Best Walleye Lake in Eastern PA?

[Cbass123]

I'm looking for a lake in Eastern PA with a good amount of walleye.  For some reason they seem to be the fish that always elude me.  Looking for suggestions for places with a good chance of landing one on the ice.  I'm looking for numbers rather than size.  Any suggestions help!  Thank you.

I'm outside of Philly, but willing to travel a couple hours.  I've never fished a river on the ice, and I'm not interested in starting, so the Delaware is definitely out.

[butcher]

Cbass123,

I can point you to a good walleye lake in southeast PA.  It's a relatively small lake with good numbers of walleyes and many other species as well but unfortunately, ice fishing is prohibited at this lake.  The lake in question is Falls Township Park.  It's located near the intersection of Route 13 and Penn Valley Road - just three or four miles from the Trenton Makes bridge.  The park and lake are closed after dark so you can only fish during daylight hours.  Shoreline access isn't great and wading is prohibited but the park does allow non-motored an electric only watercraft.  I know you are specifically looking to catch some eyes through the ice but I thought I'd share anyway since eastern PA has so few lakes that have a fishable population of walleyes. 

The only other lakes I can think of  in the southeast are Lake Luxembourg (Core Creek Park) in Langhorne and Lake Nockamixon (upper Bucks County). Luxembourg does have some walleyes there but the population is small and difficult to fish.  The Nock has a decent population of walleye but they are hard to find and hard to catch.  Further, the Nock rarely freezes enough to ice fish outside of a few of the coves. 

Last comment, the PA Fish Commission website has a searchable database of previous stockings by fish species, waterways and counties.  If you want to find where the state has stocked them, check out the following link and look up walleye by surrounding counties and you'll see how many have been stocked in recent and previous years: http://fbweb.pa.gov/stocking/WWCWStockingDetailsHistorical_RFP.aspx

I hope this is helpful.  Good Luck!

[Icemole]

 Struble is "supposed" to be loaded. Been trying for 30+ yrs.(more so in the 80's+90's) so far have failed. I was primarily fishing from my boat early spring or late fall, but did try on ice a few times. Nockamixon and Blue Marsh are good choices(maybe not on the ice right now) but you might be better off fishing below the dams. Tuscarora gives up some and Leaser was pretty good before all the problems. Don't know if the recent stockings have taken hold up there.

 Many of our SE lakes are no longer stocked with walleye so check the stocking reports page on the PFBC to see if a particular lake is still stocked. Walleye don't spawn with much success here in eastern Pa.(catch + release only)

 Also I believe Bucks county requires an additional "permit" to launch a boat into their parks if you go that route.
 

[butcher]

Icemole is correct. Any lake in the Bucks County park system requires an additional permit for boats on top of the standard PA boat permit.  I think it’s about $20.

Falls Township park mentioned in my earlier post is not part of the Bucks County park system. Previously it did require a special boating permit from the township that was fairly expensive but they’ve since dropped the requirement so only a standard PA boat permit is needed.

[theTUGistheDRUG]

Excellent thread topic.  I have been trying to figure this out as well.  Tried Tuscarora with no success, although my buddy might have dropped one by the dam area.  Nocky is in my backyard.  Ice has been too inconsistent for my taste.  Absolutely potential for tanks there.  I know they are in there.  Beltzville is another potential as well as Wallenpaupack.  I was curious about Struble, I heard there was a healthy population there.  I currently head to big O in NY.  They are still elusive buggers...

[Cbass123]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.  I've tried Nockamixon, Beltzville, and Bluemarsh but never had any real luck with them.  Maybe I just need to hit them a little harder to try and get a better pattern on the lakes.  I'll definitely take a look at Falls Township, Luxembourg and Struble.  Thanks again for the help!

[butcher]

TUG - The Nock definitely had some beast walleyes roaming that lake in previous years.  A number of years ago, a buddy and I found a great summer pattern on a school of big walleyes.  We probably fished it once or twice a week that summer and most days we'd land 2-3 fish in the 20-25" inch range.  That summer, we probably caught 20 fish over 24".  The biggest one I got there (and my PB) was 28" and weighed in just over 8lbs.  It only worked that one summer but I'm pretty sure they are still in there.  It looks like the PA fish commission continued stocking them through 2014 but I'm not sure how well they reproduce on their own in that lake but there should still be plenty in there.  It's a big lake, they're tough to find and they are finicky but if you can figure them out and have some luck, it's worth the investment of time. 

[theTUGistheDRUG]

Gotta find the alewife on most of these lakes.  Not an easy task. 

[oscar22]

Lake Galena "used" to have them...A friend caught a nice one years back from a boat...Ice conditions are iffy in SE PA...the lake is between Doylestown and Chalfont

[butcher]

Galena (Peace Valley Park) allegedly does have walleyes but they are pretty much impossible to catch.  I think I gave up on that lake after my fifth or sixth trip (all in a boat).  The only thing I have to show for 30+ hours of fishing were about 1,000 white perch under 6"...  I'm sure there are walleye in Galena but they might as well be sasquatch.  People believe they exist but sightings are rare...

If I could pick only 1 lake for walleyes in eastern PA it would be Falls Township park but again, no ice fishing permitted.

[theTUGistheDRUG]

My Uncle used to always tell me about how he caught them like crazy trolling by the dam in "good old days".   

Always was curious to check for myself. 

There are some big cats in there.  Remember a guy that used to catch some beasts after dark.

[Icemole]

 Have you given any thought to open water on the Delaware or Susky - although there are guys who ice fish them(up north). Find yourself a nice deeper bank side eddy and toss twisters, stick baits or minnows. Hold on though you might get a musky (or this year for me flatheads).

 Your chances of success will be much higher .... LOL

[butcher]

I definitely agree that the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers are good fisheries for walleyes and probably your best bet to catch them consistently but...  Cbass specifically said he was looking for a lake and not a river.