Area produced some of the state’s largest fish in 2014

Make text smalleWith the official opening of trout season yesterday - which, for many, marks the start of fishing season – it’s a good time to take a look at the largest fish caught in the area in 2014.Make text larger

Jason and Joe Phillips of Canonsburg had a good day at High Point Lake last June.

Jason Phillips landed the state’s biggest chain pickeral of the year on a Storm Lure. The fish was 24 inches in length and weighed five pounds, 10 ounces.

On the same day, Joe Phillips landed a 23 1/2-inch chain pickeral on a jig that weighed four pounds, eight ounces. Joe Phillips’ fish was the fourth-largest chain pickerel caught in the state last year.

Cross Creek Lake produced the state’s top sauger in 2014. The 27 1/2-inch fish that weighed 10 pounds was caught by David Defillipps of Avella with a Fire Tiger in June.

That wasn’t the only big fish caught at Cross Creek Lake last year. Marshall E. Graham Jr. of Meadow Lands landed the second-largest reported largemouth bass in the state last October in Cross Creek. Graham’s largemouth was 22.2 inches in length and weighed 7 pounds, 13 ounces. He used a crank bait.

Ireland Killen of McMurray landed the state’s second-largest carp on corn in Edinboro Lake in July. The 35-inch carp had a girth of 21 3/4 inches and weighed 26 pounds, one ounce.

That fish, however, pales in comparison to the top carp taken in the state last year. That was a 42-inch monster that came in at just over 39 pounds and was caught a little over a week after Killen’s in Twin Lakes in Westmoreland County.

Daun Nicholson of Normalville, Fayette County, caught the state’s largest flathead catfish in the Monongahela River last June. Nicholson’s 41 1/4-inch fish weighed in at 38 pounds, eight ounces and was caught on a jig with a power grub.

The Cheat River, which flows into the Monongahela at Point Marion, produced a 47-inch musky for Bob Guido of Belle Vernon last October. The muskie, which was caught on a football jig, weighed in at 38 pounds, making it the fourth-largest taken in the state last year. The top muskie, taken in the Lehigh River and was 52 inches long, weighing in at a whopping 50 pounds, four pounds less than the state record.

• I am hearing reports of increased longnose gar sightings and catches in the lower Monongahela River.

In the last Pennsylvania Fish Commission lock chamber survey of the Mon, completed in 2010, there were 29 longnose gar collected in the Grays Landing area. Just three longnose gar were collected in the Maxwell chamber in the same year, while one was collected at Braddock.

In a similar sampling in 2003, no longnose gar were collected in either pool.

I’m not saying a gar is responsible for the reported sightings of an alligator in the Monongahela area, but if you did see just the head and back of an adult longnose gar – which can grow from four to six feet in length – surface in the water, it would give the appearance of being a large reptile.

There’s also the possibility it was a muskie. I remain skeptical it is an alligator.

• Greene County Waterways Conservation Officer Eric Davis is currently looking for somebody to serve as a deputy WCO in that area.

Deputy officers assist the WCO in all duties. They must be 21 years of age, and go through formal training before taking to the field.

Those interested can submit a résumé and a brief cover letter stating why they wish to become a deputy to the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission Southwest Regional Office at 236 Lake Road, Somerset, Pa., 15501.

Or, if you’re not sure what the duties entail, you can look them up on the commission web site, talk to Davis or call the region office at 814-445-8974.

Outdoors Editor F. Dale Lolley Make text smaller Make text larger