Thanks Mike. When this study was published last year I was intrigued by the variety of fish, esp walleyes, found in water like the levee section of Codurus Creek around the city of York that otherwise would not likely to have been seen to be good habitat. Nevertheless, it often pays to search out small, predominately warm water creeks for fishing opportunities. In my experience, these opportunities often vary year to year with bass fishing in particular contingent greatly on weather. Many of the smaller creeks that provide most of my summer FFing for bass, hold fish primarily on a seasonal level. This year, it seemed that it took forever for bass to show up in numbers in the creek sections that have historically held them for me. They're there now (caught dozens yesterday) but I was beginning to wonder if they would ever show up. In the case of the Codorus Creek walleyes, the speculation that they may be spawning (due to population isolation) is intriguing and suggests that walleyes may be more amenable to thriving in "marginal" waters around here. Recent efforts to expand walleyes - in particular the MD DNRs efforts in the upper Potomac - have proven pretty successful. In a similar vein, the expansion of muskies (esp purebreds) and their capacity to thrive in so many lakes/rivers into which they have been introduced, suggests to me that perhaps a bit more effort ought to be made to spread the stocking of muskies and walleyes, at least on an experimental basis, into smaller rivers and creeks. Anyway, studies such as this reveal that there can be a lot of good fishing for a variaty of game and panfish if one is merely willing to check smaller less known waters. You may not catch a trophy but for numbers creeks like these have provided a lot of fun for me not to mention providing viable fishing opportunities for suburban and urban kids as well.
