On an unrelated note, I think the fact that the projects on Big Spring have made it more "wadable" are one of the factors contributing to the decline of rainbow trout there. Most people only watch for redds in the Fall, and unknowingly stomp all over them in the Spring. Years ago Big Spring was more of a "caster's stream" because you couldn't just jump in and high stick it.
Kish Creek, Mifflin County 7/7-7/8
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Wild_Trouter
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If you look at the Class A list, the PFBC now lists Trindle Spring as a brown trout fishery. The last time I fished there was back in 2009 so something obviously changed or it is a typo.
Wild_Trouter
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Staying on topic, I just fished Spring Creek last Friday aft/eve and caught two wild rainbows. The one still had parr marks on it, and the other was about 11" and well colored up as you would expect a wild fish to be. This was right in Spring Creek Park/Houserville. I also had another hooked in the Rock Rd. area that LDR'd me but not before I got a real good look at it. That fish was closer to 14". They are around for sure.
>>1. Do the wild Bows in the Smokies spawn in the Fall or Spring? (I honestly don't know.)>>
Back in the 80's when I was living on/off again in Charlotte and fishing the Blue Ridge, I ran into a North Carolina fisheries biologist on North Harper Creek, a mixed wild RT/BT fishery in the Pisgah NF.
I asked him the same question about RT spawning timing on the streams there. He said they had both spring and autumn spawners depending on the original source of the fish. Sometimes both in the same stream, but more often one or the other.
This isn't GSMNP, but its only 60-70 miles away, so its more than likely the same situation there.
I've always thought that the characteristics of the specific strains of Federally raised RT that were the seed fish in GSMNP also are in part an explanation for the scattering of wild RT pops in the ANF. These pops seemed to be confined to the western edge of the National Forest as well as the primary wild RT watershed down river a ways in Venango County. I think the same strain used in GSMNP was likely used when the Feds were doing the majority of stocking in the ANF. I also think, in the PA case, that there was some sort of dynamic at work with the proximity of the Pa streams to the main Allegheny. At least half of the small streams that come off the western edge of the ANF to empty into the river have or had at one time, at least measurable pops of wild RT.
But that's just my theory and I'd imagine almost everybody has one...🙂
Back in the 80's when I was living on/off again in Charlotte and fishing the Blue Ridge, I ran into a North Carolina fisheries biologist on North Harper Creek, a mixed wild RT/BT fishery in the Pisgah NF.
I asked him the same question about RT spawning timing on the streams there. He said they had both spring and autumn spawners depending on the original source of the fish. Sometimes both in the same stream, but more often one or the other.
This isn't GSMNP, but its only 60-70 miles away, so its more than likely the same situation there.
I've always thought that the characteristics of the specific strains of Federally raised RT that were the seed fish in GSMNP also are in part an explanation for the scattering of wild RT pops in the ANF. These pops seemed to be confined to the western edge of the National Forest as well as the primary wild RT watershed down river a ways in Venango County. I think the same strain used in GSMNP was likely used when the Feds were doing the majority of stocking in the ANF. I also think, in the PA case, that there was some sort of dynamic at work with the proximity of the Pa streams to the main Allegheny. At least half of the small streams that come off the western edge of the ANF to empty into the river have or had at one time, at least measurable pops of wild RT.
But that's just my theory and I'd imagine almost everybody has one...🙂
Plus big spring rainbows spawn in the fall
Maurice
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Um, the PFBC for decades in the lower reaches approved trout waters and in the ditch below the hatchery for years with escapees.
The PFBC stocked rainbow trout for many decades, maybe a century or more. Yet there was no rainbow population.
Then in fairly recent times, suddenly there was a rainbow population. So it seems unlikely that that rainbow population was a result of the PFBC continuing to stock their rainbows.
It's more likely that someone else stocked a different strain of rainbow.
MKern
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The fish commission used to stock a ton of fingerling bows in the kish every June. Usually right below lumber city at the duck pulloff.
The stopped because the put-take-grow fishery didn’t take off at all. Then they started stocking fingering bows in the reservoir one year and bows back in kish the next year. I believe the stocked the reservoir twice and ceased all fingering stocking. It has probably been for 5 years since the last fingerling stocking.
The stopped because the put-take-grow fishery didn’t take off at all. Then they started stocking fingering bows in the reservoir one year and bows back in kish the next year. I believe the stocked the reservoir twice and ceased all fingering stocking. It has probably been for 5 years since the last fingerling stocking.
albud1962
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I have caught wild rainbows at Spring Creek in the lower section. The state stocks fingerlings in Bald Eagle Creek and they run up to Spring. I think there is some limited reproduction as some of the small rainbows were less than 5".
A few years back the state was stocking fingerling rainbows in the Kish. The funny thing is most ran up Honey Creek as the water temps are a lot cooler there. I haven't fished Kish in awhile but think about stopping every time I drive over it to go to Spring Creek.
A few years back the state was stocking fingerling rainbows in the Kish. The funny thing is most ran up Honey Creek as the water temps are a lot cooler there. I haven't fished Kish in awhile but think about stopping every time I drive over it to go to Spring Creek.
I generally find that the temps on Kish and Honey are almost identical. Unless you get way up near the cave where Honey emerges, but overall Kish stays just as cold as Honey..
But yes, a lot of rainbow stockies run up into Honey..I've even caught some rainbow stockies pretty far up Tea Creek before..
But yes, a lot of rainbow stockies run up into Honey..I've even caught some rainbow stockies pretty far up Tea Creek before..
