THE SPRINGTIME WOODS AND WATERS

[TightLinesHigh5s]

Since joining the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay back in January, I've had a few opportunities to flex my writing muscles, and it has been a joy to bring a fly fishing/tying angle to some of our communications.

I most recently helped our Forest for the Bay team by writing a piece for their newsletter. I sat down to write after a long day of helping our kids participate in our Mentored Youth Program before spending the afternoon alone on a local Class A stream.

The contrast between a morning spent wrangling two kids and enjoying an afternoon stonefly hatch on a wild brown trout stream is substantial, but as I reflected on the day, it occurred to me that I don't really enjoy one all that more than the other.

When it comes to hitting the spring woods and waters of Pennsylvania, I guess I'm just not that picky about how it all goes down.

The full article The Springtime Woods and Waters is over on our Alliance blog. Thanks for reading and tight lines!

 

[Canoetripper]

Thanks for the post.

 

[tomgamber]

Cool, that pool looks like the first place i ever caught a trout on a fly. Mill creek in Clarion county. Lots of holes look just like that and they are all good.

 

[TightLinesHigh5s]

That is a beautiful hole! The bank is significantly undercut beneath the tree with a network of roots providing a ton of protection for fish. It's an ideal dry fly situation but you get hung up with anything subsurface. I actually cut my nymph off and just drifted the dry through there.

 

[timmyt2]

Looks like Valley to me

 

[gulfgreyhound]

tomgamber wrote:
Cool, that pool looks like the first place i ever caught a trout on a fly. Mill creek in Clarion county. Lots of holes look just like that and they are all good.

I'd bet it's still just as good. One of my old stomping grounds. GG

 

[Mike]

Another York Co wild Brown Trout stream, this one being Class A. If it is the one that the single pic makes me think it is, it was a wild Brown Trout stream that was stocked for decades. As in the case of one Codorus Ck section, we switched the species stocked to 100% Rainbow Trout with the specific intent of driving the stream section to a Class A biomass. The wild trout population expanded and it quickly became Class A.

In the case of the stream in this thread, assuming it is the one that I think it is, the BT population expanded to Class A, but we can’t be certain that stocking RT in this case was the sole factor, as the follow-up survey was delayed for a few too many years. The section might have gone Class A anyway if riparian vegetation had become more dense in some upstream areas.

Both cases are examples of stocking over wild Brown populations yet still seeing those populations grow from Class C or B to solid Class A’s. With the predominance of RT stockings in Pa now, you may find this occurring in at least a few or even more than a few streams statewide. Both sections were removed from the stocking program once they achieved Class A status.

I should add that we have seen stocked stream segments go from NO wild Brown Trout to Class A in less than 10 years. Conowingo Ck, Lancaster Co, is an example. The Class A segment, given its length, was then assigned a different section number and removed from the stocking program. That population continues to expand downstream into the upper part of the presently stocked section.

 

[troutbert]

Mike wrote:
Another York Co wild Brown Trout stream, this one being Class A. If it is the one that the single pic makes me think it is, it was a wild Brown Trout stream that was stocked for decades. As in the case of one Codorus Ck section, we switched the species stocked to 100% Rainbow Trout with the specific intent of driving the stream section to a Class A biomass. The wild trout population expanded and it quickly became Class A.

What's the theory there? How would changing the species stocked to 100% rainbows lead to an increase in the wild brown trout population?

 

[wildtrout2]

I was wondering that as well.

 

[Mike]

I have explained that a number of times, but one more time won’t hurt. The stocked RT have been documented to hit much, much better than stocked Browns in the colder water temps of regional and traditional opening day (basis...numerous creel surveys when mixed species were stocked). The species is also more vulnerable to angling in general. So you stock RT, the anglers rip them out, the fishing declines, and the stocked trout anglers go home. The wild Browns are exposed primarily to only short term angling pressure and with colder water temps and species differences are not very vulnerable. Even when stocked over wild RT populations in Idaho, a case where you might expect high intraspecific competition, there are no measurable impacts at the population level when examining various metrics. One explanation there is the high stocked RT natural mortality rate. Similarly, stocked trout angling in Pa generates a high fishing mortality rate on stocked RT....a different kind of mortality rate, but the same result.

