wildtrout2
Well-known member
I think that's a legit question. I don't know much about BS either, that's why I asked if brookies were originally the only trout in the stream?
Where to start for bigger wild Browns/Brooks?
- Thread starter youngtroutbum
- Start date
sixfootfenwick
Well-known member
Well yes, if you go back far enough, brook trout were the only trout in BS.
I highly doubt there are any browns left, 10 years ago or so, there were some (a few, not many), very large browns in the fly area left over from the hatchery days. Those fish were nearing the end of their life cycle then. All this above Newville of course.
I doubt the brook trout in BS are heritage strain. I'm sure hatchery genes got in the mix.
However they are unique and easily picked out of a line up.
I highly doubt there are any browns left, 10 years ago or so, there were some (a few, not many), very large browns in the fly area left over from the hatchery days. Those fish were nearing the end of their life cycle then. All this above Newville of course.
I doubt the brook trout in BS are heritage strain. I'm sure hatchery genes got in the mix.
However they are unique and easily picked out of a line up.
JeffP
Well-known member
Why wouldn't browns reproduce here?
sixfootfenwick
Well-known member
Don't know but in the fly area they never took hold in any numbers and produced any consistent year class.
I don't even think they show up at all on recent surveys.
sixfootfenwick
Well-known member
Which btw, an annoyance of mine and also for the sake of accuracy, they really should update the class A list to be correct.
Yes it's a wild brown trout fishery below Newville.
Above it is a mixed of wild rainbow/brook trout, could they some day, with all the updates, correct that error?
Yes it's a wild brown trout fishery below Newville.
Above it is a mixed of wild rainbow/brook trout, could they some day, with all the updates, correct that error?
Bamboozle
Well-known member
Many years ago, Charlie Fox told me about some wooden weirs or something that were placed in the stream in the vicinity of the parking area downstream of the Ditch. We used to refer to them as the "fish blockers."
I don't remember if he told me who put them there, but the intention was to try to maintain & isolate the brook trout above that location and into the Ditch as the only species.
He also let me know the fishing immediately below was pretty good... 😉
I don't remember if he told me who put them there, but the intention was to try to maintain & isolate the brook trout above that location and into the Ditch as the only species.
He also let me know the fishing immediately below was pretty good... 😉
thejoshmorgan
New member
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2016
- Messages
- 13
Lititz run has deteriorated ever since ever since the starting selling Millport pins like hotcakes and guiding the meadow. If you can get permission on private upstream and even on a few of the feeders though you can find some huge wild ones in skinny water if you're timing is good.
thejoshmorgan
New member
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2016
- Messages
- 13
This is the key!
bringthepain
Well-known member
Bigger water
“The story of Big Spring Creek is one of legend. In the 1920’s through (the) 50’s the stream was so famous that the English sporting media regularly sent reporters over to do stories on this American spring creek, which was comparable to the best English Chalkstreams. Its native strain of brook trout were like no other that anyone could find.” As written by Jim Chestney in an article entitled The Saga of Big Spring Creek, some of the earliest conservation measures that were adopted in the United States in fact may have originated on this stream back in 1850 when a creel limit was established of 50 trout per day with the river enjoying a glorious background in the annals of American trout fshing. Dr. John Black, in a column written in the forum section for Fly Fisherman magazine, mentions such angling legends as Charlie Foxa nd Ernest Schwiebert fishing at Big Spring. Dr. Black describes that for a stretch of Big Springs before 1955 – regardless of day or season of the year --hundreds of rising trout could be seen. You get the drift: this was one fabulous trout fishing river. And then come the hatcheries."
Bamboozle
Well-known member
Some other info:
Fish the tailwaters for big trout
wildtrout2
Well-known member
Thanks for sharing that, it's exactly what I was hoping to learn about Big Spring.
Bamboozle
Well-known member
Make a point of reading Chapter 28, "The Commonwealth's Gem" in Charlie Fox's book, "Rising Trout."
In that chapter he recounts Theodore Gordon's remembrances and the way it was at Big Springs...
JeffP
Well-known member
I must be having a mental block or something. I know Lititz Run well and I can't think of any tributaries that would hold trout. Half the tribs run through farm fields and dry up in the summer. There have been years the sewer plant has been the only source of water for that stream and that includes the spring at the sportsman's club and the main spring in the park. Santo Domingo is dry 1/2 the year. Huber's is now dry at the trail every year. Even the nice size minnows are long gone.
PS: That's not Hubers I was talking about. Looking at a map it's unnamed and runs for a while along the rail trail and eventually running under it right before the hatchery.
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