Wild Brook Trout

I'm surprised that no one mentioned Young Womans Creek. There was a big controversy over stocking there, which was discussed at great length on paflyfish.com.

Hatchery trout are stocked over native brookies on the Left Branch YWC also.
 
bearfisherman wrote:
A few popular ones from the ANF - Callen Run, Clear Creek and Toms Run. Easily accessible streams with lots of angler traffic and stocking over natives.
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This is where the politics of stocking shows up. Easily accessible streams with lots of anglers traffic translates into license dollars. Fishing for 7-9" dinks? Not as salty..
 
Yes, YWC is an egregious example. It had a nice population of wild brook and wild brown trout, brooks often up to about nine inches, the browns seemed to top out about 13 inches or so. I liked to drive up and fish for these lovely trout every spring.

A local sportsmen's club, Western Clinton Co. Sportsmen's Association, was a major advocate for stocking the creek, and it carried the day.

When they started stocking, I pretty much quit going there, though I did make a trip a couple years ago just to see the creek and hit a drake hatch. There were still brooks and browns, but I also caught a bunch of rainbows that were not even very attractive fish.

Even though YWC is one of the most beautiful streams I have fished, I do not plan to return until they quit putting in the hatchery fish.
 
Some from Clinton County. (These county lists are not complete. I don't have the resources to compile a full list, so these are just some examples.)

Baker Run, Cooks Run, Hyner Run, Right Branch Hyner Run, Young Womans Creek, Left Branch Young Womans Creek.

Lebo Run (YWC trib) is stocked by a coop hatchery, not the PFBC.

If anyone else has examples, post em up.
 
troutbert wrote:

Lebo Run (YWC trib) is stocked by a coop hatchery, not the PFBC.
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Other than in the real headwaters along Lebo Rd. (where it is hop across tiny and covered in brush for much of its length), how does anyone stock Lebo? The stretch that is of fishable size runs a couple miles down into YWC with no road along it. There's a trail there I guess, but certainly no road below the U-Turn pull off. ATV's? I've fished it several times in the Spring and never caught a stocker in it.
 
Swattie87 wrote:
troutbert wrote:

Lebo Run (YWC trib) is stocked by a coop hatchery, not the PFBC.
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Other than in the real headwaters along Lebo Rd. (where it is hop across tiny and covered in brush for much of its length), how does anyone stock Lebo? The stretch that is of fishable size runs a couple miles down into YWC with no road along it. There's a trail there I guess, but certainly no road below the U-Turn pull off. ATV's? I've fished it several times in the Spring and never caught a stocker in it.
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They stock section 1. As you said it is tiny.

Right Branch Hyner Run is also very small, and is stocked by both the PFBC and the coop. It's not really an unusual thing.

Do you have any streams or stream sections to add to the list?
 
Wallace Run- Clinton County
N. Br. Buffalo Creek- Union County (There is a viable brook trout fishery below the Mifflinburg Reservoir outflow. Believe me.)

I will post more when time allows.
 
I used to fish Young Womans Creek regularly. It was a gem until they started stocking it. Even after heavy rain it was clear and fishable. About half the trout caught were browns and the other half brookies. It was full of brookies from 8 to 10 inches The browns averaged about an inch larger than the brookies. Why oh why is that stream being stocked?! It’s a waste of money, and even worse, a waste of the resource. Whatever became of RESOURCE FIRST?
 
I went up to YWC several times late Summer/very early Fall for the first time ever. I didn't get to experience the good old days. I caught a bunch of stubby finned rainbows and very few wild browns/brooks. The wild fish that I did catch were all 4-7" tops. I wasn't impressed and doubt I will be back though the area was beautiful. I may try hitting some tribs in early Spring when water levels are up some.
 
tb - Off the top of my head and for the areas in PA I’m most familiar with. I'm not double checking to make sure I'm 100% accurate on county location, so excuse a mistake or two, but I think I'm right on most of them. Some of these are mostly wild Browns, but all have some degree of wild Brookies present in them. I'm also only listing ones that are PFBC stocked, although they may be club stocked as well. Since this list is for the PFBC, I'm not including ones that are club stocked only, as far as I know. Or ones already mentioned in the thread.

