Licensed To Reel

wo years, $21 million and nearly 300,000 cubic yards of sediment have passed since Allegheny County and the Army Corps of Engineers, with some financial help from the state, began restoring North Park Lake. With a few exceptions, primarily located in and around the Irwin Run tributary, the project is in its final stage and the lake is slowly refilling.

Don't rig up the fishing tackle -- the lake remains a slowly rising vat of milk chocolate-colored sediment, reaching depths of 6-8 feet at the dam and backing up as far as the boat launch. The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission recommends that public fishing resume Jan. 1, 2012. The first stockings of non-game fish occurred a couple of weeks ago, and the agency plans to restock warm-water game species for permanent residency beginning in February 2012. Limited seasonal stockings of trout would follow.

The Army Corps has completed the project's primary goal, removal of 76 years of sediment that had shaved 10 feet from the lake's maximum depth and turned 15 acres of open water into gooey, weed-choked swamp. Allegheny County has finished some tributary and landside improvements including anti-siltation measures on Pine Creek and North Branch Pine Creek. Further improvements are pending on Irwin Run, near or above the boat launch area.

In addition to the uncovering of the original stumps left in the lake bed when it was created, Fish and Boat crews have built dozens of fish habitats specific to the spawning and cover needs of baitfish and game fish of various sizes. PFBC biologist Rick Lorson suggested that savvy anglers might take note of their placement before they're covered with water.

"Or mark their locations on your GPS units," he said. "Those structures, regardless of what type they are, mimic the preferred habitat of the fish species they were placed there for."

Plant life, it's believed, will most likely repopulate itself in proportions reflecting the increased acreage of deeper open water. When stocking of game fish resumes, PFBC intends to plant fingerling and young adult populations of largemouth bass, bluegills, channel catfish and white crappies. North Park Lake is a shallow, warm-water fishery with relatively low dissolved oxygen content, not ideal for cold-water trout. Limited seasonal trout stockings will precede each opening day.

The return of North Park Lake provides a rare opportunity for wildlife biologists to create a new waterway. As current murkiness settles, the water will take on the "new lake effect."

"Prior to the draining, the [lake's] nutrients were bound to the sediment," said Lorson. "The 'new lake effect' occurs when the lake is refilled and the nutrients dissolve and disperse through the lake. Years 5 through 10 will be the best time for that lake in terms of reproduction and growth. Survival will be high."

Below the dam, the sediment problem on Pine Creek continues. Despite some siltation barriers placed in the drained lake bed by the Army Corps, mud that washed into the creek covered miles of creek bed.

"It buried the bug life," said Lorson. "Pine Creek was certainly impacted, and it will take several years of high water and storm flows to wash out that sediment."

That didn't stop PFBC from stocking trout in the creek during the past two years, although none were planted in the stream section below the dam in 2010. Stocking there resumed this year.

"Dry fly anglers are not going to have as much activity for a while," said Lorson. "They may want to work with something imitating a terrestrial. The fishing gets better farther down the creek."

Tom Walsh, who leads the Pine Creek deflector-placement project for Penn's Woods West Trout Unlimited, said he fished the Delayed Harvest Artificial Lures Only section Thursday with little success.

"The creek is pretty silted up. When you wade, you kick up a lot of mud," he said. "But the fish stocked there seemed to be holding up well. Those we caught fought well and seemed to be healthy."

About 10 rock and log deflectors placed by the group, usually in slow shallow stretches, act to narrow the creek and hasten the current, sweeping out siltation, carving deeper channels and improving habitat. The project, which began before lake restoration impacted the creek, is expected to be a big help during Pine Creek's slow return to normal.