Tionesta Lake

[steelerhead95]

Hello everyone, I've been reading this forum for some time now, and finally decided to write. You all are what musky fishing needs, quality, knowledgable, and responsible musky fishermen. I've been chasing the mighty musky since I was 12 years old. My dad used to take me to Tionesta lake every weekend, and we did well on the muskies. That was back when there were big weed beds in the Nebraska no wake zone. I have fished Chataqua, St. Clair, Woodcock, and the Allegheny river with great success, however Tionesta has become a mystery to me. I have spent the last 3 1/2 years fishing the lake and have one musky to show for it. I have been taking my father and father in law, and would love to put them on some fish, but I have been getting skunked left and right. I'm looking for some help. I don't want you to share your secret spot or bait (although I'd listen if you did), I just need some general guidance. The lake doesn't appear to have the weeds anymore like it used to. I troll the upper Nebraska no wake zone with baits like Jakes and Swim Whizz, and cast bucktails and suicks. I troll the main part of the lake with baits like depth raiders and ernie's. I have never fished the lower no wake area by the dam very often. It is deep with good bottom structure, but never had any action down there. Can anyone give me some direction so I don't spend yet another summer on that lake with no fish? Any general advice would be greatly appreciated. I would like to start taking my son there in the years to come, but would like to figure it out a little better first. Thank you so much for yout time.

[Joe M]

I been fishing Tionesta lake for 12 years. It has changed drastically over this time. Ever since the big floods years ago it went downhill. I use to troll the bridge to the no wake bouys with great success. It was 10 to 12' deep then with structure. Now it is 5 to 6' deep with no fish. The weeds below the stump field never came back. There use to be 20 or so stumps with 8 to 10' of water. Now there is one big stump in 2' of water. Now you have to troll the main lake with the ski boats. My numbers went down over the years. I use to have a great pattern that never let me down. Not no more. I did get my biggest fish last Memorial day trolling deep. It was 51.5"s and weighed 36 1/2lbs. I just fished it for 7 hrs on saturday with no action. I know for a fact that the locals keep any legal ski that they catch. This is one of the toughest lakes in Pa to fish. It is just nice that the lake is 6 miles from camp. This weekend I am driving over to Chautauqua. I can be there in about a hour from Tionesta. This lake is great for casting or trolling. Good Luck. I am sure I will run into you soon.

[w pa muskie bound]

i also fished it sat. from 6 till 3.trolled main lake in 30 to35 ft. all big marks were 2 to 3 feet off bottom. i believe because of all the high speed traffic.didn't troll any really deep divers thou. trolled at the no wake zone at dam and caught a really nice 45 . i like trolling the 10 in. jointed believers. trolling them at 4 mph 70 ft. behide flat line.probally should of been trolling them in the deep eye up there , usually fish shallower lakes,shallow eye.we haven't seen a fish casting there yet.good luck to ya .

[Joe M]

You must been the boat I saw and you said you got 1. The other 30 boats were skiers and tubers!!! You have musky bound on the side of your boat?? I was in the Alumnacraft with the net standing straight up in the front...

[steelerhead95]

Hey guys, thanks for the responses. I fish the lake about twice a week. i'm usually in a small smoke colored tiller steer. The only fish i've caught in the last 3 years up there was in the main part of the lake in 23 feet on a depth raider. i had a follow last year up in the no wake zone towards nebraska, by the big bend that turns up towards the bridge. Would you guys recommend that i troll some baits higher up the water column and not down so deep? i troll that lower no wake area a lot with some 30ft divers and never had a thing but bottom hang ups. used to be the stump field and the weed beds in the shallow end were solid gold for casting for muskies. with all the success i've had hunting muskies other places, this tionesta thing is under my skin. oh by the way, the guy that pulled the 36 pounder out of there.....WOW! congrats! that's a hog fish. best i ever got was a thirty pounder, but that was st. clair, and it hardly counts. i'll keep you guys posted on where not to fish in tionesta lake after i go get skunked next time. HAHA. seriously, thanks for the help already, and keep the tionesta talk going!

[RapRunR]

The locals here in Tionesta do NOT keep every legal musky they catch. I can attest to that. Please do not generalize. All of the guys around my circle that fish from shore and many that i know that use boats do NOT keep any of them and are strictly catch and release. You may see guys harvesting them but hopefully some of us locals make up the difference to keep the big girls in the water for the future of this great species in this area.

[muskyjerk]

Nice thing about the musky harvesters is they muskies are not easy to catch even in Tionesta.

[Joe M]

It is the guys who are not targeting the muskies that are keeping them. Not trying to start a debate. Thanks for the c@r on the skis.

[RapRunR]

This year and starting last fall has been slow for muskies and walleyes. It wasn't like that the year before. We were hammering both.

[Red Childress]

What size walleye were you catching in Tionesta Lake?? I had been seeing hooks in that lake in spots that I thought were walleye or sauger but after asking the local WCO, he said there were neither in there.

