Lititz Run and Little Conestoga, Lancaster County 12/13/2020

[JeffP]

I hit Lititz Run for a couple hours this morning. We fished the meadow up through to the nice holes that are now posted. These were always the best holes and were never posted before. We missed a couple in 2 hours but this stream has been slow as heck for me the last few time I hit it. I caught a chub and he caught a sunny. He stopped at the Little Conestoga (I think he was at Blue Rock Road) and caught to rainbows!! He believes that section isn't even stocked. Again, it is cool to catch holdover stockers in really marginal water especially this late in the year and after a brutal summer. Anyone had any experience with this stream and shocked by this? We fished buggers and mop flies. I will try to post a photo he sent me.

 

[Mike]

Blue Rock Rd, SR 999, crosses the Ltl Conestoga and the WBr Ltl Conestoga. The WBr flows into the Ltl a few miles downstream from 999. The Ltl Conestoga is miles upstream from 999, with the lower limit being Harrisburg Pk, not far from Park City Mall. Either stream, therefore, could have been the source of those fish.

The Ltl Conestoga has a number of very small springs throughout, but it still gets warm. The springs that are visible or the ones that may enter from the stream bottom may have enough flow to hold a couple of trout throughout the summer, but it is interesting and surprising that you found trout in that specific location. Nevertheless, a few years ago we electrofished starting at the mouth of the Ltl Conestoga in late summer and, if I recall correctly, found a RT about 100 yds upstream just before the generator died. The Ltl Conestoga is a limestoner and may be transitional in temperature regime, as we did not find an abundance of warmwater fish. The stream may hold more stocked trout longer into the summer or throughout the summer than one might expect when looking at it. Might pay you to do more exploring.

Finally, we electrofished the stream for about 300 yds just up from 999 upstream to the substantial low head dam four times, four weeks in a row, in spring, cir 1999. We were looking for blueback herring following a series of stockings a few yrs earlier. None was found and we did not capture or see any trout in any of those electrofishing runs.