PFBC Adds 6 Waters to Keystone Program

[henrydavid]

I live no where near the Loyalhanna or Tully but I will speak on behalf of one of the new streams on the list. I am very familiar with the mile or so stretch of DHALO. The stream gets so low even in May that average sized stockies must have a difficult time surviving in any numbers. Adding the larger sized trout along with their normal number of stockies seems ridiculous.

The entire stream itself which is probably 6-7 miles more of water used to contain many native brookies. It's been 5 years or more since I've seen one. There are wild browns caught now but the brookies appear to be long gone.

The lower section of stream does get a lot of pressure, however DHALO section has always been much less pressured, little to no litter to be found, entirely forested and pretty close to a wilderness trout stream experience.

I shudder now to think of what will happen with this new designation. There is limited parking to begin with.

 

[allan_s]

henrydavid wrote:
I live no where near the Loyalhanna or Tully but I will speak on behalf of one of the new streams on the list. I am very familiar with the mile or so stretch of DHALO. The stream gets so low even in May that average sized stockies must have a difficult time surviving in any numbers. Adding the larger sized trout along with their normal number of stockies seems ridiculous.

The entire stream itself which is probably 6-7 miles more of water used to contain many native brookies. It's been 5 years or more since I've seen one. There are wild browns caught now but the brookies appear to be long gone.

The lower section of stream does get a lot of pressure, however DHALO section has always been much less pressured, little to no litter to be found, entirely forested and pretty close to a wilderness trout stream experience.

I shudder now to think of what will happen with this new designation. There is limited parking to begin with.

Yes, where you are talking about gets so low by mid may it's not even fun to fish because of it - within the delayed harvest anyway, downstream holds water into Summer but who wants to fish with hundreds of cars whizzing past?

I caught three native Brook Trout above the Special reg two years ago in one day so they are around just very few and very far between.

Should be interesting there as Fishing pressure has been so light and parking will definitely be an issue.

 

[Mike]

Pcray,
Per your comment, when it comes to going elsewhere to fish instead of the now two Keystone Select waters in SE Pa, both are located where that is a reasonable possibility. In the WC case, it is located in a county with 3 additional DH Areas, one FFO C&R area, and a C&R area. Two more FFO areas are relatively close by in Lancaster and Delaware Counties. I have already outlined the Tully case with its other DH section immediately upstream and its trout stocked water open to year around fishing section immediately downstream.

 

[troutbert]

henrydavid wrote:
I live no where near the Loyalhanna or Tully but I will speak on behalf of one of the new streams on the list. I am very familiar with the mile or so stretch of DHALO. The stream gets so low even in May that average sized stockies must have a difficult time surviving in any numbers. Adding the larger sized trout along with their normal number of stockies seems ridiculous.

The entire stream itself which is probably 6-7 miles more of water used to contain many native brookies. It's been 5 years or more since I've seen one. There are wild browns caught now but the brookies appear to be long gone.

The lower section of stream does get a lot of pressure, however DHALO section has always been much less pressured, little to no litter to be found, entirely forested and pretty close to a wilderness trout stream experience.

I shudder now to think of what will happen with this new designation. There is limited parking to begin with.

What change do you think occurred that resulted in the reduction of the brookie population?

 

[afishinado]

Mike wrote:
Pcray,
Per your comment, when it comes to going elsewhere to fish instead of the now two Keystone Select waters in SE Pa, both are located where that is a reasonable possibility. In the WC case, it is located in a county with 3 additional DH Areas, one FFO C&R area, and a C&R area. Two more FFO areas are relatively close by in Lancaster and Delaware Counties. I have already outlined the Tully case with its other DH section immediately upstream and its trout stocked water open to year around fishing section immediately downstream.

^ Agree with both Mike and Pat.

There are plenty of places to fish. I never understood why anyone would try to squeeze into a fishing spot already crowded with anglers when there are so many choices of other places to fish; even located on the same stream.

