Warm Water and Lake Fishing

     Our mountainous area is blessed with a number of fine, cold-water tour fisheries.  However, for anglers who prefer warm-water species, public opportunities are limited within the immediate area, with almost all the action confined to lakes.  

     An occasional small mouth bass is caught on the Stonycreek River from Shanksville to below Stoystown, but none of the other flowing waters are known to hold bass or other warm water species.  

     Analyses of the Stonycreek River indicate that, from Stoystown the whole way to the City of Johnstown, the river has a good pool-to-riffle ratio and could be a good bass fishery.  The Oven Run mine-drainage remediation project, which will address six separate mine discharges on Oven and Pokeytown runs, could potentially create a bass fishery from Stoystown to the mouth of Shade Creek - a distance of about 7 miles.  If another major mine-drainage reclamation effort can be undertaken on Shade Creek or Paint Creek, most of the river could make a come-back, and a flowing bass fishery could be possible just above and potentially through Johnstown. 

     The mainstem Conemaugh River below Conemaugh Gap near Armagh already is making a comeback, local sportsmen report.  Various sport fish are migrating into the area from adjacent streams and from Lake Conemaugh further downstream.