Why some people should not fish during the fall

Foxgap239

Foxgap239

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I went to one of my favorite LV streams after getting done work in Jersey early and found only one car parked at lot by around 12:30. I geared up and headed to the stream. As soon as I got to the stream I found the one guy and you can tell by the picture why I titled this the way I did. I am by no means an advocate of not fishing during spawning season but some people really shouldn't. I avoid stepping anywhere near redds and don't fish over them either. I fish the deeper holes with nymphs or like today fish BWO for rising fish. It was plain to me that where he was standing was a redd and a rather big one at that. I walked towards the guy and said something like "I'm not sure you realize it but you are standing right in the middle of a spawning redd". The guy looked at me and said he didn't know and he thought it was hard to tell where redds were. I shrugged and walked downstream to fish. I came back about 30 minutes later and he was still tramping in the same redd! I had to take this picture and post it. I went upstream to fish another area I like for dries and fished for another hour or so and when I came back, he was still in the same redd. I'm not sure if this guy is a PAFF member or if he may just read the posts but I hope he and others learn from this. If you don't know what redds are, either don't fish now or Google Images has hundreds of pictures of what they look like. This redd was at least 4 to 5 feet long. Not easy to miss at all.
 

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Learn from what??? All I see is a guy standing in a stream with a fishin' pole. Maybe you could've taken those 5-15 minutes it took you to make this post and courteously educated him....instead of just shrugging and heading downstream with the hope that he goes home to 'Google it'...
 
Thanks for your input, have a great evening!
 
Whoops! I didn't realize that I would end up on PAFF for fishing like this!

There are two forms of ignorant - blissful ignorant and malicious ignorant. The former really doesn't know any better and perhaps thinks that all fish come from hatcheries or something. The latter is well aware of what is going on but pretends otherwise. I feel like you did the right thing mentioning that he was standing in a redd - but I think he already knew that. The way he is holding the rod and line looks like he is trying to lift a fish off that redd.

Last year, I saw redds on two small freestoners I fish. On both streams, at one spot, the trail crosses the stream; naturally, the shallow water where the trail crosses also was filled with good spawning gravel and several redds were evident. Hikers not knowing any better most likely walked through them, judging from the lighter colored blotches on the stream bottom, spaced at a human pace apart. However, at the tail end of one pool, where no self-respecting hiker would have any reason to cross, it was evident that a fisherperson had waded through the gravel at the tail of the pool and right through a redd. I believe this fisherperson may have been blissfully ignorant, but it still kind of annoyed me. Hikers aren't thinking about fish or the time they spawn, but fisherpeople should at least be aware of it.

By the way, that wasn't me. I may end up on PAFF sometime, bending a tree down to retrieve a fly, or something, but it won't be for snagging a fish or traipsing through a redd.
 
My experience with Trout on redds is that they'll still bolt if you get too close to them. They may let you get a little closer than they would otherwise, but they still spook and take off. If that was an active redd, I think there is little chance the fish working it could be caught. Not an excuse for standing in it by any stretch as damage is still being done, and I think Fox did the right thing by trying to explain things, but I doubt the angler was actually fishing for the owners of that redd. Looks more to me like he was digging in his pack for something with the line just hanging.

 
ya, i don't understand why you didnt try to explain to him why he shouldnt do what he was doing. i would have politely told him what redds look like, what parts of streams they're typically in, why you should try to avoid them, and obviously why you shoudnt step on them, or fish over them. The guy probably just happened to step there and didnt realize what he was "trampling" on.
 
In fairness, I do think the man was a semi-newbie just out to enjoy himself on a lovely day. I do not think he was intentionally in the redd or even realized what it was although I'm not sure. Swattie is right, he was digging in his pack and I think he was fishing wets on the swing. What disappointed me though was that even after I told him (and I was nice and calm) he remained there for almost 2 hours. I saw a bunch of redds today, none active, so my guess is that he was probably crushing eggs or kicking them out to be washed downstream. The guy was not nasty or sarcastic and maybe in hindsight I could have been more informative but I'm not the biggest guy out there and I do not want to get into a confrontation with anyone.

I guess what I want people to learn from this is that fall is spawning season and redds can be very easily identified. If you don't know what they look like, there are many resources on the internet to show you what they look like.

Didn't mean to start any controversy and apologize if I came across that way.
 
I guess with hindsight, if you saw another redd you could of asked him if he'd like to see it ?

That would of got him off the redd and helped him spot them for next time.

