Moraine State Park

[xnmcclurex]

does any one fish lake aurthur? i heard it has some huge channels in it. i usually catch bullheads and bream when im there but i was wondering if anyone else fished it?

[DIESELkat]

Ive fished it alot for striper and crappie but never specifically for cats. I did catch a channel about 27" a couple years ago. Ive heard increasingly good stories about the channels in it and I might have to go up and try for em this year.

[catfish chaser]

I think Lake Arthur is one of the best Channel Cat lake in the state. I have caught some monsters from there

[DIESELkat]

I have a little honeyhole for wood ducks and teal that I think would be great for channels. Im pretty sure that is where I will start tryin for them when I go there. Ive heard that the point near Shannon is pretty good for them too and its pretty close to where I caught the 1. The upper 528 launch should be pretty good too.

Do you guys catch em more in the main lake or in the bays?

[xnmcclurex]

i usually fish the bays, the main lake gets too windy in a little 14ft jon boat. i usually fish muskrat cove and the boat launch on south shore as soon as you enter the park. theres a duck blind at the end and a stretch of shore.

[catfish chaser]

528 is a great place to fish but always soo crowded with people:confused2:. I like to fish the main lake. I do alot of drift fishing there. I have good luck from 528 boat launch down to nealeys point

[xnmcclurex]

i like going there on the first day of trout season because no ones there. i might try some drift fishing this year in some of the bays, and hopefully catch a new pb channel.

[moose22dog]

i don't go up there a whole lot but i read some where, that it's one of the top lakes in the state for channel's. i usally go for stripper's but one time got a real nice channel up. hope this help's .... justin

[River dog]

Have been thinking about heading up to lake Aurther this year are you able to fish at night ? I also read somewhere that the lake is the best in the state..

[bw69r]

never been there but it sounds like a great place to fish.

[jolie]

Have been thinking about heading up to lake Aurther this year are you able to fish at night ? I also read somewhere that the lake is the best in the state..

yes, you definitely can fish at night. I have spent some time on morraine and I don't think anyone could blindly say its the "best in the state"--its no fairer than the plenty of local people who say its a "dead sea"...

neither description is true but neither one is completely wrong either. its a large very pressured reservoir with a large dense population of several kinds of bait fish. that means the trophy potential is High- but so is the skunking potential.

as for me, when I hear 'best in the state' I generally think 'ease of catching large fish'...but do not apply very much to morraine. When I think of morraine, the only thing thats EASY to catch is little bullheads (they're everywhere). Its not easy to catch any of morraine large gamefish; but when you do, boy they can be some nice fish.

[River dog]

thanks for the tips Jolie, Moraine is about a 2 hour drive I think I will still try fishing there but maybe the grass is not always greener the Ohioriver is only 5 mins away....

[catfish chaser]

Fished yesterday after work landed 9 channels with the biggest going 6lb. Forgot the camera in the truck though. First boating trip this year I always forget one thing:tounge_out:

[Pennsylvaniacatchaser]

Fished yesterday after work landed 9 channels with the biggest going 6lb. Forgot the camera in the truck though. First boating trip this year I always forget one thing:tounge_out:

Nice job on the Channel Cats Ryan! Thanks for the report. :cool2: I've been thinking about taking a ride up to Lake Arthur to try for some Channels!

[jolie]

Fished yesterday after work landed 9 channels with the biggest going 6lb. Forgot the camera in the truck though. First boating trip this year I always forget one thing:tounge_out:

any tantalizing hints? muddy creek arm- near the south shore bL, north shore??

rep on its way! I still think there's more catfish at shenango, but it has always seemed that arthur had bigger fish.

[catfish chaser]

I was fishing the 528 launch area. fish were all caught drifting in shallow water 4 to 8 ft. I found a large shad that had died recently at the boat launch and caught most fish on it.

[Bigcatpat]

I fish moraine fairly often for channels.Good chance of getting 1 over 20# on any given night.I like fishing the north shore launch area after dark.You can catch all the gills you,ll need for the whole night in about 20 minutes there.Water is fairly deep here_you can cast into about 15+ft here from shore.Best action here seems to be from 1/2 hour before dark until about midnite.If the weeds are up high ,I like to fish my gill about a ft off the bottom(add a small cork on your leader.I,ve also had decent sucess out on Neely,s Point on the north shore too-if you want to fish there ,come early,theres limited space out there and the striper guys like it out there too.Hope this helps some.

[DIESELkat]

Hittin the lake tomorrow with the boat. Im pretty sure that Ive got at least 1 screw loose to be goin out in the weather that were havin right now but im givin it a shot anyhow. Hoping to get into some crappie and maybe even walleye during the day and then move and try for some channels in the afternoon/evening. As long as I dont get blown off the lake i will have a report when I get back. I need to catch something with whiskers quickly!!!

