be a while until poconos mountain streams re-appear

[k-bob]

I took a trip in the warmer weather yesterday to a small poconos mountain brookie stream. There was not really that much snow up there, but the amount of ice on the stream was interesting. In fact this small stream which usually has riffles and pools looked like the bobsled run at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics with a few waterfall jumps thrown in... there is a lot of ice over even fast moving water. I think it will take an extended period of warm weather to get all that ice out of there.

What a tough environment - floods, drought, higher summer water temps, predators, ice, acidic snowmelts, poor food supply - mountain brookies live in. I read someplace that average annual mortality is high, about a third for these fish.

 

[Swattie87]

Wow, could you find any open water to fish at all Bob?

I guess I would have expected more ice up there than what we have/had down here, but not that much. The small freestoners local to me had shelf ice on the edges, but open channels in the center...I suspect most, or all, of that is gone now with the warmer temps and rain over the last 48 hours.

 

[k-bob]

no I decided that the fish have enough to deal with and hiking to the open water wasnt worth it. I'll go back later. made my first visit to a limestone influenced stream in at least a year.. found just a few risers but it was fun. and no ice!

 

[Swattie87]

Yeah, I've been limestoning it my last few outings too...got a solid string of 3 or 4 skunks in a row going, which is par for the course for me on limestoners. Beats ice skating on the freestoners though!

 

[FiveWeight]

k-bob wrote:


What a tough environment - floods, drought, higher summer water temps, predators, ice, acidic snowmelts, poor food supply - mountain brookies live in. I read someplace that average annual mortality is high, about a third for these fish.

And this is why they taste sooooo good..... Lol!

 

[k-bob]

now now I have never kept a brookie for breakfast... Im afraid they'll taste so good that I start making a habit of cooking the catch!

swattie it was hard to find risers, but once I did, they'd hit a dry fly cast from a distance. over 60 F, of course a much easier day than weve been having.

interesting for me to fish by targeting rising trout, that's fun and since I usually fish for brookies, different for me. only had my brookie gear, 6'9" one weight, so more of a casting challenge.

next time I fish a limestoney place I will try to walk until I see risers then apporach them very carefully. given a warm winter afternoon may be some dry fly fishing to do

 

[Chaz]

I was up there Sunday and every stream I saw had loads of ice on them except the Brodhead.

 

[vcregular]

I'd imagine the majority of the ice is gone after today's high water. 1-2" of rain. Frozen ground.

 

[Chaz]

I don't know about that, but I plan on checking.

 

[k-bob]

The small streams I saw had ice over everything but fast moving water, and the temp should be freezing or below for the next five days in Wilkes Barre... I think it will take a lot of warm weather to open them back up now.