Donegal Creek, Lancaster Co., 3/25/2018

[salmonoid]

The_Sasquatch wrote:
Ok. I really don't know much about the stream, but now that I live close to it, I'm trying to pay more attention. Didn't know about traffic in the past.

Today I fished it a bit. Not a single take. But I was thinking through certain things, and a few questions came to mind.

1-What were the stocking practices of the local conservation group when the stream began hitting Class A biomass? Did they continue as normal, scale back, cease all together, and what was their thinking behind their decision concerning stocking? General question.

2-If my memory serves me correctly (and it doesn't always), wasn't it hitting class A right around the time the State tried that rainbow fingerling program and dumped like, 3,000 7" rainbows in the stream? What happened to those fish as well? I seem to remember the follow-up surveys showing extremely low survival rates.

3-If history repeats itself and the stream would hit Class A biomasses again at some point in the future, what could/would be done differently to try and sustain and grow the population of wild trout?

The PFBC found the class A brown population when they were shocking to find out the fingerling survival rate. Who knows if there is any correlation to a lot of tasty 7-9" fish and a class A brown population. While I've seen a 12" fish cough up a close to 8" fish already, I'm doubtful that the browns were feasting on the rainbows, except perhaps some of the larger rumored fish. But maybe the rainbows made the water sweet.

It may just be that Donegal is a marginal stream. When the stars align, it supports a class A population. But it can pretty quickly crash as well, with just a little tweak of any of the variables mentioned in this thread. I don't think the explanation is that the PFBC made a bad survey pronouncement and somehow was fooled by club stocked fish.

The wild fish were clearly wild fish. I only caught a handful a few years ago, but there was no doubt they were wild.

Squatch - I'm surprised you didn't catch some chubs. There's plenty of them in that stream!

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

There's way more pressure on the local water table from all the development around Mount Joy than one farmer pulling some water out for crops.

I never suggested as much, you just read that into it. You do that a lot

I said....
All of the above and you can add....

However I attended a DCFA meeting years ago to discuss another topic. The issue of said landowner was brought up by other members, I went to look days later.
It was more significant than you seem to give it credit, but I'm just may be reading that into yours too.

I do not know if he is still taking large withdrawls still.

 

[salmonoid]

Sorry, I missed the "Post #6 is incorporated by reference" in your #13 response. Apparently I have to read more into what's written, which ironically is what you are accusing me of.

All I'm saying is that the water withdrawn from the watershed overall, just by Mt. Joy's two municipal wells, is much, much greater than what any farmer uses to water their crops (which arguably runs right back into the stream). It's literally a drop in the bucket. You could prohibit that particular farmer from withdrawing water, and it would have minimal affect on the stream. Unlike the path of the farmer's water, which stays in the same watershed, Mt. Joy's water comes out of the Donegal watershed, and after that resource is utilized, the waste water treatment plant discharges it to the Little Chiques watershed. Donegal has probably been on the decline since the 70's when those two wells were drilled.

I tend to be a realist, but I'm pessimistic on the prospects of Donegal "improving". Pressures on the regional water table will not decline in the future. It sits in what is mostly a cleared agricultural region and will only see an increase in sediment over time. It benefits from being a limestoner, with respect to water temperature, but because the area is cleared, there's little riparian buffer to keep the water cool. Probably the only thing that I feel overestimated is the affect of angling pressure. Not that it's not fished, or not that it's not poached, but the other factors are bigger influences in determining trout survival.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Sorry, I missed the "Post #6 is incorporated by reference" in your #13 response. Apparently I have to read more into what's written, which ironically is what you are accusing me of.

;-) 😛int:

I totally agree with you on Donegal.
It can be good but most years just sucks.
IMO you can fish so much better by just basically never going there.