White Deer Creek CRFFO...Why Bother?

[Wild_Trouter]

Hop everyone is staying well and healthy! I went out to White Deer Creek for the first time in 20+ years, and man was that a mistake. I know it has been discussed ad nauseam on here in the past regarding the lack of fish, but I figured this early in the season I would find some. In short, I fished the lower end of the regs on Cooper Rd. and then went up McCall Dam Rd. and dropped in at various spots to no avail. I did find some fresh worm containers and snelled hook packages in the regs area, so that was my sign that I was probably up against it. I didn't see any signs of life whatsoever. Pretty looking stream, but as the subject implies, what's the point of having a regulated stretch here? It's obvious that the habitat sucks and because of its location- people are free to do as they please? It's a shame to have regs on this stream when they are meaningless. It's also a shame that people from that area do not have something that they can reliably count on. IMO, they ought to just make it ATW and be done with it. I didn't fare much better fishing some Class A tribs to WDC, but at least I found some fish albeit on the small side.

 

[Mike]

I have never fished the DH there, but I occasionally stopped at the regular stocked trout section above as I traveled along I-80 and always caught fish in spring and the first half of the summer. It’s a very nice stream up there, but it’s tough to ignore the noise from the trucks on I-80.

As an aside, I rarely fish special reg areas, perhaps once every two yrs, because I have no trouble finding good fishing in stretches outside of the special reg areas and in many other streams.

 

[mattwolf]

I fished the special regs area last year and did okay. I wouldn't call it anything spectacular, but I caught a few wild browns and a few brookies. Also saw a couple big guys, but I assumed they came up stream from the stocked area. I fished it in the middle of the summer, probably last June/early July if I had to guess. I actually thought about going there yesterday, but figured it would be crowded, so I fished a little class A stream closer to home and couldn't have been more pleased and saw nobody else out.

 

[Acristickid]

Fished it once or twice- neither time was good.

Know one of the times I made a pretty good effort - tried 2 to 4 different areas of the stream still came up with next to nothing , teeny little fish and very few of them. Your mileage may vary.

 

[troutbert]

I have done pretty well in the special regs area.

Most people park at the lower bridge on the regs area and fish up a little ways and are disappointed. The very lowest part is not so good.

Much better when you get up a little ways. Mostly stocked trout, but there were good numbers of them. And also caught a few small wild browns and brookies.

Last year I fished one of the unstocked tribs and did well. Mostly brookies. A few browns.

I do find it puzzling (and disappointing) that the wild trout population in WDC isn't higher, considering that the watershed is largely forested.

If anyone has insight on that, let us know.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Dwight,

Reading this thread i would go with poor habitat, stocking and worm containers. YMMV

 

[Zak]

It's lousy because it's a special reg area on a marginal trout stream. This means is get POUNDED with pressure and the fish that are there are way smarter. This is an issue with many SR's around the state. White Deer Creek is a good stream, it just stinks in the SR area. Fish outside of the SR and report back ;-)

 

[WildTigerTrout]

I learned to fly fish on White Deer and it used to be very good. Mostly stocked, with some wild browns and native brooks also. They experimented on it a few years ago and stocked a bunch of fingerlings for three years in a row. Experiment failed big time. Habitat is marginal and the stream is heavily poached! The poachers are not even smart enough to take the evidence of their poaching with them, thus the worm containers and hook packs. Just a bunch of SLOBS!! I can't remember all the times over the years I found evidence of poaching there. I was stopped only one time by a warden in all the years I fished it. I do not even bother fishing it at this point. It is really a shame.

 

[ColdBore]

It sounds like it should be a target rich environment for the local WCO's.

Nail enough of them, and the "easy poaching" days will end once the word spreads.

 

[Swattie87]

Way more of the mileage of that stream is standard STW. Are there that many more fish stocked in the SR section, that it warrants the poaching efforts? Looking at the maps, and knowing nothing else about the stream, the SR section looks about the least appetizing to me and would not be the first section I would target when exploring it.

 

[troutbert]

Swattie87 wrote:
Way more of the mileage of that stream is standard STW. Are there that many more fish stocked in the SR section, that it warrants the poaching efforts? Looking at the maps, and knowing nothing else about the stream, the SR section looks about the least appetizing to me and would not be the first section I would target when exploring it.

The open sections are stocked, and the fishermen know the stocking points and quickly clean them out. I've seen this myself on a Friday afternoon during an inseason stocking.

There were many fishermen there, but ONLY at the stocking points. And some of them had their limit before the truck even came back down the valley.

Once those areas are cleaned out, then they head for the DH area.

I think if stocking was simply ended, the entire stretch that's in the state forest, that it would have a lot of wild trout, a mix of browns and brookies.

The physical habitat is mixed. In some areas it's pretty "thin" but overall it's really not that bad. Many freestone streams are worse.

 

[Fenglass]

I have fished WDC for many years, both in the open areas and in the special regs area. It is POACHED to hell and back. Thats one of the biggest problems. Pressure is the other..