PA Rain Forcefield?

[PennKev]

wildtrout2 wrote:
I'm wondering what kind of long term effect these drought conditions might have on a lot of the NC streams that are now basically dry, except for the deepest pools? I don't recall seeing it this bad up there.

Fishing will suck for a year or two, then improve, then be good for a year or two, then there will another drought.

The same way it's worked forever.

 

[PennKev]

Dave_W wrote:
... I think sometimes a dry or drought year gets folks a bit more concerned than necessary.

Exactly, and for the majority of everyone on this board, this dry summer is not their first rodeo.

 

[dryflyguy]

I've certainly seen my share of drought years.
You just have to adapt to it.

I did very little small stream fishing this summer.
Instead, visiting the Yough more than I had the previous two summers combined - when it was too high to wade.
This year, it got down to a nice level in june. And stayed cold all summer.
And the fishing has been great

 

[salvelinus]

August 2016 my wife and i hiked a trail along a brookie stream. It was all but dry, just small pockets of water with little flow between them. I thought the worst. Next spring i fished it just to see what was left. Plenty of brookies were still there. They've been around for tens of thousands of years and I suppose they'll be around for a long time if we don't totally screw it up.

 

[lycoflyfisher]

The key to a quick rebound to drought years, extraordinary floods, etc is the ability to have a good spawn. Another key factor imo for watersheds to maintain good brook trout populations is for there to be limited obstructions to fish passage. Dr. Niles with Susquehanna U has document brook trout populations pre and post flood events in the Loyalsock Watershed since 2011. The streams that have been slow to recover from extreme flood events that have occurred 2-3 times in the last decade there all have significant barriers near their mouth. The barriers are not necessarily man made, in some cases they were massive debris jams, large gravel deposits or natural bedrock cascades.

 

[troutbert]

Severe droughts (and severe scouring floods) knock the trout populations down substantially in the freestone streams.

Then in years with friendlier flows the populations bounce back up.

So the population swings are pretty wide.

The peak populations are about twice the trough populations.

 

[PennypackFlyer]

One year you will get so much rain that you'll wonder when you can fish next.

 

[tomgamber]

Just got back from Clinton county. Here are two pics. One from Memorial day weekend and the other from Labor day weekend.

And in the other direction. This RR bridge is where the Sinne dumps into the West Branch.

We did find decent numbers of smallies in the Susky. I was able to wade completely across the west branch but it still had many large deep pools. Most of the fish we caught were in shallower rocky places.

The left channel in the RR bridge pic is fairly deep and we found large Fall fish and a few smallies. The entire length of the upstream pic held many small bass and rock bass. They fed well on the bugs and we could see them popping all over. Its like a big nursery now.

FYI this stream was running at over 15000 CFS for few days in June. This past week it was running around 30 CFS.

First Fork looked even lower. Most every feeder stream was bone dry.

 

[afishinado]

No rain in the 10 day forecast that I read this morning.

18 PA counties drought watch/warning conditions with water rationing >

https://www.pennlive.com/life/2020/09/drought-watch-expanded-to-18-pennsylvania-counties.html?fbclid=IwAR1EwimLTiFp8qXs1a3ijOBQzXC9QAZM_pe8XVSb7_yxQl09z2Kn7xNvXE0

 

[timmyt2]

Last Sept was like this too, it sucks.

 

[Chaz]

We’re going through a very bad weather pattern with a warm front holding back the rainfall the Commonwealth badly needs. It’s going to be at least 10 days before it rains.

 

[Dave_W]

With more than an inch and a half in my backyard rain gauge today, I drove up to South Mountain this afternoon to check things out.

Short version - the little streams look great!

Some of the recent rains in October didn't make a dent in the mountain streams which have been bone low for months... but today they are really flowing well and the valley streams here in Adams Co. were actually blown out.

Such great weather.

 

[Swattie87]

Dave_W wrote:
Such great weather.

In the words of Bear Grylls...”Mana from heaven! Woooooooooah!”

From a scientific perspective, it’s amazing how much of a difference there is in water table retention in the late Fall through through early Spring timeframe, when plant life isn’t actively growing and sucking water from the ground.

That same inch and a half two months ago would have barely budged stream levels, and even that, only for 24 hours or less.

 

[wildtrout2]

Swattie87 wrote:

Dave_W wrote:
Such great weather.

In the words of Bear Grylls...”Mana from heaven! Woooooooooah!”

From a scientific perspective, it’s amazing how much of a difference there is in water table retention in the late Fall through through early Spring timeframe, when plant life isn’t actively growing and sucking water from the ground.

That same inch and a half two months ago would have barely budged stream levels, and even that, only for 24 hours or less.

A good example of this is how Kettle has been maintaining it's level since the heavy rains. It's been four days and the level has only dropped a few CFS. In the summer the level would go back to where it was after a good rain almost overnight. I'm now hopeful for 2021.

 

[DaveKile]

Well looks like we all got slammed yesterday and last night across the state. Looks like we'll be off the streams for while.

 

[wildtrout2]

I was looking at the USGS just last evening. Amazing. Water flows on Kettle have surpassed daily records by more than 2000cfs, going back to the 40's.

 

[CRB]

I would like more wet weather than the 12" of white stuff that fell last night. A least you don't have to snow blow that .

But it looks very pretty on Christmas Morning.
Merry Christmas!!
May next Year be Better than this year.

 

[wildtrout2]

CRB wrote:
I would like more wet weather than the 12" of white stuff that fell last night. A least you don't have to snow blow that .

But it looks very pretty on Christmas Morning.
Merry Christmas!!
May next Year be Better than this year.

You're very fortunate to experience a white Christmas! Happy Holidays to you!

 

[Canoetripper]

It looks to me like the Tobyhanna Creek where I fish got 4" of rain to help melt the snow already on the ground. That is a lot of water in the creek in a hurry.

The CFS went from < 200 to > 7,290/ < 3.5' to > 10.5' in a hurry and is still rising as I am reading the gauge.

 

[Swattie87]

Most streams, except for the SE corner of the state were still low for this time of year, relatively speaking.

This rain was a good thing, as long as no major flooding. Looks like most major creeks and rivers will crest below or just at flood stage, but nothing severe.