Opening Day

[bigjohn58]

Had another incredible day of fishing on the opening day on Kettle Creek. I enjoy chasing the stockies every now and then (well only on Kettle). I caught around 35 fish by noon and my brother had around 50 (I should have started where he was at). We even had a monster 21 incher but none of that was the best thing we saw all day. Just remember today at 8:00 the air temp was in the upper 20s and the water temp was 36 degrees and take a look at this pic!

 

[bigjohn58]

He's freaking wet wadding in JEANS! Thats one dedicated father with his son or whoever he is. That was at the Herman Hole.

Oh and some other funny (or tragic) stuff learned on the first day. The fish commission stocked a palamino over 12 pounds but was caught by either an ofsprey or an eagle. It was a potential state record. I'm not a fan of those white/yellow things but its still too bad to see it go that way but I'm sure it was an easy target for the preditors!

 

[Padraic]

Oh and some other funny (or tragic) stuff learned on the first day. The fish commission stocked a palamino over 12 pounds but was caught by either an ofsprey or an eagle. It was a potential state record. I'm not a fan of those white/yellow things but its still too bad to see it go that way but I'm sure it was an easy target for the preditors!

Well, I'm a fan of that eagle/osprey. That's one heck of a feat. I mean... how the heck did he fly off with a 12lb trout??!!?? :-o :-o

 

[bigjohn58]

No clue...I'm just assuming that whatever got it just hit it enough to kill it and probably didn't even get a meal out if it. I heard 2 stories that confirmed the killing and one of them came from the staff at Balachino's (sorry for the spelling because I'm sure its not right) Fly Shop. I'm sure its true once the guys at the fly shop told me because why would they say a moster fish like that was dead? Kind of bad for stream pablicity and business.

 

[troutbert]

Wow, that's a pretty good story. It could have been one of those Thunderbirds that are spotted occasionally up there.

About posting photos, you can downsize them down to 72 dpi and they will look exactly the same on the screen as at higher resolutions. And will load much faster. Those of with dialup modems will appreciate it and be able to look at the photos.

I also went fishing on an obscure brook trout stream in Clinton County. Had OK brookie fishing, not great. Caught mostly small ones, but a few 7 - 8 inches, and one maybe 9 inches.

It was great to be out. The grouse population seems to be doing well. I noticed this last year, and I saw a bunch today too. Also saw a few deer, a porcupine, and some little birds around the stream that I think may have been Louisiana Waterthrushes. Some nice people gave me a ride 4 miles back to my car. A 4 mile hike is enough at my advanced age. An 8 mile walk would have been more than enough.

It seemed like most of the camps were unoccupied. Maybe less people came up to camp for opening day than usual because of the predicted snow.

Anybody see any hatches today? I saw a few little dun colored bugs flying around. I didn't catch any but I'm guessing they were blue quills. I was fishing streamers the whole time.

 

[bigjohn58]

haha I'll see if I can post a smaller pic. I'm not the best with posting pictures thats why I don't do it often but I thought that one was priceless!

 

[vcregular]

Ahh...upstate opening day. Since I live in SE PA, that is what I will call it. That pic is priceless. Wet wading in April. Takes all kinds.

Thanks for posting.

ps...dial-up, is that still available?? ;^)

 

[Festus]

I seen a dude wet wading the Pine this morning. Water temp was 38 this afternoon. On a good note.....I spent most of the day riding around and watching. Pressure was very light, and I'd say that 98% of the fish that I seen caught were returned to be caught again. :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

Met up with an absolutely STUNNING lady fisherperson, that was wearing a pair of hip boots that accented her frame in the most magnificent manner(yup I wuz slobberin :-o ), that wants to learn how to flyfish. Hmmmmmm......then she tells me she's into bowhunting.......a double hmmmmmmm.......the triple hmmmmm occured when she told me she really wants to kill a spring gobbler. YIKES!:-o

Believe it or not, I even spotted a few Grannoms this afternoon. Won't be long now. :-D

 

[bigjohn58]

There was a fairly large hatch of caddis flies, blue quills, and quill gordons on Kettle...enough for some, including myself, put on the dry flies.

 

[LigonierA1]

Derrick and I got into some Blue Quill and Quill Gordon action and had pretty good dry fly fishing. Always nice catching them up top on opening day.....

 

[troutbert]

vcregular wrote:
Ahh...upstate opening day. Since I live in SE PA, that is what I will call it. That pic is priceless. Wet wading in April. Takes all kinds.

Thanks for posting.

ps...dial-up, is that still available?? ;^)

Yep, dial-up service is still available and costs $8.95/mo. Of anyone knows of a cheaper service that works, let me know.

Wet wading this time of year has got to hurt.

Now that we have two opening days, people will have to come up with names to distinguish them. How about the Southeast Opening Day, and the REAL Opening Day.

 

[Concerned_Angler]

BigJohn,

I am glad to see you had a good day of fishing, but I am concerned about the consequences of your post.

If you want to brag about numbers of fish you catch on a particular stream, that's great, but you do not need to name the stream to have your glory. It will be just as powerful of a post if you do not name the stream, let alone the particular area, as you did while talking about the guy wet wading. I assume that you like to fish in at least some solitude, which you will not be able to do if you continue to name streams in your posts, as you did this one.

The stream you have mentioned is getting more and more crowded every week and really does not need any extra publicity on the internet.

Every year a friend, who refuses to fish on opening week due to the amount of fishers on the water, does a count of cars along the stream mentioned in your post. He only counts cars that are parked in areas that fishers use and does not count any vehicle parked in a camp or driving on the road that is obviously full of fishermen. The results are this:

Last year there were 56 more cars than the prior year, which makes sense due to the wonderful weather we had. This year the weather was rather cold, and there were 127 more cars in the same stretch than last year. You do the math. The streams of N. Central PA do not need any further publicity than they have already had.

