Locust Creek, Schuylkill County, 4/2/2011

[njk3395]

My apologies for posting this 2 days late, but have been busy fishing for the weekend. Started here in the morning, got 6 or 7 right off the bat in the morning on Pheasant Tails. Once the crowd died down, wandered around a bit, got 3 more stockies and five wild trout all on a San Juan. From here, went to the the Little Schuylkill DHALO. Relatively no bug activity, but still managed to nymph up two nice fish. Lastly, hit up Cold Run to finish my day. People were everywhere, So just found a spot where there was no cars, and managed 5 tiny brookies. Overall, not too bad of an opening day.

 

[sholgate]

I love all three of those streams. Thanks for the report. Hope to get up there in a few weeks after it is "fished out."

 

[jrflyfish]

I fished locust creek too on 4/2/11 late morning 'cause i worked the night before. There were bait chuckers everywere. I picked up 12 or so all on b.h. hares ears and pheasant tails. Most of the day was enjoyable except for all the guys bitchin that the pfbc don't stock enough fish and how $32 for a fishing lisc. is way too much for a whole year of enjoyment. But I guess if I only fished the first day of the season I would complain about this too.
Anyone have thoughts on this. Just wondering

 

[jrflyfish]

I fished locust creek too on 4/2/11 late morning 'cause i worked the night before. There were bait chuckers everywere. I picked up 12 or so all on b.h. hares ears and pheasant tails. Most of the day was enjoyable except for all the guys bitchin that the pfbc don't stock enough fish and how $32 for a fishing lisc. is way too much for a whole year of enjoyment. But I guess if I only fished the first day of the season I would complain about this too.
Anyone have thoughts on this. Just wondering

 

[jdaddy]

jrflyfish wrote:
Most of the day was enjoyable except for all the guys bitchin that the pfbc don't stock enough fish and how $32 for a fishing lisc. is way too much for a whole year of enjoyment. But I guess if I only fished the first day of the season I would complain about this too.
Anyone have thoughts on this. Just wondering

Buy a single day license obviously.

 

[njk3395]

Locust and cold run are both amazing streams, good number of wilds.. Plenty of stickies to be caught after the tons of powerbait runs it's course through the stream.

 

[freestoned123]

Fished on Locust in the morning, picked up a good number of stockies. We then headed to the confluence of locust and little schuykill did very well from there down to paradise hole. Caught some nice brown on the Schuykill, any thoughts on whether or not the Schuykill around this area has a popluation of wild fish? Thanks!

 

[Squaretail]

Buy a single day license obviously.

The PFBC foresaw this and do not allow the single day until later in the season. Resident or not.

 

[tomgamber]

...or for 32 dollars you can sit here for three hours on the third Saturday in April. I'll take the stream.

 

[pcray1231]

It's quite high for those who fish only 1 or 2 days per year, I understand those complaints, and I'm not one of these guys who thinks these guys shouldn't be fishing at all. They're out enjoying it just like us, and for a myriad of different reasons, they just don't do it as often.

It's quite low for avid fishermen.

Tough spot for the PFBC. The most fair way to do it would be to charge per hour or per day of use. But I see no viable way to do that.

 

[ryguyfi]

tomgamber wrote:
...or for 32 dollars you can sit here for three hours on the third Saturday in April. I'll take the stream.

you couldnt pay me 32 dollars to go to a bucco's game. No I'm not a Pittsburgh bandwagon jumper and only root for the good teams... just dislike baseball.

 

[albud1962]

I never understood the meat fishing logic. They seemed shocked that the streams were all fished out and the trout were scarce. Meanwhile I saw many 4 or 5 fish stringers.

I also heard complaints about small fish and not enough of them. I fished near Harrisburg opening day and while I did well, I struggled for double digits.Surprisingly I caught more wild trout than stocked which I suppose is a good thing. Depends on where you were at though.

On Sunday I went fishing near Allentown and I caught over 50 including two large trout over 19". I was quite happy to see the catch and release ethic prevalent at the Allentown Creeks which added greatly to my fishing enjoyment on Sunday. Kudos to the Allentown spin and bait fishermen who were gracious enough to release their catch so others may enjoy great fishing!

 

[Mike]

Quote:


jrflyfish wrote:
Most of the day was enjoyable except for all the guys bitchin that the pfbc don't stock enough fish and how $32 for a fishing lisc. is way too much for a whole year of enjoyment. But I guess if I only fished the first day of the season I would complain about this too.
Anyone have thoughts on this. Just wondering

You were in the wrong neck of the woods if you did not want to hear that type of talk!

