jifigz wrote:
On Penns, for example, how would the brook trout ever recolonize the stream with the browns being so dominant? I would love to see larger streams other than mountain trickles have brook trout but I just don't see how that can ever happen again. Our brown trout are here to stay and better adapted to many of the larger streams which we have altered over history. I'm all for wild trout of any kind and taking the best that we can get.
Warning, typical silverfox wall of text inbound.
I don't think brookies ever will recolonize streams that are currently taken over by browns. However, I've known for a long time and it's been scientifically proven, that brook trout overwinter in the downstream, mainstem sections of water systems.
Very near where I grew up, there are several small headwater streams that I grew up fishing for brookies. I know them like the back of my hand. I realized once that in the winter, they weren't where they normally were. At least not in the numbers they were in the spring, summer and fall. It was by accident that I ran into them in the downstream "marginal" mainstem in the winter one year. This marginal water is stocked heavily by the state.
What we don't know is the impact restoring that winter habitat has on the population. I'd bet money those stockers cause the brookies problems when they show up in late fall to hang out. What happens if you stop stocking that marginal water?
I guess we go through phases as fly fishermen. Stockers are fun for a while, and then we seek out wild trout. Brookies are fun, but small, so we start looking for big wild browns. Not to be pompous, but I'm over wild brown trout. I've caught huge wild browns, I know where to go tomorrow and catch 20+ inch wild browns. They're not much of a challenge anymore. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy fishing regardless of the quarry, and I can appreciate a beautiful stream like nobody's business, but I'm personally just a little burned out on brown trout.
It's come down to the brookies for me. Ironically, to the point of booking a trip to Maine to go for bigger ones. That's right, leaving this amazing state with all it's amazing fishing opportunities to fish in a state that is stupid enough to ban trout fishing in the fall/winter. The interesting thing I've found is that there are bigger, better and more brookies south of Pennsylvania. How is it that the mountains of WV, VA, MD and even as far south as SC have better brook trout fishing than the great state of PA?
While I don't like the stocking thing, there are some places down south that are raising and stocking awesome looking brook trout. One in Western SC for example is a place I've actually thought about going to just to catch big stocked brook trout.
There are accounts of 20" plus brook trout being common in PA before the "greats" wanted to make PA more like england and stocked a bunch of brown trout. Of course there's always the argument of "but the forests were cut down in the 1800's which ruined brook trout habitat". Nevermind the fact that most of those logging tracts are state parks now and the canopy is restored.
Like I said, Big Spring is probably the only stream in the entire state that could be restored to be big ST's only. Seems like a no-brainer. I saw an option in the BS management plan to lift the ban on harvesting rainbows to get them out. I'm sure that will never happen. It's not about what's right for the fish, it's about what the fishermen want.
It just seems like there is a bias toward wild browns around here, which just makes me cringe. Seems like every fertile limestone influenced stream in the region is full of wild browns. I guess that's great, but it gets kind of boring after a while. My opinion only.
In the end, the wild browns are about a notch up from the stocked fish. There's still something "fake" about them. A feeling that they shouldn't be here. I know this is extremism. I know half the people here disagree and just want to fish when they want, and for what they want. Just running my mouth from an extremist's perspective I guess.
