Help stock if you can...

[afishinado]

Below is from the PFBC SE Region Reports section, but ditto for anywhere in the state. Check out the Trout Stocking page on the PFBC site for your county. There is info posted about when and where to meet to help stocking.

If you live in Southern Chester County on the south side of 322, consider coming out this year and helping to stock the Stocked Trout Waters.

The Stocked Trout Waters in Southern Chester County include Beaver Creek, Buck Run, Brandywine West Branch, Pocopson Creek, Elk & Big Elk Creeks, Octoraro Creek East Branch (in-season only), and four sections of the White Clay Creek (including one Delayed Harvest Artificial Lures Only Section that is also a Keystone Select Trout Waters).

We had very little help on some of the stockings which made it difficult to distribute the fish as evenly as we would have liked to. On the last stocking of the White Clay Creek, we only had three helpers.

We often get the anglers who wants to call in and complain that his favorite hole was not stocked well enough, or for reasons of bad weather and proximity to the road and or, for lack of help, it may have to be passed by.

The first thing we ask is if they came along to help stock and the usual answer is no. Stocking is a lot of fun and gives you a chance to give something back to the resource. It is also a great way to spend a day with a kid and to get them off the web and video games for a while.

The web site below has been updated and will give you all the dates, times and meeting locations for any county in Pennsylvania.

Thanks in advance for your help.

http://fbweb.pa.gov/stocking/TroutStockingDetails_GIS.aspx

Beaver Creek, Pocopson Creek and Buck Run will be stocked on Tuesday, March 20. We will be meeting the stocking truck across from the Sadsburyville Post Office at 11:30 AM.

We have had very little help on our stockings. Please give something back to the resource that gives you so much and plan on coming out and helping us stock these fish. If you have not yet taken a kid on a stocking, put it on your list of things that you must do.

 

[Mike]

Absolutely true. If the voluntary crew is light (less than eight people) and there are 2500-3500 trout on the truck with 23-30 trout per bucket plus the water, equaling about 25-30 lbs per bucket, how many times do you think each vol is going to go a longer distance at a fast pace to spread the fish out? Plus, you only have a couple of minutes to get the fish to the water....they don't hold their breath in a bucket for very long.

Another plus is that if you are young and enthusiastic, or old like me but in good physical condition, you can forego a day at the gym and use stocking as a workout. I bike to the stocking points and often carry the buckets at quite a fast pace to spread the fish out and get a workout. Then I run the bucket back to the truck. Vols, including me, get to meet new people and have a good time together.

 

[bradtheflyfisherman]

Would love to help...but as someone who works 8 - 6 PM Monday - Friday it is nearly impossible for me to get out and help. I know they can't just stock on weekends all the time, but having more weekend dates could help with turnout.

 

[jifigz]

I should be able to make it out to help in my home county a few times this season. I have actually never helped stock trout. I worked right beside Horning Run (Juniata County) for a long time and when I drove by the meeting place it looked like there were so many people there to volunteer all ready so I just went home after work instead.

 

[bugger814]

I have to agree with Brad on this one. I have helped with A couple Saturday stockings, and was even able to take my one grandson the last time I helped. He loved it, seeing the fish and helping put them in the lake , he wouldn't stop talking about it. But for stockings during the week, which most stockings are, I work from 7:30 to 4:30 Monday through Friday and have 45 minute commute both ways. So there is no way I can help. The fish commission is always looking for ways to get kids involved so maybe more weekend stockings are the way to go.Do it on A trial basis for one year and see if it helps get more people out to stock and maybe more kids into fishing.

 

[salmonoid]

Take a vacation day if you have them. Weekends sound nice in theory, but it also means a WCO or deputy and truck drivers and hatchery workers have to work on a weekend. They need to get paid too, and presumably not overtime with the current budget woes, so a manager would have to carve out a day of the week for them to be off otherwise.

Weekend stockings that I've helped with have been inundated with volunteers, so much so that I never even got a chance to carry a bucket. Seems like it's feast or famine..

 

[laszlo]

I can't wait to help...when I retire

 

[mjones32]

Sounds good, I will be glad to help. If you hear a british sounding chap, that will be me, cheers.

 

[Reeder]

Take a vacation day if you have them. Weekends sound nice in theory, but it also means a WCO or deputy and truck drivers and hatchery workers have to work on a weekend. They need to get paid too, and presumably not overtime with the current budget woes, so a manager would have to carve out a day of the week for them to be off otherwise.

The civil servants serve us, not the other way around. They can manage to tweak the schedule a couple times per year. If we are donating our time to help on a weekend, they can get paid on a weekend.

 

[houncer]

The civil servants serve us, not the other way around. They can manage to tweak the schedule a couple times per year. If we are donating our time to help on a weekend, they can get paid on a weekend.

Stock all of the state's water on the four weekends in March??? That's a lot of water to cover especially when you factor in the potential for bad weather. .

 

[Mike]

In the SE Saturday stockings have been discontinued over time on a number of waters due to the traffic congestion that occurs as a result.

 

[MD_Gene]

I agree. I have helped Muddy Creek TU many years ago and recently helped several times at different Maryland locations. We put the fish in crates and drag them down the stream for miles. Makes the fishing experience much better. It's a night and day kind of thing!

 

[jacob]

I helped stock Ridley last week - although I was the second to last vehicle in the line and couldn’t make my way up to the line in time to actually carry a bucket, there were lots of hands on deck from delco anglers, and all the kids had a blast. It’s always nice to see the next generation coming up, though I suppose at 28 I could be considered part of the young crew still 400 brookies we’re stocked from the falls up, on top of the state stocking that was made earlier in the week.

 

[Jessed]

Do any of you wear waders when stocking smaller streams?