Stewart Run Lancaster County 4/5/09

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Today Spectorfly and I decided to do something different. Sometime ago i lost faith and loyality in the ATW streams and moved on to wild trout fishing. Wild trout fishing makes up 99 percent of my fishing experience. I had grown sick of going to ATW's only to find no fish in the stream fairly early into the season and also sick of finding them to the nearest road access. Today was the day to see if things could be different. We fished 4 streams today, this is the first of the four.

We arrived at Stewart Run in the early AM right at the top of the stocked section. We both found something very funny when we pulled off the road. There was a very old man with a walker, bucket and rod making his way across the cow pasture. It looked very funny as he slowly made his way. I have to applaud him though. That is going to be me someday. Ill never give up trout fishing and looks like he wont either. I think him and his partner limited out and were done for the day. I still dont understand how he made it passed all the cattle fencing. I didnt get to see that part but this man was obviously determined.

We found fish right in the first hole downstream of the upper limit. About 20 of them. We caught our share and headed downstream a very good distance. Stewart Run is very shallow and lacks holding water. Iam very surprised they stock this stream at all. We didnt see another fish until we found a hole way downstream. It held 3 trout and that was it. I was very disappointed.

I will note that there is a wild trout section on this stream downstream of our location. Someday soon I want to explore that area and see what I turn up. In my honest opinion, dont go to this stream to catch stocked fish. It just isnt worth the effort. I dont see myself returning to this stretch of stream, EVER.

The stream is pretty and where we stopped it was getting even prettier. We stopped at some point in the woods.

Some of the pics came out good.
How did that old man get around all those fences!
Stewart Run above stocked section
Stewart Run
Spectorfly on Stewart Run
I loved this pic!

For those interested in fishing for the stocked section by all means go. Here is a link that talks about below where we were. Have fun!
park

 

[salmonoid]

If you walk in from the bottom side (parking lot for the park and access to FFO section of West Branch of Octorara), there is a small section of the stream that tumbles through some nice boulders. The stretch from Wesley Road, upstream through the park, is the nicest and has the closest thing to trout habitat. The section from St. Catherine Drive, down through the meadow and into the woods, which appears to be where you fished, is typical Lancaster County farm stream..

Many years ago, I started opening day on Stewarts Run, at the boulders in the park. They apparently had floated the whole thing that year, since its a fair hike to get there, at least with a bucket of trout. Fished it maybe twice since then and the stocking was sub-par.