Hammer Creek Plan

J

JeffP

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Joined
Nov 21, 2007
Messages
1,214
City
Lititz, Pa
The Lancaster Paper had a front page article on plans for Hammer Creek. It will be a joint venture of Donegal TU, Doc Fritchey TU, and the state. It is a $5.2 million dollar, 9-year plan to reduce sedimentation in the head-waters. Too bad they re-filled Speedwell. Surprisingly, they mentioned native brooks and rainbows but not the browns that are thriving in what used to be good brook trout water. I wonder if the rainbows are hearsay or a result of a study. I would love to see an intensive study of fish populations including Walnut and Kettle.Anybody with any more insight on this? Where's Sal when you need him?
 
I’ve caught some very small (like 4-5”) Rainbows in it. Not many, but a couple. Most of the wild fish I’ve caught the last few years were Browns. I think it’s mostly Browns now. 10 years ago it was still mostly Brookies, with a few Browns.

Walnut has Browns in it. Mostly Brookies, but there are Browns present. Nothing stopping them from getting in there. Been a while since I fished Kettle, but I’ve only caught Brookies there. Kettle is tiny and surrounded by multiflora rose in the SGL stretch. Not a ton of fun to fish.
 
Too bad Hammer Creek made the front page of the paper.
 
Fingerling RT were stocked by a group in the Lebanon Co stretch for at least one year, but I don’t know if that continued. That could be why someone said there is RT reproduction. If a PFBC report says there is reproduction of RT and if it was not written in the past two years, then the RT reproduction found was quite limited.

There are 3 wild ST tribs.

My recollection is that there didn’t used to be reproduction of any trout species anywhere down from the turnpike. That’s no longer the case in the township or county park near the lake.

What did the article say was the major source of funding for the project?
 
Well I just re-read the article. It's a long article but I can't find it anywhere. Hmm. Just a plan with no funding?
 
Thanks for checking. There was some money set aside for (if I recall correctly) five or so priority wild trout streams (enhancement $) in York and Lancaster Co. I was hoping to learn if some $ came from that.
 
Swattie87 wrote:
Kettle is tiny and surrounded by multiflora rose in the SGL stretch. Not a ton of fun to fish.
Click to expand...

#fact

But it is pretty.

IMG-8845.jpg



IMG-8848.jpg


IMG-8844.jpg


 
Yes, that could be. After giving it more thought I recalled that with respect to the funding for a few priority wild trout streams in Lancaster and York Co that I mentioned, Hammer did not qualify as a priority water because the funds were only to be used in those two counties based on the agreement. Since substantial sedimentation problems in the wild trout stretch of Hammer originate in Lebanon Co, doing work downstream in Lancaster Co would not address most of those issues. There are enough other wild trout streams in the two counties that need help and don’t have this added complexity with which to contend.
 
Deleting my comment. Don't need to stir the pot. Sorry guys.

What I meant to say is it pains me to see another brook trout stream in PA, and a truly unique one considering its location and former reputation for large fish, being taken over by browns, when browns were flagged as a potential threat 10 years ago. I can only hope that reducing sediment in the watershed can help the brook trout hang on.
 
When I was back in PA last summer, I made sure to fish it. On that particular day, it was overwhelmingly brookies. But I've had days where the opposite is true.

As far as wild 'bows though? Seriously strange. I could probably count on 2 hands, maybe even 1, the number of verifiably wild rainbows I've caught there over the years.

Did catch a few largemouth though...just in case anyone questions the wisdom of damming up a wild trout stream then stocking it w/ large predators...

Swattie when was the last time you fished Walnut? It's been probably 3 years for me. I've only ever caught browns, and maybe one per trip, on the very lowest stretches, well below the "split". However, one of the first times I ever fished it, the guy I was with caught a tiger trout, so....yeah. They're in there.
 
Other than the dam hole right at the mouth it’s been a few years since I’ve fished Walnut too. It’s still mostly Brookies, or was the last time I fished it anyway. I saw a YT video not that long ago of a guy catching a Brown from the steep part on the right branch though, so they’re in it pretty high up.
 
I've fished Walnut a handful of times and it's always been exclusively brookies for me. And I've fished pretty far up on both "branches". This was the best of the trip from a few weeks ago. Fun stream when you can catch a hatch!

IMG-8895.jpg
 
Nice to see Walnut doing ok. I have to say I haven's fished it for a while, but hike the trail quite a bit with the dog and not sure I've seen a trout in a number of years. Maybe 5 falls ago I did see about 10 brookies in one hole. Quite a few were keeper size. Never fished Kettle but checked it out 1 year and saw a ton of really small trout. Weird thing was it was the fall and they were still tiny!
 
Has anyone caught fish in the left branch of Walnut? It appears to get some pretty bad silt from the perennial feeder that comes off by that gated property. That thing apparently runs through ponds and manicured lawns. It also gets much more bad runoff from 322 with all the aggressive spraying they do to kill weeds. They also widened 322 there a couple years ago which can't help.
 
I look at walnut every time I drive by. I guess I may need to fish it. I live 5 minutes from hammer and have written it off for whatever reason. I guess it's time to give it a second chance.
 
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