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Pymatuning Reservoir Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

The two-state walleye commons: Pennsylvania and Ohio share a shallow prairie-style reservoir famous for walleye, crappie and carp that eat bread from your hand.

2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Water temp
~55 F est.
Air / High
62 / 62 F
Wind
NNE 5 mph

Sources: Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

2/5Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.

Pymatuning Reservoir feels the season turning: shorter days, grouping fish. Today brings clear skies, wind NNE around 5 mph, rising pressure near 1026 hPa and a high of 62. Water sits around 55 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:56 AM-11:56 AM and 10:25 PM-12:25 AM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

WalleyeGood

Spring: post-spawn fish scatter and can be slow for a couple of weeks. Fall: one of the best windows, with minnows on jigs and three-way rigs as the water cools toward ice-up.

Smallmouth bassGood

Spring pre-spawn and fall: Iowa DNR notes the larger bass come up to shallow structure, where a shallow-running minnow bait or a spinnerbait just under the surface works.

Northern pikeGood

The best band for pike: right after ice-out they move into flooded vegetated shallows to spawn, and they feed actively again as the water cools in fall.

Yellow perchGood

Spring and fall: perch hold shallower and, by Michigan DNR's account, feed through the day, so shoreline weed edges, flats and the shallows near spawning areas are worth searching.

Tomorrow: Similar at 63 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

Before you go

Pennsylvania requires a fishing licence from age 16, from $27.97 for residents. What a Pennsylvania licence costs and where to buy it β†’

Chasing walleye here? Check the size and bag limits with PFBC before you keep anything. The season dates for Pennsylvania, read off the agency, are on the Pennsylvania seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings.

No live gauge on this water

Conditions here are modeled from weather, season and the nearest stations. Water readings appear when a USGS gauge is available.

304050607080JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~55 F now

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp62 F
High / Low62 / 35 F
WindNNE 5-6 mph
Pressure1026.0 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain16% cloud, 1%
Sunrise / Sunset07:43 / 18:28
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~55 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunset

Which day to fish Pymatuning Reservoir this week

The best day on Pymatuning Reservoir this week looks like Saturday Oct 24, at 4 out of 5, against 2 today.

Best day this week: Saturday, Oct 24 β€” good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Tough

Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.

Solunar majors
9:56 AM-11:56 AM and 10:25 PM-12:25 AM
Minor period
4:18 AM-5:18 AM
Sun
07:43 to 18:28
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Overcast, 7 mph
Rain chance
1%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Pymatuning Reservoir: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Walleye illustration

Walleye

Best: spring and late fall, around dawn, dusk and night

A cool-water perch of large lakes, reservoirs and rivers whose reflective eyes are built for low light, so it feeds most at night and in murky water. The Missouri Department of Conservation ranks it among the continent's most important freshwater game fish. Spring: post-spawn fish scatter and can be slow for a couple of weeks. Fall: one of the best windows, with minnows on jigs and three-way rigs as the water cools toward ice-up.

Smallmouth bass illustration

Smallmouth bass

Best: spring and fall, when bigger fish come shallow

A bronze-brown black bass of clear, cool streams and rocky lakes, with dark vertical bars instead of a side stripe. Michigan DNR says its southeastern coast, from Port Huron to Lake Erie, is known nationally for both the size and the number of its smallmouth. Spring pre-spawn and fall: Iowa DNR notes the larger bass come up to shallow structure, where a shallow-running minnow bait or a spinnerbait just under the surface works.

Northern pike illustration

Northern pike

Best: cool water, from ice-out through spring, in fall and under the ice

A long, duck-billed predator of weedy lakes, slow rivers and backwaters that ambushes fish from vegetation. Wisconsin DNR points out that, unlike most of the state's common game fish, pike do their best feeding in cool water. The best band for pike: right after ice-out they move into flooded vegetated shallows to spawn, and they feed actively again as the water cools in fall.

Yellow perch illustration

Yellow perch

Caught all year, including under the ice through winter

Yellow perch are schooling panfish of the Great Lakes and northern lakes, and Michigan DNR calls them the game fish most often caught in that state. Spring and fall: perch hold shallower and, by Michigan DNR's account, feed through the day, so shoreline weed edges, flats and the shallows near spawning areas are worth searching.

When to come: the Pymatuning Reservoir calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Walleye
Smallmouth bass
Northern pike
Yellow perch
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 55 F (estimated, not a reading).

304050607080JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~55 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Pymatuning Reservoir today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Walleye led the card at good. High of 64 F, wind to 9 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Walleye led the card at good. High of 64 F, wind to 6 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Walleye led the card at good. High of 68 F, wind to 11 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

License

Pennsylvania requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

PA or OH license valid lake-wide (reciprocity). Walleye 15-inch/6 typical: check both commissions for current. 20-hp limit historically: verify current.

Access

PA: Jamestown, Espyville, Linesville ramps. OH: Padanaram. State parks both sides.

About this water

17,088 acres on the PA-OH line, Crawford County PA / Ashtabula County OH. The shared walleye commons since 1934.

Fishing Pymatuning Reservoir: the full guide

The border lake bargain

Pymatuning straddles the PA-OH line with a reciprocal-license deal: either state's license fishes the whole lake. The water is shallow, stained and fertile: a Midwest-style walleye factory transplanted into the East, with crappie schools, perch, and muskie history filling the calendar around the gold.

Walleye the old way

This is jig-and-crawler country: drift the stump flats off Tuttle and Jamestown in 8-15 ft, troll harnesses along the old creek channel, and work the causeway riprap at dusk. May's post-spawn scatter and October's re-school are the peaks: the lake's walleye culture predates electronics and still out-fishes them some days.

Crappie in the stumps

The flooded timber that walleye anglers curse is the crappie fleet's map: spring fills the stump fields at 4-8 ft with slabs on minnows and hair jigs. The Ohio-side bays (Padanaram, the causeway coves) warm first; summer moves schools to the channel-edge stumps at 12-16 ft: spider-riggers work them politely around the drifters.

The spillway spectacle

Pymatuning's oddest fame: the Linesville spillway, 'where the ducks walk on the fish': tourist bread launches carp into writhing carpets. Beyond the spectacle, the lake runs serious fisheries in every direction: muskies (the PA program's historic heart), channel cats on the flats, and perch schools that fill winter buckets through the ice.

Common questions

Which license do I need on Pymatuning?

Either: PA and OH honor each other's on the whole lake: shore and boat. Follow the rules of the state whose ramp you launched from for anything ambiguous.

Is the walleye fishing still good at Pymatuning?

Cyclical but real: strong hatches keep restoring it, and the stump-flat drift bite each May proves it. It remains both states' most reliable walleye water within family-trip range.

Is fishing good at Pymatuning Reservoir right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Slow. Work for them. Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.

Nearby waters

Mosquito Lake25 miConneaut Creek26 miElk Creek30 miWalnut Creek35 miGrand River39 miPresque Isle Bay41 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 41.6000, -80.4830 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written guide was drafted with AI assistance. Unlike our newer pages, it does not yet list the official pages its facts were checked against: that audit is under way, and anything it cannot verify will be taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.