds!


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## forrest r (Mar 14, 2020)

I'm anchored


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## matticito (Jul 17, 2012)

forrest r said:


> I'm anchored


Good luck!


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## InlandKid (Aug 29, 2006)

Gunna make a trip there next week, how low is the water level?


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## joebertin (Mar 26, 2010)

C.J. I agree, don't see any lines.


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## esox72 (Jul 25, 2005)

InlandKid said:


> Gunna make a trip there next week, how low is the water level?


Definitely down from summer pool but not near as bad as last year. I've been putting in the ramp just north of he duck-n-drake ramp with no issues.


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## InlandKid (Aug 29, 2006)

esox72 said:


> Definitely down from summer pool but not near as bad as last year. I've been putting in the ramp just north of he duck-n-drake ramp with no issues.


Thanks, water level last fall in October was a pain at the ramps. I plan on hitting the humps and weed lines for walleye. Haven't really heard of the fall bite starting yet for them but I have the week off so I'm going to give it go.


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## forrest r (Mar 14, 2020)

Went back out today same are just closer, 100yds off the bridge. The bite was slow, 2 cats, 5 perch, 4 nice bluegills & a white bass. 3 of the perch were 10"+. Was there 4 hours, did catch 9 or 10 dink perch also.


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## Pymiewalleye (Oct 12, 2014)

Fished last Saturday night. Got a little wet but we got 7 legal eyes between 2 of us casting bombers in 3-5ft of water. Water temp was between 65-67 degrees.


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