A popular weekend experience for northeastern Ohioans and western Pennsylvanians is visiting the Pymatuning Reservoir spillway in Linesville, Pa., to feed the churning school of carp as ducks walk across their backs.

While Pymatuning is famous for its carp-feeding entertainment, that is but one small piece of the lake’s fishy entertainment. Walleye, bass, crappies and muskies thrive in the reservoir straddling the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, and attract thousands of anglers every year.

My experience at Pymatuning dates back to 1980, when the editor of Ohio Fisherman magazine asked me to write a feature about the 17,000-acre lake. With little other than word-of-mouth knowledge about Pymatuning, I looked up veteran fishing guides Al Novotny and Bob Tomasko to learn more.

Novotny made his home not far from the lake’s Pennsylvania shores. He was known around the country as a contributor to the then-new InFisherman magazine, as he chronicled his success with muskies, walleyes and other species based on his experiences at Pymatuning, Conneaut Lake and other western Pennsylvania waters. Tomasko was well known for his popular Learn-A-Lake series of audio cassettes and detailed structure and cover maps.

Novotny and Tomasko briefed me on Pymatuning’s walleyes and bass, and both cleared a seat in their boats for me to experience the fishing. Both trips left an indelible mark in my fishing memory bank and remind me of the simple joys of learning and fishing unfamiliar bodies of water.

With Tomasko, I explored the southern areas of the sprawling reservoirs, while Novotny showed me the areas around the mid-lake causeway from the Espyville launch and the northeastern corner from the ramp near Linesville’s spillway.

In more recent seasons, I have fished frequently out of the Padanaram ramp a few miles north of Andover, the Wilson and Alcatraz ramps at the north end in Pennsylvania waters, and the Snodgrass ramp on the east side of Pymatuning.

Walleyes were my early focus with Novotny and Tomasko. Walleyes are favorites of the under-20-hp boaters who share the lake with small sail boats and the large fleet of weekend pontoon skippers. Dammed in 1934, the lake still sports large numbers of flooded stumps. They, along with abundant spreads of aquatic vegetation, provide great cover and feeding areas for Pymatuning’s predators and bait fish.

I fish out of an 18-foot bass boat with a 150-hp outboard these days, so I rely on my electric motor to pull me around the cover-rich shorelines within a half-mile of the Wilson and Alcatraz launches. I pitch Texas-rigged soft plastics, swim jigs, buzzbaits and Chatterbaits. I score mostly largemouths from the upper end of Pymatuning, but also pluck off lots of smallmouth bites.

I also work Pymatuning occasionally with long-time fishing buddy Ron Learn aboard his skiff pushed by a 20-hp motor, which enables us to hit lots of hot spots. He knows “Pymie” like the back of his hand. He is a shallow-water expert, which fits my style, and we rack up good numbers of fat largemouths from willows, lily pads, brush and hydrilla.

Ohio Bass Fishing Hall of Famer Ron Yurko showcased the excitement of Pymatuning’s shallow-water fishing when we teamed up for a photo shoot for a Bassmaster Magazine feature story in the mid-1980s. Yurko and his famous “Thunder Bolt” flipping stick plucked numerous bass from thick tangles of cover.

Pymatuning’s fish experience relatively light fishing pressure because of its horsepower limit and large size compared to nearby reservoirs. Those facts, plus recent years of excellent conditions during spawning seasons, bode well for the reservoir’s future fishing prospects.

Anglers looking for thousands of acres of elbow room and a diversity of species need look no further than Pymatuning for fun and productive fishing trips. It is, after all, famously known as “the lake where ducks walk on the fish.”

Jack Wollitz continues to learn the ever-changing nuances of the reservoirs near Youngstown and Warren. Contact him at jackbbaass@gmail.com.