BURG, Pa. (October 19) – From October 14-15, 2026, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) conducted a large-scale fish salvage operation at Fords Lake, Lackawanna County.
Because the lake is being drawn down in advance of a $3.1 dam infrastructure rehabilitation project that is scheduled to begin in spring 2027, conditions were appropriate for PFBC staff to remove as many fish as possible from the remaining pool of water within the lake and transport them to the nearby Susquehanna River.
During this operation, ten large PFBC hatchery trucks were filled with approximately 30,000 pounds of fish and successfully relocated to the river at the PFBC’s West Falls Access. Given the variety of species and sizes of fish, it is estimated that more than 100,000 fish were successfully salvaged from Fords Lake.
In January 2026, the PFBC announced that fishing regulations including seasons, sizes, and creel limits had been removed from Fords Lake so that anglers could catch and harvest large numbers of fish prior to the drawdown which began on September 16, 2026.
While the recent fish salvage at Fords Lake was considered successful, no operation is 100% efficient, and some fish mortality was expected. Although many fish were caught and harvested by anglers, other fish moved naturally out of the lake as water levels were lowered, and tens of thousands of fish were captured and relocated by the PFBC, some fish perished during this process. In the final stages of the fish salvage operation, fish that were not expected to survive or could not be safely transported were buried within the lakebed.
The PFBC acknowledges that the presence of dead fish at Fords Lake has been upsetting to some in the community. As an agency, the PFBC is committed to improving this process in the future, including providing better public education and setting expectations about fish salvage operations.
For reasons that include public safety concerns and prevention of the spread of aquatic invasive species and disease, fish salvage operations are limited to trained PFBC staff and not open to public participation.
As is standard practice, following improvements to the dam and refill expected in fall 2028, the PFBC will begin a multi-year restocking plan to reestablish a self-sustaining fish population within Fords Lake to, once again, provide the high-quality fishing opportunities anglers have come to expect.