Little Mahoning

my buddy went last week and said he didnt even see a fish, but they stock it on sunday so thats all about to change!

How big is this creek?

it is a nice sized creek in these months but it becomes very very low in the late summer... and as for the fish, they are stocking it this coming sunday

ya it is so nice to fish when the water level is decent... i have personally never seen any poachers or anything like that but when the water gets pretty low i am sure some raptors like the osprey or hawks can get the fish along with the herring and raccons and etc... i would personally say that the animals are most of the treat all because the water levels get so low...

IT fishes nothing like it use to
I have to get up their and try in again
FC

nope don't think that was me

they stocked it today, me and strats will be there bright in early in the am hopefully with some pictures to follow!

i slammed the trout on white woollies all morning in the fast water. they were spead out fairly well, whoever stocked the stream did a fine job speading the fish out. caught a yellow belly brown about 17". great day to be out sunday if you were able to put up with the rain.

the entire stream was float stocked, like double taper said the fish are everywhere!!!  The numbers of fish you can catch on this stream right now are unreal, makes it hard to take pics when you know you can throw your bugger out and have 3 or 4 brownies competing for it!

Fished the stream yesterday and did well.  Landed ten all on buggers except for two on green weenies. 
 

I been fishing Mahoning since I can remember I probably fish it on average 20-30 times a year depending on the water conditions and I can tell you how much it has changed over the years.  I beleive this used to be probably one of the top areas to fly fish for quite some time.  The creek has nice holes and holds fish over the summer months.  The fly project is pretty large and has some nice remote areas in it.  TU has done a nice job in taking floats to cover the stream over the years too. I have gone there before and caught large numbers of trout, even an occisional fish that was in the 25 inch range and it was not uncommon to see fish all through out the creek even in the summer months.  However, this has all changed within the last 10 years.  I can honestly say that I still advidly fish the stream but it is not nearly what it once was.  When the state claimed to put larger but fewer fish in, instead of brining three trucks to the creek only two would come and stock it. On average 8 buckets would go into a float with 3 being dumped off to the side at each hole.  In the March 2009 stocking 3 trucks came to the creek however, only 5 1/2  to 6 bucks went directly into the floats a cut back of nearly 5 bucks per stop.  I can honestly say that I havent seen a fish near 24 inches in the project area in over 9 years.  Sure its nice to catch them in the 17-19 range but it seems like this is even hard to come by anymore.  I have fished the stream several times this year, once being low I walked from the top of the project very far down not seeing a single fish.  Yes I know that some were probably hiding in different areas but truthfully in my years of fishing there I would always be able to find pockets of fish at least 2 or three together.  I have also fished other areas of the stream this year with out seeing fish or reciving strikes.  I dont mean to sound like a complainer, just someone who is very concerned right now.  If anyone has fished there long enough, you are probably starting to see the changes too...

This is just my 3rd year flyfishing and I have fished Little Mahoning quite a bit since I live in the area.  It seems like there is only a fraction of the fish that were in the stream at this time last year.  You can usually spot quite a few fish from the road upstream and downstream from the TU sign, but I am just not seeing (or catching) any decent numbers of fish like I have the past few years.  I have run into several anglers on the stream who are disappointed and notice fewer and smaller fish as well.  This has been such a disappointing spring on the Little Mahoning, hopefully things turn around after the May stocking. 

I have had good luck so far this year fishing the project water.  Every fish caught so far as been 11 inches or bigger except for one small brookie about 7 inches.  Yeah it is true that the stream was better a few years ago but the state stocked more fish then.  Just a question, how many fish landed or missed makes a good day?  Two weeks ago was my last time there, so maybe the fish are all poached out, but I highly doubt it.

not to sure beef..Ive been going there solid for about 12 years + now.. water temp and acidity are def a factor in water but the state isnt aware of this? and if so why isnt anything taking place..last time I checked the open waters were just a few miles south of cessna run below where the project ends so tech people could be eating fish out of there and they probably are...not that Im a fan of keeping fish but.. sounds dangerous to me.. I dunno though. Id love to see his readings back in the early 2000s because the water quailty had to still be good, even in the summer because I know that creek holds the fish pretty well. Another huge factor has been the state cutting back on the fish being put in the project up there and throughout the entire stream as I keep track of the general number of fish being stocked each year... I can tell you this year has been the lowest by far.

Wow, great information!  Hopefully people will still provide some more! I did real good on trout this year near the rt 119 bridge (i don't fly fish...yet) so i can't speak on the ffo section.  A bunch of bows, browns and a 17" golden, I have caught native trout in the section upstream of the "fishing hole," some tributaries upstream and hold overs in the winter and in august this year(and it has been low low low.)  People definitely keep fish from that hole, it is legal I think so restrictions on that could potentially help the ffo section.  Acid mine is definitely present throughout the watershed and I do believe alot of the fish go downstream maybe all the way to big mahoning or the tributaries through out the creek.  Water quality and pollution improvement plus moving the ffo section more upstream could help the trout population i believe.  I have caught bass near the rt 119 bridge and have had good fishing where little mahoning pours into big mahoning as well.  I hope to float fish alot of it next year to find out more about the fishing and overall quality of the watershed.