Crowds: Slate Run/Pine vs. Kettle Creek

[The_Sasquatch]

Six-Gun, exactly. The drainage area for Kettle is HUGE. The WBTE was/is something like 28 miles of water (including tribs). Potter County alone has over 350 streams on the natural reproduction list (throw in Tioga and Clinton, etc. on top of that!?) and these guys want to pile up on top of each other for freshly stocked trout?

I really don't get it. Don't get me wrong. I cut my teeth fly fishing on Kettle. The area between Ole Bull campground and the lower bridge of what was the FFO section (is it still FFO or is it DHALO now?) a mile or two downstream holds a special place in my heart. That is where my brother (who passed away 2 years ago) and I learned to fly fish 20 years ago. I could never avoid that stretch, but I'm not about to pile in there with 50 other guys, either. If I'm driving by and no one is there, I'll park it and fish, but even if I see 2 vehicles, I'm goin' by. There's just WAY too much water, too much beauty, too much wilderness to experience in that area to pile in w/ a bunch of other guys.

The trout and bugs and bears and deer and beavers and beauty aren't confined to where you can park and walk 100' to the stream.

Well, now that Swattie got a little more specific, I might see more guys where I like to fish ;-)

 

[Swattie87]

Sorry Squatch...I'll gladly dress up in a Squatch suit and join you in scaring off some folks up there!

 

[troutbert]

In that upper Kettle area being discussed, some people have told me that they think that the brookies/browns ratio has shifted in favor of the brookies in the recent times (last 15 years or so?).

Whaddya think?

Any thoughts based on your fishing experiences, or if you know what the PFBC survey data shows?

Just from my own fishing, it seems like the ratio may have shifted towards more brookies and less browns.

But it's hard to tell just from fishing there occasionally.

 

[Swattie87]

I'm with ya Dwight. Definitely seems like more Brookies from Ole Bull and up.

I've caught some wild Browns, but all of them have been between Ole Bull and the 144 bridge in Oleona. I'm guessing that mid-teens Brown I spooked last year was probably wild, but in recent years I've only caught wild Brookies (along with the rogue stockie or two) above Oleona.

Not sure what the survey data shows, but it definitely seems like there's more Brookies. That being said, I haven't fished it in relatively warm, up and off color conditions, when you tend to catch more of the Browns that are present in a stream. There's some streams up there that in lower, clear conditions I've caught nearly all Brookies. In the same section of stream after a Summer's rain, I've caught nearly all Browns. Wouldn't surprise me necessarily if the same happened on upper Kettle if I fished it in those conditions. Conditions, conditions, conditions! Those wild, forested freestone Browns can be ghosts when they want to be.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

I'd agree w/ that. In fact, the last time I fished above Ole Bull this past Fall, a few weeks before the spawn, I caught NO browns. All brookies. That was on a very rainy, overcast day where you'd expect to catch more browns.