Google Map for all PA Wild Trout Streams!

Response from Mike: 1) We know about the "other" Broad Run and its wild brown trout. Have known about it since the early 1980's. Just have never surveyed it (DEP did), so it is not on the reproduction list. 2) The Unt in Modena, Chester Co. is not Dennis Run. They are two different streams. We have known about he wild ST in Dennis Run for about three years, but have not surveyed it so it is not on the list. In a nutshell; we can't get to them all and some are higher priority than others.
 
Also from the management plan:

"Also, the identification or expansion of wild trout populations will be publicized, thus providing the public with the opportunity to fish for wild trout. Inherent in these opportunities is the opportunity to educate anglers and other constituents of the wild trout classification system used by the PFBC. A better public understanding of this classification system has the potential to benefit the PFBC in numerous ways including, better relationships between the PFBC and the public, better water quality protection, and more efficient use of hatchery reared trout as a result of a greater public awareness of the excellent fisheries provided by high biomass wild trout populations that are not stocked."
 
I like these maps a lot, but I think it is easy for experienced fishermen (I'm not including myself) to zoom right in on their favorite streams and "yup, there they are on the map."

But someone without your experience doesn't know how to zoom right in on those good streams, or stream sections. There are over 3000 streams on the natural reproduction list (105 pages of about 30 streams/page), so there are literally thousands of streams on this map. It's a big blue maze if you start from zero.

The experienced fishermen might find it easy to forget how much this map is not going to to show someone. Imagine you had not fished the other streams in the area, which are not as good. Imagine you didn't know where to park, how big the stream is, how to get on the stream, and where posting won't let you go. Imagine you didn't know the deeper holes and trails.

I think the map will save time in planning to try new places, but the really good places are still needles in a haystack.

Also, if we expect the state not to stock streams with wild trout, I don't think we can expect the state to withhold info on them
 
Any knowledge that the PFBC has should be shared with the public. They are a public agency and we are the public.
 
I love satellite maps, but they aren't able to show bigger holes in a small trout stream. Yesterday I was very surprised to find a hole that must have been 12-15 feet deep and much wider and longer than the others on its small trout stream. I know where it is , and looked for it on the map we're discussing: you can't see it through the trees. And paper maps just show the same width blue line when a stream is 5 or 20 feet wide. Maps only tell you so much.
 
Class A Tannery Hollow Run is omitted in Cameron County.
 
I think sometimes all of the electronic stream sharing actually takes away from people joining converation groups or similiar because now they just simply rely on some person providing information to them.


Jay or Gambar?
 
So the secrets are out and the conservation groups will need to find a different recruiting tool. How about the conservation efforts themselves, rather than inside information on hush-hush streams? Just an idea. I haven't thought it through.
 
Sometimes.

That sentiment to me is "spoken like people who have no spots of their own."
 
These maps are great, but since so many of the mapped streams are actually posted, tiny, overgrown, don't fish well, or have access issues, people could get much more insight on good PA trout stream sections from any edition of the Landis book. The Landis books have been around for what, 15 years? Thank you, troutbert!! The book is really great, and I see why people will pay high prices for the latest one. Of course having Landis and the maps is even better.

One of the many great things about Landis: small streams are drawn in proportion in the maps, not as the same blue line that might be a 4 foot wide stream, and might be a 20 foot wide one. Three tribs into a bigger stream are drawn so you get some sense of how big they really are; you can see one and have some idea that the ones over the horizon are bigger or smaller. GPS maps don't do this. You often can't see small streams through the trees on a satellite map, and these PA overlaid computer maps don't tell you how big or small a stream really is.
 
conservation groups:: if people get stream info as one benefit of joining a conservation group, that's a good thing, isn't it? -- should be more people in conservation groups.
 
With the posting of this map recently it has peaked the interest of myself and PennKev to go check out a stream close to my area that he brought to my attention a few months ago. (I give him all the credit) We might go soon to see what the deal is, but all research in the past 2 days has shown very promising. The negative is that the research has shown that there is a lot of mine drainage in the area and within the past 6-7 years there has been a few organizations put together to take care of the problem. One article said that there were brook trout and there habitat is threatened by the mine drainage but shows good signs now as some browns are flourishing in other sections. If it wasn't for this map, I wouldn't have researched it and not known of the problem. I think in certain situations, like this, it can be a great resource.
 
I'm all for it..

Anything to take some of the effort out of the process. After all, what fool was it that said that the satisfaction experienced is commensurate to the effort expended in the process?

Whoever he was, he must have a lot of free time on his hands or else he had a really twisted viewpoint of the virtues of instant gratification.

I'm hoping this trend continues and that I'll live to see the day when we all gather with our respective families for Thanksgiving dinner delivered intravenously...
 
RLeep2 wrote:
we all gather with our respective families for Thanksgiving dinner delivered intravenously...
Click to expand...

With all due respect... I understand your point, but this attitude has always struck a nerve with me.

Nobody said you have to use it. I take offense to the idea of telling others how to find trout streams based on your idea of a good time.

It's no different than the "bamboo vs graphite" debate. For some reason, though, in the debate contained within this thread, the equivalent of the "bamboo" team feel like it's ok to criticize the mere existence of the alternative.
 
There's nothing here to argue about, Jay. No right and no wrong and no better and no worse other than in the eye of the beholder.

Even if I had the power to do so, I would not attempt to compel anyone to do it "my way". That's the antithesis of the sort of person I am.

By the same token, neither will I be silent when I see things that, in my view, move the sport and the processes of the sport one step closer to direct injection of the experience to the temple.

I realize it's very old school, but I believe the value of my experience finding and fishing the Lost Fork of Hometown Run is directly connected to how many times I got lost trying to get there.

This isn't likely to change. The arthritis in my knees and neck is also, in a sense, present in my brain...🙂

In the meantime, I hope folks use the map to find new streams and as a result come to love them and care about them. In the final analysis, that's far more important than my arthritis..
 
Understood. I find the anti-technology stance to be highly counterproductive, but nobody says that productivity has to be the goal. Point taken, and I apologize for drawing conclusions about your point.
 
My apologies as well. All my life, I've been irritated by crusty old farts. And now, well...🙂
 
But you just argued in your own single post there. You say there's nothing to argue, but then you put your point up there saying that you don't think it should change.

For me I'd rather fish, than not fish. I don't have the luxary of finding brookie streams at every bridge, and even if I did, I hate getting lost and don't find it fun. I don't need to be spoon fed, but I also wouldn't enjoy putsing around with the dace and chubs when I know there's info out there to put me over trout. It may be a new way of thinking, but that doesn't mean it's wrong. I appreciate the guys who go out looking for a new spot every weekend, but that's just not me. Not wrong, just different.
 
Ryan, agreed on all counts.

When I say there is nothing to argue about, I'm simply saying that there is no way either viewpoint can be said to be definitively right or wrong. It's all a matter of individual preference, as you sort of said.
 
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