get out there my friends

[pcray1231]

Well, it's been a summer of very few outings. But what I've had have been awesome. A few great spring trips around PA, then Switzerland, a charter trip on the ocean, etc.

Got back out there today in good old eastern PA with a local friend I haven't fished with since the jam. SE PA but north of Blue Mountain. Not exactly an unknown stream, it's an ATW with a class A section. But it was new to both me and my buddy despite being in a general area we've fished often. Always just seemed to go somewhere else. Guess it's that ATW tag that turned us off. We fished both the ATW section and the class A. The latter was really small and tight but had some brookies. The ATW section fished really well.

We shouldn't have passed it by. We had a great day. If you count every single fish, we probably topped 100 between us. That said, over half were pinky sized yearlings we were trying to avoid, they hit like every cast and were a bit annoying. Not counting those, we still had 40+ respectable fish between us. Bout half were browns in the 7-10" range and half brookies in the 4-9" range. I also caught a single stocker, a rainbow around 11 or 12".

Pictures don't do it justice. I wasn't good with the camera today. Didn't take scenery pics, only took fish pics early in the day before it got hot, then I was too busy! But here they are anyway. Get past the pinky sized ones at the beginning, I was thinking they might fit in the next "smallest fish" thread, then realized there were a billion of them, lol. Most of the "respectable" fish were in the same class as the bigger browns and brookies you see here. Only took pics of a few of those.

http://s58.photobucket.com/user/pcray1231/media/8-25-2013/IMG_0442_zpsaff22558.jpg.html?sort=2&o=0

Not bad for late August!!! And looks like the next generation is doing fine in this one.

 

[dryflyguy]

Yes, this has been a very nice summer for fishing small WT streams. Hate to think that it'll be ending pretty soon

 

[Swattie87]

Good pics pcray. Very cool sparse pattern on that one Brown. The one time I fished it, my initial thought was that the Class A section probably actually extends down into the ATW section. The day I was there I caught mostly Brookies with a random Brown or two mixed in...I'm somewhat surprised you turned up that many Browns...on dries too.

 

[k-bob]

yeah ive found the small stream fishing to be fine this year. good example of how once you are in fishy counties, there are aren't really 100% rules for finding decent fishing. stream doesn't have to be remote, unstocked, off the radar, or on or off any certain state list to fish well.

"The ATW section fished really well."

a common sense look at the map of an ATW stream section with long, posted, and remote tribs would suggest that the wild trout _in the system_ will do fine. I reminded of places like that when I read how stocking decimates wild trout streams here on PAFF. Lets keep that view going -- stocking eliminates 80% of legal wild trout and fishing could not be good on such streams

 

[PennypackFlyer]

PCray: Great photos and I like the fact that there is a small magnifying glass at the bottom of the photos. Should have a little menu title at that location. Something like...."if you want to see a bigger trout? click here!"

 

[Stone_Fly]

Pat, I've been there when it's been that good, there were days you couldn't keep the dinks of the hook. It has a very good hendrickson hatch in May. Also good sulphurs.

 

[k-bob]

Not surprised it fished well... If I have the right stream, about one mile of its four mile length is stocked, and the other three miles are posted. There is also about five miles of tribs above and below the stocked section, 4 mi posted and 1 mi way out there. So 1 mi of a 9 mi system is stocked, while 7 mi of the rest is posted and 1 mi is highly remote. Is the state stocking over viable wild trout? No doubt. In a little more than 10% of a stream system, the remainder is posted with a tiny unposted bit way out there. It has been claimed on PAFF that ending stocking might lead to 80% more legal size wild trout. Maybe in an aquarium , but I doubt that stocking less than 15% of this stream system has this huge effect _across the system._ And as pats trip suggests, the effect wont even be that great in the 1mi stocked section -- wild trout are good swimmers.

 

[pcray1231]

k-bob, thinkin you have the wrong stream, though I did mention it to you in a VM. I think I called ya back Saturday asking about it. Anyway, PM coming.

 

[k-bob]

that's the stream I thought thanks. trib to north is class a and posted

 

[k-bob]

can see the stream and its trib on type 10 map... didn't count that one to east, they don't quite meet