2005 Biologist Report - Lake Chillisquaque

Lake Chillisquaque

Montour County
May 9-13, 2005

Lake Chillisquaque is a 165-acre impoundment on the Middle Branch Chillisquaque Creek located 11 miles north of Danville, Montour County. The lake is contained within the Montour Preserve, which is owned by Pennsylvania Power and Light (PPL). The reservoir serves as a source of cooling water for the PPL Montour Steam Electric Station and is open to public angling and boating. In addition to containing Lake Chillisquaque, a state-of-the-art environmental education center is also located at Montour Preserve. PPL maintains one boat launch and boating is restricted to non-powered boats and those propelled by electric motors only.

Lake Chillisquaque Crappie
Fisheries Technician Jason Detar and Fisheries Biologist Aide Josh McCormick hold two quality black crappie (19” and 17.5”, respectively) captured in Lake Chillisquaque

Lake Chillisquaque is one of 18 lakes throughout the state that are currently managed with Panfish Enhancement Special Regulations. These regulations are intended to increase the number, quality, and size of panfish through the use of minimum length limits on sunfish species (bluegills and pumpkinseeds) and crappies (black and white). Under these regulations, minimum length limits of 7 inches were established for sunfish and 9 inches for crappies. The combined creel limit is 20 for each species with the total number creeled not to exceed 50 panfish combined. Commonwealth Inland Waters Regulations for seasons, sizes, and creel limits are currently in effect for all other species and all fish populations are maintained through natural reproduction. The panfish catches will be used to assess the effect of the Panfish Enhancement Special Regulations and the final evaluation will be made after another trap net survey in 2007.

Lake Chillisquaque Walleye
Area Fisheries Manager Bruce Hollender with a 28” walleye from Lake Chillisquaque

Fisheries Management crews from Areas 3 and 4 conducted a joint survey of Lake Chillisquaque using 40 trap net sets during the week of May 9 – 13, 2005. In addition, Area 3 personnel conducted a night electrofishing survey on the evening of May 9, 2005. See Tables 1 and 2 below for a summary of the number and size of fish captured.

Table 1. Length-frequency distribution of fish collected in 40 trapnet sets in Lake Chillisquaque during the week of May 9 – 13, 2005.

Inches	Northern Pike	Walleye	Black Crappie	Bluegill	Yellow Perch
2				8
3			3	31	24
4			8	44	10
5				17	1
6			27	27	6
7		1	62	30	6
8		4	450	10	7
9		9	87	1	10
10		23	57		5
11		9	10		4
12			8		5
13			3		3
14		1			2
15	2	3
16		7
17		2	1
18		15
19		10	1
20	1	6
21		6
22		3
23	1
24	5	5
25	2	1
26	1
27	2
28		1
29	2
30
31
32	1
33
34	1
35	1
Totals	19	106	717	168	83

Also captured were 290 golden shiners, 21 pumpkinseeds, 16 white suckers, 8 quillback carpsuckers, 5 largemouth bass, 4 rock bass, 4 spottail shiners, 3 bluntnose minnows, 3 common carp, 2 fathead minnows, and 1 green sunfish.

Table 2. Length-frequency distribution of largemouth bass and walleye captured during night electrofishing on the evening of May 9, 2005.

Inches	Largemouth Bass	Walleye
5		1
6		1
7		10
8	2	10
9		12
10	1	6
11	3	1
12	1
13	4
14	7	1
15	13	1
16	14	1
17	2	3
18	1	2
19		2
20		1
///
23		2
Totals	48	54

-- Josh McCormick, Fisheries Biologist Aide and Jason Detar, Fisheries Technician, Area 3

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