 

[NJAngler]

Locust Creek and Cold Run are two streams that shouldn't be stocked. They hold enough wild fish to provide a decent fishery(in most years: both suffer from low flows most summers so rainfall is a HUGE limting factor ). The fact that those poor native and wild trout have to suffer through the opening day onslaught AND share space/food/cover with stocked trout year after year is ridiculous. These are exactly the type of streams that should be managed better. Hopefully with the push to further protect wild trout in Pa, streams like this will no longer be stocked so the wild and native trout can try reaching their full potentials. I for one will be glad to see the crowds and the trash they leave behind go away. Whatever would be stocked in them just toss into larger and less fragile trout streams or lakes. I think the Area Fisheries Manager would agree with me on this. What do you say Mike K.?

As for a license, I pay an out of state fee and still think we all get off very cheap compared to other things. I go out at least 100X a year for bass or trout so I definitely get my $ worth. I don't keep a single fish either - all C&R. If they charged $150 per year, it would still be fair. I wish they would because they could use that money for things like buying/leasing riparian land and/or spend it on stream improvement.

NJA

 

[Mike]

If and when Class B stream sections presently in the stocking program are no longer permitted to be included in the trout stocking program, these streams will most likely be candidates for removal. The previous discussion about the lack of legal brookies and the low density of other wild brook trout in Cold Run's stocked section just prior to opening day suggests that the stocking program would have minimal impact there, as would the very low stocking rate, the use of rainbow trout, which can be quickly harvested from cold water, and the very limited movement of rainbows from the four stocking locations in Cold Run. Quickly harvest the stocked trout and most stocked trout anglers will head elsewhere.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Quickly harvest the stocked trout and most stocked trout anglers will head elsewhere.

Dont stock it and they go else where even faster. ;-) just sayin.....

 

[njk3395]

I agree these areas shouldn't be stocked, every time I go to them on opening day I see dead wild brooks and browns. They have both a wild trout fishery that is dense enough to be enjoyed by anglers. If and when stocking of these streams stops, the wild trout population can only go up

 

[Mike]

njk3395 stated : If and when stocking of these streams stops, the wild trout population can only go up

Response: I disagree. There are not guarantees in this regard. As we have discussed before in Pa freestone brook trout populations have generally responded favorably to termination of stocking, but not all have responded favorably. Northkill Creek in my region did not. The population was Class B when stocking was terminated; it briefly improved to a very low Class A and then precipitously declined to a high Class C. As for the termination of stocking over Class A wild freestone brown trout populations, of the 40 test streams, biomass increased in 20, decreased in 16, and stayed the same in 4. With freestone brown trout streams stocking termination responses are, in effect, a crap shoot: about 50% go up and 50% go down..

 

[NJAngler]

Please don't misunderstand me. Weather and climate control trout pops much more than angling pressure/harvest ever could. I have fished stocked waters that hold wild fish going back thirty years. Some stocked waters are quite good for wilds despite 50+ years of stocking. Cold Run on more than one occasion has produced in excess of 50 wild trout in one day as has Locust Creek. These are of course "best days" and not the norm but goes to show their potential given a few consecutive years of good precip, temps and high survival rates of YOY fish. My point is these waters are only fished and known because of the stockings otherwise they'd be barely talked about or fished(which would be a good thing). Its not like there is a lack of trout fishing opportunities nearby for stocked fish so why these streams need to be seems odd.

Trout pop estimates can vary widely from year to year and even season to season so I see the PFBC surveys as insufficient data. A class "C" stream can easily rise to class "A" status for a year or two just as a class "A" can fall to class "C" status for a year or two. A severe flood or drought or hot spell can really zap a population. Similarly 2 or 3 years of good flows and temps can have many streams teeming with wild trout. I've have fished some class "A" streams where some years 15 trout is my best day and fished class "C" or even "D" streams where I'll get 50, 75 even a hundred wild trout in a day. Trying to categorize an ever changing and fluctuating entity like a trout stream is nearly impossible. Basically it boils down to two categories - wild trout present and wild trout not present. Start there and then proceed with where to stock.

 

[njk3395]

If locust and cold run were unstocked, they would be untouched except for fly anglers. There would be no stocked bows eating brookies. And, anglers wouldn't be killing the wilds. Idk, I think cold run is the main concern. It is loaded with wilds, every hole or pocket water has wild fish. Locust creek isn't nearly as dense.