Here are some more pics I took a few days ago. Les, if you see this, this is what is upstream of where we stopped (that you cannot see from the road).
Pool A is where I found one 8 inch brookie hiding under the large rock indicated by the arrow. I was able to net this fish for a quick photo as it tried to escape by running up and then down the riffle above the pool. It has unusually dark coloration for the stream but notice how fat and healthy it appears. The trout that are still here are certainly eating well.
Pool A used to hold anywhere from 3-5 6"+ brookies in the summer. I only saw this one plus a few YOY. The area I circled in red has filled in, it used to be nearly waist deep in the center of the pool and this is where the adult trout would lie. IIRC the pool got shallower and held less trout in 2009 or 2010.
Above this pool is the section I labeled "wide channel". erosion from floods is pretty obvious here. The tree roots at left were not exposed until a few years ago.
Continuing upstream are the pics labelled "potential" followed by "shallow run". "potential" used to have a deep plunge pool over the log that you can see in the middle. This was one of the first pools to disappear, it washed out in the 2007-2009 time frame. Hard to say exactly as I did not take pictures back then.
This area looks promising to me and should hold a few nice trout in the next year or two. The pool forming at bottom right is currently occupied by the YOY trout shown. This little pool did not exist two years ago and is on its way to being deep enough to hold an adult trout.
Above the log, there is a lot of brush/remnants of a log jam piled up over the left side of the creek which is starting to scour out a pool that will have excellent cover if the debris stays in place. I could not turn up any trout, yoy or adult, but there could easily be one hidden in there.
Upstream from there is the shallow run. Last year the tailout of this had a "stickjam" which produced a 6" brookie for me. A flood earlier this year washed it out and now there is not much to keep trout there. I did not turn up any. I placed a small log on the right bank as an idea of a kind of structure that would help here. I was thinking bury 2/3 of it in the gravel and the rest would stick out into the stream below the waterline. Scour could create some more depth and the log itself would serve as overhead cover.
Next up is "pool B". There used to be a 6-8" diameter log across the head of the pool and laying along the length of the pool in the water. While the log was there, 4-6 brookies over 6" long occupied the hole. The log got blown out and deposited on a bank downstream in 2011 IIRC. Since then, the pool has held 0-2 brookies over 6". There are currently none, but there are about 8-10 YOY. I also have a photo of this pool from 2011 and the tree that is knocked over laying across the head of the pool was still standing in the 2011 pic.
"Pool C" is next upstream. This is where I saw my first native brook trout in chester county back in 2005. At the time, there were 5 brookies over 6" here. Around 2009 there would only be 1 or 2 here. I have not seen any adult brookies in this pool since 2011, only some monstrous creek chubs and a few YOY brookies. The only changes here have been the loss of some small roots that used to extend into the water and the buildup of silt on the right bank. The other thing to notice is the stream of water coming in from the left. That is warm pond water seeping through the pond embankment. That little seep did not exist prior to 2010 and at that time it was just a wet area slowly dripping water over the left bank into the pool.
Upstream of here is a channelized section between the road and the pond that usually never held adult trout. every now and then a small logjam would form somewhere and a trout would move in, but never for more than a year or so. ABove this is a big bend pool followed by the pools above and below the small concrete dam. None of those three pools currently hold adult trout.
