Crowds: Slate Run/Pine vs. Kettle Creek

[ksherbine]

How does Slate Run compare to Kettle Creek as far as crowds go?

Thanks,
Kirk

 

[Swattie87]

Slate Run itself sees less crowds than Kettle but you're not really comparing apples to apples there. Kettle is a heavily stocked stream with both ATW and Special Regs sections. Slate is an unstocked class A stream. By unstocked Class A stream standards, Slate is heavily fished, especially for the forested freestone type.

If you mean Pine Creek at Slate Run, I would expect to see crowds similar to Kettle. But understand that Pine at Slate Run is a bigger stream than Kettle and you can spread those crowds out more.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

Agree w/ Swattie. If you fish behind a person Slate Run, even by several hours, you can expect fishing to suck. So its not that it's "crowded", it's that its well known and doesn't take much to put fish down.

With Kettle and Pine you can ALWAYS find open water. Heck, I know stretches of Kettle where I've never seen another person, even in the middle of heavy hatches in May and June.

 

[ksherbine]

Sorry, I should have been more specific. I actually meant Pine Creek around Slate Run and the delayed harvest area.
Thanks!

 

[The_Sasquatch]

The water around Slate Run is big. Yes there are a lot of people, but you just need a good hole and room to cast. If someone is crowding you, they're just being a dingbat. Plenty of water for plenty of people

 

[ksherbine]

Thanks Squatch. We've gone to Kettle for years but have been getting sick of the crowds. I've fished Pine before but further up. Just curious how they compared.

Thanks!
Kirk

 

[franklin]

Pine would be my choice.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

It's easy to get away from people on both streams, really. Pine has its crowds too, but the water is bigger so it's easier to "feel" alone. Kettle has a LOT of water, and a lot of trout, especially outside of the popular stretches. If you're willing to cover ground, you can have a beautiful, solitary day on Kettle a lot easier than on Pine, with more wild fish.

 

[foxtrapper1972]

Kettle Creek- Leidys- Swimming Hole- Six guys evenly spaced fishing there Saturday evening...Two SUVs pull up -4 guys in each. They all jump out and fill in the spaces between the 6 anglers already there. Now 14 guys standing there. MEANWHILE...just upstream there is a mile of water with rising fish and only three guys (all stacked at one riffle). AND MILES OF WATER ABOVE THAT WITH NOBODY.

 

[Van_Cleaver]

I have found excellent fishing on Kettle just by walking upstream away from the road. One time that sticks in my mind was on a Sat. in June. The further I went, the better the fishing got. Had just landed a 10" brookie when the weather started to turn. As the rumbles and lightning closed in I beat it for the truck, arriving right as the rain started. Wanted to fish it the next day, but heavy rain changed my plans. One of these I hope to find my way back....

 

[pete41]

Had great fishing on slate but that was 50years ago-not much help-loved it more than kettle -
two things never forgot about slate-ice in the guides early one June morning and my first and only Pa.rattler- maybe that was why I always had it to my self way back when...lol

 

[The_Sasquatch]

foxtrapper1972 wrote:
Kettle Creek- Leidys- Swimming Hole- Six guys evenly spaced fishing there Saturday evening...Two SUVs pull up -4 guys in each. They all jump out and fill in the spaces between the 6 anglers already there. Now 14 guys standing there. MEANWHILE...just upstream there is a mile of water with rising fish and only three guys (all stacked at one riffle). AND MILES OF WATER ABOVE THAT WITH NOBODY.

Typical, and not surprising. That's why I go WAY up on Kettle!!! They can have their stockies.

 

[AFISHN]

spent 4 days last week fishing Kettle Creek in several places and another much smaller stream that Sasquatch showed me at his cabin mini-jam last Fall.I had a fabulous 4 days of fishing.And on Kettle there were a few guys that started to crowd me.I'm glad I got out of the water and walked a half a mile upstream in 2 instances because no one was there and the fishing was excellent.

BTW:I have fished Slate Run and Pine in that area for 40 + years and the above comment by Sasquatch is accurate

 

[ksherbine]

Thanks for all the comments guys!

When you say go upstream on Kettle to get away from the crowds, how far up are you talking? A few miles above the Leighty bridge, Cross Fork, etc?

Thanks!

 

[The_Sasquatch]

Further. I typically fish it upstream of Ole Bull.

 

[wildtrout2]

The_Sasquatch wrote:
Further. I typically fish it upstream of Ole Bull.

Exactly. Last summer I fished from Oleona upstream on a Saturday and saw nobody all morning. It's beautiful up in that section! I fooled a few browns that I thought had questionable origins though, I'm used to wild browns having more vivid/vibrant coloring? Oh, Long Run was a let down, way too small.

 

[Swattie87]

I too like the Ole Bull and up stretch. Good mix of stockers, and some wild Browns and Brookies. I catch more wild Brookies than anything else up there though, even in the stocked stretch.

wt2 - I helped with the stocking up there the last two years. The Browns the state stocked in 2015 into Kettle upstream of Ole Bull and Little Kettle were gorgeous...almost the quality of the ones that get put in on Pine at Slate Run, just smaller. Some of them could have sparked a good wild/stocked debate right out of the truck, nonetheless after spending a few months in the stream.

The Browns this year looked like the normal PFBC Browns.

 

[Six-Gun]

Sasquatch, you sound like my kind of fisherman. I don't know how the guys that pile on top of each other do it other than sheer laziness. Granted, I learned to fly fish in western locations where I you could go months of trips on mountain streams without ever seeing a soul (even 5 yards from a pull-off) , but even out East, it only takes effort to escape.

I heard the horror stories of weekend crowds during steelhead season in Ohio. I went fishing on a Sunday, fully expecting a circus. I left early and hiked well upstream accordingly. I only crossed paths with a handful of guys who showed up later, all of whom said that the sections near the parking areas were like a zoo. You would've never known it from where we were.

 

[troutbert]

They are still stocking from Ole Bull up past the Route 44 bridge to the mouth of Long Run, which is supposed to be the upper stocking point.

If you are find stocked trout above that, report it to the PFBC.

Above Long Run, Kettle is supposed to be unstocked wild trout water.

 

[Swattie87]

tb - I've been there the last two years for the stocking. The furthest up any get tossed in is the 44 bridge just east of Oleona. Nobody even walks them up toward Long Run. The WCO's heavily coach the volunteers to get them in the water ASAP and not walk them far.

That being said, I've caught stockies upstream of Long Run in the Fall the last two years. Not many, one or two per year, and again the vast majority of the catch up there is wild Brookies. Kettle at about Oleona starts to get warm in the Summer, and I suspect the stockies (along with the wild fish) move upstream in search of colder water.

My Dad caught an 11", emaciated stocker Brookie all the way up at the big hole at the mouth of Germania Branch last year in September. Given the location, I suppose that fish could have been transplanted there by some of the cabin owners, but it's possible it ran up too. I kicked out a mid teen's range, presumably wild Brown from the head of the run coming into the same hole.