Spruce Creek

ORIGINAL: SilverKype

The PAF&BC are finishing up their testing of the Penn State water this morning.  They are shocking the water for wild fish counts which began on the lower section at 9 a.m. yesterday morning.

I'll post the results when they become available. 

 
I'm anxious to see the results. I'm afraid they are not going to be good.

When does psu plan on releasing the results?

I mean 21 years, durb-a-dur.

PSU have water on a trib, I don't remember the name though.  There's a church up on 45 where you could ask and they'd likely let you.
 
You could try asking around, worst to happen is they say no.
 

There's an article about the fabulous Donny Beaver and his Spring Ridge Club in the June Field and Stream....just fyi....

drake-

They have not gotten back to me.  I'm going to give them some time before I start bugging. 

CWC has been throwing around the idea of putting a usgs gauge in.  Want to help?

Results:

Studied for the entire length. 

Brown trout -- 1,093, most if not all appear to be wild. 2-20 inches in length.

Rainbow trout -- 99, most if not all appear to be hatchery fish. 2-20 inches in length.

It has been ten years since these coordinators have studied Spruce Creek.

Nothing unusal was noticed.

A mayfly hatch was witnessed and trout were rising.

They did not take water samples.

They did not comment on the stocking of hatchery fish over Class A wild trout and feeding of fish.

I will comment tomorrow.

Shawn,
 
No, it was no Bachman.  No indicator hatches either.    Coffee beans maybe.
 
Anyway ..
 
1,093 is about the normal, so it appears the number of browns have remained the same.  I know there are more hatchery browns now and less wild fish but to what extent, I don't know.  With no browns found over 20 inches, could mean they only observed wild trout.  There are much much larger fish in there.  I do question their measurements though, mostly because the many of those rainbows are larger than 20 inches.
 
They did blame me for saying hatchery rainbows took over the upper section, which I did not.  I said hatchery fish .. and they have.  If I can't catch a wild fish because some pellet head eats my indicators as soon as it hits the water, then we've got a problem, at least from a fisherman's perspective.  They also mentioned that mayflies were observed and they acted like they assumed everything was fine with the hatches.  Because a mayfly hatch was observed does not mean fish waste is, or has not been, affecting the intensity of a particular hatch, all the while destroying some of the others along with the diversity of the stream.

With that being said, the SRC stocked area is still relatively new and seems to have only affected the far upper reaches of the PSU water .. so I guess time will tell.   I question how many of those wild trout came from the lower to mid sections where the stream is split. Also, how much time was spent at the upper end and was it compared to the other areas.  The PFBC do not seem too concerned.

The large document was recently taken off the web.  It was an outstanding study, with 20-30 pages of detail.  Here's all I could find.  I bet they were seeing olives.





WATER QUALITY NUTRIENT ANALYSIS OF SPRUCE CREEK, PENNSYLVANIA


TEETERS, Evan T., Geology, Juniata College, MATHUR, Ryan, Geology, Juniata College,  Huntingdon, PA 16652, and LEHMANN, David, Department of Geology, Juniata College, Huntington, PA 16652

Spruce Creek flows through seven miles of limestone bedrock in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. Being one of the premier trout fisheries in the state, Spruce Creek economically bolsters an otherwise agricultural economy. Several large farms, including the state's largest Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO), are found along the banks of the stream and have caused contention between farmers and sportsmen who are concerned about the health of the fishery. In order to monitor the health of the stream, we conducted a baseline study focusing on nitrates and phosphates, total dissolved solids, pH, temperature, and discharge.
Nitrate concentrations on Spruce Creek averaged between 9.0 and 11.0 ppm NO3. Phosphate concentrations averaged between 0.0 and 0.06 ppm PO4. Phosphate concentrations showed a direct relationship with discharge, while nitrate concentrations were primarily independent of discharge. These findings suggest a different source of the two nutrients entering the stream, which contradicts our initial assumption that agricultural runoff was the primary source for nutrients. Nitrate and phosphate concentrations were higher directly below farm areas than above, and tended to decrease with increasing distance from farms. Total dissolved solids also followed a similar trend.
For comparison purposes, the same baseline was also conducted upstream and downstream of the confluence of Spruce Creek and the Little Juniata River. Total dissolved solids below the confluence were 20.0 to 50.0 ppm higher than above the confluence, and nitrate concentrations were 40 percent higher below the confluence.  Phosphate concentrations did not differ considerably.

I fished this section last night.  I did catch a gorgeous rainbow about 12" -- pretty apparent it was wild.  That's likely a credit to Mr. Beaver I guess.  Lost one other fish.
 
The stream bottom was not slippy at all.  Huh.  That said, the difference is STILL obvious at the confluence of Spruce and the J.   SR must have changed tactics at the other property.
 
I did have one big pellethead come up and eat my indicator. 
 
With the water being the color and temp that it was, I expected a 20 + fish night .. but then I remembered that special someone.  Those days are long gone my friends.
As for hatches, ahh well, there was none.  Saw about 4-5 iso's, 1 sulpher (I saw a sulpher one Spruce Creek!!!!  ).  That being said, we're not right in the middle of some big hatch but Spruce used to always support decent bugs every day of the year.
 
Few fish rising.  What a disappointment this stream has become.  Because of Greed.
 
Well....   I've done all I could for this section of water.
 
The fish commission says nothing is wrong.  
 
The DEP says nothing is wrong and never responded to my request for a nitrate test after the fact.
 
Other local organizations  -- water "conversation" organizations aren't prepared to get involved.
 
maybe I just forogt how to catch fish this year.
 
There is a saying that goes something like this .. "there's never enough time to do it right, but there's always enough time to do it over."
 
Spruce Creek, one day will recover.  Mother Nature will have its way in time.  I'll likely be dead by then.

Lord forbid they would listen to people who have an intimate relationship with the streams...