White deer pike

[strap44]

The other day I helped stoke the Fly Fish Only C&R section of the Pike. Some nice/average fish were put in. There were also so real lunkers placed in the water. My question is why was TU and the fish commission putting giant Browns in that water? What are the odds that a 24 inch 5.5-6.5lb fish lives to see the end of summer? Id imagine that fish would do fine in a stream like Penns Creek. Is it just to give some people the fun and experience of catching a lunker before the raccoons or herons get it (or it gets poached)?

Just thought I'd try to figure out what the thought process was. Anyways it's cool they stocked it with something other than fingerlings and with as cold as the water stays it'll be fun to fish in the summer

 

[WildTigerTrout]

So you are glad they stocked it but they should not put any big ones in? From my experience the PFBC nearly always put a few larger trout in any water they stock. After a three year fingerling study that was a waste of time I am just glad they went back to stocking adult trout. Depending on the weather/water levels you may get into June with decent fishing but it's not a place I fish in the summer. If you want to fish the summer I recommend you go find a limestoner. BTW years ago the biggest brook trout I have caught to date was on this water. It was 18.5" and I estimate it weighed about 4 pounds. So the raccoons or blue herons get a good meal when the water gets low. Just think how many times was that lunker fish caught and released and what fun was had by the fisherman who caught it before it became a meal. In the ATW he gets caught only ONCE!

 

[troutbert]

Did anyone watch them survey White Deer Creek in recent years, or see the survey data? How many wild trout are actually in there? I've caught both wild browns and brookies in there. The numbers didn't seem huge, but some were there. And there are some in the tribs also.

It flows out of a mostly forested watershed, and most streams like that in PA are capable of supporting decent numbers of wild trout. What's the problem with WDC?

I have a hunch that if stocking was ended on WDC in the state forest sections, and you came back in 4 or 5 years, that the fishing would be good for wild trout.

 

[lycoflyfisher]

There's no doubt that the fishing on wdc the last few years has been subpar. From what I have heard from pafb the surveys did not produce a strong wild trout population. I too have caught wild browns and native brook trout there, and it does seem like an interesting idea to let it go a few years without stocking. However why if the water stays cool enough and the habitat appears to be there, have the fingerlings stocked for 3 years not survived in good numbers

 

[franklin]

Anyone have a link to a recent survey?

 

[OldLefty]

I accompanied the PFBC on the first year of the fingerling survey. To be considered a success, a fingerling stocking should yield about 25% of the fish stocked remaining after a year. The survey yielded about 25...fish remaining of the initial 5,000 stocked.

As for wild fish, I was really disappointed with the few wild fish, both browns and brookies, that turned up. The population would have been perhaps a low C or a D equivalent based on what the biologist told me. They'd put the probes way back in a root system or undercut bank in many places and nothing would come out.

Something else to take into consideration is that this water warms to the mid-to-high seventies in the heat of summer and it stays like this for prolonged periods of time. Not good for wild trout.

 

[Chaz]

I have never caught a wild trout in WDC and in MHO it is not a wild trout fishery. Having said that I've only fished a handful of times so I may not be the best judge.
As for fingerling stocking, in PA it has never produced the results wanted. I think about 1% is what PFBC get when the conduct surveys of fingerling stocked streams. I just don't see fingerling stocking being a good use of funds for an agency that struggles with funding every year.

 

[WildTigerTrout]

I have caught native brook trout and wild browns there in the past but the population is not very high. The largest wild brown I ever caught there was about 10 inches. The brooks are small but I did manage one or two in the 7 to 8 inch range.

 

[franklin]

I've found more wild brookies, usually quite small, away from the road upstream of McCalls Dam.

 

[SlingerFlyRods]

i know its white deer pike, but i have a similar story on white deer hole creek... as you may or may not know, its stocked from the state forest boundary down... and from the SFB up, its considered a class A stream.

Well last year we ended up getting into a healthy mix of wild browns and natives in the class A section.. excellent bug hatches, small fish mostly, but great tight stream practice.. had an excellent brown drake hatch one evening with lots of takes

i live near there so its my quick, go to stream.

i have noticed that fishing that same stretch now near the boundary water is producing no fish.. not even spooking fish.

The further i drive up the gaps, and the narrower the stream, thats where im finding fish. I guess its because of the water being warmer near the source as the higher up i got, the more early bug activity ive been seeing.

id love to see them not stock it anymore but it is what it is

 

[Hook_Jaw]

i fished the fly fishing section years ago there was a decent number of good sized trout I thought but that was in the mid 90's

 

[troutbert]

WildTigerTrout wrote:
I have caught native brook trout and wild browns there in the past but the population is not very high.

My experience, and that of many other people, has been the same.

The question is why is the population not higher?

What is the problem?

 

[Hook_Jaw]

That whole creek I always thought was fished really hard.

 

[Chaz]

There are a half dozen or so very good streams in the area that fish far better than WDC.

 

[MKern]

Someone took me there once all the way from Lewistown. When we got there he walked to the first hole and he hooked a stocked bow. I walked up to see there was 20 more in the hole.

I looked at that guy and said we drove over 2 hours on every mountain road from Lewistown to WDC for fresh stockers. We passed 2 dozen wild streams.

I worked up stream and caught quite a few brookies in any hole the stocking buckets couldn't get to. All small fish.

 

[Chaz]

He must have thought it was a secret stream and took you by the secret route. It would take maybe 45 minutes by I 80.