 

[wildtrout2]

That makes sense Mike. I hadn't heard it explained like that previously.

 

[troutbert]

Mike wrote:
I have explained that a number of times, but one more time won’t hurt. The stocked RT have been documented to hit much, much better than stocked Browns in the colder water temps of regional and traditional opening day (basis...numerous creel surveys when mixed species were stocked). The species is also more vulnerable to angling in general. So you stock RT, the anglers rip them out, the fishing declines, and the stocked trout anglers go home. The wild Browns are exposed primarily to only short term angling pressure and with colder water temps and species differences are not very vulnerable. Even when stocked over wild RT populations in Idaho, a case where you might expect high intraspecific competition, there are no measurable impacts at the population level when examining various metrics. One explanation there is the high stocked RT natural mortality rate. Similarly, stocked trout angling in Pa generates a high fishing mortality rate on stocked RT....a different kind of mortality rate, but the same result.

Thanks Mike. I don't recall reading or hearing that explanation before. But it makes sense.

 

[TightLinesHigh5s]

Mike wrote:
Another York Co wild Brown Trout stream, this one being Class A. If it is the one that the single pic makes me think it is, it was a wild Brown Trout stream that was stocked for decades. As in the case of one Codorus Ck section, we switched the species stocked to 100% Rainbow Trout with the specific intent of driving the stream section to a Class A biomass. The wild trout population expanded and it quickly became Class A.

In the case of the stream in this thread, assuming it is the one that I think it is, the BT population expanded to Class A, but we can’t be certain that stocking RT in this case was the sole factor, as the follow-up survey was delayed for a few too many years. The section might have gone Class A anyway if riparian vegetation had become more dense in some upstream areas.

Both cases are examples of stocking over wild Brown populations yet still seeing those populations grow from Class C or B to solid Class A’s. With the predominance of RT stockings in Pa now, you may find this occurring in at least a few or even more than a few streams statewide. Both sections were removed from the stocking program once they achieved Class A status.

I should add that we have seen stocked stream segments go from NO wild Brown Trout to Class A in less than 10 years. Conowingo Ck, Lancaster Co, is an example. The Class A segment, given its length, was then assigned a different section number and removed from the stocking program. That population continues to expand downstream into the upper part of the presently stocked section.

You're correct with your assumption of the stream, and I appreciate your details. I have mixed feelings about the main branch being stocked. On the one hand, it's one of the places where I learned to fish as a kid, and it's where our kids do the majority of their fishing. It gets an unbelievable amount of pressure, and I know many others who are in the same boat that I am. It's a wonderful stream to put kids on, and if it came off the map as a put-and-take stream, I fear that many youth would simply not get the chance to fish.

The stocking down there for the last few years has been predominantly brook trout. There are certainly more rainbows than browns but far more brook trout than rainbows. I know that a relatively new addition to the stocking has been Hopewell, who apparently has had issues with their rainbows and stocked mostly brook trout this spring.

On the other hand, even with the absurd amount of fish that get dumped into the main branch within the park, wild fish still hold within the park boundaries. I've observed brown trout fingerlings near the lower end of park boundaries, and within a few weeks of now, wild fish will make up easily 50% of my catch. There's little doubt in my mind about the potential of this stream if some of the stocking and put and take pressure came off.

I love that, as a put and take stream, it's a massive resource for people to learn and partake in fishing. As someone who has used the resource to conduct a large portion of my own angling journey, it would be incredibly silly of me to not see this value. However, I can't help but think about the potential. I'm certain many nice wild browns go home on stringers each spring. Just last week, an old-timer told me that he catches a large amount of native brook trout in the park. On my way back to the car, I bumped into another angler and mentioned that I caught a few wild brown trout. He followed up by stating that he wasn't sure if the trout on his stringer was a brook trout or a brown trout, but he thought it looked native. On the youth day, I helped a kid net an 18" fish and had to educate the father that it was a brown trout and not a brook trout. All fantastic opportunities to educate a fellow angler in a pleasant way, which I did, but it certainly leaves you with a desire to see what the stream would do without all of that going on.