Stocking info

[larkmark]

If you ask me the fish comm. is really dropping the ball with the whole stocked trout program. Very lousy and inaccurate information if you can even find it. In the age of information they make everything difficult and their website is a confusing mess. Streams that we could once count on being stocked by a certain date are not even stocked. I have had enough of the Covid excuse being used for everything. Do a better job! Other states certainly can manage with even less fishermen buying licenses.

 

[lycoflyfisher]

I didn't think you had any interest in stocked trout fishing larkmark. The website could definitely get cleaned up, but the stocking schedule is pretty straightforward. Pretty easy to see dates streams are stocked and if there is any changes. I saw some streams that won't be stocked until next week, but there were still ample opportunities to find stocked trout today to take a youth angler out if you wished.

 

[larkmark]

Any private business that operated the way they do would be put of business in a hurry. Thirty yrs ago it was easier to get stocking info than today. And it was reliable.

 

[falcon]

They cut way back on volunteers helping with the stocking and its my understanding only long time volunteers are helping out. I only started helping last year so I am not included.

 

[larkmark]

We floated a section for years. Never got contacted and our calls never were replied to. Our local waterways patrolmen is not too swift to say the least. They dumped some on just yesterday and a few kids caught some. The fish of course were super spooky with no time to adjust. Poorly planned if you ask me.

 

[Mike]

I find the web site to have been a PITA ever since it was changed perhaps four yrs ago or so. Nevertheless, finding the trout stocking info is a breeze. Furthermore, thirty years ago anglers would not have been able to find most upstream and downstream stocking limits in any PFC literature, so I don’t understand the complaints. Now each section limit has a published lat/lon.

As for dates of stocking, they vary, but you can pretty much count on all being stocked by opening day. What is the rub about a particular stream, other than perhaps a DH or C&R, not being stocked preseason by a particular date? Even in those cases though, this year some were even stocked earlier than in the past. Specifically, some were stocked in the last two wks of Feb.

By not stocking some waters prior to mentored youth day that were stocked ahead of time in previous years, some that are favorites of other anglers were probably then able to be stocked prior to mentored youth day for perhaps the first time this year. A “rotating schedule”, if that’s what it was to some degree, seems fair to me.

 

[UncleShorty]

Some do. Some gripe...

 

[Mike]

I should add that I don’t know anything about the fish being “spooked” following the stocking day. I have participated in a number of creel surveys and angler use counts and it has been clear that at least for inseason stockings, occasionally the fishing good on the evening of the day of stocking, but more often the morning after is tremendous.

 

[larkmark]

Uncle shorty, I have done many times. I have volunteered float stocking for most of my life every year. Now we have this unorganized guy who runs it and he can't even get back to us.
Mike, I agree about stocked fish voting well. They just weren't this morning when I went down. They were racing up and down pools very spooked. My complaint is with the way the stocking is being handled from a volunteers point of view. We could count on showing up and the truck would come more or less on time. Last few yrs this has been a problem....last year I understand.
Now this year they didn't show up at all on schedule. I waited and no call or anything. Maybe it's just me but I find that whole site hardtop get around on including that stock date thing. Why not just have lists?

 

[tomgamber]

I can see why truck chasers would be grumpy. I just need to hear it's been stocked sometime before I go. Days, weeks, months, whatever if it's a put and take. If it has z steady population it doesn't matter what's on some website. Websites didn't even exist for the first 20 years of my fishing so...

 

[larkmark]

I am not talking about truck chasing.
I am talking about lists showing when and where to meet stocking trucks as a volunteer....to help stock. This was very easy for many years. We have float stocked for years using the lists and also info from our waterway patrolman. I was also not aware of staggered stream stockings. In the past in our area all the streams have been stocked before this date in prior years. This is why trout just get stocked by the road. Without volunteers to float the fish comm will put them right where truck can get in.

 

[jifigz]

I think the website is pretty straightforward with stocking dates and whatnot. I Google "PA trout stocking" and it takes me right to the page with the first link. The stocking page is the same as it has been for years.

I have no complaints

 

[jifigz]

larkmark wrote:
I am not talking about truck chasing.
I am talking about lists showing when and where to meet stocking trucks as a volunteer....to help stock. This was very easy for many years. We have float stocked for years using the lists and also info from our waterway patrolman. I was also not aware of staggered stream stockings. In the past in our area all the streams have been stocked before this date in prior years. This is why trout just get stocked by the road. Without volunteers to float the fish comm will put them right where truck can get in.

While I can understand your gripe with fish being stocked right by ty road and they may stay where they are stocked for a while, especially in small streams, they do spread out with some time. On small streams where they are confined, after a few high water events the fish really do travel about.

 

[Dave_W]

I too agree that the PFBC trout stocking info is user friendly and generally accurate. More recently the spreadsheets covering Warmwater/Coolwater were glitchy (I contacted them and pointed this out) but as of this week they are working fine again for me.

For trout stocking, when one considers all the possible issues that could disrupt the schedule, from sudden land postings, to snowstorms, to a sick PFBC employee (and with Covid issues on top of all these) the fact that the info is as accurate as it seems to me is a credit to the agency in my view.

(Although I agree with Mike that the older website version was much superior in general, a point I've griped about many times.)

 

[Mike]

Your complaint that you were never contacted for float stocking fits well with the news release this year, which warned ahead of time that only selected individuals would be allowed to assist with stocking in 2021 due to Covid concerns. This is better than last year when only staff were allowed to participate.

 

[blueheron]

We have helped stock in the past. As far as spreading out the fish, they’re more concerned with mortality. I have not heard of float stocking in many years.

 

[larkmark]

Float stocking is a very good thing in my view. we have done it for a long time in my area and it makes the fishing way more interesting.

Mike- I was not aware of any of that. I would have liked to have been told. I phoned several time. no response. I am sure you must know about the lists I am talking about. They are not available on the website as far as I can tell. They are the ones with meeting locations and times for volunteers. I always received printed ones. The miscommunication started happening a few yrs before covid though. Maybe I am just getting too old to be bothered with helping anyway.

 

[lycoflyfisher]

Go to this link https://fbweb.pa.gov/stocking/TroutStockingDetails_GIS.aspx

Enter county of choice and you have the stocking schedule, meeting location, time and section limits to be stocked. It even lists species to be stocked. What more do you want? There are numerous links to the stocking schedule all over the pfbc website.

 

[larkmark]

Thank you lycofisher.- this is exactly what I was looking for. I have no idea why I could not see it.

There are errors in dates that have not been corrected on several dates and times for stocking unfortunately.