Keystone select trout waters

afishinado wrote:
For some....the reason to fish in the first place is to get away from "it all."

"It all" is the hustle and bustle of traffic, having people cut in front of you to get ahead, trying to find a parking spot, beating the clock, waiting in line, blah, blah, blah.

I'm all for offering more places for anglers to have a quality experience rather than crowding more people in fewer streams and stacking fish up in a few mega holes in those streams...and now adding mega fish to the mega holes.

A full parking lot may be a win for some...but is loss for others.

More focus on habitat improvement to create self-sustaining populations of wild trout is an awful lot cheaper, and will actually pay dividends in the long run....rather than drain revenue at an unsustainable rate like stocking does right now.
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Well said. Couldn't agree more.
 
+1 to Tom's post. If the lot at a stream is packed, I'll turn around and go golf instead.

Since the correct eyes may read this, why not improve habitat / improve existing wild stock and whatever happened to the tailwaters initiative?

I fish less than 5 days a year in PA.....the rest of my time is spent chasing wild trout in NY. Great fisheries, big wild fish, closed during spawn, etc. All this things and the fisheries show it. I drive 3.5 hours each way. I'd rather drive 70-90 minutes to fish Lehigh or below Raystown which would allow me to make more trips and keep my $$ here in PA.
 
Would love to see a bottom release on Raystown. Would it be possible? Enough deep area/cold water?

People can cooperate but it's just like the grocery store or anywhere else. Even when streams aren't crowded all it takes is one or two a-holes who noisily wade through the whole stream or race ahead of you to protect their favorite honey hole. These delayed harvest and FFO areas attract the same mentality as opening day on the bait sections. Fly fishermen are plenty rude. Sometimes you gotta laugh. At least this past weekend they were all at the fly show in Lancaster and there was some elbow room on my favorite streams!
 
"Keystone Select" would be a good name for a beer.
 
That sounds like my experience on any delayed harvest stream right after it is stocked.

I made the mistake of not checking the stocking schedule one time a few years ago. I showed up and found I was sharing the stream with everyone and their brother, so I checked and it had happened to be stocked the day before.

It was pouring rain and people were still packed on the stream. That was without the added draw of bigger fish.
 
I plan on fishing the Loyalhanna one night this week, maybe an afternoon mid week will be less crowded. I'll keep everyone posted. having said that I do fish this stretch of creek a few times a year and it is pretty much par for the course that right after it gets stocked the crowds will be there. Freshly stocked fish + able to be fished before opening day = big crowds. My guess is that the "hype" of the bigger fish will die down and the pressure there will ease up within the next few weeks.

I do give the PFBC credit on and effort to get more people out there fishing. Especially the kids, I can understand the draw of this whole select waters thing. If you take a kid out there and he manages to catch one of those big ol' stockers, he or she is gonna be hooked for life.
Having said that I 100% agree with most on here that I would rather see money spend to improve habitat and benefit wild stocks rather than seeing "Trophy" fish being being dumped into a stream. Any native/wild trout if by far more of a trophy to me than a 24 inch pellet head that was dumped out of a truck.
 
foxtrapper......a bottom release on Raystown is possible, and there has been movement on this in the past few years, but it is not as simple as one might hope (part of the justification for building the dam was that it would benefit the WARM water fishing downstream) . I've had my fingers in this a little, but admit I've not followed up much recently, although I know those working on it are beyond competent, so I have not felt the need.
 
http://c0389161.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/dyn/str_strip/235069.zoom.gif
 
foxtrapper1972 wrote:
Would love to see a bottom release on Raystown. Would it be possible? Enough deep area/cold water?

People can cooperate but it's just like the grocery store or anywhere else. Even when streams aren't crowded all it takes is one or two a-holes who noisily wade through the whole stream or race ahead of you to protect their favorite honey hole. These delayed harvest and FFO areas attract the same mentality as opening day on the bait sections. Fly fishermen are plenty rude. Sometimes you gotta laugh. At least this past weekend they were all at the fly show in Lancaster and there was some elbow room on my favorite streams!
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Raystown could easily be a tailwater fishery below the dam. The lake is 200' deep down there near the dam. From what I understand though, it isn't likely to happen because the power company controls the dam and they would have to redo all of their equipment to change the dam to make it like the Yough.
 
The PFBC individuals I've spoken to gave me the impression that it's possible to have a cold tailwater fishery below the lake......but not likely because of the 'world class striper fishery' in the lake.

The mismanagement of wild fish leaves PA residents no choice but to take their business to TN, AR, CT, NY, CO, MT etc. It's a shame but at least the stringers are full.
 
