Looking for a spot to trout fish near Cabelas Hamburg?

[outsider]

I've fished the Little Schuylkill in the past, and would love to fish it again. But If I waded the river now, my body would be found floating in the Delaware bay. But I do recommend it.

 

[phiendWMD]

May flies were hatching yesterday further North. Light/white colored ones and dark/grey/blackish ones. Fish in the LS are finally starting to look up.

 

[RyanR]

Lol, not that it even matters anymore Chaz but realize that counties make up the regions, not where individual rivers happen to end their drainage at. Also, we're talking the Little Schuylkill which ends in Port Clinton right at the base of Blue Mountain so that means most of that river's drainage is north of the the Blue Mountain.

 

[foxtrapper1972]

Mike says-"Stream looked great this morning. Wished I was fishing. One angler counted. None there two days ago. Many fish stocked last week, hardly anyone fishing. It's a pity as it is nice water. Can 't see this continuing."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Use it or lose it? What's the obsession the PAFBC has with seeing anglers lining the banks? That's how you determine what gets stocked?

 

[Mike]

Supply and demand; it's that simple. Demand is measured in fishing trips per stocked trout.

 

[foxtrapper1972]

10 people fish one time in an area that has 20 trout and they each catch and keep two trout and you happen to stop and do the survey that day

or 20 guys fish an area 10 times and release all fish and you don't happen to see any of them

How in the heck do you decide which stream deserves to get stocked or not?

Is that too simplistic?

 

[Maurice]

Mike wrote:
Supply and demand; it's that simple. Demand is measured in fishing trips per stocked trout.

How about the chicken or the egg? Stop stocking local wild trout streams of high/fishable biomass and the fishermen will follow the trout to the fewer streams that are stocked.

 

[charliepff]

Do trout hold all year in that part of the Schuylkill River. I lived on the headwaters of the little Schuylkill for 20 years but never fished the Schuylkill at port Clinton.

 

[Chaz]

Mike doesn't stock many wild trout streams. Speaking of that, though the Ltl. does have wild trout in it, that's why it is stocked now. People started catching trout after it started to get cleaner, and asked for it to be stocked.
It doesn't hold trout year round because of dams, particularly the ones above Tamaqua. The one in S. Tamaqua doesn't help either, Mike can we get rid of the dams?

 

[phiendWMD]

Has anyone fished this in the last day or two? I'm wondering if there is anything going on up top since Afishn posted.

 

[RyanR]

How often do you measure it? And how many sections? There's a pretty significant road construction project going in that section for the last year. One of the main parking lots to the trail has had construction material and/or machinery in it at various times too. Meanwhile during the time you were surveying this section the upper section of the LS was packed with anglers so the river does get a good share of angler attention. Also, prior to the construction project that section seemed to get decent angler attention.

 

[charliepff]

The little Schuylkill holds trout all the time. The biggest effect is the desilting dams on both branches. The one at South Tamaqua and the one around deer lake. I have seen the little Schuylkill temperature on a hot summer day hover around 65 and caught a lot of Native fish above the sun oil tanks. However, that was before the heard started beating that river to death. Advertising that the main branch around Port Clinton has trout may take some of that pressure off of the headwaters.

On a side note, I have been fishing that river since I was8 years old and before most knew it had fish. That includes catching trout below where panther creek ran into it when no one said fish existed in that section. I have never seen so much fishing pressure on that river.

 

[Mike]

Just to be clear, the stretch that I am referring to is the most downstream mile of the Little Schuylkill where the natural fish population is smallmouth bass, redbreast sunfish, and fallfish. It is not a wild trout stretch, although an occasional wild trout is found there, especially since Rattling Run, a wild brookie stream, flows directly into this section of the Ltl Schuylkill.

The Little Schuylkill drainage basin is so full of wild trout streams that an angler is likely at one time or another to find wild trout anywhere under the right water temp conditions (except the very headwaters where mine acid is still problematic). Spotty Brook and/or Brown reproduction or nursery water occurs from Reynolds up to the Barnesville area.

 

[charliepff]

When was the last time the Little Schuylkill river was surveyed from Reynolds to the where Locust Creek runs in?

 

[Mike]

About two years ago.