Heavy Penns Brown

[BrookieChaser]

Heberly, feel free to have this post deleted if it takes away from your thread.

This is one of the rainbows in question caught right at the confluence below the bridge in Coburn.

 

[attackone]

looks like to me that those rainbows are reproducing in there

 

[troutbert]

attackone wrote:
looks like to me that those rainbows are reproducing in there

I think they are. I caught some in Elk Creek that I thought were wild. And going back not that many years, we never caught wild rainbows in Elk Creek.

The same thing has happened on several other streams where private parties are stocking rainbows. It's because of the genetic strain of rainbow they are stocking.

 

[pcray1231]

You're telling me elk and pine are navigable by state laws?

Yup. That said, the same old disclaimer. State declarations of navigability or public streambed hold no legal water toward federal navigability law. Federal law applies. These streams have not had their day in court. Hence they are either navigable or they aren't, but we do not know until it goes before a judge, and he decides one way or the other.

For that to happen, someone has to trespass and get prosecuted for it, and fight it. And if that person loses, they not only owe the penalty, but also mountains of legal fees for both sides. If they win, all of us fishermen will give em a pat on the back, but they're still out all their legal fees (and it will have been challenged to a fairly high court). Wanna volunteer?

A court would look for evidence of past commerce. The fact that the state once legally declared it navigable (likely back in the 1800's) doesn't hold legal water on it's own, but it was probably done to protect commerce that existed at the time.

http://www.gis.dcnr.state.pa.us/maps/index.html?publicstreams=true

 

[Brown71]

Yea I witnessed similar happenings on my home stream, regarding infiltration of stocked bows. (Beaver's actually)

He has several properties here, and the amount of rainbows, many larger, has risen exponentially. During fall especially they infiltrate some of the small tribs to spawn, and im sure compete with the browns that are present/came up to spawn. But it is what it is, not much we can do about that.

And it is cool to see the bows successfully spawning, I just hope it's never at the expense of an already great brown population. Nature has a way of working it all out though, so I'm not real worked up about it, and its already been this way for quite a few years now and all still seems to be fine.

 

[BrookieChaser]

I thought the rainbow(s) I caught were wild too. But I wasn't 100% sure.

 

[Trico3]

PF&BC has been stocking Rainbow Fingerlings in Penns the past several years.

http://www.fish.state.pa.us/stock_fingerling.htm

 

[Fishidiot]

Trico3 wrote:
PF&BC has been stocking Rainbow Fingerlings in Penns the past several years.

http://www.fish.state.pa.us/stock_fingerling.htm

Interesting!

I wasn't aware of this fingerling RT program in Penns (also includes lower Bald Eagle Creek in Centre Co).
Looks like a new program started last fall(?). I can't find where Penns rec'd fingerlings in prior years (not in Mifflin or Union Counties either).

Perhaps it's been discussed here on PAFF, but I don't remember.
Anyway, thanks for the link. Whatever the case, it will be interesting to see how this RT program plays out.

 

[CLSports]

I caught a few of those rainbow fingerlings in the Coburn area. They were noticeably different in that they had very few spots. I thought they looked odd.

 

[PENZZZ]

May 30, 2003 Penns received 17,000 brown trout fingerlings between Weikert and Coburn. A fishing buddy and were in the no-kill lot when five or six stocking trucks arrived. I approached the supervisor who told me the state had an abundance of 4"-5" brown trout so they decided to put them into Penns. The adipose fins on these trout had been clipped.

It was fun keeping track of their development, they grew very rapidly. Though stocked as fingerlings, they were not wild trout and seemed easier to fool. The strain of these trout exhibited very silvery flanks, and thick bodies. Eventually I found I was catching fewer of them, the last one was around 19". It was fun while it lasted.

Jeff

 

[Chaz]

Fishidiot wrote:

mt_flyfisher wrote:
In my 50 years of fishing Penns Creek, and in the same section of the stream as you, I have never seen a brown that looked like yours in the top picture.
John

Interesting - I'm assuming you're referencing spots - I can't see anything else unique about this fish other than the very large size(?).

I think we all noted the sparse spotting on this beautiful fish. Such pics invariably start a debate about strains of trout: Loch Levens vs. Germans etc (I think such efforts to identify modern day PA wild brown trout strains based on spotting are pointless). Letort is known for having a lot of sparse spotted fish like this. However, I think if you look at enough wild browns, you'll see fish like this just about anywhere. The beauty that Pcray posted in post #24 is a pretty sparse spotted Penns brownie.

Interesting whatever the case.

The spot pattern is completely different from any brown I've caught anywhere in PA. To me it was quite noticeable. Reminiscent of a Land-locked Salmon more than a brown.

 

[Chaz]

Heberly wrote:

BrookieChaser wrote:


On rainbows, I've caught more this year than any other. There seems to be a concentration of them around Coburn. I caught 6" ones with parr marks up to 12" ones. Hopefully they'll be brown trout food this winter.

Thanks Chaser,

I believe elk/pine owned by a man named troy ( nice guy ), stocked the living heck out of his land with them. I believe that is where they are coming from.

Could they be coming from the PFBC, possibly, but 24" hogs on a normal basis showing up all over? ehh, I think the hogs are originating from elk/pine.

There are wild bows in the Millheim section of Elk Creek.

 

[AlphaDelta]

If you need someone to split the expense of going to Penns Creek from Bloomsburg, let me know. I live in Bloom and do Fishing Creek and have also started going to Penns, Spring, and Little J.

 

[streamerguy]

On the topic of these fingerling stocked bows, is it possible that the "wild rainbows" people are catching on lower Spring are actually fingerling stocked rainbows swimming up from Bald Eagle??? Or maybe a combination of both Bald Eagle and natural reproduction in lower Spring?

 

[albud1962]

I am pretty sure that is a wild fish. The angler was at the right hole at the right time. There are some really deep holes on Penns, who knows where it was hiding a few months ago.

 

[jrflyfish]

Dido alphadelta, I live 15 min. From bloom pm me if anyone is interested. Weekly trips by myself to spring or penns gets expensive.