ASHAMED!

[maxima12]

Just got back from Penns Creek, Union county sportsman club area. As always, a perfect trip, memories that will last me till gone. Had a chance to meet and talk to 5 wonderful people. Some stayed quite a while, getting to know each other. What beautiful people live or visit here.

In all the topics we shared, one in particular came up with each person. The outcry of the new rules and regs. While all 5 fished, only one fly fished, a beginner. Naturally, I was very enthusiatic to talk, learn and listen.


ASHAMED! To learn that the little one's, boys and girls rights were stripped away without any regard, to their happiness, their joy, their sense of accomplishment!


A small child, i would say, has no idea of fly fishing, wild trout, catch an release, slotted regs. etc.,etc.


But, they sure all know worms, hooks, pole! What a pleasure it must be to sit on the front porch of creekside cabins and watch the young at work. enjoying fishing, catching crayfish, singing and laughing. Whatever, just enjoying themselves.


Now, the boy's and girls enjoyment has severe limits imposed by those who once were children but adopted mindsets later in life that have their own agenda for what they want. Understand, shooting yourself i the foot is no fun!


BOTTOM LINE! I HAVE KNOWN MANY, VERY MANY, professional flyfishers, authors, shop owners, politicians, walks of every life, that shared the same story. I walked, rode my bike, tried all day, went back day after day and caught a trout. Could not wait to go home as fast as i could to show "mommy and daddy". Mommy cooked it for me and i felt like a king or queen. I knew then, i was a fisherman, not just for the moment but for life!


Now, i know a lot of you do not understand my posts, think i am a fool, negative outlook on what i stand for. Please do not let this happen in your area. Children are the future when we are gone. Why in the world would anyone discourage them from a memory of a lifetime.


Maxima12

 

[trout48]

I wish I knew what the h l you are ever talking about. If something has happened or rules were changed than let us know so something can be done. You being cryptic makes no sense.

 

[ponner1us]

I believe the children are our are future
Teach them well and let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty they possess inside
Give them a sense of pride to make it easier
Let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be

 

[maxima12]

Trout48, no cryptic about this one, just fact. Get your head out of the sand! As I stated, a fool, misunderstood, misgiven and always forgotten, that's me. If you had a little time, you would understand!

I am not worried about negative, that will pass. Positive, may be today, tomorrow, next week or next near!

Blow your horn and it will be heard. Blow my horn and the walls tumble down!

Remember! Pa. fishing is for all!

 

[PennKev]

"Word salad" is a symptom of potentially serious mental disorders.

 

[maxima12]

Little Johnny, His fish, Big and beautiful, Search John Bailey, Livingston, Montana, as a boy, trout half as big as him. Can't remember fully, maybe caught on the Madison? Seems little Johnny was a king for a day. He's changed today but I'll bet he still remembers. He became a forever fly fisherman and fisherman with great success. With glory comes loss. Less time to fish!

Maxima12

In Pa. check out young Ed Schenk. Glory has a price. Sometimes a closed lip keeps you fishing and not preaching!

 

[BrookieChaser]

I think I got this one.

You're saying due to the recent regulation changes on the lower part of Penns, bait fishing and/or keeping trout is no longer allowed? Therefore robbing kids of fishing with worms or killing and eating a fish in that section?

I just tried to interpret, I'm not stating my opinion one way or the other.

 

[Fly-Swatter]

Maxima: I understand your point. You are ashamed FOR the adults who impose their standards of practice on the young without regard for the joy of discovery and mastery that comes with staring from the basics.

I agree 100%.

I fact, I was guilty of this. When i raised my so to fish, I was so concerned with dumping all my knowledge into him, I did not reflect on how I learned what I know. When I reached that point with my son, I went our and bought a bait bucket and 4x4 minnow net. We had many fun days catching whatever drifted into the net. Some stuff was new to me (rainbow darter, for example).

When I got off my high horse and dialed back my need to feed his brain, I relived the joy of these basic activities through my son.

 

[Lkyboots]

We all started fishing with a Zebco 202 and a can of worms, still like to dunk a brown hairless wiggler, aka night crawler, on a lazy day. Kids are kids, your just lookin at things with a old set of eyes.

 

[maxima12]

Brookie, you know I respect you and your posts. thank you for no words I do not understand. Just a reg. guy.

Now, knowing your style I would think a come back is coming. But please understand me, I can be your whipping boy.

1st, did you ever run home with a prize fish. an accomplishment of a young fisherman. If so? How did it make you feel!

Did you start as young or older in the challenge of fishing!

 

[maxima12]

Eyes may be old, hair is grey, wrinkles on my brow, but seeing a youth
fishing puts a twinkle in the old eyes, smile on my face, a skip to my strut, a opportunity to go back in a time, long ago to rethink how wonderful life was, to be young, to be free and to be loved!


Maxima12

 

[vcregular]

Please. Change can be tough. Plenty of places to dunk a worm but only a few in PA are protected with a management plan that is pro resource - - and Penns is one.

 

[Trico3]

I see some merit on both sides of the coin here. Sadly without stocking on this section of Penns Creek, lots of Public access to the creek will be lost. Not only can't Little Johnny fish a worm and take a trout home, but Big Bob can't walk in with his fly rod at some areas on this section. Access changed before the first Green Drake hatch under these new regs...

 

[BrookieChaser]

maxima12 wrote:

Brookie, you know I respect you and your posts. thank you for no words I do not understand. Just a reg. guy.

Now, knowing your style I would think a come back is coming. But please understand me, I can be your whipping boy.

1st, did you ever run home with a prize fish. an accomplishment of a young fisherman. If so? How did it make you feel!

Did you start as young or older in the challenge of fishing!

