Central Pennsylvania Hot Spots 

There are several lakes in Central PA that offer excellent opportunities for bass fishing including Lake Raystown, Sayers Dam, Curwensville Lake, East Branch, Kinzua, and the Clarion River just to name a few.  Finding bass in Pennsylvania lakes can often be tough because many lakes in our area are often deep water impoundments that allow the bass to retreat from the shallows in early spring and move to deeper water in the summer months.  Lakes such as Lake Raystown and Kinzua are examples of these types of lakes.  Bass can be found in these lakes often relating to the main lake points and flats around the lakes.  At Lake Raystown the Seven Points area offers some excellent smallmouth bass fishing around the points and wooded flats.  In Kinzua the smallmouth tend to hang around the small bays with points in morning. Then move back to deeper water as the sun becomes higher in the sky.  Lakes such as Curwensville and Sayers are smaller and shallower lakes and can often be easier to catch bass.  In Curwensville Lake the fish relate to wood on shores and hang around the large weed beds that are on almost every flat in the lake.  In Sayers the fish relate to structure such as roadbeds, broken down bridges, humps, points, and an underwater pond.  Finding these structures in Sayers can easily be done with a topographical map and a depth finder.

Lake Raystown – Seven Points Area, Aitch Points, Nancy’s Campground, Mile Marker 25, Roadbeds (Find on Topo Map) Main and Secondary Points, Bluffs (Early Spring)

Kinzua – Willow Bay, Cornplanter Bay, Small Bay across from Cornplanter, Sugar Bay, Devils Elbow, Bridge, Flat across from dew drop in Kinzua Branch.  Flat beside Elijah boat launch.
Curwensville Lake – Flat beside launch, dam, old bridge walls in river section, lumber city bridge area, bluff past old bridge on left, flat on the left past old bridge

Sayers Dam – Broken down bridges (2 of them on in the middle of the lake outside of Howard launch, and one at the entrance to hunters run, directly across from hunters run (old train tracks underwater), the pond (above main bridge on left if heading toward the dam) you will need to see a map to find this, roadbed outside of cemetery launch, and the point outside of cemetery launch.

Clarion River (Deep Section) – Upstream from the boat launch seems to be the best area you will need to be careful the water is gets shallow and has current.  You can take your boat up a short ways then drift down casting jerk baits, tubes, etc..

East Branch Dam of the Clarion River – Across from the boat launch, the first bay on the left going down from the boat launch, the small rocky bays, and the rocky flats.  Fish from shallow to deep, often the bass will be in shallow in the morning then back out to 25 to 30 feet of water in the afternoon.

Kinzua Walleye Fishing

Walleye fishing in Kinzua can be excellent especially in the first parts of June and late May.  It seems that walleye can be found everywhere if you have an idea of where and how to catch them.  Walleye can be found on many of the flats and shallow bays of the Kinzua branch of the reservoir this time year.  Fish are usually in water less than 20 feet of water and can be caught jigging with a jig head and a small piece of nightcrawler or using a bottom bouncer with a crawler harness trolling the flats.  Walleye are often short of the 15 inches but there are plenty that go above the 15-inch limit.  As the water warms in the summer the walleye will push out to deeper water.  In the summer month’s lots of anglers have good success pulling bottom bouncers with shinny crawler harness and pulling them at a good pace, which triggers a reaction strike from the walleye.

Kinzua Walleye Hot Spots

(New York) North outside of Willow Bay (New York ** Seneca Reservation ** you will need a reservation license to fish north of Willow Bay in New York, however you do not need a New York license) Fishing in New York waters is by far the best Walleye waters in Kinzua.  Walleye can be found just north of Willow Bay in the middle of the lake where an old roadbed stretches for some distance.

(PA) Willow Bay, Cornplanter Bay, Sugar Bay, Kinzua Branch

Lake Raystown Striped Bass

Lake Raystown is one of the only lakes in Pennsylvania that host a good population of striped bass.  And the average stripped bass is over 10 lbs and a few have been taken out that exceed 40 lbs. An excellent article about striper fishing at Lake Raystown can be found here http://www.stripers247.com/raystownlake.htm

Lake Raystown Guide Services

• Stan's Raystown Lake Guide Service - RD#1 Box 434, Huntingdon 814-643-2917
• Clapper's Guide Service - RR1 Box 66 James Creek, Pa This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it - 814-658-2122
• "Lunker" Guide Service - Fred Davoli, RR1 Box 96, Alexandria, PA 16611 (814) 669-8887
• Raystown Lake Striper Guide Service - Tim Grace, 123 East 1st Ave. Altoona PA 16602 Call (814) 669-6754
• Trophy Guide Service Sparky Price, R.D. 3, Box 50, and Huntingdon, PA 16652 Phone: (814) 627-5231.
• Raystown Lake Big Striper Guide Service - E-mail: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

Central Pennsylvania Trout Fishing

Central PA is known for it’s trout fishing from popular streams such as Spruce Creek, Penns Creek, Spring Creek, Kettle Creek, and First Fork to name a few.   Trout fishing is these streams can be phenomenal and offer some very large trout for anglers.  One of my favorite streams is Kettle Creek that is located in the northern sections of the PA Wilds in Potter County.  This is some of the most beautiful county that Central PA has to offer and is an excellent place to do some outstanding fly fishing.  Kettle Creek in the Cross Fork area is easily accessed from Route 144 and there are many places to fish.  One of my favorite locations to fish is the Kettle Creek Fly Fishing Project.  This is a stretch of water that is designated as fly fishing only and is open to fish all year long with no closed season.  Other great locations include Leighty’s Bridge, the Pittsburgh Hole (above Leighty’s Bridge, the 144 Bridge, the restoration project, and those are only a few of the popular locations) Hatches on Kettle Creek can be huge with several different types of bugs landing on the water at one time, popular flies include Gordon’s, March Browns, Adams, Wolfs, Red Quills, and Blue Quills.  If the weather is on the rainy side give a pheasant tailed nymph, hare’s ear nymph, or bead head woolly buggers.