Recent Rain

A buddy fished the susky from a kayak last week and did real well around Duncannon. I bet the fish are concentrated in specific areas
 
Bamboozle said:
I have some notes from some trips in 2005 & 2007, it was lower then but I was catching fish.

(Discharge & Gage Height is from the Harrisburg USGS site the day I fished.Temps were taken by me where I was fishing (near Marysville). The day I read 92, I checked the water temp three times I was so shocked:

Date Depth Flow Temp
08/12/05 3.05 4440 92
09/28/05 2.96 3660 75

07/20/07 3.15 5290 80
07/21/07 3.13 5117 85
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2005 was the year with large numbers of juvenile smallmouth dying, as I recall.

I once took a water temp of 90F on the Susquehanna River near Dauphin.
 
I usually like to use my boat until mid November. But this year the river has been so low where I like to fish that I didn't feel safe, even with my jet, to fish around Columbia. Today the Marietta gage is down to only 5520 cfs.

I was curious to learn what the lowest cfs ever recorded was at the Marietta gage so I reached out to the USGS. The actual lowest recorded level is going to shock everyone. On September 26, 1932 the level was 613 cfs.

I took my boat in to be winterized last week.
 
At this point, I’m worried there won’t be any spring fishing on my wild trout streams. The damage from this dry spell will take a long time to recover from.
Not to mention if levels remain this low into the winter, and we get a week of sub zero temperatures, it’s going to be bad.
 
steliejim said:
At this point, I’m worried there won’t be any spring fishing on my wild trout streams. The damage from this dry spell will take a long time to recover from.
Not to mention if levels remain this low into the winter, and we get a week of sub zero temperatures, it’s going to be bad.
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I wouldn't worry one bit about conditions now and stream fishing in the spring.

I wouldn't worry about anything related to trout and fishing. There is nothing you can do about it.
 
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steliejim said:
At this point, I’m worried there won’t be any spring fishing on my wild trout streams. The damage from this dry spell will take a long time to recover from.
Not to mention if levels remain this low into the winter, and we get a week of sub zero temperatures, it’s going to be bad.
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So far this is not nearly as bad as some previous droughts, at least in NC PA.

Young Womans Creek is at 17.7 cfs. During one of the worst droughts (1999?) it went below 1 cfs.

Kettle Creek at Cross Fork is at 56.5. During one of the worst droughts it was at 8 cfs.
 
We worry far more about this than the Trout do. They’re fine. Fishing for them right now is not a lot of fun…low water, and the spawn, but they’re fine.
 
Swattie87 said:
We worry far more about this than the Trout do. They’re fine. Fishing for them right now is not a lot of fun…low water, and the spawn, but they’re fine.
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Agreed. Fishing on holed up trout who are just trying to get their groove on isn't very sporting.

Can you imagine how many fish are holed up in the stilling basin on the Lehigh?

 
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I’m not saying Coplay Creek isn’t dry, and those fish pictured aren’t dead, but Coplay runs along a pretty major quarry, which likely adds an added variable effect on its flow levels.

I haven’t seen a dry streambed yet. FWIW. And I’ve walked along plenty of streams in flows lower (according to their gauges) than right now and have observed many many Trout alive, and acting essentially normally.
 
The trout are fine in the lower water since the temps are cool. If this drought was coupled with weeks of scorching 90 degree temps, it might be different, but still by and large, the fish would be fine. The #1 thing that is probably hurting the fish most right now is increased predation. Raccoons, herons, eagles, ospreys, etc are all probably finding a fish dinner a little easier to come by right now.

The circle of life. Life goes on.
 
Swattie87 said:
I’m not saying Coplay Creek isn’t dry, and those fish pictured aren’t dead, but Coplay runs along a pretty major quarry, which likely adds an added variable effect on its flow levels.

I haven’t seen a dry streambed yet. FWIW. And I’ve walked along plenty of streams in flows lower (according to their gauges) than right now and have observed many many Trout alive, and acting essentially normally.
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People need to realize that even though we’ve had a somewhat unprecedented lack of recent rain, that most of the aquifers and creeks had been filled/running well above average throughout most of the spring and summer. This past weekend in central PA, I noticed that even the small rivulets and spring seeps around Penns Creek still contained a surprising amount of water for how dry it has supposedly been. I really don’t think things are nearly as bad as people think and I expect we are just a few good rainy days away from getting back to normal. I blame the return of springlike warm blustery weather for the recent rash of wildfires more than I do a severe drought that simply does not exist.

According to https://climate.met.psu.edu/data/state/yravgprecip.php?division=7
We’re sitting at a YTD total of 37.03 inches, which puts us right on track to hit the average of 41” if we get a couple good rains in Nov and Dec.
 
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jifigz said:
The trout are fine in the lower water since the temps are cool. If this drought was coupled with weeks of scorching 90 degree temps, it might be different, but still by and large, the fish would be fine. The #1 thing that is probably hurting the fish most right now is increased predation. Raccoons, herons, eagles, ospreys, etc are all probably finding a fish dinner a little easier to come by right now.

The circle of life. Life goes on.
Click to expand...

I think you’re right. Increased predation is the biggest issue right now, at a time (spawn) when fish by necessity have to put themselves in situations that make them more vulnerable to predators. There’s a pretty big difference between what low water means to anglers, and what low water means to fish, from a survival standpoint.

Walking streams in ultra low flows like this has actually revealed the opposite to me than what you might expect. I remember hiking along one of Kettle’s larger tributaries when Kettle’s gauge was at 8 or 10 cfs, or something like that. A magnitude of 5 or 6x less water than what is there now. The trib was continuously flowing, except for a few brief sections of heavy cobble where the surface flow sank into the cobble. The amount of fish I observed (alive and well) in the super low, clear pools was staggering. Yeah, this can’t go on indefinitely, but it won’t. It will rain, flows will improve, and we’ll have to complain about all the high water killing this year’s redds and fry.

I’m just gonna wait for flows to improve, then go fishing. The fish will still be there. Most of them anyway.
 
Watching the Weather Channel. Looks like most of Pennsylvania is going to get some rain and even snow towards the end of this week. I hope that it helps. My area of South Jersey is not so lucky. Most of the southern Atlantic coast gets nothing again. Our county is under water restrictions. I’m playing my part. No water in my scotch.
 
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