Northern Pike in NE PA

[flagup#1]

I'm a transplant from the St. Lawrence area of NY and I grew up catching Northern Pike.  What lakes in this are contain enough of a population of northerns to actually fish for them?  I live in Monroe county and am willing to travel.

Thanks

[saphireblue99]

My dad took me to a place many moons ago called I believe Wolf Swamp?? I've seen postings for it here before so maybe someone can help you out as to where exactly where NE Pa it is. Remember catching about a dozen or so Pike there 30+ inches the biggest ( thats bait up in St. Lawrence parts ) remembered though that it was a good hike after parking to get there. My dad said it was a secret place and no fished it very much, this was 20 years ago though. I'll ask my dad if he still remembers how to get there. Other than that pike are pretty much hit and miss around here, pickerel are king and most people hate em...

[J Miser]

In terms of Monroe County, Wolf Swamp is your only bet for a decent northern and absolutely no one fishes it, its a 2 mile hike in uphill bothways.  I fish it more than anyone probably in this state and have been for almost 18 years now.  I've been begging people for years to go in and cull that population down for a few years now and still have never seen another hole drilled in it besides mine.  Granted, I think the pike are finally eating themselves out of house and home as it has gotten tougher to catch them over the past 3 years, but there are still plenty in there with a decent shot at a 3 footer.  It's in state gamelands #38 but with the maze of trails back there I can't even begin to explain which one to take to get there.  look in the reports archives, you'll see plenty of my reports in there.  I'll be up there soon enough.

Dr. JM

[flagup#1]

Thanks guys!  When I look at the map for SGL #38 (http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/pgc/lib/pgc/counties/maps/38.pdf) I see what I assume you are talking about.  It must be the fairly large body of water that Wolf Swamp Run is connected to.  It appears that there are two ways to get there, one is walking in from the road that goes to Big Pocono State Park and the other way is coming in from the Long Pond area.  Can you drive in from long Pond or is it a gated road?  Does it sound like I am I looking at the correct body of water?
Also Dr.JM, if you want some company there some day just email me, I would probably even take the day off from work to catch some northerns. <[email protected]>

Thanks again

[Dizzy]

I'm a transplant from the St. Lawrence area of NY and I grew up catching Northern Pike.  What lakes in this are contain enough of a population of northerns to actually fish for them?  I live in Monroe county and am willing to travel.

Thanks

Lake Wallenpaupack may be developing a “fishable population” right now. Not sure how exactly they ended up in there… although one story I heard was of a dam breach on a private lake that drains into the Pack during Hurricane Ivan a few years back where pike were stocked regularly. One thing I do know is that people are catching them on a fairly regular basis. Not saying there is a lake-wide distribution or anything (although there may be), but I have seen reports from the open-water season of many northerns being caught there and the frequency of the catches seems to be increasing every season. Might want to contact the Wallenpaupack Sports Shop and see what they have to say.

[J Miser]

Dizzy's right that they got into the pack, numerous reports of random pike coming from there but if it is true that they got there because of Ivan, they are still gonna need some time to breed.  But yeah, the lake that they were stocked in was called Paupacken lake, its a private lake that feeds the pack and they were stocked in there on a regular basis by the community association(one of my grandpas best freinds lived on that lake and had some awesome pics of monster pike).  If thats the dam that broke, then theres the story.

Otherwise, if you're looking at sgl#38 maps, be careful, theres a half dozen lakes on top of camelback and some of them are fishless, others have native trout, and some are so stunted it aint even funny, oh yeah, and redfin pickeral too.  Enjoy and happy huntin.

Dr. JM

[sully]

2 yrs ago we caught a few pike in the 27''- 30'' range at the pack.i think we caught prolly 7 pike that yr..we got 1 this yr it was a smaller one maybe 23''.  so there  are some nice ones in there..

[flagup#1]

Thanks, I fished the pack a few times in the summer targeting bass, I never realized that I could have been going for northerns there.  I've had most of my luck on the inlet side of the lake, is that where you have caught the pike?

[sully]

yes ,all the pike came around the inlet area