BIOLOGIST REPORT
Lake Hamilton
Lake Hamilton is a 42 acre impoundment located in central Tioga County about 1.5 miles southeast of Wellsboro. The dam was constructed in 1967 and has been included in the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commissions’ Catchable Trout Program since 1970. Area 3 Fisheries Management personnel visited Lake Hamilton during the week of June 6, 2001 to sample the warmwater fishery. A previous survey of Lake Hamilton in 1994 revealed a decent largemouth bass population but the panfish fishery was dominated by small yellow perch.
Panfish were sampled with Pennsylvania style trapnets set at 8 locations along the shoreline. Largemouth bass were sampled by night electrofishing the entire shoreline. The results of this sampling are presented below in Tables 1 and 2.
Lake Hamilton maintains a good largemouth bass population and has shown improvement in the panfish populations. The yellow perch in 2001 were larger and the other panfish species have improved in density and size structure. Lake Hamilton will continue in the Catchable Trout Program.Table 1. Comparison of largemouth bass night electro-fishing catch from Lake Hamilton for 2001, 1994 and 1978.
| Size (in.) | 2001 | 1994 | 1978 | |
| 2 | 2 | |||
| 3 | 22 | |||
| 4 | 1 | 32 | ||
| 5 | 1 | 18 | ||
| 6 | 7 | |||
| 7 | 8 | |||
| 8 | 2 | 1 | 2 | |
| 9 | 1 | 18 | 1 | |
| 10 | 1 | 10 | 6 | |
| 11 | 5 | 2 | 10 | |
| 12 | 3 | 6 | 5 | |
| 13 | 6 | 5 | ||
| 14 | 5 | 6 | 1 | |
| 15 | 10 | 2 | ||
| 16 | 10 | 5 | ||
| 17 | 9 | 3 | ||
| 18 | 7 | 2 | 2 | |
| 19 | 7 | 1 | ||
| 20 | 6 | 1 | 1 | |
| 21 | 2 | 2 | ||
| Totals | 82 | 66 | 109 | Area 3 Average |
| Catch per Hour | 124.2 | 82.5 | 136.25 | 85.5 |
Table 2. Size distribution of panfish captured by trapnets in Lake Hamilton, June 2001.
| Inches | Bluegill | Pumpkinseed | Crappie | Yellow Perch | Brown Bullhead |
| 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | ||
| 4 | 8 | 4 | 38 | ||
| 5 | 30 | 9 | 9 | 84 | |
| 6 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 2 | |
| 7 | 16 | 2 | 16 | 61 | |
| 8 | 13 | 49 | 146 | ||
| 9 | 17 | 9 | |||
| 10 | 5 | ||||
| 11 | 1 | ||||
| 12 | 3 | ||||
| 13 | 6 | ||||
| 14 | 4 | ||||
| Totals | 72 | 25 | 99 | 341 | 14 |
Also captured in the June trapnets were 3 chain pickerel, 16 golden shiners, 24 white suckers and 9 stocked rainbow trout.
-- Area 3
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