Long Pine Run - Franklin Co. 9/12/09

[spectorfly]

Oh what a difference a summer makes. Last time there it was like a wild bookie hatchery. Every hole, riffle and pocket had fish in it.

Not this time. For some stupid reason they diverted the top fed outflow from Long Pine Res. to a bottom release area. You would think this would be good right? Not in this case.

The pool that was at the bottom of the old outflow that was about 6ft deep and LOADED with wild brookies was 2 ft deep and LOADED with bluegill. The rest of that channel down to where the water was now flowing was loaded with brookies before but now devoid of any water.

I caught 0 brookies from the outfolw all the way down to Rt. 233 and only saw 3 fish. Last time I lost count on how many I caught. I don't know what prompted them to change the outflow area but it literally killed the stream and brookie population.

 

[jayL]

That really sucks. How long had the dam been running as a top release? I would imagine they will recover when the ecosystem stabilizes, just as they did when the dam was originally built. It's certainly a bummer though. If you find anything about the progress, let us know.

 

[firandfeather]

I know what you mean. Two weeks back I fished above the park along the campground and noticed the same. Little brook trout, but stuck a 25+ inch carp. First time I have ever seen one there and that is the area I grew up.
Mike Heck

 

[spectorfly]

I just uploaded the pics to my myspace page. Compare the 2 trips in the pictures.
Jay, I'm not sure what the reason was to divert the outflow from the dam. I would like to know though. It's really hurt what was a great wild brookie stream at the moment. Man just can't seem to leave well enough alone.

 

[PSUFishMenace]

Seems like brookies have been having a lot of trouble lately. This, Big spring, and now my home stream brookie population has declined drastically.

I fished the stream near my house in late july or august, during low flows. Caught six natives including a 10" and counted at least 15 adults in a single deep pool. I fished the same stretch again Monday evening and something was wrong. It appears a recent flood wiped out 70-80% of the adults. This is a very small stream that is usually very low and clear, so you can see every single trout or minnow that isn't hiding in an undercut. In the pool that held 15+ adult brookies this summer I spotted only one 6-7" trout. I found very few in the other pools. I thought maybe they spread out to the pools that become too shallow in summer but flows were just as low Monday as they were in the summer, and the fact that I saw so few adults in the other pools means this was not the case. They have simply disappeared.

The pools appeared silted in and shallow for the most part, although a few actually got deeper since the last time I was there and from one of these pools I managed to catch a 6" native brookie. This was my first native brookie flyfishing and first trout on a dry but I was so disappointed in what I saw on the rest of the stream that I quickly forgot it. That was the only strike from an adult trout I had in 2 hours, in a stream where I usually can screw everything up and still catch 2-4 in the same amount of time. In some places it was obvious that very high water had come through recently, gravel bars were rearranged, log jams busted, brush bent downstream, etc. The pool I mentioned above, that held so many trout in summer, used to be 2 ft deep for most of its area, with a clean rock bottom, but now the deepest part is barely a foot deep and the entire bottom is covered in silt and tiny rocks.

I can only hope the stream can recover from this and improve quickly. with the development in the area I am worried that these events may be more common in the near future and I would hate to see these trout disappear. I hope the stream can restabilize some and the remaining trout can spawn before another flood wipes it out completely.

I did see a normal amount of fingerlings so there's hope for next year. This is such a shame though-not just on my stream but everywhere this kind of thing happens.

 

[firandfeather]

Hey Guys want some answers. Chambersburg Water Treatment Plant 717-352-7450. See if that works.

Mike

 

[salmonoid]

Curious if anyone ever found out an answer to this puzzle. I was out hiking the Rocky Knob Trail this past weekend, which overlooks the reservoir, and since it was fathers/children trip, I resisted the urge to put the fly rod in the pack. But, I had to wonder if Long Pine Run Reservoir held brook trout, and we saw the drained Chambersburg Reservoir on the way back to route 30. When I saw spectorfly's post in the spring, I thought for sure I'd like to try fishing Long Pine Run.

 

[Fishidiot]

Salmonoid,
I would say - as a very general observation and without naming specific streams - that brookie fishing, at least for me, has been very poor here in Adams Co this year. That seems counterintuitive considering the good flows and cool temps we had this summer. I hit one of my favorite streams in Michaux SF this week and couldn't catch a single trout (!) and this is a section where one could count on fish and what I traditionally have regarded as the best wild brookie fishing in this county. I have hit this section several times this year with the same result. The last decade has seen - based on my own unscientific observation - improved numbers of brookies around here but this year has been a real downer. I don't know what to attribute this to. Maybe my luck has just been bad but the more I look for brookies around here the more disappointed I am. The number of brookies across South Mountain has always been modest and sparse compared to what one can find upstate or down in VA but this year .... I just don't know.

As for Long Pine Lake - yes, I've heard of trout being caught there although I have only caught warm water species and I canoe/kayak this lake pretty frequently. However, it should be pointed out that I fish it mostly in summer with fly gear so probably don't fish deep enough. The lake has good potential due to it's high elevation and cold water but isn't stocked with any species of fish to my knowledge and doesn't seem to be regarded by the PFBC as promising. It doesn't have Big Bass regs either. While I haven't taken samples myself, word around here is that the lake is highly acidic (as are its tributaries) so this may explain its underutilized (in my view) status as a fishery. The old Chambersburg Res (AKA "Birch Run," now drained), while part of the same watershed, did produce what was for awhile a state record brook trout - and still holds the state record largemouth - so I would think there is potential.