Quittapahilla Creek, Lebanon Co., 6/27/11

[Biggie]

Hit the Quittie this afternoon from about 1-5. The flow is up a little from normal and the water had a little color to it. Fishing was good with all fish coming on a beadhead prince size 16. I was in the park area and the fish all had decent weight to them. Saw very few risers and no bug activity to speak of. Didn't take the WT but it seemed cool.

 

[Angled]

pcray had intersting reply on Penns Cr thread about trout movement from
http://www.fish.state.pa.us/images/fisheries/info_sheets/trout_movement.pdf

The Quittie was stocked heavily last week. Wonder if some fish migrated up into the park since a few miles is nothing for rainbows to swim. Temp was 61 last week. There is also trout in Swatara with temp at 65, they probably move back into Quittie when it gets too warm.

 

[csoult]

Of note from that study is that none of the fish moved upstream. There was one that went downstream and then up a trib but none went up all down. Not sure if that is always the case but in that study it was.

 

[Swattie87]

The study references preseason stocking in cold water (mid 30's I believe). I wonder if there would be a difference in the movement pattern with a later in season stocking when the water is warmer? I think we can all agree they move, but it would be interesting to know where and how they move when the water is warmer. Clearly if they're stocked in water that is marginally too warm they'll search for cooler water - this usually means upstream, so I could see that happening potentially in the right circumstances. The PFBC doesn't usually do later in season stockings on waters that are marginal though, for obvious reasons.

The Quittie may not be a great case study for this since it stays pretty cold throughout it's length, and if they were stocked into water with a temp in the low 60's, you could probably rule out water temp as the reason they moved.