Fish yield holds steady in Wilmore Dam

You don't get to Wilmore Dam by accident.

Located near Portage in Cambria County at the end of a dirt and gravel road behind a gate and surrounded by woods, the 195-acre lake is tucked away and is one of three bodies of water owned by the Cambria-Somerset Water Authority.

All have been open to public fishing and boating since 2000 under a cooperative agreement with the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. Biologists have sampled it — with the others, Quemahoning Reservoir and Hinckston Dam — this spring to see how fish populations have fared since 1999, when it was last examined.

In Wilmore's case, the news is good.

Rick Lorson, the commission's Area 8 fisheries manager, told a crowd of anglers at a public demonstration of survey techniques that Wilmore's largemouth bass, bluegills and crappies are doing as well as, and in some cases better than, a decade ago.

Fishermen seem to be aware of that already.

"I've been impressed by the amount of fishing pressure," Lorson said. "The technical phrase we use to describe when we see as many people as we've seen on this lake is that it's 'getting pounded.'

"But that's a good thing. Usually when you see this many people on a lake, that means it's getting stocked with trout, and that's not the case here. So, that tells me people are getting other fish."

Crappies are a big draw, and it's no wonder, he said, reporting that their population doubled between 1999 and 2001. Biologists didn't find a lot of huge fish last week — the biggest was about 13 1/2 inches, according to Lorson — but there were many over 9 inches, the minimum size limit for possession on the lake, managed under panfish enhancement regulations.

The number of largemouth bass, meanwhile, is almost identical now compared to 1999, as is the number of fish bigger than 12 inches. The number of fish bigger than 15 inches has quadrupled, though.

"And a large number of those fish we saw were 16 to 19 inches. Just big, healthy fish," Lorson said.

Bluegill densities were down compared with 1999 but still twice the state average, with plenty of 8-inch fish available, he said.

There are some other species in the lake. Bob Ventorini, the commission's "three rivers" biologist with responsibilities including the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio, said Wilmore has decent populations of bullhead catfish along with some channel cats. Yellow perch also are to be found, though in low numbers.

But if you're into bluegills, bass and crappies, Wilmore is a place worth visiting, Lorson said.

"I'm going to talk about this lake as a success story," he said.

Other Cambria-Somerset lakes have 'quality'

The other two lakes owned by the Cambria-Somerset Water Authority are Quemahong Reservoir in Somerset County and Hinckston Dam in Cambria. Fish and Boat Commission biologists also surveyed those lakes this spring.

Both offer quality over quantity, said biologist Mike Depew. Take the bluegills are Quemahoing, for example. Their numbers are not overly plentiful.

"But the ones we did get were some of the biggest I've seen," Depew said. "We saw numerous bluegills 9 to 11 inches, and even some monsters well over 1 pound."

The lake also has walleyes up to 26 inches, lots of northern pike — they averaged 20 inches in length, though some stretched to 33 — and brown trout up to 26 inches.

Hinckston, meanwhile, surrendered bluegills up to 10 inches and crappies up to 12. It is, however, one of the three lakes where attempts to create fisheries seem to be failing. The commission has been stocking walleye fry and brow and rainbow trout fingerlings in the lake to take advantage of the lake's "two-story" fishery, which has warm water on top and colder water deeper.

But biologists collected just a half dozen walleyes and no trout. As a result, the stocking programs at Quemahonig and Hinckston might be terminated, Depew said.

— Bob Frye

Article by Bob Frye,
Everybody Adventures, http://www.everybodyadventures.com

Copyright © 535media, LLC