2024 Trout Stocking Schedule?

[Roofin' Trouter]

I looked at the stocking schedule and it is lot less user friendly than in the past, IMO.

But that being said, just my opinion, but I think Mike put a lot more thought in when and where stocking should be to maximize the opportunities of anglers.

Just one example is Tulpehocken Creek which has a C& R delayed harvest section very popular with anglers for both fly and spin.

In the past, it was stocked at the earliest date to allow anglers some decent winter / early spring fishing.

Under the current schedule, the first stocking is on 3/18 in the DH water and yet there is a scheduled stocking upstream just above the reservoir on 2/23 in the regular stocked water where no one can fish until April.

Further the section below the DH is "open to year round fishing" regs and it isn't stocked until 4/8 after the season opener. It's very purpose is to allow fishing when other streams and sections are closed.

Sorry to say there has not been a lot of thought put into stocking to allow anglers to get out there and fish when many other streams are closed to fishing.

DHALO regs section on First Fork Sinnemahoning,Pine Creek,Black Mo, and EB Clarion aren't stocked until 3/18 and 3/19 . West Branch Tuna DHALO gets stocked 3/13, Upper Ally (3/15) .There's probably more but those are the DHALOs I looked at.
STW open to year round fishing sections on Mountain Creek(5/8) , S . Branch Codorus(4/12), and Stony Creek(4/19) are not until after harvest is allowed . West Creek and WB Susqy under the same regs are stocked the week before harvest is allowed.I really don't see a change here. According to 2021 stocking schedule, Tully section under the same regs was stocked on 4/6 which would have been 3 days after harvest was allowed.
Waters I fish that fall under C&R regs that get stocked still seem to be getting stocked in Feb.
Are DHALO regulations sections getting stocked later? According to 2021schedule most were earlier but FFS delay harvest wasn't stocked until 3/25 which was later than 2024 scheduled stocking.

 

[Mike]

Are DHALO regulations sections getting stocked later? According to 2021schedule most were earlier but FFS delay harvest wasn't stocked until 3/25 which was later than 2024 scheduled stocking.

I doubt there is much intent to stock the DH Areas later than in the past except in rare special circumstances like the Tully, which is well downstream in a relatively large drainage basin and is subject to exceptionally substantial flow modifications in both directions, higher and lower, from a flood control reservoir. Pertinent to the DH Area in spring is that annually the ACOE holds water back to raise the reservoir water level five ft to go from 285’ winter pool to 290’ recreational pool around Apr 1. This process can take days or a couple of weeks depending upon inflow and, of course, is shortened by storm events.

Your records of recent past stockings suggest to me that I may have mis-stated from memory the special remark that I mentioned above and actually recommended in the past that the first stocking take place in the first week of April. It may be that in an effort to get the fish into the stream at least a few days before opening day or just because it better fits the overall regional schedule the hatchery has generally continued to deliver the first stocking within the 20’s of March and given that the recommended stocking date was based on average or more likely median flows, it is probable that in some years the flow is fine for fishing in the last ten days of March.

As a reminder, the Tully DH Area is comprised of two sections and sometimes they are stocked on different dates inseason. I haven’t seen that occur preseason, but it could occur in a rare and unusual circumstance. It certainly occurs inseason when Section 08, which is stocked inseason only, is combined with stocking of one or the other DH sections (either Section 06 or 07).

Afish is correct when he says that the general intent of the program is to get DH and CRFFO stream sections stocked early so that there are good fishing opportunities for stocked trout during the otherwise statewide closed season in STW’s. I don’t recall any and don’t believe that in the past, other than maybe the distant past on the Ltl Schuylkill DH, there were any preseason stocking timing restrictions placed on any other of the DH or CRFFO sections in Area 6. The Ltl. Schuylkill DH is being stocked March 1 this yr .

 

[Roofin' Trouter]

Thanks for the feedback, Mike. I'm not saying that people are wrong for being disappointed about the Tully getting stocked until later. I was just trying to give some feedback with info of other sections under the same regs. Not noted in my comment above was that Tully section 8 may be the only flowing section under STW " year round" that receives a fall stocking of trout. Wasn't that regulation of water created with expanded ice fishing on lakes more so than fly fishing?

 

[Jessed]

Thanks for the feedback, Mike. I'm not saying that people are wrong for being disappointed about the Tully getting stocked until later. I was just trying to give some feedback with info of other sections under the same regs. Not noted in my comment above was that Tully section 8 may be the only flowing section under STW " year round" that receives a fall stocking of trout. Wasn't that regulation of water created with expanded ice fishing on lakes more so than fly fishing?

I thought the exact same. The lower Tully is only 3 miles and some change so it probably wouldn’t make much sense to not stock the STW section

 

[tomgamber]

The new schedule must be a real hoot on a phone...

Thank goodness I mostly use it to know what days to AVOID going to the few stocked creeks I fish.

Not a fan as a whole, it actually reads better on the phone than my laptop. Could have been the plan in 2024

 

[Bamboozle]

I guess the thought was people will filter the heck out of the criteria for the county in question so there is a shorter list to scroll through.

Unless I am missing something after you click for results it also needs a "back" button to get back to the map or at least an editable field so you change change the county.

 

[CRB]

Problem is the early northern season opener. Up till @020 the opening day was the 3erd Saturday in april now it is the 1st. Everything has to be stocked before opening day.
It would be nice if the sections were able to be opened on google maps with the up and down stream limits on the same view.

 

[moodyblues]

Sheeezz, I wonder what chain of salaried State employee thought this complicated format was better than the previous easy to read version. In business, there would be impacts on one’s employment - I wonder if its the same with the state.

More than likely these days they get promoted.

