Just so you know

[salvelinusfontinalis]

If i here Geo say nothing but chubs or suckers Im running.
I have a feeling he might be serious and in a competition for them.;-)

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Dwights comments on the subject in his last post sum it up well.

The vast majority of PA anglers, even trout anglers or at least people who target trout at least once a year, have no idea wild trout even exist.

 

[jifigz]

I had an encounter similar this spring. Most people are very ignorant of wild trout here in Pennsylvania. I was fishing a section of a stream that isn't stocked but the stream is stocked elsewhere.. This was right in a park. A guy and his grandsons stopped and talked to me as I'm wading about midstream and I hook into a fish. I bring it in, release it, and then inform the man it was a wild brown trout that was caught since he had asked. He replied about the holdovers and how good they looked downstream he had caught the other morning on red worms. I told him they were most likely wild browns. He once again told me how good the holdovers fare and how pretty they get......he didn't even register the word"wild" in our conversation even though I kept using it.

Many, many, many people like that around. The signs from the PFBC stating that stream is stocked and class a should help these folks if they take the time to read em.

 

[larkmark]

He didn't want you in "his spot".

 

[silverfox]

Great photos and story klingy!

I've had this happen to me a good bit over the years. In all the cases I've experienced, I think it was honestly a complete lack of knowledge on the subject rather than ulterior motives.

The PAFBC promotion of wild trout discussion is timely. I just watched a video on FB that they posted yesterday about fishing opportunities in PA. It was first posted in 2016, and it's just a broad overview of the types of fish species, and angling opportunities. They mentioned "wild trout" once I think, and "native fish" once as well. The rest was absolutely full of hatchery clips, stocking clips, fish in buckets, fish feeding at the hatchery, stocking trucks etc. etc. etc..

I really wish they would do a better job of promoting wild trout, but I understand why they don't. Hatcheries & stocking are the 2nd biggest financial outlay at F&B, and keeping people interested in that side of things is crucial to their survival. At the same time, would it hurt to throw the wild trout game a bone once in a while?

I know us wild trout nuts probably aren't crazy about the idea of more anglers on our favorite wild trout streams, but that really is the path to less stocking in my opinion.

 

[silverfox]

This made me go look at their facebook page again, and look at the videos they've been posting. In the last 8 weeks, they posted 11 videos specifically on hatcheries and stocking and zero wild trout specific videos.

 

[Swattie87]

troutbert wrote:

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.

I thought hatcheries on Trout streams were bad? Is that where Trout come from? I feel like a little kid asking where babies come from.

 

[Baron]

I liked the Story.

 

[PennypackFlyer]

Swattie,
They come from their parents.

 

[Swattie87]

PennypackFlyer wrote:
Swattie,
They come from their parents.

The Trout or the babies? Or do you mean the baby Trout? :-?

 

[JeffK]

Fishing techniques mean a difference. When my kids were little I basically fished the stream in town since I had little spare time and the stream was well placed to fish between soccer practice, dance lessons etc. As a result I got to know the regulars fairly well. The section had wild browns and brookies and was only stocked with rainbows. The Powerbait guys loaded up on the stocked rainbows and would rarely see a brown (although some of the lure guys would). I flyfished and mostly caught browns. That was always a topic of discussion since the bait guys were largely unaware of wild browns and I would get a lot of comments during a sulphur hatch when the browns were rising heavily and I was catching fish and bait guys were getting skunked.

BTW, since it was a stocked section in town I would go a year without seeing another fly fishermen, but special regs areas above and below were mobbed with fly flingers. In reverse logic, the fly fishermen felt the stocked section held no wild fish and fish only rose to flies in special regulations areas. Ignorance goes both ways IMHO. Tried to get my TU buddies to try the open water spots with rare success. One jogged by my spots every evening for years and never knew there were wild browns there until he saw my net one.

 

[lycoflyfisher]

If you have read the angler at all in the past few years, pretty much every issue has had a or multiple articles about fishing for wild trout. I do think the agency could better promote wild trout on social media and in printed literature.