PFBC July 3rd stocking of Roaring Brook, Lackawanna County

henrydavid

henrydavid

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I searched these forums but could find nothing about the recent fish commission stocking of "leftover" trout in Roaring Brook, Lackawanna County.

Obviously this was a controversial stocking, 1st hand reports recorded water temps at 76-degrees at the time of the stocking.
Other 1st hand reports stated many, many dead trout found.

I thought for certain someone would've mentioned this here. If I missed it sorry for posting a repeat.
 
Haha, wtf, I was browsing biologist reports, and on the news feed I saw this. I thought for sure they would have put these fish in a reservoir, or the Little Lehigh, or Po, or the Lehigh, or somewhere they'd have a chance at least.

Once they saw these temps, I never thought they'd do that. They should have just had a fish fry, or handed the buckets out of the truck to people with licenses to cook them themselves. A fourth of July fish fry.
 
Henrydavid,Beast Brown,
AN we trust the Fish and boat commission to make intelligent choices...LMAO......This just brings home the point about water temperature an fish mortality.Lee Wullff once said "A trout is too valuable to be caught once" I guess the Fish /Boat Commssion just has money to burn with resorces..this ought to really make us all ticked off.So what if they were stockies.state could have saved a bit of money an just got rid of em as fingerlings last fall.

What a waste.
Tight Wraps & Tight Lines
Rick Wallace
shoot they could have taken these fish to a lil cold water trib an thrown them in.
 
What? Has this topic been squashed, where's the balls on here, I call BULL. What are you all politicians, we need ativists, not passifists.
 
Ahh, I see a bunch of politicians sons, gay boys, for once here's an issue to speak up on, and no reply, so typical. I'll go on my own, thanks for the non support.
 
I certainly agree with your feelings on this, but I'm also willing to give the PFBC a "goof" once in a while.
Tho thtop calling me a gay boy.
 
henrydavid wrote:
I searched these forums but could find nothing about the recent fish commission stocking of "leftover" trout in Roaring Brook, Lackawanna County.

Obviously this was a controversial stocking, 1st hand reports recorded water temps at 76-degrees at the time of the stocking.
Other 1st hand reports stated many, many dead trout found.

I thought for certain someone would've mentioned this here. If I missed it sorry for posting a repeat.




What? Has this topic been squashed, where's the balls on here, I call BULL. What are you all politicians, we need ativists, not passifists.



Ahh, I see a bunch of politicians sons, gay boys, for once here's an issue to speak up on, and no reply, so typical. I'll go on my own, thanks for the non support.
Click to expand...




Hey HD, tone it down, Dude.

No squashing on here. I guess no one on here has any info. What's the story? Who, what, when, where, why? Where are the "first-hand" reports? Who witnessed this? Any pics or vids - even from a phone camera? How many died? Did the FBC take a temp reading? What was the actual reading? Who made the decision to stock? Did "politicians" ask for the stocking? What FBC personnel was at the stocking? Have you or anyone else contacted the FBC? What did they say? What are you proposing to do? Who should we contact?
 
Seems to be some info in this thread.

http://www.huntingpa.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2705720#Post2705720
 
henrydavid wrote:
Ahh, I see a bunch of politicians sons, gay boys, for once here's an issue to speak up on, and no reply, so typical. I'll go on my own, thanks for the non support.
Click to expand...

Haha, this is laughable. Here is an issue to speak up on....you guys over at the Hunting PA poard KNEW about the PROPOSED stocking days before and started your "pitchfork and torch" campaign for over a page and a half of more than 6 posters. NO ONE contacted the WCO or AFM to urge them not to do it, took temps to prove your point, etc. Just sat back and let it happen. Now you are complaining.

Yes its a shame it happened....It appears the fish were allocated and some involved didn't do the due diligence on the stream temps. But you guys KNEW it. That's what infuriates me. Sportsmen who sit back and criticize but won't act to provide local knowledge integral to the situation.

I know for a fact this works because a few years ago I was contacted about a local "bonus stocking" in Mid June. I was being asked to provide manpower for the floatstocking. When I heard where the stocking was to occur I contacted the AFM and went out and took some temps and sent him the data. He made the adjustment that I recommended on location. (moved the stocking about 4 miles downstream) and although the temps were not optimum it happened, the fish didn't die and nobody talked about it.

It sounds like the F&BC shorted the Roaring Brook early in the season and when bonus fish became available they were reallocated there. Certainly the AFM should have directed the WCO to take water temps a day or two before at the time of day for the stocking and reported it back to them to either go with the initial plan or a back up plan, (ie colder stream or local lake). The F&BC likes to keep the allocations to the areas that were originally shorted due to scheduling and weather conditions. So only a pro-active protest will change this. Whether from the AFM/WCO or local constituents.

