The best seven brookies of the year

[Zak]

I see...well, this stream will be published before long even if it's not today. I suppose they all are once wild trout are found.

 

[Chaz]

pcray1231 wrote:
Yeah, they have acid rain.

That said, the most acidic of their streams are very clearly in coniferous dominated forests.

I'm not sure I agree that it's very different if it comes from peat. pH is pH. Though it may be that peat is acidic, but not enough to cause real issues, while also virtually eliminating more acidic spikes because of it's water absorption characteristics which increase groundwater flow and decrease runoff.

We see a lot of tannic streams in PA, especially across the Allegheny Plateau and the ones that are not impacted by AMD or acid precipitation seem to do fine. That's all I'm saying.

 

[Chaz]

The stream is most likely not listed as having natural reproduction. So it will eventually be added to the list. I'm pretty sure I know it's identity, and have indeed fished it. It's not a secret stream in any sense of the imagination, the locals know about it. That is if it's the stream I'm thinking of.
During one of the major hurricanes it ran so high that trout were stranded, because it's a ditch through the towns through which it flows, cutting it off from the flood plain. It is also deeply incised.
As to what the trout in the Schuylkill and it's tributaries eat, what Mike said, and when available the trout eat other trout and bait fish, including but not limited to chubs and fallfish. Unfortunately I've heard many times both here and from locals, that they throw these fish on the bank, to which I respond, what do you think the trout eat? Duh! Inch worms are also on the menu.

 

[PennKev]

Zak wrote:
Mike's got a proven track record of not dumping stream names and I'm particularly happy he does that. With only 10 trout being found, and half of them being legal, what would stop someone from catching and keeping those f5-6 fish? I know, thats super unlikely. But lets say 2 people get he stream name and decide to fish it, deep hooking 1-2 of the 10 trout and killing them. That's a 20% reduction in trout numbers. When a stream is good enough to support a recreational fishery it's stated as such. The rest should be left for us to discover on our own.

Cause nothing makes me want to fish a stream more than a handful of brookies and mine drainage. Shoot, I'm heating up my frying pan already.

I do respect Mike's restraint when dealing with stream names, however I think that his threads often suffer from a lack of info because of it.

How can you discuss a particular stream if the participants of the discussion know next to nothing about it?

 

[pcray1231]

We see a lot of tannic streams in PA, especially across the Allegheny Plateau and the ones that are not impacted by AMD or acid precipitation seem to do fine. That's all I'm saying.

They are ALL impacted by acid precipitation, at least to a degree.

My point was that tannic or otherwise, acid is acid. That said, tannic streams often have an advantage. Sure, they are on the acidic side. But to a more consistent degree. The soils also tend to be deep and soft, which means they soak up water. So you have high base flows and low amounts of runoff, and as such, even without rock buffering, you lack the highly acidic spikes.

A steady 5.3 is better than 5.5 with occasional 4.8 spikes.

 

[Chaz]

pcray1231 wrote:

We see a lot of tannic streams in PA, especially across the Allegheny Plateau and the ones that are not impacted by AMD or acid precipitation seem to do fine. That's all I'm saying.

They are ALL impacted by acid precipitation, at least to a degree.

My point was that tannic or otherwise, acid is acid. That said, tannic streams often have an advantage. Sure, they are on the acidic side. But to a more consistent degree. The soils also tend to be deep and soft, which means they soak up water. So you have high base flows and low amounts of runoff, and as such, even without rock buffering, you lack the highly acidic spikes.

A steady 5.3 is better than 5.5 with occasional 4.8 spikes.

Agreed.

 

[FarmerDave]

Correct me if I am wrong, in order to be classidied as having natural reproduction, it has to have certain numbers of age classes including YoY.

I don't have time to go back and review, but I got the initial impression that this stream does not yet qualify.

difference between having a few trout and having a reproducing population.

Could be some years there is some success.

 

[Chaz]

2 year classes will qualify, or YOY trout.