Hay Creek, Berks County, 12/15/08

[Mariner]

I fished Hay Creek after getting skunked at Scott's Run late this afternoon. What a stream! It rivals Valley Creek for being able to fish alongside history. What you gain in serenity you lose in litter, though.

Hwy 82 follows the creek in its lower, northern section as it drops to the Schyukill at Birdsboro but the highway is blocked due to the road washing out. It's a blessing. I fished the southern end (upriver) of the roadblock and picked up three five-inch long rainbows in rapid succession on hare's ears and black pheasant tails out of very swift water. (see photo)

I picked up two decent trout in the first raceway pool about 1/4mi. down from the roadblock. The better of the two is in the photo.

Oh, and there was a size 28 tan midge convention on the stream but my fly box wasn't invited.

BTW, is it safe to assume that all sub-8" trout caught are stream bred?



-Mariner

 

[jayL]

My home stream. Good report.

Hate to break it to you, but that small guy is a brown. 😛


Anything under about 6" is probably wild.

 

[Mariner]

Right, parr marks, gotcha. I was hoping to catch my first brookie in PA. Are there any in there? It's not listed for Brooks on the Class A WIld Trout list. It is listed for browns from where I described up to Geigertown.

 

[Mariner]

Hey, speaking of small fish ID errors--take a stab at what kind of fish is in the icon next to my postings. It was taken from Maroon Creek below the famous Maroon Bells in Colorado summer, '06.

 

[Maurice]

brook trout. dead giveaway is the yellow spots on the dark background.

 

[Stevie-B]

Mariner,

At that size, I would say bait. Seriously though I have to agree with Maurice.

 

[Mariner]

That's what I think. My partner on that trip swore it was a greenback cutthroat. Didn't think so.

 

[fly_flinger]

Mariner,
The parr marks are common on small rainbows too but the rest of the colors on that fish say brown trout as Jay indicated. That fish is wild though. I can't answer your question on brookies being in it as I've never fished it.

 

[redhotchilipepper]

Mariner, did Scott's Run Lake get stocked recently?

 

[Mariner]

RHCPepper:

Scott's Run Lake was stocked on the third. I was there on Monday with hopes of the cast and blast and neither worked out there so I bailed for Hay Cr. and had a great time. There were plenty of good-sized trout cruising around but they weren't taking anything. I ran into a few guys who took the day off of work b/c they were thinking the same thing I was and b/t the three of them they had only seen three people catch a fish all day and they weren't even sure they were trout.

One cool thing I did see--my streamer got attached to a huge clam, like 3" long. I stopped stripping and just dragged the thing in in 8" of water and had a smallie repeatedly ram this clam with my dace attached to it all the way up to my boots.

 

[jayL]

Use a size 18 fur ant on Scotts run. The spin fishermen with casting bubbles are usually killing them, and one day I got up the nerve to ask.

 

[pcray1231]

Mariner,

As others said, thats a brown. If you want to know where there are wild fish, look at the fish commission "streams with natural reproduction" list, not just the Class A list.

Nat. Reproduction List: You'll find basically all of the good streams, but mixed in will be some pretty poor streams, and you gotta sort them out.

Class A: Everything on the list is good, but there are some real gems that aren't on the list.

No, its not safe to assume that all sub 8" fish are stream bred. The state does stock fingerlings, and yes, stocked fingerlings have parr marks. But you can get a pretty good idea just by looking on the PFBC website to see if fingerlings were stocked in the area. I'd lay a lot of money on the fish in that picture being wild.