I would argue every single one of these is a viable, self-sustaining fishery on its own, without stocking…I mean I certainly don’t go to them looking to catch stockers…

Lebanon:
Trout Run, Indiantown Run, Hammer Creek, Stony Creek

Lancaster:
Trout Run

Dauphin:
Clarks Creek, Manada Creek

Mifflin:
Havice Creek, Treaster Run, Honey Creek

Snyder:
Swift Run

Perry:
Fowler Hollow Run, Sherman Creek

Adams/Franklin:
Carbaugh Run, EB Antietam Creek, Conococheague Creek

Carbon:
Hickory Run, Sand Spring Run, Drakes Creek, Mud Run

Berks:
Willow Creek, Northkill Creek

Clinton/Potter/Tioga/Lycoming:
Nearly every single one...
 
Black Moshannon

I haven't personally caught a brookie there but others have. I did catch several wild browns though.
 
With the stream lists, this is where it would be helpful if the PFBC would chime in with their allocation of fish for each stream. If the streams listed are of the variety where they dump the minimum allocation of 300 fish in them, those are streams that are easy pickings. You tick off a minimal number of anglers by removing those streams from the stocking list and you free up several thousand trout to be stocked in other marginal streams. And you save a good number of driver hours and diesel fuel to boot.

Pick the easy wins. Avoid the political hot potatoes (like YWC or Cross Fork). It's not an all wild trout or nothing proposition. Reduced stocking or no stocking over some wild populations is better than the status quo.
 
sarce wrote:
Black Moshannon

I haven't personally caught a brookie there but others have. I did catch several wild browns though.
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I have caught both wild browns and brookies in the Black Mo. They're in there.

 
Swattie87 wrote:
tb - Off the top of my head and for the areas in PA I’m most familiar with. I'm not double checking to make sure I'm 100% accurate on county location, so excuse a mistake or two, but I think I'm right on most of them. Some of these are mostly wild Browns, but all have some degree of wild Brookies present in them. I'm also only listing ones that are PFBC stocked, although they may be club stocked as well. Since this list is for the PFBC, I'm not including ones that are club stocked only, as far as I know. Or ones already mentioned in the thread.

I would argue every single one of these is a viable, self-sustaining fishery on its own, without stocking…I mean I certainly don’t go to them looking to catch stockers…

Lebanon:
Trout Run, Indiantown Run, Hammer Creek, Stony Creek

Lancaster:
Trout Run

Dauphin:
Clarks Creek, Manada Creek

Mifflin:
Havice Creek, Treaster Run, Honey Creek

Snyder:
Swift Run

Perry:
Fowler Hollow Run, Sherman Creek

Adams/Franklin:
Carbaugh Run, EB Antietam Creek, Conococheague Creek

Carbon:
Hickory Run, Sand Spring Run, Drakes Creek, Mud Run

Berks:
Willow Creek, Northkill Creek

Clinton/Potter/Tioga/Lycoming:
Nearly every single one...
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Good stuff! And I like the last one!

Who wants to tackle the streams in Lycoming Cty? It's a big county. Lots of stocked, forested freestoners... :-o

And then there's Elk County. :-o

And Mckean. :-o

And...sheesh, CLEARFIELD!!! How could I forget? There's a project for some ambitious person.

It goes on and on...

 
I would also add the WB of Fishing Creek (Sullivan) to the list. That used to be an awesome wild trout stream in the early 2000's, with good numbers and some good size wild/native trout. It's another beautiful stream that would prosper without stocked trout to compete with.
 
acristickid wrote:


Never have been there.

Brodhead Creek apparently
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I think the areas of Brodhead Creek stocked by the PFBC hold wild brown trout, but not brook trout, so I wouldn't include that on the list.

If someone knows differently, feel free to correct me.



 
The 7 inch size limit for brookies eliminates all the desirable fish for the gene pool. I think the size limit should be raised to 12 inches, and all wild streams should be less than 5 a day.
 
The list is already running into the problem of separating the stocked sections from the sections of the streams that support the streams' good wild trout populations. It is not enough to know that a stream is stocked; one also needs to know which section is stocked.
 
Mike wrote:
The list is already running into the problem of separating the stocked sections from the sections of the streams that support the streams' good wild trout populations. It is not enough to know that a stream is stocked; one also needs to know which section is stocked.
Click to expand...
Who would know that better than the PFBC? :)
 
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