But you can sharpen your pitchforks, fire up your torches and have at it...just remember they are only a couple hundred fish and you get more flies with honey than with vinegar. If you wanna be cuffed over a couple hundred fish, well, good lick with ALL that too.

Just try to be mindful of the posting guidelines on this site and know that personal attacks will not be tolerated.

 
Cheers Maurice - well said!
 
Good point, Mo......"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
 
Let's be clear here, it was closer to a couple thousand fish. Seems to me it would be the job of the PFBC to be aware of the conditions of a planned stocking. I mean, things like this are what they get paid to do. Seems nobody knows the full story but I'd have to say they are far from innocent.

I didn't see anyone in that thread who actually knew the stream temperature prior to the stocking, everyone who posted is not in that area so to lambaste them all is painting with a pretty broad brush. Still it falls back to the WCO to have knowledge of that IMO.

What is laughable is their press release on the matter. The intentions were good I'm sure, but come on.

Hey just sweep it under the rug and move on because in this country today accountability means nothing. lol
 
Seems PFBC had a choice: let the fish burn up in the raceways or let them burn up or be caught in the stream. The chance of a few anglers catching them may have been the better choice. Can we fault them for not getting the fish in the stream earlier in the year? Perhapsche, but as someone noted, they are entitled to once in a while miscalculate the conditions.

The solution to the criticism: next, time, PFBC, quietly extirminate the leftovers.
 
A shame. If the raceways were indeed too warm, they had to do something. But, if they weren't, maybe the FBC could have waited till fall to put them out somewhere. Anyhow, this one is a shame.
 
I doubt the raceways were too warm as there are fish from that hatchery scheduled for fall stockings. The average total cost to produce an adult trout was around $2.73 per fish in 2008 and I'm sure that has gone up in recent years. So basically we're talking about 5 to 6k of fish going down the crapper.

As far as them being entitled to a 'goof' I don't buy that either, not in this day and age. I mean it's not like the WCO would have to send conditions back to the hatchery via a note tied to the leg of a pigeon. At the very least there should have been a plan B.

To suggest they exterminate the leftovers in secrecy would be a real wise use of the money sportsmen pay for a trout stamp. It would save them some bad press though I'm sure.

I'm the last person who wants to criticize the PFBC but this was a bonehead move and at the very least they should owe up to it.
 
Dear Mountainbrookie,

Nice post.

While I do not know if this is the reason for the stocking perhaps they had to remove adult fish from the hatchery so they could continue raising smaller fish in anticipation of stocking them in the Fall?

If I'm anywhere close to reasoning behind the fish dump it's not like they had any other more suitable places to stock the fish. After the recent heatwave almost every stream in the State is running hotter than the preferred temperature for a trout.

They should have just put a sign out on the Enynon saying, "Free Trout, Bring yer own Bucket." Nothing would have been wasted that way.

Regards,

Tim Murphy :)
 
Firstly I apologize for and fully retract my inflammatory statements. I will refrain from such language in the future.

However, we finally got some responses. I know I went about this the wrong way but I really wanted some opinions from this forum, I respect your input and wanted to hear it.
 
TimMurphy wrote:
Dear Mountainbrookie,

Nice post.

While I do not know if this is the reason for the stocking perhaps they had to remove adult fish from the hatchery so they could continue raising smaller fish in anticipation of stocking them in the Fall?

If I'm anywhere close to reasoning behind the fish dump it's not like they had any other more suitable places to stock the fish. After the recent heatwave almost every stream in the State is running hotter than the preferred temperature for a trout.

They should have just put a sign out on the Enynon saying, "Free Trout, Bring yer own Bucket." Nothing would have been wasted that way.

Regards,

Tim Murphy :)
Click to expand...

These kinds of "bonus stockings" are almost always biomass related as Tim suggests. The State hatcheries are limited to how many pounds of fish they can have in their raceways at any given time. Like any business they have to fulfill the quotas arrived at by the stocking schedule and keep mindful mortality occurring during the rearing season. Sometimes there are surplus fish at the end of the year and they need to have a clearance to make room for next year.

Usually however the surplus stockings are determined earlier than July. I agree there were shortcomings on many levels. Moving those fish back to the hatchery or to another creek would have had the same result.

Henry, what was the number of fish that were allocated, estimated number of dead spotted, time of day of the stocking, temperature of the creek during the stocking?
 
As far as them being entitled to a 'goof' I don't buy that either,
Click to expand...
Perhaps "goof"wasnt the correct word. How about "Mulligan"?
Theres nothing good about this, but I dont see it as being some kind of outlandish error. They had extra fish like they usually do and tried to get them to some July 4th vacationers. Which they did. If you read the huntingpa posts the one fellow states how he saw some dead, but also his little boy did in fact, catch some.
1500 trout out of 3,500.000 stocked anually. Not even one percent.
Thats a margin of error I will give them. I can think of many, many, more things to critisize the PFBC harder about. :)
 
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