Tulpehocken Creek, Berks Co., 2/28/09

[dave1432]

Well I got out to fish after work today at 2:30. I fished above the road to nowhere bypass. A good amount of fish were stocked, I would have helped but I had school. I walked to check out the paper mill but it was PACKED. I nymphed the stretch with san juan worms, eggs, and sucker spawn above the bypass and fished a special wooly bugger I tie with lots of flash for freshly stocked trout. The flow was about 155cfs and slightly off colored. I was hammering them, got 9 fat rainbows, no fingerlings which surprised me. The air temp. was about 44 degrees and the water temp. was about 38 degrees. There were a few midges coming off but I didn't see any fish coming to the surface. I fished until 5:30 and had a great day.

 

[albud1962]

They aren't stocking fingerlings anymore.

 

[TDB]

yes, they still stock fingerlings. Not as many and just down low.

 

[HuntinFool]

i hit the a few sections a few weeks ago and caught the fingerlings and some suckers

 

[albud1962]

I spoke with the Fish warden on Sunday and I was mistaken. Supposedly they are studying to determine what the decline in the fishery could be. I saw a blue heron gobbling up a trout so I know that maybe one cause( the last couple of times I was there I saw multiple herons). I was fishing jigs and then flies. I caught a few on the jigs but nothing great until I switched to a bead head walts worm. The action was pretty good for about an hour then the fish turned off. These fish are most certainly doomed. Many were only a foot from shore and didn't seem to move even when I waded upstream.

 

[Woolybugger]

If you love the trout, then why not dispose of the stinkin' herons?
A crossbow is silent. Set some traps where the trout eating birds walk and club them and throw them in the bushes.
Or, carry a compact 22 pistol when you go fishing.
Every heron eats a half dozen small trout every day, and when you see a lot...... they are eating pretty good.
If you smash the barbs on your flies and catch and release only, then why not help the trout even more? And don't tell me that it's against the law. If the laws have to be changed, maybe someday they will...... but now it's up to the dedicated anglers who have to do the right thing.

 

[jayL]

Woolybugger wrote:
If you love the trout, then why not dispose of the stinkin' herons?
A crossbow is silent. Set some traps where the trout eating birds walk and club them and throw them in the bushes.
Or, carry a compact 22 pistol when you go fishing.
Every heron eats a half dozen small trout every day, and when you see a lot...... they are eating pretty good.
If you smash the barbs on your flies and catch and release only, then why not help the trout even more? And don't tell me that it's against the law. If the laws have to be changed, maybe someday they will...... but now it's up to the dedicated anglers who have to do the right thing.

 

[albud1962]

First of all, I don't have $10,000 dollars laying around to pay for killing one of those, nor am I advocating any one do so. Maybe there are some other options for maintaining the fishery. Do I have the answers? I have some ideas but I am not a biologist and I merely stated an observation. Even though I enjoy catching stocked fish I believe ultimately the focus of the fish commission should be restoring habitat and not stocking. Controlling runoff and erosion from agriculture will do more for fish stocks than mashing down the barb on a fly.

 

[Woolybugger]

albud,

Please don't take this wrong, but you don't have to do everything everyone tells you.
If you see a problem, you don't have to ask a biologist or a game warden as to what to do.
Maybe the game warden is a bird lover? You should protect the trout, not the silly trout eating dirty birds.
It's almost like a flathead catfish or a sewer pipe going into your favorite stream..... you have to be a man and correct the problem.

JayL,
I don't understand the pic in your previous post. Am I a communist because I don't like the herons eating all the wild trout?

 

[jayL]

It was a reference to the revolutionary spirit of your post.

 

[albud1962]

Well I hate to waste or kill senselessly. Do you have any recipes for heron under glass?

 

[mute]

I prefer the ever so successful baseball bat to herons face technique. Im averaging 2-3 an outing.

 

[pcray1231]

Thanks for the report, Dave.

They stopped stocking fingerlings, then they had pressure to restart it, so last fall they stocked a limited number of fingerlings to "see how they do." Beautiful par marked rainbows, I might add. I haven't been out on the Tully in a few weeks, but last I knew they were in the 8" range and doing quite well, of course they haven't faced their first summer yet.

Albud, while I won't disagree with habitat improvement, its not like you're going to get a good wild population in the lower Tully. You have a dam that has only a limited cool water pool, they're stretched about as thin as it gets in making it last. You also have a stream that is low-gradient in an urban area. While you can improve the habitat, you can't make it "good." When you're given lemons, you make lemonade, and thats what stocking, fingerling or otherwise, attempts to do.

As for killing the birds, while I agree in principle I don't advocate anyone taking the law into their own hands. Its not worth the consequences. And if we all used the "take the law into your own hands" logic, you can come up with some crazy @$$ stuff people could do and be perfectly justified.

 

[albud1962]

Jayl I believe this is the photo you meant, not Che...

 

[Woolybugger]

"It was a reference to the revolutionary spirit of your post."

No prob, dude! I am a revolutionist!

Sometimes you have to do the right thing, even if it means breaking the law. If I see a heron or a cormorant, I'll wack the stinkin' thing. Nobodys gonna pay a 10K fine! especially me!! LOL If I see illegals catchin' fish without a license, I'll break their rods and throw them in the creek!
Enough of that, now it's back to "Death Wish" for this guy.

"What do you call people when faced with a problem who hide and don't do anything about it?" -- civilized? I don't think so!

 

[mute]

But if you throw them in the creek youll be hurting the streams habitat and littering.

 

[JackM]

If I understand what you are saying Woolybugger, it is OK to kill a Great Blue Heron or Cormorant in order to enhance your fishing experience. So, if I may extend this logic, an aquatic macroinvertebrate enthusiast would be justify in killing all of the wild trout to protect his favored species. Have you really given the slightest thought to what you are suggesting?

 

[Nuthin_Fancy]

This has to be one of the most ridiculous threads that I have seen on this site. Killing herons? Come on guys, get real.

 

[Acristickid]

Can one really get close enough to kil a heron with a bat?

Thanks for pointing out the obvious!

 

[tomgamber]

I usually don't even see them until I spook one from a 100 yds away.