Was by the Loyalhanna all weekend, especially on Saturday during the pre-season non DLH section. I was surprised how FEW anglers were on the "trophy" section. BTW, was pleasantly surprised at the size of the regular stocked trout. Very disappointed in the numbers though...
 
krayfish2 wrote:
The PFBC individuals I've spoken to gave me the impression that it's possible to have a cold tailwater fishery below the lake......but not likely because of the 'world class striper fishery' in the lake.

The mismanagement of wild fish leaves PA residents no choice but to take their business to TN, AR, CT, NY, CO, MT etc. It's a shame but at least the stringers are full.
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Other than fishing Memorial Day weekend in the ANF, where I caught a mix of stockers and wild fish, about 99% of the remainder of last year consisted of catching wild trout. The 1% accounts for a few stray stockers that showed up near the beaten path. I didn't have any trouble finding wild trout streams with good habitat and I did not have to take my business to TN, AR, CT, NY, CO, MT etc.

Can you elaborate on how you believe PA is mismanaging wild fish? Are you referring specifically to PA's lack of tailwater plan or wild trout in general?
 
foxfire wrote:
Was by the Loyalhanna all weekend, especially on Saturday during the pre-season non DLH section. I was surprised how FEW anglers were on the "trophy" section. BTW, was pleasantly surprised at the size of the regular stocked trout. Very disappointed in the numbers though...
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If this is a serious report, that's great news. I'm out of the country on vacation now and for the next week, so I have no way of seeing for myself. I hope that my initial experience and report doesn't hold true for the remainder of the year/season. Good to hear.
 
Sal,
Yeah, lack of quality tailwaters here does suck but that's a different subject. How do they mismanage the wild trout?

* stocking over them for starters and that's probably the main offense

* any water that holds class A population should be removed from stocking list, closed to all fishing from Oct 30 - April 1, reduced harvest limits or slot limits on class A waters. Do survey on stream prior to change in regs and again 3 years later. Barring a water quality issue, the numbers should show improvement.

* streams with class B populations should be reviewed to see what is holding them back from reaching A populations. Water quality, thermal issues, forage base, lack of suitable holding water, etc. If it's something that can be fixed....fix it. Suspend stocking during the 2-3 year study period. Revaluation in 2 - 3 years to see if changes have allowed stream to reach its potential.

* stocking fest / stringerfest can be done on remaining class C (or lower), marginal or seasonal streams. Fill em up and empty them out every week until the water gets too warm.

And yes.......true trophy trout opportunities are pretty limited in this state. If you want to experience a world class fishery for bigger fish, you are probably headed out of state. It shouldn't be that way.

 
Have and update on the Loyalhanna, took a trip up there last night and got to fish for about an hour. Pretty much what I expected, there were plenty of guys on the stream and the fish were beyond skiddish. Im guessing that they pretty much haven't been left alone since they were stocked so that explains that. As for size of fish its pretty much how 724 described it, lots of typical stockers with a few of the medium sized and I did see 3 bows that would have been at home swimming in an Erie trib. But with the water being as clear as it was and with all the pressure I barely had a fish even so much as look at anything I threw. Only saw one fish brought to hand the whole time I was there and it was an older gentleman with a spinning rod. Highlight of the evening was seeing this clown up in a tree lol guess he could see the fish better from up there.
 

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Sounds like the PFBC is getting into the circus biznez. Put up a funnel cake stand and make some money to pay for a trip to Colorado. Lol.

Never seen anyone fishing out of a tree stand.
 
krayfish2 wrote:
Sal,
Yeah, lack of quality tailwaters here does suck but that's a different subject. How do they mismanage the wild trout?

* stocking over them for starters and that's probably the main offense

* any water that holds class A population should be removed from stocking list, closed to all fishing from Oct 30 - April 1, reduced harvest limits or slot limits on class A waters. Do survey on stream prior to change in regs and again 3 years later. Barring a water quality issue, the numbers should show improvement.
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I absolutely agree with the first point. as for the second, i do not see any need at all to close the waters for that long. I can understand maybe october, November, December, but no way until april. Central Pa tells you that its not needed at all.
 
I finally found something I like about this program and here it is. One of my favorite local stretches to fish is directly below a newly anointed Select Trout water. The beauty part is; since the section they picked has been so badly degraded (mostly sediment from building and pavement) it hasn't been worth fishing for years anyway in my opinion. Now the area with better holding water will get doused with nice sized fish after a heavy rain and the guys who are obsessed with hunting big stocked fish will be concentrated in a more confined area.
 
Midge,
Unmolested spawn all the way to hatch out of eggs. Shut it down. There's plenty of other places to fish.
 
They’re selling postcards of the hanging
They’re painting the passports brown
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
The circus is in town
Here comes the blind commissioner
They’ve got him in a trance
One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker
The other is in his pants
And the riot squad they’re restless
They need somewhere to go
As Lady and I look out tonight
From Desolation Row
 
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