[bw69r]

good luck Justin and be careful out there. catch me a hog or two if ya don't mind. :wink:

[vinestbrew]

Seems to me the lake fishes better at night..

[DIESELkat]

It was very windy and the water temps were down a good bit on Wed. We didnt see another boat on the entire lake when we launched and didnt see any traffic at all until about 5pm. It was very hard to keep put over any type of structure. We only caught small gills and 1 LM. Didnt even stick around and try for cats as the wind had us pretty well beat by 6pm. Hopefully going to give it a try again this coming week.

[rhuffman]

Its listed in a few books as one of the best trophy cat waters in the us

[xnmcclurex]

im hittin moraine on saturday for the trout opener, i go every year on first day of trout and have the whole lake to myself. hoping to catch some bullheads, gills, channels and perch.

[catfish chaser]

just got back from Moraine. Kinda slow day landed 5 channels with the biggest going 3 1/2lbs. Caught 8 bullheads to use as bait though. might head back up tomorrow

[xnmcclurex]

i tried today and all i got was gills, and one big perch. no bullheads, i tried bluegill guts, chicken livers, worms, and cut shiner but nothing, atleast i got 22 gills and a perch for the tank

[dave32881]

I've fished moraine for most of my life, it's only a 10 minute drive from where I live. My favorite spot (Shore fishing) is off of Rt. 528 in prospect, there is a church that sits on the right hand side if you're coming off route 422 just before the 528 bridge. I've had some really good results alot of bass, blue gill and crappie there. I just read an artical online but from what I read there's alot of people who have had good luck catfishing for flatheads and channelcat directly under and around the Rt.528 bridge.:big_smile:

[DIESELkat]

I've fished moraine for most of my life, it's only a 10 minute drive from where I live. My favorite spot (Shore fishing) is off of Rt. 528 in prospect, there is a church that sits on the right hand side if you're coming off route 422 just before the 528 bridge. I've had some really good results alot of bass, blue gill and crappie there. I just read an artical online but from what I read there's alot of people who have had good luck catfishing for flatheads and channelcat directly under and around the Rt.528 bridge.:big_smile:

Flatheads at Moraine??? Didnt know there were any.

[Bigcatpat]

I've fished moraine for most of my life, it's only a 10 minute drive from where I live. My favorite spot (Shore fishing) is off of Rt. 528 in prospect, there is a church that sits on the right hand side if you're coming off route 422 just before the 528 bridge. I've had some really good results alot of bass, blue gill and crappie there. I just read an artical online but from what I read there's alot of people who have had good luck catfishing for flatheads and channelcat directly under and around the Rt.528 bridge.:big_smile:I,m not saying its not possible ,but I,ve never seen a flattie out of Arthur yet. I have caught some channels there that thought they were flats. Theres a shelf with weeds on it right out from that white church, I,ve done pretty good there too. The hills a little too steep there for me though, haven,t been to that spot in a couple years.:ooooh:

[DIESELkat]

I would have to say that they were mis-identified channels. There are some HAWG channels in there and with so many weekend warriors and people who just go out to catch whatever, I would say somebody caught maybe a 15-20 pounder and didnt realize channels could get that big and figured that it was a flat. Like you said Pat, Im not saying that it couldnt happen but I doubt it. It could also be that with as long as a flat can live out of water, or in a tub with a couple inches of water, they are perfect candidates for transplants. Its possible that somebody is catching them in the river (or even as close as slippery rock creek) and transplanting them into the lake. Who knows, if its true, in a couple years you could see guys goin to the lake for big flats instead of the river.

[catfish chaser]

I've never heard of Flats either. Unless someone brought them from somewhere else in put them in there

[xnmcclurex]

i went today in muskrat cove today and only caught aobut 10 fish, a perch and some big gills, went back into the bird observatory area and my dad and i saw some huge fish jumping back there, and when we were back there we kept kicking up something huge on the bottom but other than that there are alot of snappers back there

[dave32881]

Yeah, I could've been mistaken on the flathead. But other than that I've had good results from that area. I've also tried above the Muddy creek dam, didn't do too well there:embarassed:

[Bigcatpat]

I've never heard of Flats either. Unless someone brought them from somewhere else in put them in there
Now your giving me ideas !:ooooh:

[jolie]

Now your giving me ideas !:ooooh:

Don't get ideas.. they'd look you up for so you'd never see sunlight again ... and... it was nice knowing you Pat:smile2::smile2::smile2:

flatheads are truly hard on a waterway, I think as much I like catching them we should yield to commissions desire to keep them where they are...

[riv56]

Pat you are telling about my secret spot, the shelf in front of the church boat launch, shhhhh you never know when someone might be reading these. good fishin

[Bigcatpat]

Pat you are telling about my secret spot, the shelf in front of the church boat launch, shhhhh you never know when someone might be reading these. good fishin
You gotta give up a few spots to keep the pressure off your REALLY secret spot!:ooooh::smile2::ooooh::cool2: