Kish Creek, Mifflin County 11/28

[jifigz]

Swattie87 wrote:
Since this thread is in the Stream Reports, and those are private to site members only now, I guess it's ok to say this...

Mifflin County IMO is on the short list of the most underrated wild Trout Counties in PA. A couple others come to mind...Schuylkill, Cambria, York perhaps...but Mifflin is high in the running. It gets lost in the shuffle with having Penns/Spring/LJR/BFC so close, and streams like Kish are often overlooked or passed by unknowingly on the way to/from those streams. Mifflin County is worthy of fishing on its own, and from where I live, cuts off a good 45 minutes of extra drive time in getting to the "Big 4."

Don't get me wrong, I'm fine with it staying that way.

Yeah, I'm fortunate to live here and I'm definitely glad that most people pass it by. That one book that came out a year or two ago put more pressure on the stream though..I can't remember the name of the book. But after it's publication I definitely met/talked to people that specifically referenced that book and they were from a few hours away. Oh well. I don't mind sharing.

 

[Tups]

To answer TB's question: There are two Class A sections on Kish.
Section 5 begins UPS of Tea Creek and ends at the Penn Central Bridge. This is the RR Bridge behind the steel plant in Burnham.
Section 6 begins at the same bridge and runs DS to the Mill Street Bridge in Lewistown. The Mill St bridge is very near the Electric Ave. Exit off Rt 322 - just DS of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Finger Lickin Good.
Section 5 is definitely stocked by PAFBC. I'm not sure about Section 6.
I fish that river a lot, and admit I cringe when I see Jifigz' reports. But my admission is in no way a censure.

 

[jifigz]

Tups wrote:
To answer TB's question: There are two Class A sections on Kish.
Section 5 begins UPS of Tea Creek and ends at the Penn Central Bridge. This is the RR Bridge behind the steel plant in Burnham.
Section 6 begins at the same bridge and runs DS to the Mill Street Bridge in Lewistown. The Mill St bridge is very near the Electric Ave. Exit off Rt 322 - just DS of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Finger Lickin Good.
Section 5 is definitely stocked by PAFBC. I'm not sure about Section 6.
I fish that river a lot, and admit I cringe when I see Jifigz' reports. But my admission is in no way a censure.

Section 6 is not stocked and hasn't been since as long as I can remember. It has always been class A. Sorry, I'll stay more tight lipped about the stream. Lol. I'm just teasing..there aren't MANY secret spots anymore and Kish is certainly no secret. Joe Armstrong gave the stream a good solid nod in his book from the 80's. Notice that I never say where on the stream I am and I take generic pictures with just fish. Shoot, I rarely ever even touch a trout. It is all hands off.

I'm just trying to keep this forum active. You can only bicker about the same things over and over. At least steam reports, while also repetitive, offer an insight on what's been happening on the water recently.

 

[MKern]

My only complaint about moving to/living in Mifflin County is the lack of brookie fishing.

I know it exist and I have spend years bush-wacking through rhodo and laurel but it's not the same as back in Lycoming county.

Maybe it's more rewarding, but it is almost too difficult at times.

Plus a lot of the good brookie water is on private land.
However, I will now shut my mouth because the "regular" streams are not too shabby.

Even though I am all for sharing information to protect streams, there is one stream in Mifflin County that I will not name. Every fisherman knows about it (and some of us have discussed it), but no one mentions it out loud here. Thank goodness. It should stay that way because it's better than the rest of the streams here.

 

[jifigz]

MKern wrote:

Even though I am all for sharing information to protect streams, there is one stream in Mifflin County that I will not name. Every fisherman knows about it (and some of us have discussed it), but no one mentions it out loud here. Thank goodness. It should stay that way because it's better than the rest of the streams here.

You've already said too much.....but I wouldn't say it's better.....just different. But there is one brookie stream that I ADORE in this county that is mostly all on public ground. And Easy Licking Creek holds it's own too in my eyes. I actually love that stream.

 

[Highstickdrifter]

I'm guessing spell check changed "East" to "Easy" Licking, which sounds like a totally different forum subject, lol!

 

[Mike]

When I was on a crew surveying a few stocked and wild trout stream sections in Mifflin Co back in 1976, we found brook trout populations and mixed brook and brown trout populations. Has that changed in Havice and Treaster? Isn’t Laurel Run a brook trout stream above Laurel Rn Res? I never surveyed it, but it looked like it had potential.

 

[jifigz]

Havice and Treaster are both still mixed wild brookies and browns..Laurel Run is a brookie stream. spot on accurate Mike.