Now I am leaning towards those hooks being larger redtail suckers. I plan on dropping the AquaView in there later this summer just to verify a few hunches I have.

[w pa muskie bound]

joe m, yes that was us. i think i seen u there last year in sept or oct when we went up there ,can't really remember the month,we go to to many lakes to remember. got to hate them skiers and tubers,also i can't stand sail boaters. we thought we were going to be the only muskie fisherman there until we seen u. steelerhead95 down by dam the fish we were marking were only 10 to 15 feet down.

[Joe M]

Yes. I have never caught or saw a walleye caught at Tionesta lake ever. The warden told me they stopped stocking it 8 years ago after tagging them and finding out they were all going down the outflow. They need to start taking the stocking truck to the Nebraska Bridge launch. I brought this up at a Musky meeting and they agreed but didnt do it. Headed to Chautauqua in 7 hrs. Need to get some sleep and get rid of this buzz!!!!

[steelerhead95]

I've been fishing in Tionesta Lake for about 18 years and I have never seen a walleye in the lake. All of the most recent biologists reports for the lake do not mention walleye's either. I also have been told by fish comm. officers that there aren't any in there. i have no idea what those marks are, but pretty sure they aren't walleye. I'm heading up to the lake in about 1/2 hour to try my luck. i'll let you know how i do.

[Joe M]

They been stocking a bunch of channel catfish. I am thinking that is what they are. I am sticking my aquaview down there the next time I am up without 20 ski boats around me. Good luck. Off to New York for the weekend!!!!

[RapRunR]

Sorry the threads about the lake and i was generalizing about the fishing in the area. If there are no eyes in the lake where do the occasional eyes caught in Tionesta creek come from ? Lake leftovers probably ?

[Red Childress]

My guess is that they run up from the river until they cannot go any further and hang around until the water gets too warm for them and then head back out to the river.

We have caught a few sauger and saugeye within a half-mile of Kinzua which probably means those fish have migrated 90-120+ miles to get here. We actually caught a citation class sauger and saugeye in the Warren area 2 years ago within a 2-week period of time. As you know, they are not stocked anywhere in this area. The saugeye may have resulted from natural cross-breeding around here but I have never gotten a clear answer to that question.

[toothyfishman]

We caught a saugeye right below the Glade bridge, emailed fish commish and they said no way.

I sent them a pic back with the refinery in the background then they changed the story......"must of got thrown in a livewell and hauled up here."

They must be travelers!!!! Either by water or highway they must get around.

[steelerhead95]

Fished Tionesta Lake today for 12 hours. We did some casting in the Nebraska end, and trolled the rest. Trolled the main part of the lake until about 11 when the campers woke up. stayed in 18-26 feet of water and trolled everything from bottom bouncing to 6 foot divers. we also fished the lower no wake zone by the dam really hard. we trolled it over and over and over. We trolled 30 ft divers and 4 ft. divers and everything in between. No action. No strikes. water temp was up to 82 by the time we left. 3 years still no musky at this lake. I won't quit. going back tomorrow. I'll report back.

[steelerhead95]

I hit the lake again today. 3 of us today. We trolled for about 6 hours, casted for about 3 hours. nothing. not even an exciting snag. the lake was as busy as i've seen it all year, it got nearly impossible to troll the main part of the lake. we did mark a lot of fish in the main lake portion, all within 5 feet of the bottom.

[Red Childress]

I have cancelled 2 Tionesta charters and moved 2 other charters to the river over the past 10 days due to the high water temps on Tionesta.

[muskyjerk]

Steelhead- Well written opening thread. Lots of thought put in. You deserve a hot lure. Recently the Legend Outcast has caught me 3 muskies on two different waters since June 1. They weren't Tionesta lake. Outcast is shallow and Perchbait deeper.
Never owned a Legend before this year and now own 4. When thrown into a swimming pool 3 (2 Outcast, 1 Perchbait) walked like discussed in the recent Musky Hunter. The 4th is a Plow and would probably damage the liner.

[steelerhead95]

thanks for the tip. i'm gonna check those lures out. i'm always looking for a hot lure. i appreciate you sharing. i'm gonna keep hitting tionesta and trying to find the winning ticket for the summer fish. i am going to try a whole new approach. if i keep doing the same thing over and over and get no fish, that's my fault. i'll keep you posted if i find a pattern.

[muskyjerk]

River muddy, paid my $3 and went to lake Tuesday. Water temp varied from 84 by nebraska bridge to 88 by the water skiiers. No muskies.

[steelerhead95]

Well, I'll bring this topic back to the top. I was on Tionesta Lake today untill i couldn't take the heat any longer. It was HOT out there. I switched up tactics and drifted some plastic stuff on the bottom and worked slowly for the deep fish. No luck. I trolled the deepest, coldest water in the lake, no action. I did see lots of floating weeds on the surface, and they were good green weeds. I'd like to find where they're growing. I searched, but can't find them. Anyhow, skunked again. Water temp went from 82 to start to 85. I talked to an older gentleman that said walleyes kept following his hot-n-tot up to the boat. I'm pretty sure they weren't walleyes, but wonder what they were? Perch maybe? I don't know. Anyhow, I'll keep the wonderful reports about how to not catch muskies at tionesta coming your way.

