Several lakes across Pennsylvania receive enhancements for fishing, erosion control
Keeping fish happy and healthy through the year involves having good places for them to swim.
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, with help from other agencies and volunteers, is working on several habitat improvement projects across Pennsylvania this summer.
Blue Marsh Lake
The Berks County Conservation District received $135,000 from Bass Pro Shops U.S. Open Grant to stabilize eroding shorelines and add offshore wood habitat structures to Blue Marsh Lake. The Fish and Boat Commission and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers partnered to work on the shoreline at three different accesses at Blue Marsh Lake.
“The grant helped pay for a large amount of shoreline stabilization,” Ben Page, Fish and Boat Commission Lake Habitat Section chief, said.
Rock deflectors were placed to reduce erosion from wave action and create fish habitat.
“What was once an eroded shoreline is now a stable area for anglers to fish off of, and the quality fish habitat should make for some pretty good fishing from shore,” he explained.
Vinnie Lessard, habitat manager for the PFBC, is coordinating an effort to place 300 wooden structures in the lake bed to attract fish. They will be dropped in the lake from boats in different areas of the waterway.
Pymatuning Reservoir
The Fish and Boat Commission, Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and the Pymatuning Lake Association (PLA) are working together to stabilize three different shorelines at Pymatuning State Park. The PLA received $109,832 from Bass Pro Shops U.S. Open Grant to stabilize eroding shorelines on the reservoir at McArthur Access, Bradford Woods, and Lower Grandview Access.
“The waves during a storm can get pretty big, and they really deteriorate that eastern shoreline,” Page explained.
Rocks will be placed to help deflect the wave action in the region. The work is scheduled to take place between August and September.
The projects will stop active erosion, increase fish habitat, and improve angling and boating access.
The PLA is also using Bass Pro Shops grant funding on a volunteer-scale project in May. The Fish and Boat Commission, DCNR, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Allegheny Creek Connections, and Crawford County Conservation District are working together with the PLA to build and place 150 wooden structures for fish habitat near the Ohio Campground Access.
Raystown Lake
The Fish and Boat Commission, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and partners built and placed 50 wooden fish habitat structures in April in Raystown Lake near the Snyders Run area in Huntingdon County. Local anglers, Friends of Raystown Lake, and students from Juniata College volunteered to help build the structures that are designed to attract and protect small fish. Larger predator fish are drawn to the structures as they watch for the smaller fish.
The Fish and Boat Commission will be operating its rock barge in July and Sept. 5- 22 to continue remote shoreline stabilization at Mile Marker 11. The Friends of Raystown Lake received a grant from the Reservoir Fisheries Habitat Partnership for $70,000 to stabilize eroding lake shoreline.
F.J. Sayers Reservoir
The Fish and Boat Commission partnered with DCNR at Bald Eagle State Park in February of 2023 to improve shorelines at Lower Greens Run and Winter Launch accesses. The project improved shoreline fish habitat and added rock rubble piles offshore to enhance shoreline angling.
Page said the rocks attract micro-invertebrates and smaller fish that larger fish eat.
“People will be able to fish off of those deflectors, and we also have adjacent rock rubble piles, so not only taking care of just the shoreline but then placing rock rubble piles out in front of those that will bring in a lot of fish,” he said.
In addition, the PFBC will be working with the Wildlife Leadership Academy and a State College Eagle Scout candidate in June to place turtle basking platforms.
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Glendale Lake
Glendale Lake in Prince Gallitzen State in Cambria County received shoreline stabilization work earlier this year at Muskrat Beach and Turtle Cove accesses. Page said they used excavators, loaders and skid steers to build up the rock areas. A kayak launch was also added at Turtle Cove. The agency’s barge hauled rock to drop material along the shoreline to create a wall to reflect the waves and create fish habitat areas. He said the agency used more than $300,000 from the Grower Greener funds.
Page said the improvements happening at lakes across the state lead to immediate opportunities for anglers.
“Usually within a couple days,” he said, fish are finding the new habitat structures. The lakes have volunteer angling groups and associations that help to make the projects a reality, he said.
“Those partners are all very important to the success of the projects, and we certainly couldn’t do it without all project partners we work with,” Page said.
Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on this website's homepage under your login name. Follow him on Facebook @whipkeyoutdoors ,Twitter @whipkeyoutdoors and Instagram at whipkeyoutdoors.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Glendale, FJ Sayers lake improvement projects underway
