Allegheny Almanac

Kinzua Fishing now in the Top Ten

Championship Muskie caught at Kinzua Lake during last year's Tidioute Fishing Championship. The tournament included the waters of Kinzua Lake (aka Allegheny Reservoir) and the Allegheny River south of it. Copyright photo by Chris Lareau.

According to an ongoing poll at WorldFishingNetwork.com Bradford and Warren, PA currently rank in the top ten for favorite fishing spots in the northeast United States. Warren is ranked 7th (at the moment, just 23 votes shy of moving into 6th place) but Bradford, just 25 miles away is charging ahead at 5th place with a whopping 905 votes as of Friday, April 29th at about 2:30 p.m.

Voting is still going on and those interested in expressing their love for the area can visit the link above over the next few days. The winning "Ultimate Fishing Town" is currently Waddington, New York with a humongous 24,000 votes, which is amazing because only about 2,000 people live there. If they stay at the top, the WFN web site will award the town a  prize of $25,000.00.

Warren is the closest city to Kinzua Lake. The town was founded in 1795 at the site of a Seneca fishing village. And the name "Kinzua" itself means "waters of the big fish" or "fish on a spear," depending on who is doing the Seneca translation. So it is natural that local residents and visitors feel that Warren and Bradford is the ultimate fishing spot in the northeast U.S.

To vote in the online popularity poll all you have to do is supply your name and e-mail address, fill out a "captcha" form and agree to the rules of the game. It's a fun way to see what others see as the best place around to go fishing.

Warren County has already been called the fishing capital of Pennsylvania, with record Walleye and Northern Pike caught here with abundant trout and bass. If you take a look at some of the monsters caught around here by Allegheny Guide Service, it's a wonder that Kinzua is NOT number one.

 

--Chris Lareau

 

For more info on fishing in the area visit theAllegheny.com

 

Kinzua Dam memories last a lifetime

Young couple from Ambridge, PA poses before construction of Kinzua Dam in August of 1964. Eli and Elma Peich were married two years later and recently celebrated their 45th Wedding Anniversary at their home in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. 
Click on photo to review the couple's other photos of the Kinzua Dam construction taken on their outing to Warren County. 
Photos were submitted by their son, Milan Peich.All photos Copyright Eli and Elma Peich.

Related Articles:

Memorial Day Memories: This Year Summer Starts with a Rimrock Bash at Kinzua Lake

Take a tour of the Kinzua Dam region as it is today, 50 years later.

Read a short memoir of life in Kinzua, PA before the Kinzua Dam was built. 

Take an online tour of the Allegheny Wilderness and surrounding area.

 

Where Hunting Season Never Ends

Warren native and professeur Reg Darling explains the "sacrament" of hunting to non-believers in a highly literate journal that took a lifetime to write. "Hart" is the original name for deer and also stands for "heart" or spirit. "Well" means health. And Hartwell is the central character of the book. Aside from a first-aid manual, this book should be in every hunting camp in the county and perhaps under every hunter's Christmas Tree. The book cover depicts a sacrifice made to coyotes, near Tiona, Pennsylvania.

This stuff actually happened and is probably going on right now and involves characters many local residents will recognize as their neighbors, although the names were changed to protect the author in a roman a clef style. It is important to point out, however, that Hartwell is a real name as is Hartwell Road. More about this later.

 It's 287 pages and takes about 2 months to finish, longer if you read between the lines which is the best part.

If you are a hunter or love someone who is, this book will enrich your life. Not for the squeamish. Darling is also an award-winning artist and frequent contributor to publications like Backcountry Journal, Bowyer's Journal, and Professional Bowhunter Magazine.

Available at Authors Books & Music on Liberty Street in downtown Warren, Amazon.com, or the author's web site. Just google "Hartwell Road" or "Reg Darling."

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But wait, there's more! Readers who purchase this book in the next 24 hours (or the next 5 years, for that matter) get a special bonus--a genuine "coming of age" story about the main character named "Bartleby." The tale is weaved into carefully crafted details of expert hunting techniques every father or mother will want to tell a son or daughter about, saving years of trying to find the right words at the right time.

Read all about how to successfully keep a job you don't really like, losing love, finding love, dealing with incorrigible parents, getting an education, the necessity of grieving no matter how long it takes, coming to mature terms with life-threatening illnesses, proper eulogies, even retirement and much, much more--all of which occurs pretty much right here in this neck of the woods. Whether you believe "coming of age" is something that occurs somewhere around the 21st or the 61st birthday, you're sure to save big money by living vicariously through Bartleby's adventures as he hunts relentlessly for things he prefers to do for very important reasons.

But this is no self-help book. It's an expedition out of the life of quiet desperation most of us live and still wonder how we got turned around in the first place.       

-- Chris Lareau