 

[Jessed]

I do like the county map at the bottom, you can just click on a county and it enters in the stocking info. I also like that you can select a certain body of water at the top to view.

 

[Mike]

regs. Not noted in my comment above was that Tully section 8 may be the only flowing section under STW " year round" that receives a fall stocking of trout. Wasn't that regulation of water created with expanded ice fishing on lakes more so than fly fishing?

It wasn’t created with any specific gear type in mind and its creation was not related to the reasoning behind stocked trout lakes open to year around fishing, which focused on allowing fishing to continue for existing warmwater and coolwater species..

The stocked trout streams open to year around fishing came “through the back door” to join the lakes or vice versa. The stream portion of the reg was the result of creating a single reg and populating its membership with all stream sections that had previously been listed among all of the other STW’s for a given county in the Summary Booklet as “Stream Name (inseason only).”

The Area 6 AFM created the first inseason only stocked trout sections in Pa and for a long time such sections were only located in Area 6, a region that historically tended to breed “creative” uses of regulations out of necessity to maintain decent and abundant fisheries. In this case it was done out of necessity in a high population region in order to successfully add waters to the stocking program in counties with few waters, but where landowners feared opening day crowds or didn’t wish to deal with them. Such was the case with Tully 08, Berks Co, for example, which is located in a beautifully maintained park system. That worked out very well there because of some holdovers and fish running out of the DH Area providing somewhat of an “unstocked” opening day fishery anyway.

Additionally, some sections were designated inseason only when landowners started to post. Posting landowners, others considering posting, and problems where posting creep was occurring on a stream were almost always relieved enough to continue stocking by eliminating opening day on those waters.

Years later some other AFMs listed a few stream sections similarly (inseason only). The Summary Booklet listings started to get a little out of hand so all of those stream sections were pulled from that STW part of the booklet and placed in a stocked trout waters open to year around fishing along with lakes.

Note: the feedback in #23 above was welcomed by me in that it noted a variety of stocking dates in much of March.

 

[skybay]

I have no problems with new layout but I agree with most of you, there is more clicking, scrolling and less info at any given time. The new layout for waterways and creeks significant big, (maybe) designed by UX developers for anglers with need for bigger print

Easy way to find what you want is to click on “Print All Trout Stocking” and save (without actual printing , choosing your application) to drive/folder on your computer.
You can see it ALL in wide range, page after page (now layout is too small but nothing is perfect so you can zoom on it), with stocking days progressing.

 

[PennKev]

Problem is the early northern season opener. Up till @020 the opening day was the 3erd Saturday in april now it is the 1st. Everything has to be stocked before opening day.
It would be nice if the sections were able to be opened on google maps with the up and down stream limits on the same view.

PAFBC has a GIS map that shows exactly this.
Trout Streams Map

 

[Bamboozle]

That map would be about perfect if they gave you the section number and coordinates when you clicked on the stream.

 

[PennKev]

That map would be about perfect if they gave you the section number and coordinates when you clicked on the stream.

That info is actually there also. If you have stocked waters turned on and click on a stream, the info box that pops up has a link that takes you to a page that lists the upper and lower limits by section and also includes clickable latitude/longitude links for google maps.

 

[Bamboozle]

Yes I saw that but I should have been more specific...

I meant having the same type information (section numbers & clickable Google links for upper & lower limits for all stream section types, not just stocked...

Yea, you can figure it out through process of elimination and a bunch of cross referencing but it would make a lot more sense to me to have it all available via the map.

 

[tomgamber]

That map would be about perfect if they gave you the section number and coordinates when you clicked on the stream.

 

[Bamboozle]

Why not...? I could say that about a zillion things, GPS, apps, maps, webpages, lists, etc...

Does it somehow make it more noble if you have to dig thorough 5 different webpages to get the info that is already out there?

If that's the case I guess I get the "Amerigo Vespucci" award for chasing down Class A's a gazillion years ago with a $#!++y PFBC map and a two sided, single sheet, hand typed Class A List mailed to me by Dell Graff, Head of Fisheries during Operation Future.

All I'm saying is they put up a map with supposedly ALL of the streams so why not finish the job and put the other info in the same place.

It just seems stupid to have all of these OFFICIAL lists and sources of information, all formatted differently, I'm sure created by different people with partial information on some and complete information on others.

 

[CRB]

Yes info out there but takes csi to gather it all together. AI is making it easier from just a photo.

 

[Mike]

Why not...? I could say that about a zillion things, GPS, apps, maps, webpages, lists, etc...

Does it somehow make it more noble if you have to dig thorough 5 different webpages to get the info that is already out there?

If that's the case I guess I get the "Amerigo Vespucci" award for chasing down Class A's a gazillion years ago with a $#!++y PFBC map and a two sided, single sheet, hand typed Class A List mailed to me by Dell Graff, Head of Fisheries during Operation Future.

All I'm saying is they put up a map with supposedly ALL of the streams so why not finish the job and put the other info in the same place.

It just seems stupid to have all of these OFFICIAL lists and sources of information, all formatted differently, I'm sure created by different people with partial information on some and complete information on others.

Having worked within “the trout stream inventory system” from its beginning and and having participated in the committee that created the “trout stream section classification system” it does bother me a little bit that some sources of information are not combined with existing information. For example, it would have been easy to list each trout species for each wild trout stream on the list.

 

[Bamboozle]

Having worked within “the trout stream inventory system” from its beginning and and having participated in the committee that created the “trout stream section classification system” it does bother me a little bit that some sources of information are not combined with existing information. For example, it would have been easy to list each trout species for each wild trout stream on the list.

I should scan that old Class A list Del sent me and post it here. It would probably be familiar to you...