I think it should be remembered that those of us who are sentimentally attached to brookies have always been in the minority among the state's trout fishers - especially a century ago. To be sure, when browns began to be introduced, some fishermen, mostly in New England and the Catskills, disdained browns in favor of their cherished "speckled trout." But I think these folks were always pretty few and their viewpoint has likely been exagerrated. Browns quickly became the favorite of many fly fishers simply because they had essential advantages: they grew bigger in PA waterways, jumped when hooked, and were more likely to feed on the surface. Their popularity (even today) is understandable. Also, I think few in fisheries management circles a century ago could ever foresee the return of PA's forests and the conservation ethic of the second half of the 20th Century. They probably felt that streams would continue to be degraded and open to sunlight - Why not preserve trout fishing with browns/'bows? The few limestone spring creeks were also hit pretty hard due to being in valley areas with booming agriculture and population growth. Remnant brookie populations held out in some like Big Spring or upper Spring Creek but pressure from the local hotel/tourist industries clamored for more stocking of more and bigger (read brown) trout. Even today, fly fishermen, for the most part, prefer to fish in waters with artificially high populations of easy-to-catch fish and these are almost always stocked waters. This phenomenon can be seen every weekend when there are dozens of people fishing Yellow Breeches and not a car to be seen on nearby wild trout waters. Hopefully brookies will continue to recover some of their range across the state and recent trends show some promise. In the end, however, we only have ourselves to blame for the dominance of browns in PA.
