West Branch Octoraro Creek FFO Lancaster County 10/4/08

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Spectorfly and I fished the WB today for the first time in along time. The water was cold and the air was very chilly this morning. We fished from about 8:30 - 12. Saw some cream midges in the air and yellow craneflies. Sounds promising doesnt it?

As we worked a very long section of stream from Stewart Run down to a point.....we were left wondering......Where the heck are the fish?!?! Didnt they stock this creek for fall stocking? The answer came to us as we ran into a fellow fly angler. According to his account he was there during the stocking process. The PFBC told him that because of poaching through the woods they werent going to bother stocking the FFO section through that stretch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!!! :-x

Have we accepted the presence of this illegal activity enough to allow it to hinder the enjoyment of the outdoors for others?!?! Here in Lancaster County we dont have many good streams. The WB could very well be our best special regulation area.....especially with the decline of Donegal Creek. So why are we going to let poachers take it from us? I got an idea....instead of accepting it...why dont the PFBC (knowing about the illegal activity) DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! This got my blood boiling today. In all actuality it sounds more like the PFBC was to dang lazy to drop the ham sandwiches in thier hand to crawl over a guard rail and dump in some buckets here and there.

I would like to know as a paying lincese holder where did those fish allocated to that section go? They spend so much time pleasing the majority of the angling public( and I have to accept that) but now they are affecting my fishing by not giving the FFO section all the fish it was deserving. WHICH I PAID FOR!

Im mad as hell about it.......over half the FFO section is worthless as of right now. Thats PFBC. Thanks :-x

Anyways...i caught about 10 fish in the lower section and did see a very very large Rainbow. Probably 25 inches or bigger. He saw me also. Spectorfly caught a few. Shame we wasted half our fishing time.....trying to find where they stocked the creek. :-x

 

[Mike]

Sal,
If what you were told is true....that only certain segments were stocked due to poaching elsewhere...then those segments received the full allocation of trout for the fly area. In other words, those segments received very heavy stockings. The stream's allocation was not cut due to poaching, but the distribution of those fish may have been concentrated in a few locations based upon what the individual told you. If you wish to inquire about the matter, contact the regional law enforcement office at Elm. Decisions regarding where to stock or where not to stock within an approved trout section of stream are made 99% of the time by the Waterways Conservation Officers. An assortment reasons why traditional stocking points are dropped from any particular stocking day are possible. Poaching problems are only one of a host of reasons; however, I have to say that I have only heard of poaching problems preventing the use of a stocking point when stocking is occurring before the opening day. I have not heard of this during inseason stockings, which include fall stockings.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Mike,

Certainly I can understand why you are saying what you are saying. I can tell you 2 things for sure.......there most certainly isnt that many fish in the section that they stocked. It is a short section of stream and would be teaming with trout if that was so. It just wasent. Also its about time the WCO's starting taking responsibility for catching the poachers in SEPA. Seems to me they have a good chance to get them here based on the fact that they know this area is a problem for it. To just simpily NOT stock a special reg area....based on poaching....is unacceptable.

 

[JustFish]

salvelinusfontinalis wrote:
Mike,

Certainly I can understand why you are saying what you are saying. I can tell you 2 things for sure.......there most certainly isnt that many fish in the section that they stocked. It is a short section of stream and would be teaming with trout if that was so. It just wasent. Also its about time the WCO's starting taking responsibility for catching the poachers in SEPA. Seems to me they have a good chance to get them here based on the fact that they know this area is a problem for it. To just simpily NOT stock a special reg area....based on poaching....is unacceptable.

I only fished this stream once. I heard the same thing from a guy that was there...he said that there weren't that many fish. Although I went thirty yards down stream and had a blast and caught a bunch. Some spots get pretty deep and ya gotta dredge bottom!!!!!