What is WV doing that PA ain’t ?

[Fish Sticks]

I know a guide who goes up to kettle wvery year to catch very large wild native brook trout below cross fork in the early season. If the ridiculously dense stockings didnt occur that would open up a lot of seats at the table for brook trout. If your going to say fish sticks your smoking crack your essentially going to have to try and convince everyone that like 40,000 eleven inch long stocked invasive species a year have no negative effect on kettles underwater ecosystem.

 

[krayfish2]

 

[troutbert]

I know a guide who goes up to kettle wvery year to catch very large wild native brook trout below cross fork in the early season.

How large is very large?

 

[Fish Sticks]

How large is very large?

gotta qualify that, PA very large= 10” plus in my experience

 

[Fish Sticks]

I look at some of the shots of that guy fly fishing in the video and thought…..Dang thats alot wider than most places we have to fish for brook trout in PA. Some shots don’t seem that wide i don’t knownif all the same stream or bow high up vs. low down he was at varying points. Seems like pretty good sized water to me. Then I saw the freakishly large brookie in the water in that yellow measuring device. I wonder if tbats one of the 4 watersheds WV manages for Brook trout with no stock/ c&r?

Big stream/big habitat managed for brook trout equals big fish based on petty et al 2012, David Thorn of WV DNR and many other sources.

Thanks for posting the video Kray

 

[sarce]

I wonder if tbats one of the 4 watersheds WV manages for Brook trout with no stock/ c&r?

That one isn't. I am not 100% sure which stream but it's a different area of the state than those 4. But it is definitely unstocked water. He dropped some hints that I picked up on having explored that area pretty extensively on the public land portions of streams. Great video and I hope there are a lot more stories like it to come from WV. The state can absolutely produce 20" brook trout but human disturbances need to heal in some areas and in others people need to stop eating every brookie that makes it to 10".