 

[jifigz]

Highstickdrifter wrote:
I'm guessing spell check changed "East" to "Easy" Licking, which sounds like a totally different forum subject, lol!

Dang spellcheck when I'm quickly replying from the phone can be annoying.

 

[troutbert]

jifigz wrote:
And Easy Licking Creek holds it's own too in my eyes. I actually love that stream.

I fished East Licking Creek again this year, and it was pretty nice.

There was a big tree fallen across the creek and its floodplain. I was getting ready to climb over the tree when I stopped because I saw something on top of it.

On closer examination it was a big yellow phase rattlesnake.

So I found another option to get around the tree.

It's a nice stream, but I think its brook trout population would be higher if stocking was ended in the state forest section.

 

[jifigz]

Troutbert, no doubt that without stocking it would be a better wild brookie stream. The stocked rainbows hold over in there with ease and displace the brookies I assume. With that said, however, I still catch a lot of brookies and some nice ones in there. They at least should stop putting stocked brookies over the wild ones. I'd hate for the stockie genes to get in with the wilds, but it's probably already happened by this point. Also, anything above the pipeline I've never had much luck in..but from the pipeline down is just simply fantastic angling..one of my favorite mtn streams around and surprisingly deep in places with some steep drop offs from the bank.

 

[MKern]

I do like Havice and Treaster. I have fished Laurel above the reservoir and it was tiny and the rhodo was think. Same with Lingle.

East Licking needs more wilds to be worth my trip.

I just miss higher gradient, large plunge pools every 50 feet type of streams.

 

[jifigz]

MKern wrote:
I just miss higher gradient, large plunge pools every 50 feet type of streams.

Yeah, we are lacking in that type of habitat.

I'd rather have larger limestone influenced streams than tons of tiny, plunge pool brookie streams.

 

[BlueShirts]

I moved to the lewistown area around a year and a half ago. Fished all of the streams reported on here and totally agree with the statements being made. Great county to fish/live in. Some really nice water and healthy trout populations and nice scenery to put the cherry on top.

Does anyone belong to the TU chapter around here? I ran into one of their officers at a restaurant in reedsville and he said they have meetings at the YMCA in Burnham. I forgot to ask for more info but just wondering.

 

[jifigz]

I'm not a member but the local chapter is the Penns Creek chapter. Look em' up and you'll find more info.

 

[riverwhy]

One thing that concerned me was all the logging going on in the Havice and Treaster drainages. I am not anti-logging but is seems pretty extreme. It also looks like they now spray logged areas with herbicide. it just looked weird with the lack of underbrush and multiflora rose. Can anyone shed any light on this? Impact on the streams? We even noticed one persons HEAVILY spraying in front of the Bald Eagle Forest sign to make sure everyone can read it for the NEXT TEN YEARS. We really thought the guy was just emptying his tank. Ridiculous.

 

[MKern]

I don't know where the TU meetings are heald, but the Y makes sense because they hat Trout in the Classroom tank in the lobby.

A poorly maintained tank though. In the last week they lost probably 95-98% of the fry.
The aquarium is always very cloudy (sign of a bacteria bloom, typically as a result of an increase in ammonia and nitrates). And typically a foul "fish-tank" odor.

Both signs that poor maintenance is happening with the system.

 

[markp]

Cannot comment 100% on those areas, however in general the Central PA region is being heavily harvested to get some commercial value out of all the dead ash along those ridges. The spraying is a little more controversial as I prefer a lot of shrubby undergrowth, but it is probably being done to ensure it does not become overrun with fern. It is hard to be completely sure if a cut in that area will comeback as fern or not so there is often preemptive spraying done. I would prefer that this practice was only done when necessary.

 

[Dave_W]

markp wrote:
Cannot comment 100% on those areas, however in general the Central PA region is being heavily harvested to get some commercial value out of all the dead ash along those ridges. The spraying is a little more controversial as I prefer a lot of shrubby undergrowth, but it is probably being done to ensure it does not become overrun with fern. It is hard to be completely sure if a cut in that area will comeback as fern or not so there is often preemptive spraying done. I would prefer that this practice was only done when necessary.

Interesting. Thanks for the heads-up.

 

[Dagored154]

The herbicide treatments are being conducted to kill non-native vegetation. The goal is to have native vegetation growing on the land and putting native plant residue in the streams. non-native plants do nothing for PA native insects and fish. The other goal is to grow more native trees like oak and red maple seedlings.