Slab Cabin Run; Rauchtown Run

[Wild_Trouter]

Crossed over Slab Cabin on Atherton St. early this morning by the IHOP. The creek bed is dry from the IHOP upstream. Save for one small spring that enters along Branch Rd.- the creek is in horrible shape down through the golf course and all points south. I visited friends up by Ravensburg State Park yesterday and Rauchtown Run has almost zero flow. Its Class A tribs are bone dry. Depressing.

 

[wildtrout2]

Yep, unfortunately I think you'll see that scenario being played out in many areas of the state. It really is worse than I had thought it would be. Very sad.

 

[midnightangler]

My understanding was that the golf course and other development ruined the upper section of slab cabin. More recently Thompson run was the only trib that really carried good flow throughout the year. Consequently, the fishing in Slab Cabin was only worthwhile below Millbrook Marsh, in my experience.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

It's all over the state. Lakes and ponds are many feet below normal lots of streams drying up.

I don't believe it to be all rain related either. It's only gonna get worse.

 

[Wild_Trouter]

Slab Cabin was good almost its entire length not too long ago. I caught many fish well upstream of the golf course throughout this past Spring when flows were much better. With what I saw today, I doubt I will give it a go there again for at least a year assuming that conditions in the watershed improve. Hell, upper Spring Creek in Boalsburg is in dire straights too. I agree with Sal in that this is not all rainfall related. Increased development in the State College area has gone up exponentially in the last decade. I live there and the demands placed on the water supply is mind boggling.

 

[BrookieChaser]

Unfortunately the demand on the State College water supply is only going to increase.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Urban sprawl certainly is culprit number one but I also would be willing to bet there are more culprits.

 

[troutbert]

In some places urban sprawl, pumping for industry, ag etc. obviously reduces flows.

But in other places, where the watersheds that are nearly all forested, these factors are not present.

For example Kettle Creek and Young Womans Creek. And Rauchtown Creek, which was mentioned in the OP.

These watersheds, and many others in PA, are mostly forested, with little development. And the water got very low this year.

In these types of forested watersheds, if you think there are other factors involved, other than lack of rain (drought) please state what you think those factors are.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Just going off my gut Dwight, but I would research water withdrawals for fracking and how many wells are drilled in a watershed. Logic tells me that if quarries that dig deeper than an aquifer cause the water to run down deeper so would these wells. Blasting also does no good.

http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/publications/waters/hdraulic-impacts-of-quarries.pdf

Other culprits:
http://www.npr.org/2014/10/29/359875321/as-infrastructure-crumbles-trillions-of-gallons-of-water-lost

https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-04/documents/epa816f13002.pdf

And
http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/about_freshwater/importance_value/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/16/new-nasa-studies-show-how-the-world-is-running-out-of-water/


http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/worlds-fresh-water-supply-running/

Im sure if you keep researching you will find more reasons.

Urban sprawl, agriculture using 70%, population increasing, less rain in areas than historically, mis management of water use by private wells, poor water infrastructure leaking, water withdrawals for fracking, fracking through aquifers to remove gas, etc etc etc.

So many reasons, too many people and only so much water...

 

[sarce]

I heard Roaring Run (Slab Cabin Trib) dried up as well. That in itself is a huge loss if true. It was just added to the class A brookie list, I've had 50 fish days there with fish up to 12". My avatar was caught there.

That upper section of slab cabin produced my 3 biggest trout from that stream. One of which was a 17" wild rainbow. Also caught a 12" brookie there, probably washed down from roaring run but still. What a shame, but it may bounce back thanks to being connected to spring creek with no dams blocking movement.

 

[troutbert]

sarce wrote:
I heard Roaring Run (Slab Cabin Trib) dried up as well. That in itself is a huge loss if true. It was just added to the class A brookie list, I've had 50 fish days there with fish up to 12". My avatar was caught there.

That upper section of slab cabin produced my 3 biggest trout from that stream. One of which was a 17" wild rainbow. Also caught a 12" brookie there, probably washed down from roaring run but still. What a shame, but it may bounce back thanks to being connected to spring creek with no dams blocking movement.

Who do you think is stocking up there? I don't think the PFBC stocks Slab Cabin Run.

I doubt if Roaring Run went totally dry up in the mountains.

It commonly goes dry where it flows down into the valley. Like many streams in the region coming off the mountains, they sink partially or completely where the water hits the limestone.

 

[sarce]

TB as far as I know, all the fish I ever caught in that watershed were wild.

As for roaring run, a friend tried to fish the headwaters above the parking lot recently and sent me pictures of a mostly dry stream bed with a few stagnant shallow puddles. That's not development causing that up there. That's drought.

Edit: want to be clear I'm only talking about roaring run in the mountains above. Development certainly impacts slab cabin in a pretty bad way.

 

[vealboy]

I fished Rauchtown Cr in the SP 10/23/16.The stream above Gottshall Run was very low and below was flowing good as was Gottshall Run.There is a decent spring which was flowing good and made the stream fishable.First 2 pics Rauchtown in Sp.#3 where the 2 streams meet,#4 Rauchtown above Gottshall,#5 the spring and the rest are Gottshall.Finally getting some rain here,going to hit Valley Cr tomorrow.

 

[Wild_Trouter]

Take a ride up there now- it looks NOTHING like that. Stagnant pools just a few inches deep.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Are you guys getting any of this rain?

 

[Wild_Trouter]

I don't think we got too much. I was on Spring Cr. this morning. I think most of the rain moved through overnight. There was no change to Spring's flow that I could see. Gin clear and very low. On the brightside, there were redds and fish paired up everywhere.

 

[melvinthefisherman]

Im from Philly and currently attending Penn state. I mainly use a spinning rod but have been slowly transitioning to the fly as the water temp drops. Within in the past month I have fished slab cabin and roaring run. So far this fall I have fished most of Slab Cabin and it fishes nicely. On Tuesday I caught 20 trout an in an hour on a spinner. With the fly it has been tough tho. My fly casting is vastly inferior to my spinning casting so I have difficulty getting close enough to cast without spooking the fish when using the fly. The low flows certainly do not help.

I fished roaring run in the mountains and it was very low. It was bone dry downstream. I only caught a handful of tiny tiny brookies. The stream was extremely low.

Im heading out tonight with the fly rod to practice my nymphing but I have not decided where yet.

 

[sarce]

Melvin that's a pretty good catch rate, much better than I ever did on flies there. I assume you're fishing downstream from the upper section we're discussing that dried up? I broke out my old spinning rod a few times while I was at PSU.

 

[brookieaddict]

This must be your first fall fishing attempt.

 

[nymphingmaniac]

From the CDT today:
Ferguson Township supervisors hear update on Spring Creek Watershed monitoring project

The average flow leaving Spring Creek through Milesburg Gap is about 150 million gallons per day, Yoxtheimer said. In the Spring Creek Watershed, about 15 million gallons per day are withdrawn by the water authorities, the university, private wells and industry.

“We’re taking about 10 percent of the water and using it, and ultimately most of it’s going back to the stream via wastewater treatment plant discharges or spray irrigation,” he said.

Every year, the committee produces a report about the project with a given theme; this year’s is geology, he said.


Read more here: http://www.centredaily.com/news/local/article120728358.html#storylink=cpy


http://springcreekmonitoring.org/index.html