If you want to share particular info about a particular stream, any stream with a name, do it via e-mail or PM or someting.

Just my two cents.

 

[bigjohn58]

I'm not afraid to mention numbers of fish caught on opening day and where I was at on Kettle. If one more person wanted to join in a hole on any portion of Kettle in that section then so be it. It was already elebow to elebow. Its no secret. If it was a spot that only me and one or two other people were fishing then I wouldn't mention the spot but when there must have been 50 people per hole well come out and join in the fun (or cayos). Just so ya know I didn't fish the Herman Hole because I couldn't find a place to squeeze in. Come to think of it I've neve ever came across that hole where I could fish it even on a week day. It looks like opening day every day on that hole up until June almost.

 

[Concerned_Angler]

I see that you just don't get it.

I agree that one more in a crowd of 50 doesn't matter, but what you are not seeing is that you or anyone (this is not personal to you) puts this type of info on the web and joe fisherman reads it and wants to fish the same spot. He shows up either by himself or with 4 friends and sees the spot on that particular stream is crowded, so he goes up or down stream to another spot, which may be the spot you talk about not mentioning because only one or two other folks were there. Now he and his friends are there in your "secret" spot fishing right where you wanted to and could have before he showed up. Now he goes home and puts the info on the net and the same happens again and again. Maybe a particular spot does not get more crowding, but the entire stream does, which makes it harder for most folks to have their "secret" spots anymore.

This is why so many of the old timer were so tight lipped about their fishing spots, they knew it would lead to over crowding, and this was before the internet was available to the world.

The Concerned Angler

 

[bigjohn58]

I still say that 95% of the people who ever thought of fishing Kettle or already have fished Kettle have fished that section or intend to fish it (or won't because its all stockies for the most part). Its like posting about the Narrows on Fishing Creek, or the Paradise section on Spring. Its no secret but trust me I do get what u are saying and there are tons of other spots on Kettle. Actually the big one we caught wasn't even near that area of the stream. If it was on a stream that wasn't all stockies then I'd be ticked too or a stream that normally doesn't get pressured. And honestly there were no more fishermen then any other year. Its the same year in and year out and I've been going to Kettle for about 20 years now on opening day. Actually it really tests your casting skills getting your line in between everyone elses and landing a fish without getting tangled with someone else.

Oh and just to let ya know we got numbers but thats because we've been doing that for a few years now. We know the stream we know where to go and we know what to use. My brother fishes it every weekend from now until June. Not everyone gets fish like this. Actually most were lucky to get one or two fish due to the coldness of the morning especially the spin fishermen.

 

[Concerned_Angler]

Just because you percieve that a stream is "pressured" doesn't mean that you have to do something that my increase that pressure even more. Eventaully that pressure will overflow, probably onto the streams you don't want to mention that have wild trout, which I'll tell you everyone knows about and are pressured relatively speaking.

If you want to throw number of years on a stream out, I am 7 ahead of you on this particular body of water and fish it year round, not just until June, so I get to see the increasing pressure all of the time, not just in the early season.

This year was the first year since the year that TU did their stupid show on this stream that I was not able to fish in the middle of the afternoon in the middle of March on weekdays, not weekends, without seeing other anglers on the water, which for this area and time of year is high pressure.

The internet is not the only problem, in the recent issue of Fly Tyer magazine there is an article that talks about this particular stream, which will impact the number of people on this watershed and there is a new book out from the same author of the magazine article that mentions this stream agian. (As a side note, this author has been contacted and this issue was discussed with him too since he is a friend.)

Now my fear is that not only is this stream in a well known magazine and a book, but somebody will read that info and then do a web search and find tons more of the same stuff to support "trying out a new stream" this season and word will spread and spread...I hope you are getting my point.

They will eventually come in enough numbers that our streams will look much like the ones in other areas of the state with well beaten paths along them, fishing line and garbage everywhere.

If this is the fishing experience you want, then please go elsewhere where it already is like that, don't help it happen here. And the secret places you mentioned today with the wild trout will fall in the same way as many of the anglers out there are already looking for some tranquility from the places like I mentioned above and we'll continue to have this problem.

All I am suggesting is please be careful of what you put on the internet.

My posting saying that I caught 82 trout yesterday while fishing one of my favorite streams is enough. The stream name does not change the number or the pride I have in it.

The Concerned Angler

 

[JackM]

Dear Concerned Angler:

When all those anglers are drawn to a Stream A or Stream Section A because of a post on the internet, what happens to Stream B where these anglers otherwise would have fished? I am just thinking out loud here, but I am thinking that Stream B might get less crowded. If I wanted solitude, therefore, I would think of going to Stream B.

 

[Wulff-Man]

But they aren't all coming from stream B. They are coming from stream B through stream X, or whatever. So there may be a couple people fewer out of hundreds on these steams, not a noticeable difference on them, but a noticeable difference on stream A.

 

[bigjohn58]

I fish it year round too...just I know better places to go after June and the ethics thing kicks in with the stream temps there also. There was also a show several years ago on ESPN2 on Kettle. It had a very large segment on Amy Wolfe and the restoration project but they did a lot of fishing on the holes I fish also. My dad has been fishing it since the late 50s and grew up not far from there. If you want the stream to get less publicized then talk to the fish commission and tell them to not let Kettle be one of the heaviest stocked stream in PA then.

 

[JackM]

I could agree with that only if only one person posted about one stream. But that brings up a terrific idea. When your favorite stream is highlighted, maybe you should post some astonishing results from the stream next door. You know, spread that pressure out a little.