Sugar Lake home to excellent bass population

By Don Feigert

CNHI NEWS SERVICE

Sugar Lake is one of the sweetest lakes in northwestern Pennsylvania.

It is 90 acres of panfish and sporting fish just ready to attack your lures and baits, if you get there at the right time and fish it well, whether the lake is iced-over or open water.

There’s not a lot of open shoreline because of the wetlands on the northwest and southeast sides, which are part of the Erie National Wildlife Refuge.

But there was a lot of iced-over water, too, when we were there, if you’re careful about your fishing and water safety. There is a boat ramp about halfway down the western shore with room for 10 vehicles and 10 trailers, which is not much for a lake this size, but it will do on weekdays and evenings. If the ice is safe in winter, fishermen will be targeting panfish, bass and black and white crappies, among other species.

Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission biologists surveyed the lake twice in the past seven years to evaluate its fishery. In 2017, black crappies were most commonly caught, with bluegills ranking second. In 2024, things stayed the same, with black crappies being the most frequently caught. Historically, it has not been that uncommon, with bluegills and crappies alternating the race for first. But there was no shortage of both fish coming in first both years.

There are other varieties of fish in the lake, too. Yellow perch are prevalent and so are pumpkinseeds. The perch are an especially nice bonus when you’re targeting smaller fish.

Sugar Lake is also home to an excellent bass population and has been for a while. The largemouth bass population continues to be excellent, with many bass between 12 and 15 inches and several large individuals measured at around 20 inches. Just don’t expect muskies this year. The Fish & Boat Commission continues to stock them every other year. But that program is failing. No muskies were seen this year, per the commission surveys, which means they’re scarce right now, and we shouldn’t expect them to appear soon. We visited the lake a couple of times in the past two years, but we didn’t see any muskies swimming the shoreline.

But, if you’re open to multiple species and willing to cast to various locations on the shoreline, you could have a field day.

Don Feigert is the outdoors writer for The (Sharon) Herald and the (Grove City) Allied News.

Black crappies are the most frequently caught fish in Sugar Lake.

Contributed photo