Improving Wild Trout Angling in PA

I have never caught a wild trout during the spawn b/c I don't target them but I have caught a ton of stocked rainbows over my fishing career where they get rid of their eggs during the catch, net and release process.
 
FD,
It's not that the death off one spawning female will devastate "river xyz". It's about the easily avoidable death off that fish by prohibiting fishing in spawning sections or during the spawning season. It's free fish that are geared to survive which is a serious upgrade from raceway fish.
 
krayfish2 wrote:
FD,
It's not that the death off one spawning female will devastate "river xyz". It's about the easily avoidable death off that fish by prohibiting fishing in spawning sections or during the spawning season. It's free fish that are geared to survive which is a serious upgrade from raceway fish.
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Yea, I know. Trout are people too, right? ;-)

From a personal standpoint, I mostly agree with you guys. I haven't kept a wild trout since about 2001, and even that one I wasn't sure about. Was fishing for stocked browns in the headwaters of Conneaut creek (Crawford County), and caught a rainbow which was likely a wild steelhead smolt. It was hooked deep, and wasn't going to survive. But it tasted good.

I really wouldn't care if season was closed during the trout spawn on wild streams. I just don't see any reason to do so other than emotional for most streams.

 
FarmerDave wrote:

Yea, I know. Trout are people too, right? ;-)
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Don't get me started there! lol I'm more for trout lives then some people's lives. Trout make me happy...most people don't give me that same effect :evil:
 
1. Stop stocking over wild trout.

2. Improve riparian habitat, this helps not only shade the stream but will also filter pollutants and provide more food for aquatic life.

3. Educate people that wild trout exist in many of our streams.

Many streams throughout the state including many in the NC region have significant habitat issues. Many streams are still fighting to recover from the impacts of logging and legacy mining. The lack of riparian buffers in agricultural land is a major problem across the state. One of the biggest issues in NC especially many of our small freestoners are the impacts of roads in the floodplain. Not only can bridges and culverts impact fish movement the roads themselves channelize the stream and cause scouring and increased sediment loading. I can think of several forestry roads that would be better off closed. One was already discussed earlier this year and that is Baker Run Rd in Clinton Co.
 
I DON'T THINK THE QUESTION IS HOW TO DO IT..WE KNOW HOW TO DO IT. THE QUESTION IS HOW DO YOU GET IT DONE. EXECUTION IS A GIVEN. ACTION IS THE QUESTION.
 
lycoflyfisher wrote:
1. Stop stocking over wild trout.

2. Improve riparian habitat, this helps not only shade the stream but will also filter pollutants and provide more food for aquatic life.

3. Educate people that wild trout exist in many of our streams.

Many streams throughout the state including many in the NC region have significant habitat issues. Many streams are still fighting to recover from the impacts of logging and legacy mining. The lack of riparian buffers in agricultural land is a major problem across the state. One of the biggest issues in NC especially many of our small freestoners are the impacts of roads in the floodplain. Not only can bridges and culverts impact fish movement the roads themselves channelize the stream and cause scouring and increased sediment loading. I can think of several forestry roads that would be better off closed. One was already discussed earlier this year and that is Baker Run Rd in Clinton Co.
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Bakers Run is one of my biggest pet peeves...no way should that stream get stocked. I feel sorry for the brookies in there. Dumping fish in holes as big as your bathtub makes no sense to me. These are the small class A streams that should never get stocked.
 
Big John, Baker Run is not on the Class A list; therefore, at least in that respect, it is eligible for stocking.

 
Much of this discussion has been rather moot in my view since my experiences and those described to me have been that spawning wild trout, at least Brown Trout, unlike male bass on their nests, have very little inclination to hit, if at all. The fish don't have to be wild either. When Kettle used to be stocked in the open area in fall, one would run into spawning recently stocked fish at times and they wanted nothing to do with presentations of minnows or lures. Meanwhile, other stocked fish from those batches that were not quite in spawning mode would hit, but were very finicky. Finding fish starting to spawn meant others were probably close and this was always disappointing because it meant fishing was going to be tough. When Logan Branch used to hold an abundance of trophy trout, spawning did not increase their vulnerability to legal fishing methods.
 
Mike wrote:
Much of this discussion has been rather moot in my view since my experiences and those described to me have been that spawning wild trout, at least Brown Trout, unlike male bass on their nests, have very little inclination to hit, if at all. The fish don't have to be wild either. When Kettle used to be stocked in the open area in fall, one would run into spawning recently stocked fish at times and they wanted nothing to do with presentations of minnows or lures. Meanwhile, other stocked fish from those batches that were not quite in spawning mode would hit, but were very finicky. Finding fish starting to spawn meant others were probably close and this was always disappointing because it meant fishing was going to be tough. When Logan Branch used to hold an abundance of trophy trout, spawning did not increase their vulnerability to legal fishing methods.
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I can agree that from my experiences they can be tough to catch and will basically ignore your offering.

