Memorial Lake is long on potential for bass fishing

The summer of 2026 – a season marked by hot, dry weather, with temperatures above the norm and rainfall below it – isn’t over yet. Not officially, anyway. Fall doesn’t begin until Sept. 22.

But with school starting, high school football season ramping up, and stores already selling all things pumpkin, some folks have likely put away their fishing rods for the year.

That’s a mistake.

The family of fish known as black bass – which includes largemouth, smallmouth, and spotted bass in Pennsylvania – are just now getting hungrier than ever and acting like it.

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, the agency charged with overseeing the state’s aquatic resources and fishing, has over many years conducted creel surveys at various waterways across the state. Those are in-person interviews with anglers on the water, focused on how long they fished that day, the number and species of fish kept and released, fishing methods used, and more.

That research shows that the number of bass caught per angler per hour peaks in September.

“Black bass can be caught at most any time of year,” reads the commission’s statewide black bass management plan. “Generally, though, the highest catch per hour occurs in spring through fall, with highest catch rates occurring in fall on medium and large-size reservoirs.”

Reservoirs like, say, Memorial Lake. The 85-acre centerpiece of Memorial Lake State Park, is, it turns out, full of largemouth bass.

When Fish and Boat Commission biologists survey a lake for bass, they float around its edges in a boat after dark, sending a gentle electrical current into the water. That stuns bass just long enough that biologists can scoop them up in nets and count and measure them before releasing them alive.

Biologists never get every bass: some recover before they can be netted. Really big ones are particularly hard to stun.

But if biologists handle at least 50 bass per hour of survey work, that’s OK. That’s the baseline benchmark for a good bass water. Ideally, too, seven of those bass per hour should be at least 12 inches long, and two per hour should be at least 15.

Memorial Lake’s bass fishery tops all those marks. And not just by a little.

“Anything over say 250 total bass per hour is a really high catch rate,” said Bryan Chikotas, a recently retired Fish and Boat Commission biologist who led the most recent survey of the lake in 2024. “The guys netting fish at the front of the boat are busy then, shoveling fish in. They’re sweatin’.”

“But Memorial has an even higher-density population. The total catch per hour was 271 bass.”

Plenty of those were nice, too, he added, noting 71 of Memorial Lake’s largemouth bass handled per hour exceeded 12 inches in length, and 28 per hour exceeded 15 inches.

“If you want to catch better-quality bass in the county, Memorial is your better bet. Twenty-eight fish longer than 15 inches per hour is really good,” Chikotas added.

That biologists found such fish in the lake is not entirely shocking to park manager Courtney Troutman. She’s seen and heard of that before.

“Even after seven years here, I’m still impressed by the size of some of the fish people pull out of Memorial Lake,” she said.

That’s one reason why fishing is one of the most popular activities at the park, she added. Any time the park hosts a fishing program, they fill up.

Memorial Lake’s bass aren’t spread equally throughout the lake, though. The western end of the lake in particular gets very skinny – it averages only a foot or two deep in some broad flats – and the northern shore has shallow spots, too. That doesn’t always provide habitat for fish.

The lake has its deep spots, though. It hits 22 feet near the dam, dropping off steeply along the southern shore in particular.

Deep water in and of itself is not always the best place to fish. Fish and Boat Commission biologists say anglers looking for largemouths – and usually any fish – should seek out areas with “habitat complexity,” meaning places with sometimes abrupt changes in eater depth; downed trees, rocks or other structure that give baitfish a place to hide and in turn attracts larger predators, like bass; and artificial structures sunk in the water to serve that same purpose.

Memorial Lake had some of those artificial structures once. “Porcupine cribs,” as they’re called, were sunk in the lake, generally in the early 2000s. Most have likely reached the end of their useful life, rotting away by now, Troutman said.

Help is on the way, though.

“The good news is that we’re currently partnering with a local Eagle Scout who will be constructing new fish habitat structures for placement in the lake,” Troutman said. “Our intent is to install them in areas where habitat structures previously existed and update the lake map once the project is complete.”

She’s open to doing more, too, with the right help. Troutman said the park is always looking for volunteers “interested in helping with habitat improvement projects,” be they fish habitat structures, turtle basking platforms, bat houses, bird boxes, and more. Anyone interested in helping can sign up through the volunteer portal (https://dcnrvolunteers.pa.gov/) and select “Wildlife & Habitat Stewardship Volunteer” for Memorial Lake State Park.

In the meantime, the bass are there to be caught. So, too, are some other fish.

The Fish and Boat Commission in years past stocked muskies – purebreds and tiger muskies, a cross between a musky and a northern pike – in the lake, along with northern pike. None of those fish ever established populations, though, so those efforts ended.

But chain pickerel naturally reproduce in the lake. A smaller cousin of pike and muskies, they’re not superabundant in Memorial Lake, Chikotas said. But they’re typically found in the same habitat as largemouth bass, and prey on the same baits, so anglers targeting bass get into a few. Some of them are nice, too. Chikotas said biologists in their 2024 survey handled several between 16 and 24 inches long.

“So they’re fun to catch. Something different, you know,” he said.

The easiest way to get after Memorial Lake’s fish of all kinds is by boat. There are two launches on the lake, both used by kayakers and canoers. There’s a seasonal boat rental for those without their own craft. And larger boats propelled by electric motors are allowed.

Shore-bound anglers can likewise get to fish, even if their options are a little more limited. Anglers can park in any of the main day-use areas on the north shore and walk to the water, or get closer to deeper water by parking on the southern shore and walking down some mild slopes to the water.

Whatever the case, Memorial Lake is worth a visit in the next few months. The Fish and Boat Commission research detailing how the bass fishing peaks in September also shows it remains good throughout October as fish feed heavily in preparation for winter.

Some people are already taking advantage of that opportunity.

“There’s almost always someone casting a line around the lake,” Troutman said.

But there’s room for more, if you haven’t yet stowed your gear.