Improving Wild Trout Angling in PA

[ernie]

1. Stop stocking streams based on license sales in a given county. Only stock streams that do not support wild trout populations. Let the wormers fill their stringers on the stocked streams.

2. Have two types of trout stamps. Catch and release stamp and the more expensive catch and keep stamp.

3. Designate all wild trout, A and B streams and any others that will sustain trout as catch and release.

 

[bigjohn58]

ernie wrote:
1. Stop stocking streams based on license sales in a given county. Only stock streams that do not support wild trout populations. Let the wormers fill their stringers on the stocked streams.

2. Have two types of trout stamps. Catch and release stamp and the more expensive catch and keep stamp.

3. Designate all wild trout, A and B streams and any others that will sustain trout as catch and release.[/quote]

My experience with this is bad. Complete catch and release causes lots of small fish and few larger quality fish. I'd rather have quality over quantity in a lot of cases.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

A closed season is NOT a terrible idea. Other states do it. Protecting fish while they're spawning is a terrific idea, ESPECIALLY if you want strong wild trout populations. The last thing wild trout populations need are "trout pros" finessing trout off of redds.

 

[ryansheehan]

FarmerDave wrote:
1. Stop stocking trout in all class A and B.
2. Open the hatcheries to the stringer crowd.
3. Paint the great white fleet pink and convert them for hauling anglers to and from the hatcheries.

I'm only half joking.

Yes! That's the best idea I have heard.

 

[krayfish2]

3oh4 wrote:
I think it's insane to have closure seasons on streams with wild fish present b/c of stockings (I think having closures due to fragile temps and flow is necessary). Then telling me I can't fish for almost 5-6 months, one of the worst opinions/ideas I've read on this board.

Really? I almost have to think you are pulling my leg. Yeah, close during the spawn through hatch out. This keeps people from interrupting the reproduction of the wild fish. "Hold on cowboy. I like raping the redds during the spawn. Easy to catch some whoppers at that time.".

If we are talking about how to improve wild fisheries, pretty sure this is going to be in the discussion. When someone on here gives multiple example of people being unable to distinguish between 2 species.....you think they can identify spawning areas? Not likely or "I stay clear of them" .....which is also known as "I wade all over the river burying the newly fertilized eggs in silt". How does that help improve things for wild fish?

Fish for bass, fish for catfish or keep in on the stocked waters for a few months. Is it going to kill ya? Why does everyone feel so entitled or have to be so selfish? By my own choice, I trout fish between 4/1 and 6/15-ish. So I don't stress fish during the warm periods, I stop fishing until water temps have dropped to safe levels which is early to mid September. I then feel it's safe to trout fish again from mid September to the end of October. I then leave wild streams alone until spring so they can make more fish for us to catch next season. Wish everyone were so thoughtful by putting the resource first. That sounds like a good slogan....have PFBC look into adopting it. LOL

 

[3oh4]

Don't get me wrong it's 100% ethical and I totally understand why you would do it. However at some point the line has to be drawn that fish are here to be fished. Shutting down a stream for half a calendar year, then throw in a bad summer in July and August; that give you a four month window to fish the stream. Hell sounds like steelhead fishing - oh wait can't steelhead fish either bc under your terms those tribs would be shut down for the spawn. Again makes sense but at some point you have to draw the line. Protect them when the biologist officially say the spawn is on? Sure for a couple weeks, but shut it down for 6 months? No way. Not like it would ever happen that's a lot of cash to be lost keeping people away for half a year.

It's not selfish, I enjoy trout fishing. I don't fish for other species anymore. I don't enjoy it. Do I fish for fish on redds? Nope. I'm educated, educated enough to know trout don't spawn for 6 months. Educated enough to know Browns and rainbows don't even spawn at the same time. The redds can only be protected so much, educate and detour. I follow enough rules and regs in life, let there be fishing for God sakes!


Ernie's idea of two different types of stamps is really intriguing and creative. Props to that idea!

 

[bigjohn58]

I doubt they would ever shut it down for that long of a period BUT look at what they did with smallmouth bass on the Susquehanna. Closed during the spawn. If it happened there it can happen to trout for a month also. I bet majority could care less if it closes for a month or so during the fall due to hunting season and football. Trout streams that I fish get the least amount of pressure fall into winter. I would have no issue with it being close or a month or month and a half period. Highly doubt it would ever happen though. Also we can have all the rules ya want but if there is no one to enforce them who cares. Heck BFC doesn't even have a warden in the area. Left a year and a half to 2 years ago and was never replaced.

 

[ryansheehan]

I hate the idea of a closed season for spawning trout. Winter is my favorite time to fish. No crowds, some snow for scenery, love it. However, if there was a stream with population problems due to the spawn I could be in favor of it. Most of the rivers I fish have a population problem but there are too many trout. I would very much be against a closed season on the savage or gunpowder for example. Kray what's an example of a river system who's population is low and would be helped by a closed season? Like 3oh4 said we all have to draw a line somewhere, right now closed seasons are over the line for me. I haven't fished too many streams in PA(little j, penns, spring) but the ones I have, had an abundance of trout.