To BigJohn's point though it could very likely be a Class A stream but not listed as such for some kind of political reason....such as the continuation of stocking. I am not familiar with Baker Run but if it has a thriving Brook Trout population then I agree we should stop stocking it.
 
Baker run has several branches that are listed as class A but Baker run itself is not listed class A. I'm pretty sure they don't stock Baker anymore because of the poor condition of the road.
 
Mike wrote:
Much of this discussion has been rather moot in my view since my experiences and those described to me have been that spawning wild trout, at least Brown Trout, unlike male bass on their nests, have very little inclination to hit, if at all. The fish don't have to be wild either. When Kettle used to be stocked in the open area in fall, one would run into spawning recently stocked fish at times and they wanted nothing to do with presentations of minnows or lures. Meanwhile, other stocked fish from those batches that were not quite in spawning mode would hit, but were very finicky. Finding fish starting to spawn meant others were probably close and this was always disappointing because it meant fishing was going to be tough. When Logan Branch used to hold an abundance of trophy trout, spawning did not increase their vulnerability to legal fishing methods.
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I agree with this 100%. I'll add that from my experience, fishing spinners over native brook trout that are in the spawning mode is even more of a waste of time than fishing over spawning wild brown trout.

Why? It's just my observation and may not be supported by science, but it seems that native brook trout spawn during a shorter window of time than wild brown trout. Therefore, if I hit a native brookie stream during this window it seems like a higher percentage of the overall population is spawning, which leaves fewer trout to be caught.

Brown trout seem to spawn over a much longer period of time, so at any given time a higher percentage of the population is not spawning and therefore available to be caught.

I don't doubt that this is an extreme example, but each year I see at least a few wild brown trout begin to spawn in Spring Creek in Centre County as early as the end of September, and many are still spawning well into January.
 
Mwheaps32 wrote:
Baker run has several branches that are listed as class A but Baker run itself is not listed class A. I'm pretty sure they don't stock Baker anymore because of the poor condition of the road.
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Baker Run was definitely stocked in 2017.
 
Mike wrote:
Much of this discussion has been rather moot in my view since my experiences and those described to me have been that spawning wild trout, at least Brown Trout, unlike male bass on their nests, have very little inclination to hit, if at all. The fish don't have to be wild either. When Kettle used to be stocked in the open area in fall, one would run into spawning recently stocked fish at times and they wanted nothing to do with presentations of minnows or lures. Meanwhile, other stocked fish from those batches that were not quite in spawning mode would hit, but were very finicky. Finding fish starting to spawn meant others were probably close and this was always disappointing because it meant fishing was going to be tough. When Logan Branch used to hold an abundance of trophy trout, spawning did not increase their vulnerability to legal fishing methods.
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I agree, however it's not vey hard at all to line these fish. And it's next to impossible for a wco to be able to identify that on a trout stream.
 
Mwheaps32 wrote:
Baker run has several branches that are listed as class A but Baker run itself is not listed class A. I'm pretty sure they don't stock Baker anymore because of the poor condition of the road.
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Bakers Run is stocked...and if the feeder streams are class A then so is Bakers no doubt about it. As mentioned further up that's a political thing.
 
moon1284 wrote:

I agree, however it's not vey hard at all to line these fish. And it's next to impossible for a wco to be able to identify that on a trout stream.
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Whats a wco? BFC hasn't seen one in almost 2 years now...
 
Mike-Some of my biggest fish have been snagged off redds.
 
FrankTroutAngler wrote:
Mwheaps32 wrote:
Baker run has several branches that are listed as class A but Baker run itself is not listed class A. I'm pretty sure they don't stock Baker anymore because of the poor condition of the road.
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Baker Run was definitely stocked in 2017.
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It's still on the PfBC stocking list.

For those who have been up there recently, is there still a channel block on the stream?

This was somewhere roughly in the vicinity of the confluence of Eagleton Run. It diverted the stream right over toward the forest road.

And does anyone know why this was done? I can understand why someone would divert a stream AWAY from a road in the floodplain, to reduce erosion of the road.

But why would someone divert a stream TOWARD a road in the floodplain?

The section below this channel block/diversion had very poor habitat, which is what you'd expect when a stream is forced into a straight line path.

BTW, we even caught hatchery trout in Clendenin Branch. (Baker Run is formed by the confluence of Clendenin Br and Shoemaker Br.)

Clendenin is not on the PFBC stocking list, but someone is stocking it.

 
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