Pine/Kettle creek magic?

[gulfgreyhound]

Jam first the NC. Jim is scouting for a cabin to stay at. GG

 

[dsmith1427]

Great thread. I enjoyed the different perspectives. My family has a cabin in NC PA and I really enjoy meeting my brothers and cousins at least once a year and fishing the different streams. It is such a pretty area and can only be matched by places out west, IMO. I have some great fly fishing here in Michigan but would rather travel back to PA.

There are several posts criticizing stockies Is there ever a time when a stocked fish looses it's this tag. At what point do they adapt to their environment and become wild? Or does it just get reclassified as a "holdover." When you have a fish on the end of the line and cannot see it can you tell if it is a stocked, "holdover", or wild fish? Not to hijack the thread but I'm interested in hearing other peoples view on this thought.

Don

 

[dryflyguy]

dsmith1427 wrote:
Great thread. I enjoyed the different perspectives. My family has a cabin in NC PA and I really enjoy meeting my brothers and cousins at least once a year and fishing the different streams. It is such a pretty area and can only be matched by places out west, IMO. I have some great fly fishing here in Michigan but would rather travel back to PA.

There are several posts criticizing stockies Is there ever a time when a stocked fish looses it's this tag. At what point do they adapt to their environment and become wild? Or does it just get reclassified as a "holdover." When you have a fish on the end of the line and cannot see it can you tell if it is a stocked, "holdover", or wild fish? Not to hijack the thread but I'm interested in hearing other peoples view on this thought.

Don

Stockies become holdovers after they spend some time in the stream.
They do become a bit more colored up than when they left the hatchery. But you can still tell that they're not wild fish by their appearance.

I have nothing against stocked fish. There are times and places where I still fish for them. But I still prefer to go for wild ones when i can.
As for the original gist of this thread -
It takes me 2.5 hours to get to the little juniata river, where I can catch nice size wild trout.
Or travel almost twice that far to go to pine creek, where I'll catch mostly stockers. A no-brainer IMO

 

[midnightangler]

I think a fish has to be in the stream a full year to call it a holdover.

 

[sandfly]

I know a few that have been in pine for more than a year....all nice over 20"