Have you ever?

[Troutaddict172]

Have anyone of you folks ever fished a stream listed on the natural reproduction list. Only to catch the skunk and see no signs or void of any trout. Then fish it again and have success? Not looking for any streams or anything just curious.

 

[Swattie87]

Happens all the time.

Conditions, conditions, conditions.

 

[sarce]

^^^ +1.

Not just on wild trout streams but even class A streams sometimes.

 

[pabrookie94]

^^^+2

I've had class A produce consistently poor results and then fished a basic natural reproduction stream only to blow away that class A. Can't explain it sometimes.

 

[ryansheehan]

What is this catching the skunk you speak of?

 

[hendeylathe]

Like former WTAE-TV news guy, Adam Lynch, who I heard was a fly fisherman would say. "That's why its called "Fishin'", not "Catchin'".

 

[salmonoid]

The sampling of a stream is just one or two snapshots of a population in a stream. It may be indicative of long term populations or it might be a blip. If it makes the Class A list, it means that for some reason, two times it had high enough biomass. Maybe it doesn't anymore. Maybe it does. Maybe it's better. As others have noted, conditions will tip the hand in your favor. Or show you a completely different side of a stream.

One lesson I've learned from this is to never write off a Class A wild brown trout stream that I fish in colder weather or low water conditions and do poorly on. It probably holds far more fish than I caught or saw.

Conditions can also flip the switch between one species or another. I've fished one drainage for a number of years, often in lower water conditions. I caught almost exclusively wild brookies, with an occasional brown. Hit the stream one time after a rain event and what was normally a 90/10 brookie/brown ratio completely flipped.

 

[Chaz]

The only way to predict success on a wild trout stream, is to get to know it. Start with fishing it a few time under different conditions. And especially during the fall and winter use sub-surface flies unless you see fish rising. Keep a log and enter the stream conditions, weather past and present. Take a stream thermometer.
Getting a skunk once in a while will become less likely.
It also helps to know the section listed.

 

[steveo27]

Swattie87 wrote:
Happens all the time.

Yep. Ive fished streams and caught trout in every spot youd expect them, then fished the same stream and not even miss a fish. Conditions, timing, blah blah blah. Tons of factors come into play.

 

[Mike]

Return to this thread whenever tempted to think that a wild trout stream has been over harvested or fished out.

 

[pcray1231]

Honestly? It's pretty rare, assuming you are talking the same stretch. And usually class A's when it happens.

The whole conditions thing seems to matter a lot on fertile streams. I can easily take a skunking on Penn's, for instance. And then turn around and have a great day. Fish actually do turn off in such streams.

But when I fish Bs, Cs and Ds, they are typically smallish infertile freestoners and tend to be less condition dependent, within reason of course.

As a caveat when searching new streams it's not unusual to get skunked. Then fish a different section and do well. I.e. find out that areas of that stream suck and others are good. But that generally stays consistent, and this is generally for lower end streams.

Much more common, though, is in brook/brown mix streams going one day and getting all brookies, and another day mostly browns.

 

[k-bob]

I can easily imagine catching and seeing no brown trout in low water on a sunny day, and then catching some will less daylight and more water.

with brookies, I have fished some sections of streams on the nat repro list where I didnt catch or see trout. for ex., the upper part of the mehoopnany trib named white brook (bradford cty). but white brook starts up high on a mountain in pottsville bedrock, which buffers acid rain poorly, but at lower levels is in catskill, which buffers acid rain much better, and it has some falls. a big rain or snowmelt might damage the trout above the some of the falls through an acid spike, and maybe they cant repopulate over the falls? or a drought could have a similar effect? and of course maybe I just missed the brookies that are up there?

probably not all sections of some of the streams on the nat repro list have trout, even if the listing says "headwaters to mouth" ... for ex, the upper part of mill creek in schuylkill has serious mine drainage and while there are sometimes trout with AMD I'd be surprised to find any there.

 

[FarmerDave]

pcray1231 wrote:
Honestly? It's pretty rare, assuming you are talking the same stretch. And usually class A's when it happens.

The whole conditions thing seems to matter a lot on fertile streams. I can easily take a skunking on Penn's, for instance. And then turn around and have a great day. Fish actually do turn off in such streams.

But when I fish Bs, Cs and Ds, they are typically smallish infertile freestoners and tend to be less condition dependent, within reason of course...

Ditto that.

The fish are much more hungry in the small less fertile freestone streams that I used to frequent.

The exception being if that C or D is also stocked. For some reason I rarely catch wild fish in Cs and Ds when they are also stocked.

Fished out maybe? ;-)

That last part was for Mike, and I wasn't serious.