Fishing Creek Lancaster County 4/5/09

[salvelinusfontinalis]

After the disappointment on Stewart Run we decided to give Fishing Creek a try. This stream is on the Natural Reproduction List and at the least, we may catch some wild trout. Which is always better in my book anyways. ;-)

The streams in Southern Lancaster County have faired better the beginning of this trout season because they are slightly off color to flowing nice. The streams in the Northern end of the County got alot of rain and are high.

When we first arrived at Fishing Creek i was pleased by the look of the stream. Its a beauty and my expectations grew. The stream is very beautiful. We started fishing around the intersection of River road and scalpy hollow road. We saw no fish until we got upstream i saw one wild trout leap out of the water to take a bug. Where are the stockers?
Fishing Creek
Fishing Creek2
Spectorfly on Fishing Creek
Fishing Creek3
Good Habitat
Fishing Creek4

We fished upstream into the Fishing Creek Nature Preserve. I got to tell you that the stream in this section is absolutely beautiful. It didnt take long for me to hook into a wild brown. Spectorfly has the pic of that fish. He was pretty. The habitat in this section is amazing but it seems to be lacking in numbers of wild trout. But what it lacked in numbers of wild trout, it lacked even more in numbers of stocked trout.

I did find a few interesting things though. One of which appeared to be stream deflectors made of shale rock planted in the ground. Either mother nature did this or someone else did. They did seem a bit to perfect to be mother nature. You tell me what you think:
Natural or man made
natural or man made2
These photos were taken standing in the same spot. One upstream and one downstream. It made the stream look like it zig-zaged. Either way, if these were man made i think its a cool way to do it and keep a more natural look to the stream. We did see more upstream of that.

The other interesting thing was the sheer amount of gnats, black midges and big black stoneflies in the air. Certainly the lack of a good population of trout has nothing to do with habitat, available food source, sedimentation(there was none) or temps. Mike K, any thoughts to the cause?
In the preserve
deep hole in the preserve
Fishing Creek
Wild brown
sign
I really liked this section of stream. I did notice that any fish caught and any that bit our fly were in all the real deep holes. Alot of the stream didnt have fish in it. I believe this is due to the recent rains we had. As you see in the pics the water is off color slightly. I imagine this stream flows very clear during normal flow periods. Alot of water didnt have fish but had decent holding water. I think once it calms down and the fish realize they dont have to hold in those holes they may move around. I plan on returning to this section of creek to get a better idea of its fish populations.

Disappointed by the stocked fishing experience again we headed downstream. Along fishing creek road. Here we saw approved trout water signs. Ah!!!! Maybe they didnt stock the upper end. But why then advertise the entire watershed as "stocked"?

We fished almost this entire section and didnt see a fish until we got to one hole. It had about 20 trout in it including a pally. This meant game on for Spectorfly. He has yet to catch one of those things. We got into proper position and in short order he had that fish in hand.
Spectors fish
him with fish
We caught a few more and decided to go elsewhere. He sure was proud of that fish!

Alot of fisherman complained to us along the long walk back to the car. Where are the fish? Didnt they stock this? We told a guy with his young daughter where the fish were. We thought it was good to at least tell the guy with the kid. They headed right down there. Hope she caught some!
the lower ATW
pretty stream with no fish :lol:

Im faith in the ATW's isnt changing. Lets hope the next 2 streams fair better. Im getting really disappointed.

Links:
Preserve
Preserve2

 

[wgmiller]

As far as advertising the whole watershed as "stocked", I can only relate to how I helped to stock Little Chiques ATW. The section that is advertised on the PFBC website is quite a bit more extensive than the few places we dumped fish in. I'd have to say we stocked five or six places in the whole advertised stretch. I think that's why a lot of people follow the stocking truck - so they don't have to walk as far to find fish.

The same goes for the Donegal. While it is advertised as FFO from the top to the confluence with the Chiques, it was only stocked from the horse barn to the top of the FFO section. So one could conceivably do a lot of fishing in an advertised stretch and not find many trout, if any at all.

 

[spectorfly]

Here is the pic of your first wild brown and another of the Palomino.
Hey, I was just as proud of catching that fish as you were when you caught your first one. Only fiiting that you caught yours while I was there and visa versa.
I told you, those things don't eat. They absord nutrients through their skin by osmosis. I was shocked he even took it.

And just for laughs - the killer sheep from Lititz Run:

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

OMG! when i saw that i expected to hear:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22JIgpBVcF4

LMFAO

ya i was proud of mine too and your right it was fitting. Even though the ATW's were disappointing today at least we had that happen.

 

[briang]

Sal, your reports are always top notch... if I could ever seem to catch one on my fly rod I'd like to post a useful report!

 

[Mike]

The lower end of the stream gets warm and shallow in summer.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

ya im sure the lower end is like that. It was shallow now and it isnt even summer. But the main stretch i was curious about was in the nature preserve. Im sure that section doesnt get warm but perhaps im wrong. It does have wild fish just not as many as expected.

Thanks Brian. I used to tell you about how i know i could get you to catch wild fish with a fly rod on nativebrooktrout.com. Pm sent 🙂 lets get you started?

 

[salmonoid]

I'd conjecture that Fishing Creek suffers from the same disease Donegal Creek FFO section does - poaching. Hence, the relative lack of fish, both stocked and wild. Poachers are equal opportunity, when it comes to pisces.

 

[tomgamber]

Maybe that guy from Lititz will sell you a couple sheep...poachers beware!!!

 

[wgmiller]

I guarantee it! No recreational fishing is worth bodily injury...