Your Own Wild Trout Study

[troutbert]

There was a lot of discussion recently about the PFBC study on the amount of usage and harvest on unstocked wild trout streams.

You can check this out for yourself. On opening day, go around to unstocked wild trout streams and see who's out there. You can check out several streams on opening day and get a sense of how many people are fishing. You can do this by walking some sections of stream, but also by driving and looking where the stream is visible from the road and also checking vehicles.

It's interesting. A lot of people have the idea that nobody fishes these little wild trout streams. Check it out on opening day and you may get a very different perspective. It sure surprised me how many people do the opening day thing on unstocked streams.

March 31 is the opener for SE Counties and some SC Counties. And it's April 14 for the rest of the state. Depending where you live, you may be able to do this twice.

If you do check it out, give us a report.

 

[NJAngler]

I go bass fishing on opening weekend. Truth is, I don't want to know who's fishing my favorite little creeks. I'd rather believe its just me. lol

Mark

 

[MKern]

NJAngler, I am with you. I like to believe that only I set foot next to the small streams that I fish.
However, the people that are fishing the small streams on opening weekend probably aren't harvesting trout. They are probably guys like us that practice c&r and hate the worm chucking crowds.
By the way, I would only be ticked that someone was fishing "my" small stream for 3 reasons: they harvest trout, littler/polute, adn the big one if they are there when I get there and I can't fish it.

 

[govtmule]

Mkern, hate is a strong word there. The past few years i go with guys who "worm chuck" and they are a blast. Us flyfishers need to stop being so snobby.

 

[tomgamber]

Hey mule,

I almost said the same thing. Then I re-read the post and and while worm chucking was his description, I gave him the benefit of the doubt that it was the crowds that he hates. But I do agree that we must be careful how we make those kind of statements.

 

[govtmule]

Tom,
you're right and Mkern i also dislike crowds too. We've been going to the northcentral part of the state for opening weekend to fish/party and the streams up there are not that crowded. My buddy and i usually end up at a class a stream in the pm and don't run into a lot of people there either. Now i'm sure it's gonna be a mob scene cause i just jinxed myself.

I'd say almost all of us grew up spin fishing and were once chucking worms with our dads and it would suck to be labeled or looked down upon by someone else but i do sometimes see that on this board. i am guilty of it too. stocked fish are there to be harvested so let the few bad apples get their 10 limits of trout and go home. i think i've said enough for a year.

jeff

 

[MKern]

I have nothing against bait, spin, or net fishermen, but I do hate arrogent people. We have all seen the guy or guys who as soon as I hook a fish run over and go through a jar of salmon eggsstanding right next to me. I like a little shoulder room that's all.

Last year, on opening day, the people who stocked dumped over 400 fish in one spot. The fish stopped taking meal worms and salmon eggs and went selectively to my flies. This guy who I help catch a 16" golden (buy giving him bait suggestions) got pissed and jumped in the hole. On hind sight he probably jumped in because I was catching a fish every other cast and releasing them into the swift current to disperse the fish so I could have further fishing experiences.

 

[troutbert]

However, the people that are fishing the small streams on opening weekend probably aren't harvesting trout. They are probably guys like us that practice c&r and hate the worm chucking crowds.

I doubt that's what you'll see, based on what I've observed, but who knows until you go and see? It may be different in your area than in the areas I've visited. That's why I'm hoping some people will check this out in different areas around the state.

On the unstocked I've checked in NCPA on opening day over several years, there has been quite a lot more pressure on unstocked streams than I had expected. And the C&R flyfishing guys were a very small minority of the total. I saw a lot of creels and stringers.

Mike introduced the topic of harvest on unstocked wild trout streams drew a lot of commentary, so there apeared to be a lot of interest in this. The way to learn about pressure on harvest on wild trout streams is to go to those streams on opening day.

If you do it, we'll share reports afterward. Should be interesting. I've mostly gone in NC PA. I've heard people say that in NE and SE PA there is not as much harvest on wild trout streams. I don't know if that's true or not. The only way to know is to check.

 

[Bamboozle]

troutbert wrote:
I've heard people say that in NE and SE PA there is not as much harvest on wild trout streams. I don't know if that's true or not. The only way to know is to check.

Many trout fishermen in NEPA & SEPA tend to live and die by the stocking truck assuming that if it isn't on the list, there aren't any trout. The fact that people spend so much time at the Little Lehigh Heritage Section never ceases to amaze me.

I fish 70% of the time in this area and almost exclusively on smaller to smallest Class A streams and I almost never see a soul. I saw only one other fisherman all of last year and that was the farmer's kid. I'm NOT talking about the "famous" streams.

I have recently started to NOT fish those jewels during the March 1 to Opening Day period because last year when fishing a lesser known local Class A; I attracted a lot of attention because they assumed the stream was closed. Now I figure the less attention I can draw when the trout fishing trigger fingers are itchy the better off it will be for the fish...

...and me! ;-)

 

[Chaz]

For many years to avoid the crowds I'd find a local special regs area and fish there, but for about 15 years I've been fishing opening weekend with friends up in NC PA. There are guys everywhere that weekend, including way up Cushman Branch, Elk Run and other little know streams. Heck there was even someone camped at the mouth of a trib to Fourmile Run in Tioga County a couple of years ago.
I won't count anglers, but I'll make a note of the cars and where I see them.

 

[troutbert]

I fish 70% of the time in this area and almost exclusively on smaller to smallest Class A streams and I almost never see a soul. I saw only one other fisherman all of last year and that was the farmer's kid. I'm NOT talking about the "famous" streams.

On the NC PA streams I fish, the situation is the same as what you describe, no one around most of the time, especially by the time most flyfishers get to these streams.

But what I discovered is that they get hit hard on opening day. I don't know if the same is true in other regions or not. Checking on opening day is the way to find out.