Pennsylvania's Biggest Fishery Blunders

[sixfootfenwick]

Afish posted this in another thread:

“The story of Big Spring Creek is one of legend. In the 1920’s through (the) 50’s the stream was so famous that the English sporting media regularly sent reporters over to do stories on this American spring creek, which was comparable to the best English Chalkstreams. Its native strain of brook trout were like no other that anyone could find.” As written by Jim Chestney in an article entitled The Saga of Big Spring Creek, some of the earliest conservation measures that were adopted in the United States in fact may have originated on this stream back in 1850 when a creel limit was established of 50 trout per day with the river enjoying a glorious background in the annals of American trout fshing. Dr. John Black, in a column written in the forum section for Fly Fisherman magazine, mentions such angling legends as Charlie Foxa nd Ernest Schwiebert fishing at Big Spring. Dr. Black describes that for a stretch of Big Springs before 1955 – regardless of day or season of the year --hundreds of rising trout could be seen. You get the drift: this was one fabulous trout fishing river. And then come the hatcheries."

https://forloveofwater.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/ACaseStudy-BigSpringCreek-PA-copy.pdf

Got me thinking, what are some of the biggest Pennsylvania fishery blunders of all-time?
This one is my vote.
Anyone got another?

 

[sixfootfenwick]

I'll give another which would be number 2 on my list. Not caused by fisheries mismanagement from the PFBC but rather life and progress. Shad.

Pennsylvania's Shad runs are well documented through history. Would have been an anglers paradise.

Here is a unique piece of history about the Pennsylvania Shad run many don't know. Pretty entertaining read. In the end of it, the PFBC tried to help the Shad but they were doomed to fail considering all the factors against them.

RW Fish Wars on the Schuylkill • The Goschenhoppen Historians

Fish Wars on the Schuylkill Robert Wood From the earliest times the Schuylkill and its tributaries were noted for their abundance of fish. Fresh fish from local creeks would have been a welcome addition to the diets of early settlers in the region. In addition to the resident populations of...

goschenhoppen.org

 

[5footfenwick]

Allowing bow fishing for carp!

 

[5footfenwick]

Allowing stocking in Babb’s creek post amd clean up!

 

[5footfenwick]

Stocking chain pickerel in rose valley lake!

 

[sixfootfenwick]

Allowing stocking in Babb’s creek post amd clean up!

Amen to that!
It isn't a stand alone in the regard either.

 

[sixfootfenwick]

There is one going on today that I just find infuriating. The addition of Mosquito Creek to the PFBC stocking list.

Seriously, why?

 

[JeffP]

Allowing stocking in Babb’s creek post amd clean up!

I remember reading about Babb's back in the day. Is the issue that the brook trout would be fine without stocking? I probably shouldn't have to ask.

 

[Nocktavius]

Allowing the PFBC to continue to exist comes to mind *ducks*

 

[JeffP]

Allowing Speedwell Lake to be refilled.

 

[sixfootfenwick]

Allowing Speedwell Lake to be refilled.

Actually I highly agree with this. A park with trees, a restored stream and the possible expansion of wild brook trout water would have been better than a swimless lake 😂

 

[sixfootfenwick]

Going back to Big Spring:

Pennsylvania ‘megahatchery’ fouling stream and Chesapeake

The April Bay Journal contains a seriously flawed representation of the facts by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission concerning hatchery problems, including Big Spring Creek near Newville, PA.

www.bayjournal.com

Anyone remember Eugene Macri? He did post here for a bit. Interesting fellow, really smart and dead right about Big Spring.
I always highly valued his efforts to help the creek .

 

[bringthepain]

Stocking Class A's

 

[5footfenwick]

I remember reading about Babb's back in the day. Is the issue that the brook trout would be fine without stocking? I probably shouldn't have to ask.

I think what makes me think blunder is the potential this project had. This was a chance for setting up the blue print for future projects on amd “dead” streams and a brook trout comeback.

It was a place where you could have done brown trout removal. No one would have cared. You could do habit improvements. No one would have cared. You could make it catch and release for brook trout. No one would have cared. You could have made it so it couldn’t be stocked by local clubs. Not a lot would have cared. You could have really played around with liming and ph levels and tributary impact and improvements. No one would have cared. You could have studied macro reintroduction attempts. Brook trout movement within a system. Etc. etc. etc.

It was the perfect place to experiment with a stream and brook trout recovery side by side. Without removing a popular thriving brown trout population. A chance to have something different. Study something different. Truly learn if a brook trout restoration on an entire water shed in PA was possible.

But now it’s stocked and the native brook trout are small. It isn’t just stocked with trout. I don’t think the largemouth bass, bluegill, bullheads and channel catfish it is also constantly stocked with help anything.

So yeah, improve water quality to have a potentially fully intact brook trout system. Instead it’s stocked with trout and warm water gamefish.

Blunder in my opinion

~5footfenwick

 

[sixfootfenwick]

I think what makes me think blunder is the potential this project had. This was a chance for setting up the blue print for future projects on amd “dead” streams and a brook trout comeback.

It was a place where you could have done brown trout removal. No one would have cared. You could do habit improvements. No one would have cared. You could make it catch and release for brook trout. No one would have cared. You could have made it so it couldn’t be stocked by local clubs. Not a lot would have cared. You could have really played around with liming and ph levels and tributary impact and improvements. No one would have cared. You could have studied macro reintroduction attempts. Brook trout movement within a system. Etc. etc. etc.

It was the perfect place to experiment with a stream and brook trout recovery side by side. Without removing a popular thriving brown trout population. A chance to have something different. Study something different. Truly learn if a brook trout restoration on an entire water shed in PA was possible.

