Wildtrout2 - here is how I did

[Fish Sticks]

Interesting you feel that way. Being very familiar with the area I would say that most traffic that picks up for fishing is smallmouth fishermen on the river in jet boats. But, I do not spend enough time on this stream at any given point in the year and when I head back there to fish it's mostly just because I feel like it. I tend to fish it more in winter, however, and that was only the second time I've ever seen anyone back there fishing that wasn't right at the picnic area.

Generally I fish unstocked streams in February and March and never see a soul. Heck, I rarely see a soul after the season opens except for the first two weeks or so..

Lol come to Clarks Creek

 

[jifigz]

Lol come to Clarks Creek

Lol. Never been there and never will (most likely.) I'd rather drive less and fish with less people.

 

[Swattie87]

Interesting you feel that way. Being very familiar with the area I would say that most traffic that picks up for fishing is smallmouth fishermen on the river in jet boats. I don't notice an uptick on trout streams. But, I do not spend enough time on this stream at any given point in the year and when I head back there to fish it's mostly just because I feel like it. I tend to fish it more in winter, however, and that was only the second time I've ever seen anyone back there fishing that wasn't right at the picnic area.

Generally I fish unstocked streams in February and March and never see a soul. Heck, I rarely see a soul after the season opens except for the first two weeks or so..

Yeah. On small streams I see definitely see more anglers during the closed period than any other time of year. I think this is in part because it’s other year round anglers that are getting out then, but just have less spots that are legal to go to. These are generally better anglers who know about wild Trout and where to find them. The Stocker Bonkers aren’t out until Opening Day, and are gone by Turkey season. The hardcore guys are still fishing then, but the denominator of places to go is much larger then, so you run into less people. Just math.

I almost went fishing with salmonoid yesterday instead to a small, unstocked, relatively hard to get to stream…Funny enough, he reported that he ended up fishing behind someone on that stream. The parking lot for that stream serves a large SGL with popular hiking trails nearby, and it’s a good half mile or more hike to get to the stream, so it’s difficult to conclude a vehicle in the lot is an angler. And by the time you reach the stream, you’re kinda committed to fish it up through to a point you can climb back out of the ravine it’s in.

 

[Fish Sticks]

Lol. Never been there and never will (most likely.) I'd rather drive less and fish with less people.

Yea you will see more people than trout near opening day lol

 

[Wild_Trouter]

Yes.. There are all three wild trout species, but I haven't caught a brown in a couple years outta there.

Was there last year and caught several. They are most definitely in there 👍

 

[Fish Sticks]

A a trib to a stream that swattie and I both fish that has brook trout and pickerel cohabitating was a good example of people literally hungry for stocked trout getting their lockout fix.

Dad and son come back to car with an igloo cooler. Rarely see people walking out of this stream let alone with rods or a cooler.

I ask the Dad any luck? He says “yea..errr ya may want to try this stream next year we had a pretty good day both caught our limit of brook trout and I don’t know how many more of them are in there. We like to cone out this way from reading every weekend before season and we are trying to hit every stream on this side of the mountain before opening day.”

This was 2 years ago

 

[jifigz]

A a trib to a stream that swattie and I both fish that has brook trout and pickerel cohabitating was a good example of people literally hungry for stocked trout getting their lockout fix.

Dad and son come back to car with an igloo cooler. Rarely see people walking out of this stream let alone with rods or a cooler.

I ask the Dad any luck? He says “yea..errr ya may want to try this stream next year we had a pretty good day both caught our limit of brook trout and I don’t know how many more of them are in there. We like to cone out this way from reading every weekend before season and we are trying to hit every stream on this side of the mountain before opening day.”

This was 2 years ago

I'm convinced Swattie has fished every trickle east of a Picks-burgh and probably a few to the west as well. Yinz' fellers travel more than I do.

 

[Fish Sticks]

I'm convinced Swattie has fished every trickle east of a Picks-burgh and probably a few to the west as well. Yinz' fellers travel more than I do.

I’m probably in the middle of the road for serious trout bums. I have the drive to travel like that but when i moved t
Back to PA i was working 60-100 hours some weeks for 3 years. Then started a job with like average 50 hours a week but two kids came along at same time roughly as my hours dropped to 50 a week. Between family, conservation stuff, and household stuff outside of work I have to much on my “to fish” list. I have hit almost everything in leb, skook, daulphin, cumberland county. Most of Perry, carbon, mifflin, snyder, union. A crap ton of clinton, potter, Tioga. Some of franklin adams. Some of york. Alot of Lancaster. Most of chester. Some bedford county. But theres just sooooooooooo much and I don’t have a ton of reps on alot of some of those streams.

 

[Swattie87]

There’s still more that I haven’t fished than I have. 😉 Good problem to have.

 

[HopBack]

I'm convinced Swattie has fished every trickle east of a Picks-burgh and probably a few to the west as well. Yinz' fellers travel more than I do.

Well you are very fortunate. When you live near where swattie and I do, you tend to travel at least an hour for decent wild trout fishing. Even within an hour it’s not fantastic so you start to push that to 2 hours and before you know it every weekend is spent driving for 6 hours searching for the perfect gemmie hole.

 

[Fish Sticks]

before I had kids every-time I got a day I’d hit the road at 4am get to some state college, pocono, or north central stream 2-3 hours later at subrise. Fish till dark drive home get back at MN or 1am then work a 12-14 hour day.

Now i have to sleep in car or book cheap motel because i get too tired to drive home and most of the time I only fish half day and play with kids rest of day so radius and opportunity shrinks because i live near you guys near lancaster county.

Plan is if i don’t drop dead first and when kids are older/too cool for me I will scale back at work and fish more. We will see lot of things need to align that may not. I trade a-lot of sleep for fishing at night-now to scratch the itch but I did that for years and I am trying to do it less for my health, not because i don’t love it. Getting it down from 40-50 night trips to 20 a year maybe.