Fishing Report For Raystown Lake PA

By Rick Seaman

January 10, 2025

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Fishing Report Raystown Lake, PA

Popular Fish Species Raystown Lake, PA

Striped Bass

Current Report: Good
Outlook: Good To Very Good

Local guides report the best fishing for stripers is from the Seven Points Campground area to the Raystown Dam. Summer months are the ideal time to chase striped bass on Raystown Lake. Being successful at fishing for stripers is a matter of locating schools of bait, and wolf packs of stripers are likely to be nearby. Fish finders are a big help in locating these roaming schools. Live bait, cut bait, swimbaits and spoons are all effective here.

Lake Trout

Current Report: Good
Outlook: Good To Very Good

Lake trout live the majority of their lives in deep, colder water. The lake is as much as 200' deep in the deepest sections toward the dam, so concentrate on areas where these lake trout can go as deep as they like. Reportedly, the best catches of lake trout come from the Raystown Dam to the Seven Points area. Deep trolling is popular with a variety of lures and baits.

Smallmouth Bass

Current Report: Good To Very Good
Outlook: Very Good

Raystown Lake is widely-known as an exceptional smallmouth bass fishery. They thrive in the cold, clean water, which is an ideal environment for them. Locals report that tube jigs are a great choice when the bass are in 15' or shallower. Drop shot rigs with small worms or shad shaped plastics are also popular in 10' water or deeper. While fishing for smallmouth, I always look for rock and gravel banks close to deep water. Haws Run, around Raystown Lake Recreation Area, around Tatman Run and throughout the Seven Points area, are reportedly popular smallmouth areas.

Fish species to fish for...

Guide to fishing for largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, channel catfish, black crappie, walleye, rainbow trout, brown trout, lake trout, bluegill, rock bass, yellow perch, atlantic salmon, chinook salmon, striped bass, hybrid striped bass, muskie and sauger at Raystown Lake in Pennsylvania.

Spanning 28 miles in southern PA, in the heart of the Allegheny Mountains, Raystown Lake is fishing, camping and outdoor recreation paradise. With over 100 miles of shoreline and over 8,000 surface acres, there is plenty of water to fish. And the lake is host to a wide variety of fish species including trout, bass, crappie, perch, stripers, walleye, sunfish, catfish and salmon.

Primary fish species to catch

Click images for fishing tips and details about each species.

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RMap - Fishing & Access

Rick Seaman is a fishing enthusiast with over five decades of fishing experience, a retired tournament fisherman, author of numerous published articles on fishing, and co-author of the book "Bass Fishing - It's not WHAT you throw, It's WHERE you throw it".