Just so you know

[klingy]

"They don't stock it!", he yelled from the top of a hill behind me.

I turned around, somewhat startled to hear someone addressing me loudly at 6:00 am on a Sunday.

Standing in the weeds at the edge of a parking lot was an older gentleman. He was wearing shorts and a red flannel shirt, and held a giant Sheetz coffee cup in his right hand.

"What?", I returned, holding my hand up to my ear like I hadn't heard him the first time. (I felt I needed to say something).

"They used to stock it, but they don't anymore.", he hollered.

"Oh, Ok - thanks!" I said, giving a "thumbs up".

He lingered at the top of the hill, seemingly satisfied that he had saved me from wasting a perfectly good few hours on a nice morning. I'm not sure if he expected me to turn around and sulk back to my truck, but I gave a quick wave, and continued to tie on my dropper. He rocked back on his heels, and then forward on his toes, turned around, and disappeared behind the crest of the hill.

I continued down to the stream, thinking about his advice. After a few minutes, the first brown quietly came to hand. I released it quickly, and it left a muddy trail as it wriggled back into the silently waving cress. I smiled as I slowly moved upstream. It was a shame to squander a beautiful morning on such futility!

 

[coyoterahn]

Good for you! Beautiful pics! I guess you’re thankful that “they don’t stock it!”

 

[jifigz]

Good post Klingy. That looks like some tough water to fish.

 

[salmo]

Great pictures. Much better story. I feel bad about wasting all that time on a stream that isn’t stocked.

 

[Wild_Trouter]

That brown is sporting a spot pattern that I see in Letort fish. Only a few places around the state where I find sparsely spotted browns like the one you have pictured. Beautiful fish! Definitely my kind of water.

 

[klingy]

I too have caught sparsely spotted fish like that one on the Letort. However, they also turn up in other spring creeks in the area. There's one stream in particular where I've caught fish with nearly no spots. There are definitely some spring creeks where that spot pattern is a larger percentage of the population, but I've run into them on freestoners as well in different areas of the state.

 

[Swattie87]

Sounds like you may have stumbled onto his honey hole. Especially with a fish like that in it, and an early morning spectator attempting to dissuade you from fishing. My guess is he saw you and stopped, or even walked over if he lived nearby. Not too many anglers I know will go out of their way to sincerely tell someone it's not worth fishing somewhere. More often, there are other motives. Very nice fish, and pictures.

When I'm asked while fishing if I've caught any, my standard response is "a couple little ones." Regardless of whether I got skunked, or slayed them. I feel like that response reveals the least amount of information possible. I'm always skeptical of the "no, there must be no fish in that creek" response. Then why are you fishing there? More often than not that means I definitely want to fish it now.

 

[moon1284]

The sparse spot pattern is kind of common in letort, but it is also in other spring creeks. I've also caught some fish in the upper delaware with sparse spot patterns. Always cool to catch one like that.

 

[CLSports]

I think I may have run into that same guy on that same stream several years ago, with a similar result. I hooked a nice fat 18-19" brown. He told me the same and also said the fishing was better from the other side of the stream, which I took to mean he didn't want me on his side. Too funny if it was the same guy.

 

[klingy]

Could be the same dude! Although the stream I was fishing, it wouldn’t really matter what side you were fishing from - two big steps and you could be across it.

 

[PennypackFlyer]

It looks like you've got the first page of the making of a "fish story telling book". Keep on writing them.

 

[troutbert]

Swattie87 wrote:
Sounds like you may have stumbled onto his honey hole. Especially with a fish like that in it, and an early morning spectator attempting to dissuade you from fishing. My guess is he saw you and stopped, or even walked over if he lived nearby. Not too many anglers I know will go out of their way to sincerely tell someone it's not worth fishing somewhere. More often, there are other motives. Very nice fish, and pictures.

When I'm asked while fishing if I've caught any, my standard response is "a couple little ones." Regardless of whether I got skunked, or slayed them. I feel like that response reveals the least amount of information possible. I'm always skeptical of the "no, there must be no fish in that creek" response. Then why are you fishing there? More often than not that means I definitely want to fish it now.

It could be that the guy knows, and that he's just trying to "game" people.

But it is VERY common for many in the general public to to be totally unaware that a stream can have trout if it's not stocked.

We know about wild trout. But most people have no clue. Even many trout fisherman.

I remember talking to a guy who really fished some interesting and remote places, someone obviously very experienced. And when he talked about catching brown trout in these unstocked streams, he would always say that they came either up or down from nearby stocked stream, or some private party stocking etc.

When I said told him that a particular stream has a decent population of wild brown trout, he just looked at me. Then said, "What do you mean?"

He had never in his life heard anyone say "wild brown trout" before. He was totally unaware of the concept. And was very skeptical when I first explained it, but gradually came around to accepting it, sort of, maybe.

 

[Fly-Swatter]

When I said told him that a particular stream has a decent population of wild brown trout, he just looked at me. Then said, "What do you mean?"

He had never in his life heard anyone say "wild brown trout" before. He was totally unaware of the concept. And was very skeptical when I first explained it, but gradually came around to accepting it, sort of, maybe.