[SportJet120]

Probably smallies after those h-n-t. The river at Tionesta also had lots of green weeds on top and the bite was slow, at least for me anyway.

[Red Childress]

I ended up cancelling my last 9 Tionesta trips due to high water temps so I am of little help in reporting anything except from our camping trip down there in mid-July. We ended up catching a mid to upper 30's fish at night. During the day, we pulled "bald" plugs (no hooks) just to see if we could get a few rips from those deep hooks we kept marking at night............sure enough we had several nice rips and 2 of them lasted long enough for us to get the rod out of the holder but immediately spit them out.

It was really cool doing this because we were not worried about losing the high-dollar Hookers and Plows so we were much more daring with our presentation. If you ever get a chance to do this (Charlie even got the OK from one of the NYDEC guys to cast the weedbeds on Chautauqua prior to the season opening up as long as the plugs were "bald"), it is a highly effective way to "scout" the horrible timber situations in many bodies of water without the worries of losing your expensive baits. (Without the hooks on the plugs, the dive charts are not correct. The baits run a little shallower, of course.)

[Red Childress]

Anyone have a very recent temperature reading for Tionesta??

Thanks in advance!

[Joe M]

Red, I have not been up in over a month. Was suppose to fish the musky tourney on the lake this weekend but my wifes grandfather passed away on Thursday and spent the weekend at the Funeral home. I will try to find out for you. Be up for labor day weekend.

[Red Childress]

Sorry to hear that bad news, Joe. Funeral Homes are not fun at all.

What tournament was on there last weekend?? As for the temp, I had blocked off a few days this week to do some trolling down there (alone) but did not want to drag the boat down there if it was still too hot. My Terrova is in the shop for some warranty work so my casting gig is down until next week.

Please tell your wife I am sorry about her loss.

[SportJet120]

Red what happen to the Terrova? Mine started to go crazy on Auto Pilot. I checked the SG of the batteries and found one was on the low side. Swapped that battery with the other boat and no problems. I was surprise how finicky those Terrovas are.

[Red Childress]

The directional motor has been making this random popping/grinding noise since mid-July and just recently started making that sound everytime I turn the head but I did not have time to get it fixed until this week. Everything else has been working fine and without failure. Since it is still under warranty, I dropped it off at Wiegel's yesterday.

[lowbidder]

Gary,
What type of problems were you having with your Terrova on AP? I had mine out last saturday with the AP turned on heading up the riverbank pitching into some standing timber moving very slowly and I noticed mine would not track in the direction I was setting.

At the time I thought it might have been because I was only set on the "1" speed and sometimes that is not enough propulsion to properly adjust the boats' heading, but now that I think back, the head wasn't even pointing in the proper direction, so there may have been a problem with mine as well.

Let me know how yours was acting. You have the I-pilot too... right?

Mike

[Joe M]

Red, some guy Zeke that has a camp up from the nebraska bridge has it the 3rd weekend of august every year. I been to the last 3. he has been doing it for a long time. A bunch of ohio guys. It is a great time with tons of food and lots of cold beer and fishing stories. If your interested next year let me know. You can stay at my place. I am only 6 miles from the party and have a 40' by 60' garage for the boats. send me a pm if you get to the lake. i will be up next weekend. i fished the lowere allegheny today and surface temps were still 82. missed one on a top raider..

[steelerhead95]

Finally got to work Tionesta Lake again this weekend, got out Friday night and Saturday morning. We raised 3 fish in the same general area casting, one really nice one. two of them followed the crankbait in for a look, and the third took a good swipe at a bucktail. Sat morning we landed a low 40's fish on a bucktail. water temp was 65-69. We didn't do any trolling this time, just casting.

[Joe M]

I fished the lake over the Holiday weekend. 10 hrs and no action at all. Talked to one other boat that had a small follow and then zippo for him also.

[SportJet120]

Sorry Mike for the late reply . I must of missed your post. Yes mine has the I-pilot also. Mine was spinning in circles on Spot Lock and wouldn't travel in a straight line on Auto Pilot. I checked the specific gravity reading on the batteries and found one to be on the low side so I swapped out that battery and all seems fine now. I'm very happy with it now.
Gary,
What type of problems were you having with your Terrova on AP? I had mine out last saturday with the AP turned on heading up the riverbank pitching into some standing timber moving very slowly and I noticed mine would not track in the direction I was setting.

At the time I thought it might have been because I was only set on the "1" speed and sometimes that is not enough propulsion to properly adjust the boats' heading, but now that I think back, the head wasn't even pointing in the proper direction, so there may have been a problem with mine as well.

Let me know how yours was acting. You have the I-pilot too... right?

Mike