Mind your manners and death to palomonos!.

Tigereye

Tigereye

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 30, 2014
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Location
Lehigh Gorge
Today for the first time in many years I left a stream with higher blood pressure than when I arrived. A group of three, 30 something guys and one girl were on the opposite bank of a popular section of the Brodhead Ck. The yelling and language was obnoxiously vulgar. Now I am no Bible thumper and have been known to let the F bomb fly on occasion. The language of this group and the volume was beyond tolerable. After about 1/2 hour I had to leave. I was actually embarassed for any other fisherman that would have to hear it. If there were kids, or a woman present I most likely would have escalated the situation.

I doubt it was anyone from this forum, but please folks, voices carry on the water and we are all looking for some quiet downtime. Watch your mouths and manners.

Now for part 2. I was always a proponent of killing any and all palominos upon landing. The only trout I kill. My circle of friends and I call them tracers. Because they are visible, fishermen tend to stay and fish for the visible tracer and catch a host of "unseen" browns, rainbows or brookies that never would have been caught except for the persistence after the tracer. Fishermen leave with a stringers full of fish that would otherwise still be swimming. The tracer usually remains to tempt others another day and thus more fish ultimately get killed.


I witnessed this again today with the group mentioned above. Though I never did see that palomino, they obviously did and decended upon the creek like a Mongolian Horde. Filling their stringers with everything but that tracer. I was praying they would catch it so they would leave.

Thanks for letting me vent. I know some of you probably have similar stories. I just hope these events are rare for everyone.
 
Never thought of palaminos as tracers as you described but I see your view as very accurate with regards to other fish around the tracer being caught. Interesting and I might take my next palamino home now :)

What section of the Bhead did this take place? Any mayflies/risers?
 
I just saw a "golden rainbow" while I was out the other day..I can NEVER get them to eat. I swear, I can't catch them.
 
The first time I fished the McMichael's this year there was a mob surrounding a good hole with a couple of big palaminos swimming around.

I didn't get to even fish that hole because that group surrounded it all day trying for those fish.

That seems to be the case everywhere they are stocked.
 
Good! Those silly fish are the "shiny things" that causes others to cluster, leaving better water for the rest if us. :)
 
Millerstime, the area was Glen Park. There were quite a few risers and a sporadic #14 caddis hatching. I didn't catch one so i can't confirm what it was. There were trout jumping out of water though, so I figured an emerger would work. I had a #14 Partridge and green soft hackle and a largish frenchie as an anchor. Caught a bunch of fish on both. Not surprisingly, they would take a frenchie on the drift, and the soft hackle on the swing or when left hanging below you for a few seconds. Maybe a slight edge in numbers with the soft hackle but not by much.

There have been an inordinately large amount of fishermen in this stretch recently that I find curious.
 
Fly-Swatter wrote:
Good! Those silly fish are the "shiny things" that causes others to cluster, leaving better water for the rest if us. :)
Click to expand...

This is how I feel about it, too..I walk by those areas and think, "suckers. Have fun fishing with 15 other people trying to nail one artificial fish."

 
Tiger. I fished Glen on Tues and saw a palamino hugging a down tree on the Glenn park side. I didn't fish for it but it was obvious with or without polarized sunglasses.

Same bug behavior on Tues. Thought there would be more mayflies but there were only some caddis and sporadic risers. I fished that section around 5-7 pm. There were around 4 ppl under the 80 bridge on Tues but that was it.
 
Troutmeister wrote:
The first time I fished the McMichael's this year there was a mob surrounding a good hole with a couple of big palaminos swimming around.

I didn't get to even fish that hole because that group surrounded it all day trying for those fish.

That seems to be the case everywhere they are stocked.
Click to expand...

Haha I saw 2 guys swarming a nice hole on McMichael last weekend. I passed by. Maybe an hour later i had worked back to it and saw the 2 large palaminos dead center they must have been chasing.

I didn't even bother. I've played that game before. I did bring to hand a few browns that were rising along the edges of the same pool though.

If I had to guess, I'd say it was the same pool and the same palaminos.
 
Was having a pretty good day today tight lining in the White Clay preserve. Noticed a guy below me doing quite well on minnows and releasing all his fish. I foul hooked a 15" rainbow and had to chase it down into the top of his pool to get both my flies back.

We chatted and he mentioned there was a big Palomino below and he had tried everything he had but to no avail and suggested I try. Surprisingly, I hooked the fish after a few good drifts though it made a couple good jumps and threw the hook. He seemed way more disappointed than I was but it absolved me of having to maybe remove the fish and deal with that; since I was about 1/2 mi. from the truck. It was about 20" and even smoked I find them to be mushy at that size. BTW I don't feel guilty for not doing my "duty."
 
I wish the PFBC would do away with those golden rainbows. Just propaganda fish stocked to attract money from uneducated anglers. They bring out the worst in a lot of fishermen. I myself have used them as a sighter fish to catch others. When you see a golden you know for a fact there are other fish around. Half I bet aren't really caught and just snagged. People throw and throw and throw at those things until eventually something hooks it. That's not fishing.
 
Kids Love Palominos - it is fun and gets them interested in fishing. I still have never caught one. My kids still make fun of me for it.
 
Tigereye wrote:

There have been an inordinately large amount of fishermen in this stretch recently that I find curious.
Click to expand...

