i don't know what else to say other than i received a nice little shock today after visiting hammer creek in Lititz, pa. once known as a native trout water fishery its now more than a chub possessed little Conestoga clone. it even smells bad. the only thing worse was seeing the carp jump out of the water as to say, "this is our turf now and none will fish us!" it was depressing. spoke with a few ol local timers' and they all expressed their sadness and dissatisfaction with the creek.

oh yea the icing on the cake was seeing speedwell forge lake, empty and desolate. so yea april fools it is.

Where did you go on the Hammer? Below where the lake is, its long been void of wild trout. Above the lake, they're still there. I fished it quite a bit in the late season this year and caught many natives. It is dramatically better above where the lake used to be.

Below the lake, it turns into a really nice SMB fishery in the summer.

oops-day late.

yes sir, that's where i was in the beginning and where i spoke to the locals. they were all gathered by the parking area next to the bridge. then i decided to check out the rest of the lake and fish the lower side. its where i foul hooked a carp, luckily after 15 minutes, he managed to get free and i was able to retrieve my bugger.

all water under the bridge, i was able to salvage the opening day weekend by doing great at donegal creek today. tons of of browns and rainbows even with the windy conditions, but hey, nothing good ever comes easy.

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With the lake gone, maybe the wild trout fishery can be extended further downstream? It sounds like an opportunity for good things. Vegetation will grow in along the channel through the lake bed.

In central PA, I know of a spot where a dam backed up a stretch that was loaded with carp in wide muddy flats. The dam was pulled, and the channel narrowed, vegetation grew up higher than my head in about 10 years, the water flowed faster, the substrate is now cobble and gravel instead of mud, and I catch wild browns in a place that used to be just a carp hole.

I wasn't aware that below the dam was ever anything other than a warmwater fishery. The lake wasn't deep enough (by a longshot) to support any type of coldwater fishery. I know Sal has spoken of a good SMB fishery south of the spillway.

troutbert, that was my hope when I first heard they were taking the lake away. The Hammer needs some serious TLC. Its got long flats w/ no structure, a silt problem, and below the spillway very little coverage w/ the creek flowing through miles and miles of farmland.

I think its worth it though (and I know Sal does too, as he was the one who taught me about this stream and what is to love about it). Like he always says, we simply don't have streams like this in Northern Lancaster. When I first fished it above the lake, I fell in love w/ the stream. I can't believe it was in my back yard the whole time and I neglected it for years. However, the more I was around it, the more I started to see the serious issues that Sal pointed out.

And still, every time I go, brook trout are a plenty.

The water below the dam has been running stained since the dam was removed. There are still wild fish above the old lake bed; however, the change in the grade is rapidly changing the depth of pools and holding water. It also does not help that the water is so low for this time of year. I initially thought removal of the lake would be a good thing, but without some serious money put into the stream it could become a big mess.

Electrofishing in the stocked trout section less than two weeks ago revealed better wild brook trout numbers than have ever been seen in the past, so portions of the stream may be improving or else there was a very good year class produced recently without any improvement in the stream. Another possible factor in the brook trout population's apparent improvement may have been the relatively recent shift to stockings of only rainbow trout, which is something I gradually started doing on streams with wild trout populations that I thought might be enhanced by shifting stockings to only RT. The rationale behind this has been mentioned before on this board.

Thanks for the report Mike. As I said, I love the stream and would love to see it become something great. I'm glad to know the native population is back on the rise, at least this year.

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Could you describe the grade level changes and how that affected the pools and holding water in a little more detail?

The water surface at the delta used to be several feet higher. The stream is just starting to cut a channel in the sediment of the old reservoir. As this "cut" works its way upstream the grade initially increases as the sediment is cut away and thus more upstream channel is eroded. The portion of the stream that is just upstream of the delta has not yet started to erode; however, because of the proximity to the delta, I noticed that the water is shallower and running more quickly because the downstream delta is now several feet lower than it used to be. This particular location is only several hundred feet to about 3/8 of a mile upstream from the old delta of the reservoir. I have no official data to back up these observations.

My suspicion based on previous research done on the Hammer Creek is that the stream well continue to cut down through the reservoir sediment and over time will erode both the stream bed (which is comprised of sediment) and will cause erosion of the stream banks as well. I do not know the exact geology of this area of the stream, but I have seen first hand that the sediment is very easily eroded. I have not yet seen how the stream has been diverted through the reservoir dam. This may slow the progression of the erosion but once the stream starts to cut into the sediment it is going progress upstream. Hammer creek, like many streams, has a lot of sediment and gravels in the stream bed that are remnants of decreased flow due to impoundments (ex: mill ponds). When the Pumping Station dam was removed on Hammer Creek in 2001 it was closely monitored by DEP. Over 5 years an astonishing amount (I forget the number) of sediment was eroded from this small impoundment and only a few feet of grade change.

My suspicion is that trout have done well in Hammer Creek because there are fewer fine particles in the sediment compared to other streams in the area. There are more course and sand particles that have been deposited on the stream bed. These course particles do not bind phosphorus like the fine particles do. Furthermore, there is a lot of wooded land in the surrounding watershed. The current theory is that most nitrogen issues are due to inorganic fertilizers. Hammer Creek does have some farms in the headwaters but the "furnace hills" are not densely populated with farms like other local streams and the lower portions of Hammer Creek. I have caught wild brook trout as large as 10-11" on Hammer Creek. It is heavily fished, fairly heavily stocked, and quite impaired. Nonetheless, it has a good wild trout population thanks to the tributaries and some natural reproduction in the main branch. After fishing this stream for 2/3 of my life, and doing extensive research on the watershed for 2 years, I am pretty confident that this stream is of more value than some of the other streams in this part of the state. Thus far it has proven to be a resilient watershed. I hope that money is invested to make sure that it is not lost. Between last years flooding damage, low water now, and the recent draw down of speedwell forge lake, there is a lot that could go wrong.

CRS, thanks for the info on the gradient change and effects on habitat. I've seen similar things on other streams above dam removal sites.

i will go back eventually, the smallies are totally worth it on the other side anyway.

CRS, thanks for the lecture. I think I learned more about this creek in just a few minutes that I have in any other brochure or book!

Based on a February trip the upper hammer seems to be doing fine! Lower Hammer looks terrible since the dam was removed. Major changes by the bridge since the flooding. Hammer could be a gem with some help. Not sure it isn't now.