Keystone select trout waters

[Nate540]

So I've fished the Keystone select section quite a bit in the last couple of weeks (I live 2 miles from it). The first time out I saw lots of fish. I have noticed every time out I see less and less fish and since you can not keep them now that has been concerning. Every time out I have seen a game warden. Last night I was informed they have been having a lot of trouble. Apparently people have been baiting lines tying them off and moving up and down the stream. Then working there way back and collecting the fish. I was told the are estimating that less than half of the fish they put in are left. Its a real shame this is happening I don't even understand the point of it the fun is actually catching the fish do they just want to stock their freezer with food?!? I don't get it but very sad!

 

[Van_Cleaver]

White Clay has always been popular among the poachers. Since they are now better informed due to the internet they know exactly where the larger fish are. The other problem is there isn't anywhere near the amount of good holding water left in the regs area as the surrounding middle and East branch imo. The trout are bound to move into some better lies, especially aft good rain, which we sorely need.

 

[ROVERT]

Reeder wrote:
I fished Loyalsock Creek At Sandy bottom this past weekend and had a blast. It is a beautiful stretch of water and has great hatches, and thanks to this program it has a pile of nice looking, strong trout. It is a nice change of pace from my local DHALO on Lycoming, which was fishing just fine with all of the holdovers until it was overloaded with 10 inch colorless rainbows not long ago. Now that's all you catch every cast and it gets old quick. Plenty of guys are fishing Loyalsock, but it is such a large creek that there is plenty of room. I will certainly be fishing it more all throughout the year and it won't be to harvest them, I will be releasing them all to catch them another day.

I love the Loyalsock. I don't fish it much anymore but it and the Little Pine were the streams that I started fly fishing on. I have a lot of memories both in the Sandy Bottom area and above Hillsgrove. I think the Sandy Bottom section was a good candidate for this program. It is certainly a beautiful place.

 

[geebee]

Van_Cleaver wrote:

The other problem is there isn't anywhere near the amount of good holding water left in the regs area as the surrounding middle and East branch imo. The trout are bound to move into some better lies, especially aft good rain, which we sorely need.

yup.

I haven't bothered to fish it yet, due to the large numbers of cars parked all over round there, but I imagine its likely fishing in a goldfish bowl right now - is there one single pool deeper than 3ft from Good Hope rd to London Tract bridge ? and even below there, there is only two bedn pools and the dam pool before the sharpless rd bridge.

imho they would do much better to move the DHALO section to sharpless rd bridge to the state line .

 

[salvelinus]

Granted it's not near a population center, but I drove by the First Fork Keystone Select DHALO last Friday. I only saw four cars in the whole stretch.

 

[724flyfishing]

salvelinus wrote:
Granted it's not near a population center, but I drove by the First Fork Keystone Select DHALO last Friday. I only saw four cars in the whole stretch.

I was just talking to someone about how this might be one of the better Keystone Select waters, because like you mentioned it's not near a population center. There's also miles of other good trout water in that area that should help disperse people. I'll be up that way looking for rattlesnakes for that snake hunt June 10, 11, and 12. Im planning on fishing this section, or at least checking it out that weekend. If this thread is still going I'll post how I do.

 

[Dave_W]

Agree that First Fork is an excellent candidate for this program.

 

[Nate540]

I was just back down at the White clay only for about an hour but only saw about 5 fish nothing large. Pretty sad really

 

[troutbert]

Dave_W wrote:
Agree that First Fork is an excellent candidate for this program.

I think it would be OK, if they increased the mileage of the DH area substantially, such as a doubling.

The First Fork DH area is very crowded when the season gets going.

The whole idea of the Select program is to increase the usage in the DH areas. But these areas are already very busy.

So if you increase the usage, and keep the mileage the same, it will be more crowded.

If you want to increase the usage, without increasing the crowding, then you'd have to increase the mileage.

 

[geebee]

troutbert wrote:


The whole idea of the Select program is to increase the usage in the DH areas. But these areas are already very busy.

So if you increase the usage, and keep the mileage the same, it will be more crowded.

If you want to increase the usage, without increasing the crowding, then you'd have to increase the mileage.

excellent post.

 

[lineman]

Agreed, First Fork DH area was plenty crowded BEFORE the Keystone program considering where it's located.
Being the size it is would make the case to expand the DH distance considerably.

 

[Reeder]

I love the Loyalsock. I don't fish it much anymore but it and the Little Pine were the streams that I started fly fishing on. I have a lot of memories both in the Sandy Bottom area and above Hillsgrove. I think the Sandy Bottom section was a good candidate for this program. It is certainly a beautiful place.

Same here. Our family cabin is right at the bridge at Hillsgrove. I have been fishing and hunting that area my entire life. I try to get up that way once every week or two.

 

[ROVERT]

My grandfather's cabin was on Hoppestown Rd., just over the mountain (Camp Mountain). I caught a lot of fish under that bridge in the late 90's. With possibly two exceptions, my best dry fly evening was on light cahills just above the bridge in May 2000.

I remember using a bobber and an Adams to catch risers below the bridge before I even had a fly rod. I haven't fished at Hillsgrove for a long time. I fished the Sock last year but that was above World's End.

 

[Reeder]

Ours is right on the creek on the north side of the bridge, with the pavilion overlooking the hole below the bridge. When we were kids we used to stand on the bridge with spinning rods and lower dry flies down because we couldn't reach the rising trout in the middle. This is how we discovered that they would jump out of the water and take flies in the air.