Since this is already a solid "old man yelling at clouds" thread, I'll join in with two slight tangents:

1) I was down in PA last weekend to fish brodhead - my previous home water and historically one of my favorite places to fish - and it was absolutely lousy with people. Every single hole was filled with not one but multiple anglers crowded up. If this is a sign of the year to come, I am severely bummed.

2) On the topic of rude people, I was on Bushkill one of the days I was down and fishing along the walk-in access by Saw Creek. Two big, young cowboy dudes, one teaching the other how to fly fish, were working up the stream and decided to join in fishing the pool I was in so close to me that I could have pierced their ears with a sidearm cast. All the water above and below was completely open. I'm being somewhat specific about location and details because at least the dude doing the teaching seemed in the know and may very well read this site. If he does: eat ****, my friend. it's too bad you couldn't also teach your buddy etiquette, but apparently you don't know how to act in the first place.

Rant over. Sorry.
 
Bigjohn,
I don’t think you are going to see that happen. According to at least one last fall or winter, the program was expanded to include inseason stocking starting this year. I was neutral on them before and thought it was an ok program because there were limited numbers and they were big fish for the most part. It was exciting for people to catch them. In my view, but perhaps not most anglers who liked them before and are maybe glad to see more of them, the increased numbers have cheapened the whole affair. I’m a bit tired of seeing them stacked up 2-5 per good hole in some cases. I used to think it was cool to see that one occasionally survived the early season onslaught and made it well into the inseason period. I even had some respect for those individual fish. The surprise of seeing them has now been lost. Too bad.
.

 
I've caught two 20" plus palomino Trout. Both were hidden in deep water and I didn't know they were there. Kept one and let the other one go. I don't spend time trying to catch them but am surprised sometimes where I see them.
 
I find that one of the most exciting things about fly fishing, for me, is to see a trout take or chase my fly. For this reason I like targeting palominos, especially when it's a 20 incher. Sometimes he'll move 3 feet to grab a fly but sometimes you must place it within a few inches. For me fishing for palominos hones my fishing skills with precise casts to get a good drift into the feeding zone. I've caught my share. Feel free to spot burn these freakish trout.
 
I took the day off for my birthday last week to enjoy a fun day on the stream Since it was midweek, I pretty much had the streams i fished to myself, even though they were busy waters normally. I landed a decent brown on my first couple casts, so I figured the rest of the day was going to be absolute gravy.

Fishing up to the next hole, I saw a nice golden shadow in the broken water. Like Laszlo said, it took me some vey precise casts in a heavy flow and several swaps of flies before I finally got him to turn and whack my fly. It was the first golden rainbow I ever landed, so a nice birthday surprise. 16" and fat as a football. Since it was CRALO water, I turned her loose for the next guy. I also rarely if ever creel a trout.

I had already managed a small rainbow, too, so mid afternoon when I was surprised to land a nice stocked brookie, I was really thrilled. Never caught 4 varieties of trout in one day. Shortly after I stuck a really nice rainbow bigger than the golden from the morning. He went airborne after the hookset until he was eye-level.

That's going to be a tough bday to top on the water, and the palamino was a big part of it, so I'll take them. I agree with everything said that they are tight-lipped, draw a crowd, aren't natural, and so on. But I was excited as a little kid to finally catch one. I guess I won't win any prizes as a purist.
 
Mike wrote:
Bigjohn,
I don’t think you are going to see that happen. According to at least one last fall or winter, the program was expanded to include inseason stocking starting this year. I was neutral on them before and thought it was an ok program because there were limited numbers and they were big fish for the most part. It was exciting for people to catch them. In my view, but perhaps not most anglers who liked them before and are maybe glad to see more of them, the increased numbers have cheapened the whole affair. I’m a bit tired of seeing them stacked up 2-5 per good hole in some cases. I used to think it was cool to see that one occasionally survived the early season onslaught and made it well into the inseason period. I even had some respect for those individual fish. The surprise of seeing them has now been lost. Too bad.
.
Click to expand...

Oh anything that attracts money to the PFBC whether its right or wrong they are going to do it. Money is always the #1 priority. As far as that loan golden that somehow makes it into late May or June I do gotta agree with you that I'm impressed its surpassed all odds and is still surviving. There are just too many of them now though. I'd much rather catch a big brookie/brownie/rainbow over the golden rainbows any day. I've currently lost track of golden rainbows I've caught. Like I said they can be great sighter fish and eventually they even bite. Last one I caught took a San Juan worm. I knew on the cast it was going to take it. Just the perfect float. That same spot however I caught a couple of other real nice rainbows this year. Needless to say that golden rainbow is no longer in that hole. I doubt it swam away. I'm guessing someone either poached (Keystone Select Waters) it or a predator got it.
 
Gimmick trout have been on the menu since Splakes were a hot item back in the 60's. I still find a male spawning Brookie to be the real colorful catch of lifetime. GG
 
I would personally be happier if all they stocked were triploid rainbows and yellow trout. That way they at least don't pose any harm to any wild trout population. The yellow trout either die, get harvested, or migrate to the ocean (I saw a guy caught one in the Chesapeake Bay last year) and the triploids would prevent any inadvertent wild populations where they don't belong.
 
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