March is a little tough given many trout waters are closed, but even now, there are many SR areas plus miles of wild trout streams open to fishing.

Zoom into your area and use the map below to find open water and check the regs book or pdf to confirm it is open to fishing. Most of the squiggly blue and green lines are open, plus there is are thousands of miles of unstocked wild trout streams in PA on the second map:

http://pfbc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=3292981a1fcf415e9ce4a4a7a3ce98e2

http://maps.psiee.psu.edu/preview/map.ashx?layer=980

 

[henrydavid]

"I caught three native Brook Trout above the Special reg two years ago"

I don't doubt there's a population of natives above the DHALO section, I've fished a few other small streams in that area and there are plenty of natives to be found.

I know an Allan S. from your area, PM sent

 

[henrydavid]

"What change do you think occurred that resulted in the reduction of the brookie population? "

Troutbert, I don't know for certain. I've read that the creek had some water quality issues in the past but that predates my experience. From what I've read the creek was not stocked for a time due to the water quality issues. There is at least one feeder stream on the main branch and a couple smaller ones on the DHALO stretch so I assume the brookies may have migrated in the past.

In recent years the main branch of the creek has been stocked like crazy with rainbows and browns. Before about 5 years ago I would occasionally find a native brookie mixed in with the stockies but in recent years I have found zero. Perhaps they've moved up into the feeder stream.

Mainly I would blame the stocking for the vanishing of the native brookies. Perhaps allan_s could elaborate.

 

[troutbert]

henrydavid wrote:
"What change do you think occurred that resulted in the reduction of the brookie population? "

Troutbert, I don't know for certain. I've read that the creek had some water quality issues in the past but that predates my experience. From what I've read the creek was not stocked for a time due to the water quality issues. There is at least one feeder stream on the main branch and a couple smaller ones on the DHALO stretch so I assume the brookies may have migrated in the past.

In recent years the main branch of the creek has been stocked like crazy with rainbows and browns. Before about 5 years ago I would occasionally find a native brookie mixed in with the stockies but in recent years I have found zero. Perhaps they've moved up into the feeder stream.

Mainly I would blame the stocking for the vanishing of the native brookies. Perhaps allan_s could elaborate.

That's very possible. On some other streams I've seen the initiation of stocking really hammer brookie populations down hard.

 

[Acristickid]

Checked out Chest Creek in Cambria Co yesterday-

Always like to check out new places, read about it in Meck book years ago but never made it out. Been spending a lot of time in Ligonier last few months and wasn't too far away- about an hour. The Loyalhanna is a select stream (in Ligonier) but was looking to explore a lil.

The stream is very close to the town of Patton (typical old coal town). Chest is of pretty good size , it was not high of a gradient. Seems like it could be good for dry flies assuming there are bugs. It was not too bad of a wade even thought the water was up and stained. Seemed a lil silty. Caught about a 14 inch rainbow on a sucker spawn.

I did like the semi remoteness but there was a fair amount of garbage which needs to be picked up- tv's, couches , lazy boys and drinking party remnants . Saw two different fish commission officers in the area. There were maybe 10 different cars in 2-3 hours we were there for a stream that was stocked 2 days earlier but it did rain quite a bit the prior days.

Don't believe this stream will see nearly the pressure of many other Keystone select's (which still sounds like a cheap beer) because it is located far from populations centers and it does require a couple hundred yard walk through a wooded area. (which was it's appeal over the Loyalhanna).

Like Meck typically- I'll have to check it out again under better conditions to give a proper assessment.

 

[Wild_Trouter]

I hate to be the turd in the punch bowl...but when can the DHALO on Falling Springs be removed in favor of promoting the wild trout population there? There is everything in place to make that section of stream much better than it already is. I thought that the PFBC was "Resource First?" With all apologies to Mike K. (much respect), I think the PFBC is really missing the boat with this one.

 

[henrydavid]

One of the newer "Keystone Select" streams in my area is practically inaccessible due to road closings. I highly doubt they were able to stock it.