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Lackawanna Lake
Largemouth Bass
Lackawanna County
 
May 17-18, 2010
Lackawanna Lake is a 198 acre impoundment that is the centerpiece of Lackawanna State Park. The park is located about 8 miles northwest of Scranton. The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission stocks the lake with hatchery trout and manages its bass fishery under Big Bass Regulations. Area 4 biologists surveyed the bass population at Lackawanna Lake on the evenings of May 17 and 18 as part of a periodic monitoring strategy.

The largemouth bass population was in exceptional condition. Catch per Unit Effort (CPUE) values for largemouth bass were as follows:

Total CPUE: 113.6/hour
CPUE > 12 inches: 79.2/hour
CPUE > 15 inches: 47.0/hour
CPUE > 18 inches: 15.8/hour
CPUE > 20 inches: 3.6/hour

The total CPUE value was excellent, and CPUE values for bass > 12, 15, 18, and 20 inches were some of the highest we’ve ever seen in our management area. In total, we captured 328 largemouths ranging from 4 to 23 inches long (Figure 1). The heaviest bass weighed 6.7 pounds. Largemouths were well distributed throughout the lake, but the upper lake (from the Route 407 Bridge to the inlet) yielded slightly greater numbers of large fish than the lower lake.

Figure 1. Length-frequency distribution of largemouth bass captured by night electrofishing at Lackawanna Lake in May 2010.

Figure 1

Largemouth bass
Largemouth bass from Lackawanna Lake

Largemouth bass
Jake Precone with a Lackawanna Lake bass
 
— Rob Wnuk, Area 4 Fisheries Manager

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