Where to start for bigger wild Browns/Brooks?

[nd1001]

View attachment 1641240501
Post spawn Native Brookie tail. They do some damage to the lower tail while spawning.

Sometimes the damage is from being a stocky, at other times could be from red building and other trout bites while getting lucky 🍀.
A tail can tell two tales.

~5footfenwick

Here’s a wild brook trout with some serious tail damage. This was caught at the very start of October, my last outing of the season before giving them a break to spawn. Fish were still feeding voraciously on the surface and weren’t observed to be paired up yet, but redd construction must have begun.

 

[Oregon_OwlII]

You'll get different opinions on this one, but I think there are a lot more wilds now than forty years ago when I started fished YB regularly.

Wasn't there a dam or two removed from the Breeches within the last 10 years? That could improve the trout water.

 

[youngtroutbum]

Wasn't there a dam or two removed from the Breeches within the last 10 years? That could improve the trout water.

I know of at least 1

 

[Tabasco-Joe]

Looks like you’re already catching big wild Browns. Very nice fish.

They’re in way more places than you’d think. And even way more places than that probably. Just go explore. You’ll start to put the puzzle together of what to look for. Or what not to look for. Figuring it out becomes the fun.

Something I learned while working on a TU stream restoration project. Very small stream in SEPA that was spring fed. It was a feeder to a medium sized stream which hadn't been stocked for many years. Yet the stream we were working on held some nice browns 16" to 18".

 

[Roofin' Trouter]

Lots of good advice on here already. It's not all cut and dry. Trout have to eat a lot and live long to get big. Good habitat and limited stress can factor in to living longer. A good forage base full of dace and other "minnows" and crayfish is something I look for when scouting possible locations. Dams prohibit fish from skeedaddling when conditions become unfavorable.

 

[troutbert]

Wasn't there a dam or two removed from the Breeches within the last 10 years? That could improve the trout water.

Another factor is probably water quality improvements at the PFBC's Huntsdale hatchery.

At one time PFBC's hatcheries were "straight through" systems with no water treatment of any kind. DEP cracked down on them, and the PFBC installed water treatment systems that have improved the water quality of the discharges quite a lot.

 

[wildtrout2]

There are some big fish in small streams not far from Lancaster (not mentioned here) that come from bigger bodies of water at certain times of the year. Like these, for example:

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From time to time one of those big fish are caught in a big body of water near Lancaster by a fisherman who is targeting another fish species.

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With a little thought I’m sure you can find those streams, and put some time into tracking them down and you’ll have as good a shot at catching one as the next guy.

Those are some big browns. Serious kypes on those gators.

 

[JimKennedy]

Big Spring for solid wild brook trout. That doesn't mean they're easy to catch, but they are there. And big for brook trout in our region is 12 inches, which is small enough to be heron fodder.

 

[wildtrout2]

Do they stock Big Spring Creek with brookies?

 

[jeffroey]

Small stream guy thru and thru. My biggest browns landed came from tribs that dumped directly into big river systems. Probably not a surprise to anyone.

Brookies? Well, thinking about the biggest ones I've landed or hooked and had close enough to the hand to gauge their size, like others have mentioned, no real method to that madness and looking back, my biggest brookies came from non-CL-A streams. Most from NRs.

I'm still searching for that formula but I'm becoming convinced that they're likely in most streams and it just depends if you're lucky enough to fool one into your net.

 

[sixfootfenwick]

Do they stock Big Spring Creek with brookies?

 

[JeffP]

There are some big fish in small streams not far from Lancaster (not mentioned here) that come from bigger bodies of water at certain times of the year. Like these, for example:

View attachment 1641240530
View attachment 1641240531

From time to time one of those big fish are caught in a big body of water near Lancaster by a fisherman who is targeting another fish species.

View attachment 1641240532

With a little thought I’m sure you can find those streams, and put some time into tracking them down and you’ll have as good a shot at catching one as the next guy.

I want to ask so badly!

 

[jifigz]

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I don't agree with this one. Not you, Fenwick, the PFBC choice to stock brookies there.

Although maybe that's better than browns... It would be so cool if it was still a spring creek teeming with wild brooks, but those days are long gone.

 

[dudemanspecial]

When did the PFBC start stocking brook trout again? Did they not stop because of gill lice or something of that nature?

 

[mt_flyfisher]

I want to ask so badly!

As I said, those big fish move into small streams at certain times of the year. If you think about why they move, and what causes them to move, I’m pretty sure you can determine when and where you might find them. After all, there aren’t that many miles of streams in PA to search …starting from Lititz, just take Rt 501…😀

Here’s another one of these bigger fish that was caught in a small stream in central PA.

 

[troutbert]

Brookies? Well, thinking about the biggest ones I've landed or hooked and had close enough to the hand to gauge their size, like others have mentioned, no real method to that madness and looking back, my biggest brookies came from non-CL-A streams. Most from NRs.

What do these letters/codes mean?

 

[jeffroey]

@troutbert:

CL-A = Class A Wild Trout Water
NR = Natural Reproduction Trout Water
STW = Stocked Trout Water

In general, shorthand for the legend on this map:

 

[wildtrout2]

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The reason I asked, is because if the brookies in posts #30 & #48 were caught in Big Spring Creek, they appear to be stocked, not wild. JMO

 

[Dave_W]

Yes - they still stock STs (brookies) in Big Spring. I'm not sure why other than tradition - it's what they have always done.

Others streams in my neck of the woods that had been traditionally stocked with brookies have been switched to mostly RTs. I don't think the stocked STs in BS have much, if any, effect on the wild population; they're quicky fished out by traditional anglers.

 

[Dave_W]

Many of the wild STs in BS look a bit different that what many anglers who fish small freestones think STs should look like. I think the fish in #48 is wild. BS wild brookies often have a purple-ish tone, are heavy bodied, and frequently have a curve or kink in the front of the pelvic fin.