I honestly can't remember how old I was when I started fishing. I'm guessing around 4. I started fly fishing in middle school or early high school.

Yes, I do remember being young and catching a prize fish. It felt like an accomplishment, like any other outdoor accomplishment of my youth (first buck, first archery buck, etc).

I'm still confused why I should be ashamed?

Vcregular put it well. Maybe, due to the new regulations, future generations will see a Penn's Creek that is better than what we know. Only time will tell.

 

[Outback_Yak]

Maxima, I know this wasn't exactly what you were talking about brother, but its kinda on the same wave length. Just the opposite end of the spectrum.

Last October I was talking to Bruce at shop in Weikert and we were discussing the new regs. Now, I'm 36, so I had never thought of this point that Bruce had brought up. I am paraphrasing, so Bruce if you're out there, please feel free to correct me.

He was telling me about guiding an elderly gentleman that was having a difficult time just making it down to the creek. In so many words he said, one day you're gonna be old, you're not gonna be so stable in the stream as you once were, and those wild trout you used to catch as a young man are going to be out of reach. You're not gonna care if those trout are stocked, wild, or native. You're just gonna want to feel one on the end of your line.

Ever since that conversation I have not exactly changed my mind concerning stocking fish in that section of Penn's, but it has certainly given me pause to think about access to a resource that everyone can enjoy.

 

[troutbert]

Outback_Yak wrote:

He was telling me about guiding an elderly gentleman that was having a difficult time just making it down to the creek. In so many words he said, one day you're gonna be old, you're not gonna be so stable in the stream as you once were, and those wild trout you used to catch as a young man are going to be out of reach. You're not gonna care if those trout are stocked, wild, or native. You're just gonna want to feel one on the end of your line.

The wild trout are going to be out of reach?

That doesn't make sense.

Wild trout feed the whole width of the creek, including right along the bank.

Even if I get too old to do any fishing, I'll be happy to know that steps are being taken to conserve and improve wild trout populations.

There are plenty of places to fish for stocked trout.

And plenty of places to fish worms.

Penns Creek is Penns Creek. It doesn't make sense to manage one of the great wild trout streams in the eastern US as a hatchery outlet, to the detriment of its wild trout population.

 

[Outback_Yak]

Troutbert, I agree with you 100%. I am very pleased with the new regulations on that section of Penn's and hope that other streams in PA can be managed in the same manner. Certainly a big win for wild trout in PA.

My guess is that Bruce was speaking of the sportsman club stocking fish in certain pools that were easily accessible to fisherman. While I do view this as detrimental to the wild fish population and certainly a practice that will hopefully lessen over time, I guess I can see his point in regards to the older crowd of an anglers and younger as well.

 

[NickR]

I don’t understand how this impacts kids in a negative way. When my dad taught me how to fly fish at around the age of 6 I really took my lumps ????. Took me about two years to catch my first trout! I was really bad. I use to cry when my dad said it was time to leave the stream. I remember learning about leaders and trying to tie dry flies into the butt section of my tippet. In that time I developed a tremendous amount of respect for the fish and the environment that produces such beautiful creatures. I remember my first wild trout I caught and I remember the golden yellow colors and red spots. I think we need to give kudos to PFBC where it is due because I really believe that a “wild trout first” mentality is the responsible thing to do and this type of management will only make the anglers who fish the river better and will make stronger river stewards out of all of us...kids included. Learn to respect the fish and the water they live in. And last of all...stocking is for rivers that cannot sustain a population of wild fish. Why is this a problem for some? Stocked fish are a plague in rivers that have wild fish.

 

[FarmerDave]

maxima12 wrote:

Brookie, you know I respect you and your posts. thank you for no words I do not understand. Just a reg. guy.

Now, knowing your style I would think a come back is coming. But please understand me, I can be your whipping boy.

1st, did you ever run home with a prize fish. an accomplishment of a young fisherman. If so? How did it make you feel!

Did you start as young or older in the challenge of fishing!

I understood this one right away, and the one I quoted is a nice topper.

When I was a kid, some friends of mine discovered a small isolated stream that contained fish. It flowed into a heavily polluted stream. They claimed it contained native brookies.

One day I asked my dad if I could go with them to fish. Dad said no, and laughed and said, there are no fish in there.

Well, a week or so later, I made a similar request... Dad, can I go on a bike ride with my friends. He said sure. So I hopped on my bike and we headed to that little stream to fish. I used a piece of mono on the end of a stick with a hook. Tenkara before it became "cool."

Got many nibbles. Finally I caught a creek chub. Growing up in strip mine country, I didn't even know what a trout looked like back than. Anyway, I do remember wanting to race back home to show dad but my friends wouldn't let me. "But it is just one." Me being bigger than all of them, I put it on a stringer, but when I wasn't looking, they removed it and let it go.

Yep, we were into catch and release even back then.

Don't read too much into that. I often took fish home to eat, just not trout, because there weren't any within a bike ride of home back then. If there was, I probably would have eaten them for breakfast when camping in the backyard instead of bullheads from Pete's pond. ;-)

I have never been a fan of special regulations but can live with them where they make sense. However I am and always have been against C&R as a general regulation for reasons you stated in your opening.

Edit: If this was about stocking versus not, then I take it all back. I am against stocking over wild trout. I was just talking about tackle restrictions and C&R requirements in general. C&R and tackle restriction might make sense where you guys are talking about. I don't know. But in general, this sucks.

 

[lycoflyfisher]

There seems to be more of an issue with the change in the stocking locations of Penns Creek more so than that the special regs section has been extended downstream. This is a great example of the education needed statewide before any traction will be made in the effort to cease stocking over wild trout populations.