But now it’s stocked and the native brook trout are small. It isn’t just stocked with trout. I don’t think the largemouth bass, bluegill, bullheads and channel catfish it is also constantly stocked with help anything.

So yeah, improve water quality to have a potentially fully intact brook trout system. Instead it’s stocked with trout and warm water gamefish.

Blunder in my opinion

~5footfenwick

I feel that man. You should ask yourself why, after many possibilities, this has never been done

 

[JeffP]

Going back to Big Spring:

Pennsylvania ‘megahatchery’ fouling stream and Chesapeake

The April Bay Journal contains a seriously flawed representation of the facts by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission concerning hatchery problems, including Big Spring Creek near Newville, PA.

www.bayjournal.com

Anyone remember Eugene Macri? He did post here for a bit. Interesting fellow, really smart and dead right about Big Spring.
I always highly valued his efforts to help the creek .

I do. I think Black posted here as well or maybe I am thinking of Macri talking about Black.

 

[JeffP]

I think what makes me think blunder is the potential this project had. This was a chance for setting up the blue print for future projects on amd “dead” streams and a brook trout comeback.

It was a place where you could have done brown trout removal. No one would have cared. You could do habit improvements. No one would have cared. You could make it catch and release for brook trout. No one would have cared. You could have made it so it couldn’t be stocked by local clubs. Not a lot would have cared. You could have really played around with liming and ph levels and tributary impact and improvements. No one would have cared. You could have studied macro reintroduction attempts. Brook trout movement within a system. Etc. etc. etc.

It was the perfect place to experiment with a stream and brook trout recovery side by side. Without removing a popular thriving brown trout population. A chance to have something different. Study something different. Truly learn if a brook trout restoration on an entire water shed in PA was possible.

But now it’s stocked and the native brook trout are small. It isn’t just stocked with trout. I don’t think the largemouth bass, bluegill, bullheads and channel catfish it is also constantly stocked with help anything.

So yeah, improve water quality to have a potentially fully intact brook trout system. Instead it’s stocked with trout and warm water gamefish.

Blunder in my opinion

~5footfenwick

It is stocked with warm-fish?? I always thought it was a small brookie stream. Obviously I have never fished it.

 

[Tabasco-Joe]

I'll give another which would be number 2 on my list. Not caused by fisheries mismanagement from the PFBC but rather life and progress. Shad.

Pennsylvania's Shad runs are well documented through history. Would have been an anglers paradise.

Here is a unique piece of history about the Pennsylvania Shad run many don't know. Pretty entertaining read. In the end of it, the PFBC tried to help the Shad but they were doomed to fail considering all the factors against them.

RW Fish Wars on the Schuylkill • The Goschenhoppen Historians

Fish Wars on the Schuylkill Robert Wood From the earliest times the Schuylkill and its tributaries were noted for their abundance of fish. Fresh fish from local creeks would have been a welcome addition to the diets of early settlers in the region. In addition to the resident populations of...

goschenhoppen.org

I would think the coal mining period would have put a nail in the coffin of shad on the Schuylkill regardless of what happened prior.

As the lumber period did in central PA to native fish populations. My grandfather told me how the Susquehanna at Lock Haven was so full of hemlock trees getting ready to raft down you could walk across the river on the logs. The river was reddish brown as far south as Sunbury from the tannic acid.

We can criticize the PFBC but if we were born 100 to 125 years ago there would be far fewer places to fish.

 

[sixfootfenwick]

How about the blue pike?

The legend of the blue pike: An endangered species tale

Species have come and gone for millennia, but the stories of those species that met their demise due to human activity have an especially strong emotional impact in the field of wildlife conservation.

www.natureconservancy.ca

Blunder or Bullspit?

 

[sixfootfenwick]

I would think the coal mining period would have put a nail in the coffin of shad on the Schuylkill regardless of what happened prior.

As the lumber period did in central PA to native fish populations. My grandfather told me how the Susquehanna at Lock Haven was so full of hemlock trees getting ready to raft down you could walk across the river on the logs. The river was reddish brown as far south as Sunbury from the tannic acid.

We can criticize the PFBC but if we were born 100 to 125 years ago there would be far fewer places to fish.

Actually I don't criticize the PFBC over shad at all.
In fact it was dams mostly that destroyed them.

https://www.physics.upenn.edu/~wk/ShadPassageontheSchuylkillRiver.html

They are still in the Schuylkill just like brook trout are still in central PA. Just far less of them.

It's why I said life and progress not PFBC mismanagement.

However, I don't think pointing out mismanagement is a bad thing, we should remember history rather than repeat it. Not everything the PFBC does is good.
Shall we ignore it because something something about less places to fish 100 years ago?

But in the case of Shad the PFBC deserve no criticism at all. As much as we should acknowledge the blunders we should also acknowledge the victories.

M

Thread 'Schuylkill R American Shad'

Mar 5, 2021

The Fairmount Fishway opened in 1979. From that time forward it allowed some American Shad and over 30 other resident species, some in high numbers, to ascend Fairmount Dam, which is located at the head-of-tide, about 6-8 miles upstream from the Delaware R confluence. The natural head-of-tide on the Schuylkill would be upstream a few miles at the Falls Bridge, where you can still see the inundated large boulders that were once part of the substantial rapids known as "the falls."

Numbers of American Shad ascending the dam increased with PFBC fry stockings starting in the 1980's and...

• Mike
• Replies: 6
• Forum: Warm Water & Salt Water Fly-Fishing

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