He also might have been swinging eggs downstream of the redd looking for trout feeding on them.
 
Is there provision in the Game Commish rules about harassing wildlife if this ignoramus was indeed messing with the spawners?

Of course, the Germans and the Swiss feel C&R is such harassment, though killing and eating the trouts are not.

tl
les
 
As a bit of a clueless newbie to flyfishing, and one who doesn't always get the point from indirect comments, I also recommend the more direct approach of explaining what the issue is (eggs in the redd)

I was fishing for a few months before i knew when spawning season was or where to look for redds and how to avoid them.

 
Ok here goes, instead of whinning about it on a internet forum you should have checked to see if you still had a pair,walked over introduced yourself and informed him of the posibility that he was fishing over redds,beds,fish etc. Then go and have a couple of pints. I'm gonna go catch some Steelhead and then have a couple of pints.
 
Foxgap239 wrote:
In fairness, I do think the man was a semi-newbie just out to enjoy himself on a lovely day. I do not think he was intentionally in the redd or even realized what it was although I'm not sure. Swattie is right, he was digging in his pack and I think he was fishing wets on the swing. What disappointed me though was that even after I told him (and I was nice and calm) he remained there for almost 2 hours. I saw a bunch of redds today, none active, so my guess is that he was probably crushing eggs or kicking them out to be washed downstream. The guy was not nasty or sarcastic and maybe in hindsight I could have been more informative but I'm not the biggest guy out there and I do not want to get into a confrontation with anyone.

I guess what I want people to learn from this is that fall is spawning season and redds can be very easily identified. If you don't know what they look like, there are many resources on the internet to show you what they look like.

Didn't mean to start any controversy and apologize if I came across that way.

Well Foxgap, I believe that you did the right thing. However, the stream as a whole was probably better without that guy moving around. If that was indeed a red, he had already trampled it and moving around would just mean he trampled some more.
 
brookieaddict wrote:
Ok here goes, instead of whinning about it on a internet forum you should have checked to see if you still had a pair,walked over introduced yourself and informed him of the posibility that he was fishing over redds,beds,fish etc.

I'm really sorry you took it that way and hope that most other readers see it for something much more than whining. I'll bet for every guy we see on a redd there are 10 more we don't see, so this is aimed at all the guys we don't see. We all know there are lurkers out there that glean our stream info much to our dismay, well hopefully they'll glean something from this.

Opinons are like a$$holes, we all have one. In my opinion I did what I thought was right for that moment and future moments but I appreciate everyone's opinion even if those opinions are less than constructive in their tone.

Now I've checked, I got them and I'll go have 2 pints.
 
good to raise the subject as a timely reminder here. guess the spawn will be over soon now? I only fish remote NE places, have seen some fish on redds reds? recently.

 
ba said: ",walked over introduced yourself and informed him of the posibility that he was fishing over redds,beds,fish etc. Then go and have a couple of pints"

This confuses me. The Fox did indeed go over to talk to the redding dude. He just didn't get confrontational, which is smart no matter what.

Now, was the idea to then go and treat the redding dude to a pint? That would be a pretty gracious thing to do, something a Quaker would think of, not that they endorse drinking.

 
k-bob wrote:
good to raise the subject as a timely reminder here. guess the spawn will be over soon now? I only fish remote NE places, have seen some fish on redds reds? recently.

The brookie spawn in northern PA will probably be over soon.

The brown trout spawn, though, will continue for quite a long while yet. The rest of the way through November for sure, and I have seen trout spawning well into December on Spring Creek.

The brook trout spawn mostly in the month of October. (With some trailing off into early Nov.)

The brown trout spawn mostly in the month of November. (But start in late Oct. and continue into Dec.)

My observations have been mostly in central and northcentral PA. I've heard that the timing can be a little later in the southern parts of the state, which is not surprising because the temperatures would be a little warmer further south and at lower elevation.
 
By all means , just say something you don't have to come accross heavy just treat it as if it's blissfull ignorance and then if it gets escalated i8t is by the other involved and then it's YOUR turn.
 
Not sure about whether it is over or not on this stream but this stream had a ton of redds and nothing on them with some even starting to cover over. I also walked a Chester County stream this weekend and again saw tons of redds with nothing on them. Do they often leave their redds and come back to them to sapwn later?
 
HEY that fox has my brookie!!!!!
 
I see spawning brookies alot in deer season up here inthe Laurel Highlands , also alot of redds with no trout on em.
 
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