Northeast Pennsylvania's Top Choices for Bass Fishing
January 20, 2021 by Coty Perry from yourbassguy.com
As someone who was born and raised outside of Scranton, PA, I’m pretty loyal to the fishing of this area. I think there is an abundance of great bass fishing lakes in Northeast PA but you have to really read between the lines to find them.
When you ask people what they think about fishing in NEPA, they’ll tell you lakes like Lackawanna State Park, Lake Wallenpaupack, Beltzville, and Promised Land but it’s the smaller lakes and ponds that really bring in the best bass fishing. You have to try and stay away from those bigger, more saturated waters; especially during the summer months.
These are the best bass fishing lakes in Northeast Pennsylvania:
Here’s my local take on these top 5 bass lakes in Northeast PA. I’ve fished all of these at least 20 times and can speak from experience.
Prompton State Park
Take a look at it because this is the last time you’ll see the words “state park” on this list. The state parks in PA are drenched with bass anglers and large noisy boats that scare off any good opportunity to catch anything.
Prompton State Park is a nice exception because they restrict where boats using anything larger than a trolling motor can go. It’s a 290-acre warm water lake with an abundance of largemouth and smallmouth bass. You’ll also find yellow perch and crappie here too.
It’s an extremely narrow lake with tons of shoreline running all along PA 170 in Wayne County. There’s state-owned boat access so you can launch your boat here for free and there are plenty of opportunities to bass fish from the shore as well. I recommend staying near the dam on the South end of the lake and fishing off the rocks.
Kizer Pond
If you’re a fan of finding little fishing holes that you wouldn’t even imagine you could fish, this is the place for you. You’ll first have to travel to the middle of nowhere off Cortez Road in Jefferson Township.
Kizer Pond is a one-acre pond with pretty much exclusive access to the water on all sides. Launching a boat is a chore though because you’re basically relying on the ground to determine if you’ll be able to get the boat in or not. If you’re launching a Jon boat, kayak, or something small you should have no problem pushing it onto the dirt. Using the best telescopic fishing rod and light tackle will help keep the load a bit lighter too.
The advantage of this pond is an abundance of weeds, lilies, and tall grass throughout the entire shore. If you can make it in the water, you’ll find plenty of sizable bass, bluegills, and crappie.
Stillwater Dam
Stillwater is a place I frequented with my father as a kid and now I get to do it with my kids. It’s outside Union Dale in Susquehanna County and the fishing is a bit temperamental but my one big recommendation is to fish here when water levels are high because it allows you to access a lot of hot spots where you couldn’t reach when the water was lower.
You’ll launch your boat down what seems like a mile of steep ramp and about 1,000 feet from the launch there’s a section of water that is only accessible when the level is high. That’s where you want to fish for bass.
Lake Moc-A-Tek
Moc-A-Tek is a unique spot because it’s an RV campground that doesn’t allow you to launch your own boat but instead, you have to pay to rent theirs. If that puts a bad taste in your mouth, I understand.
But, the fishing is exceptional. It’s a small pond near Hawley and I’ve never felt that the visitors at the campground were bothersome. Better yet, you can make a weekend out of it because they allow tent camping too.
 Belmont Lake
Let’s size back up again for those of you who can’t or don’t want to fish these tiny ponds, Belmont Lake is the last spot I have for you and it’s in Wayne County near Great Bend. In fact, it’s right up the road from Stillwater Dam so you can hit two in one day.
This lake is 173 acres in size with plenty of shore fishing and a “state park” vibe (I said I wouldn’t say it again) without the negative stigma. This is a great spot for cold-weather fishing too for muskie and walleye. It’s a popular ice fishing location but I highly recommend launching a boat here and fishing the southernmost section of the lake near the river.
If you’re still not sold on NEPA, I suggest doing a little of your own research because you’ll find that there are hundreds of lakes all within a few miles of each other. All you need to do is walk into a local tackle shop and the guys in there will reel off a list of 50 bass fishing hotspots for you to check out each with its own story.
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