IMO, this explains a lot of the resistance to diminished stocking my the general angling public. I assume they think when stocking in a particular Class A or B wild trout stream is reduced or eliminated, they have something they value taken away with nothing of equal or greater value to replace it.

So, it's the job of the PAFBC to educate the public on the existence and benefits of wild trout in PA. Also, education on the costs (financial and environmental) of the trout stocking program would be helpful. There are many, relatively inexpensive ways to do this nowadays.

 

[Dave_W]

Fly-Swatter wrote:

When I said told him that a particular stream has a decent population of wild brown trout, he just looked at me. Then said, "What do you mean?"

He had never in his life heard anyone say "wild brown trout" before. He was totally unaware of the concept. And was very skeptical when I first explained it, but gradually came around to accepting it, sort of, maybe.

IMO, this explains a lot of the resistance to diminished stocking my the general angling public. I assume they think when stocking in a particular Class A or B wild trout stream is reduced or eliminated, they have something they value taken away with nothing of equal or greater value to replace it.

So, it's the job of the PAFBC to educate the public on the existence and benefits of wild trout in PA. Also, education on the costs (financial and environmental) of the trout stocking program would be helpful. There are many, relatively inexpensive ways to do this nowadays.

I'll second this - well said.

 

[Dave_W]

troutbert wrote:

But it is VERY common for many in the general public to to be totally unaware that a stream can have trout if it's not stocked.

We know about wild trout. But most people have no clue. Even many trout fisherman.

I'll second this as well. ^

And conversely, the sight of an angler on an unstocked stream can sometimes elicit a sincere "Hey buddy, I didn't know they stocked here" comment from onlookers. When I reply to this sort of comment with "they don't stock here," you can see the befuddlement on their faces. They can't image why you'd be fishing there.

Common mentality...

 

[wgmiller]

"Catch anything? Nope. Nothing but chubs and suckers."

That usually sends the dogs off the scent pretty quickly!

 

[Swattie87]

wgmiller wrote:
"Catch anything? Nope. Nothing but chubs and suckers."

That usually sends the dogs off the scent pretty quickly!

Not the ones with the good noses! ;-)

 

[k-bob]

sometimes it really is just casting practice:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/05/magazine/fly-casting-on-city-streets-is-weird-thats-why-i-love-it.html

 

[troutbert]

Fly-Swatter wrote:

When I said told him that a particular stream has a decent population of wild brown trout, he just looked at me. Then said, "What do you mean?"

He had never in his life heard anyone say "wild brown trout" before. He was totally unaware of the concept. And was very skeptical when I first explained it, but gradually came around to accepting it, sort of, maybe.

IMO, this explains a lot of the resistance to diminished stocking my the general angling public. I assume they think when stocking in a particular Class A or B wild trout stream is reduced or eliminated, they have something they value taken away with nothing of equal or greater value to replace it.

So, it's the job of the PAFBC to educate the public on the existence and benefits of wild trout in PA. Also, education on the costs (financial and environmental) of the trout stocking program would be helpful. There are many, relatively inexpensive ways to do this nowadays.

At one time the PFBC had a brochure about wild trout in PA that was quite good. They handed these out at the sports shows. And they had some articles in PA Angler about wild trout also.

People's views on wild trout are interesting. Even on this website, there have been some posts where people were skeptical about the existence of wild trout, at all, or in any significant numbers.

There's a book on the Geography of Pennsylvania, published by Penn State, where one of the profs who contributed to the book wrote something about how there were a few wild trout in PA, but the great majority come from the hatchery truck. That was simply wrong, and it's appalling that he didn't know better.

In the rural areas of the state, many people are aware of wild brook trout, but not aware of the existence of wild brown trout. That is extremely common. The guy I mentioned in the previous post is a member of a family with a large tract of woods that has a small native brookie stream running through it. He knew they were wild trout. But he had NEVER heard of the concept of wild brown trout.

At the Wild Trout meeting they had in Harrisburg some years ago, there was a guy there who said "you can't fish" Spring Creek, parts of Penns Creek, Fishing Creek, because they aren't stocked anymore. Some younger guys who were members of his sportsmans club told him there are loads of trout in there, and said they'd show him around. They were friends of his, so maybe his opinion shifted a little, but he still seemed pretty skeptical.

I remember a customer at a fly shop who said he grew up in the "cottage stretch" of Spring Creek and fished there since he was a kid. From his age I'm guessing that would have been around the 1960s. I asked him whether there were many wild browns in the stream in those years. He just looked at me blankly. No idea what I was talking about.

I've had people tell me that all the trout in Spring Creek come from the 2 hatcheries on the stream. And the same in regard to Fishing Creek.

And I remember someone writing on paflyfish that what people call wild trout are actually "feral" trout. ;-)

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

I have got the, "they dont stock here or i didnt know the stocked here" many many times.

Cant comment if the guy knew and was playing you or if he was just trying to be nice and let you know there arent fish there:lol:

Doesnt matter. Well played sir.