 

[3oh4]

Big difference from 6 months to 1 month. 1 month sure no problem, multiple months? Eek not sure about that. Not like it matters I can't even look at my flyrods from November to Late March.

I could also scenerios where you are trying to resurrect streams from "spawning exstinction" - I could understand that as well.

I also really agree with BigJohn's assessment on catch and release regs, a lot of streams over populate and quality fish seem to disappear. Go fish the Brookie streams of the Savage river, used to be full of big Brookies but since they made everything C and R the tribs are insanely populated but the quality has really went downhill.

 

[krayfish2]

Ok, if you won't subscribe to closing and entire stream for 6 months and are fine with the one month closure.... would you accept spawning areas / tribs be closed to fishing until 4/1?

Ryan asked for an example in PA. There are none because PFBC doesn't manage that way. NY State does on the Delaware. You have almost 90 of trout water. All of it in NY shuts down. Only the PA border waters are open to fishing. So, it leaves about 33+ miles of the Delaware and all the BK (minus the special regs area) closed to angling. This allows mid river spawn and feeder spawns undisturbed. Guessing that only 10 miles of water provides fish for that entire system. It does work.

What's wrong with stockers over the winter? Plenty of places to fish for them. I'm talking the best of the best streams based on potential. Remember when spring used to have more than 6 fish over 10"?

 

[3oh4]

No lol. Personally I'm smart enough to know what is ethical and not ethical and I know what a spawning bed looks like. Why would I want to pass up fishing my favorite streams?

About 4 years ago I went brookie fishing (which is a rarity for me) but I was to late and they were in spawn mode. You know what I did? I took some awesome videos of them doing their dance and went to a large tailwater later to fish. Why do I need you to tell me what to I can and can't do? I have a wife already.

The joy of catching 12 inch stocked rainbows is like getting an erection in public. It's useless, unethical lol, a waste of precious resources and when you get home there is nothing to show for, no sense of accomplishment.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

Good for you. You're smart enough/ethical enough to not do it. Many aren't...

What about a closed season on streams where temps get borderline in the summer? Say from July 1 to Aug. 31? (No I'm not proposing TWO closed seasons). I think the tricky part with that is that for those of us who don't stand around thermal refuges finessing trout on 7x, we do often fish those streams for species such as smallmouth or carp.

 

[3oh4]

I think closing water b/c it's to warm or fish are stacked is perfectly fine. The chances of you killing a fish is drastically higher during that period than fall/winter/early spring. I had to list those three seasons b/c that was the original proposal - shutting it down for portions of three seasons. That's why I said it was so crazy.

It sounds semi-hypocritical for me to support a summer closure based on emergency closures and not protect them during the spawns, I understand that but that spawn closure would have to be a couple weeks to a month at most. Shutting it down from late fall to early spring is where I would draw the line.

 

[moon1284]

I'm from NY and do all of my trout fishing in pa from Jan until 4/1 (with the exception of the w branch and main stem). Even though i fish when the season should be closed (imo), I think it's better for the resource to have a closed season. I don't practice what I preach, but I should. Fwiw i either fish streamers or dry dropper all winter so Im not dredging nymphs through schools of trout sitting on the bottom of spring seeps - I'm targeting feeding fish. It's common sense that protecting wild fish during the spawn and the eggs during incubation will help the proliferation of wild trout. I kind of like the reg they have during the off-season in the fly zones of the salmon river which is floating line only and no added weight to the leader.

I do not steelhead fish after January because a.) I don't enjoy fishing for black steelhead and b.) I don't target spawning fish no matter what species they are. When I fish for lake run fish I want fish that have been in the river for days, not months.

 

[Zak]

Do we really wanna encourage more people to fish for wild trout?? Maybe I'm greedy but I hope less people fish for them haha. Take up bass fishing ;-)

 

[foxtrapper1972]

"Do we really wanna encourage more people to fish for wild trout??"

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NO. But most on this site will disagree. They have some idea that all the popularization of fishing for wild trout will create this army of stream protectors and conservation minded friends of streams and fish. Crazy, unrealistic if you ask me. i suspect many have been sold a bill of goods by tackle manufacturers and fly shops etc....$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

 

[FrankTroutAngler]

1. Support the PFBC's need for a license increase as well as finding a new, no-strings-attached, dependable funding stream so that they can continue to do the exceptional work they currently do for wild trout.

2. The PFBC should do everything in its power, and more if possible, to corral and stop gill lice before it becomes the "Chronic Wasting Disease" of our wild trout.

3. Reach out to our education system and have them teach kids that fishing is something you can do for the rest of your life while organized team sports typically end for almost everyone at the end of high school, if not before.

 

[Brianh]

I too like to fish all year but how can anyone argue after seeing the success of the upper Delaware watershed? Obviously the Oct - March closure has something to do with the quality of that wild trout fishery.

 

[Zak]

Why is it obvious? How does everyone explain the amazing wild trout opportunities PA offers even though fisherman are allowed to fish all year. There is absolutely zero scientific basis for limiting fishing during the spawn. Negative angler impact on that process is a complete myth.

 

[Mike]

Spawning success is seldom limited by the abundance of adult trout.