you guys know that there other fish to catch on a fly rod.... right?
ones that are bigger, smarter, and fight harder than trout...
 
don't get me wrong, i like trout
but you are probably killing/ stressing A LOT more fish that you know after June
but what the hell... it is put and take    right???
 
if you want to fish summer trout... find spring creeks/ limestoners or bottom release tailwaters

Sorry man - bad day at the office ! Didn't mean to snap. I expect this on the "Erie" forum from people, but usually I ahve had good luck on this one. Were all trying to do the same thing - catch fish.

No offense taken. I'm a normal C/R fishermen. I have kept a walleye, gill or perch now and again - but that's it. I apologize for coming off strong, not normally my style. I do chase a lot of bass, pike, musky all year around but this little species for some reason fascinates me. I would have to agree though, maybe taking my fly rod out to French creek for a few tries would be a good idea. It's kind of like Musky, until I caught my first one, I was obsessed with catching one. Now I'm addicted! LOL. I am more or less looking to learn more about trout and honestly my time spent in the creek right now is scouting (now that I know more). I would just like to find a place, or species, that can get me out o the house in the winter and still have a good shot at catching fish. I can go up to Erie and catch steelhead, but it just don't excite me much anymore. I like seclusion and peacefulness and don't want to have to yell "fish on" every time I hook up. Look at it this way guy's, since I don't steelhead much, that's one less person on the creeks you all fish in the winter. I think I'll stick to bassin' until the water temps go down. Thanks KJH - and good to meet ya !
 

Trout can live in water up to about 76 degrees a bit less for brookies, but only a degree or so.  This is not a daily peak temperature, but a sustained temperature.  However, it is true that they become weaker as the sustained temperatures increase above 70 degrees.  When they are under such thermal stress, they will seek refuge in deep pools, spring seeps, tributary mouths or even in the smaller cold-water tributaries.  They also become susceptible to disease while under stress.  Many, if not all hatchery-raised fish struggle in the put and take streams to stay healthy even in the cooler-water of the Spring and early Summer, particularly because the forage base in your typical approved trout stream is weak.  In a fertile stream, they can, and often do, hold over the warm water periods if they managed to be healthy and the temps don't get too high.

Believe it or not a 7 foot is an ideal small stream rod! Fall is truly a magnificient time to fish as well! I'm assuming your big on small streams but lakes can be awesome to fish.. Actually caught my first trout on a fly rod at a lake, also a nice 18 incher . I am by no means a truly knowledgable fly fisherman, I use generic patterns because I fish creeks with poor water quality and so on down the line. Trout (most) are pellet heads and don't truly adjust to the waters aquatic insects for up to a week! Plan some trips around the fall stocking and catch some fish on egg patterns. Take tips from people and read books, I know I like to rather do it then read about it but easy reading novels, authors like John Gierach, are great for further understanding what the trout eats.. good luck!

If you guys ever make it down to the SW hit me with a PM...

Here's something to try if you wanna catch some really nice trout right about this time of year...find any of the larger stocked tribs. Oil, Tionesta, Allgheny riv.  and fish any feeder stream that flows in. You will catch fish. 

Here's acouple pictures of an ideal creek with a great feeder creek.. Sorry for how it looks, someone must of fooled with the color .
 
 
 

Yeah the warmer water in these feeder streams def. play a part in what species of fish it will hold. These feeders streams hold some of the largest trout I have seen. Many of them breeders, I strongly recommend catch and release and using barbless hooks if you plan on using bait. Some of these streams up north that I have fished in the fall were so small you could could jump across. The fish are there, it just requires a lot of walking since the creeks are so low this time of year. Most of these streams I've caught fish in typically hold fish in the very first deep hole up in from the mouth, before feeding into a larger stocked stream.

Good luck to all the Steelheaders and fall fisherman out there, this is the most beautiful time of year to fish imho. Enjoy!

Ronnie

ORIGINAL: KJH807

pretty sure i've done that...

get any out of the feeder?
funny thing... the only thing i have landed in it are bluegill
hooked a really nice brown once, it didn't last long

 
Some, but a lot of people have caught on by caughting some and they have been hit hard around where I live. I guess that means more walking . There's some what of a debate with acouple of anglers I know. Really it's about how stocked fish are swimming up stream to small native streams and taking all of the food sources. What are you going to do... Also it's hard to tell apart from a fall native and stocked, in my opinion. So if you're all about killing the stocked fish I'd look twice.

ORIGINAL: flyfishermanPA


Some, but a lot of people have caught on by caughting some and they have been hit hard around where I live. I guess that means more walking . There's some what of a debate with acouple of anglers I know. Really it's about how stocked fish are swimming up stream to small native streams and taking all of the food sources. What are you going to do... Also it's hard to tell apart from a fall native and stocked, in my opinion. So if you're all about killing the stocked fish I'd look twice.

dude that was almost impossible to read...
i think i got the jist

that steam shouldn't have many (if any) stockers in it (if its the one i'm thinking)
first hundred yrds are steep and it has wild coldwater classifications for browns
(both by the state and some private group starting just in the last 4 yrs)
so if isn't a brown... its a stocker


PFBC loves stocking fish over wild and native populations... (i started a thread on it a few months ago on the erie board after a Post Gazette article)
in a survey most people said they wanted more fish and didn't care if they were stocked in areas with natural repro
its a reality in most of PA... stocked trout will win out over native and wild fish when they exist in the same waterway

everyone is too concerned about catching 15 trout a day from april to June
and the PFCB makes just as much selling a stamp to all the guys who only fish the first 3 weekends of trout as they do to the guy who fishes year round and has to deal with this mess

ORIGINAL: D-nymph


Stocked fish have a fin clipped, wild ones do not.

Pretty simple.

 
Yes it is. The only reason I said it was one time opening day I fished a small creek flowing out of a pond that is annually stocked with Brook. Well, on one hole I caught about a 12 inch brook that wasn't clipped. It did hold native trout about 30 years ago, until they restructured the dam and after around June the creek is only about 3 inches at the highest. Kept it on a stringer asking other fisherman what they thought and most said stocked, though the fin wasn't clipped.
 
I shouldn't of said it's hard, I've only had that problem 3-4 times near Schuykill county... And all the times that lake/creek was stocked by the same guys.

edit that $hit in the above post...

joke

forgot the

ORIGINAL: MackJ

Very few good wild trout stream sections are stocked in the section with good wild populations.  This is a myth often repeated but not true.  Many streams with trace reproduction are stocked, and if they weren't nobody would bother with them because the wild populations are small and so are the fish.

 
what is "very few"...
have you done the research???
crosschecked the list of approved trout water with streams that support wild trout populations
it might surprise you
 
the fact that it is done is bad enough...
so if there is a small population of smaller size fish, you think it is OK to stock over them and push them out?  just so people will "bother to fish them"?
 
remember this article?
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08195/896725-358.stm