Walleye stocking group formed

A group of anglers is getting organized in order to stock the Upper Alleghany river with walleye; from irvine to the gates of the kinzua dam.

We would appreciate all the support and advice we could get. I know many people avidly fish jet boats in starbrick, wade in warren or chase walleyes in the early summer at the tailwaters; your support (even if you live a long ways away) will be critical to our success.

Our first meeting will be at the Warren Eagles Club March 19,2011 at 7pm. pm me with your email address and I will keep you informed of future plans.

we need those small ones to get bigger!!!

I have noticed a definite downturn of young walleye at the tailwaters Jolie. I only caught one 10 incher this year the rest were in the 18-25 inch range. I'm glad you are taking this into your hands because the fish commission doesn't seem concerned.  

is a person allowed to stock fish on their own in a public waterway ? I thought maybe the fish commision would frown upon this as to not knowing the health of the fish being stocked might introduce something bad to waterway. just saying ......i don't know ....just a thought

Our old tackle shop stocked a section of Pine Creek in Alleghey County in the Fall. We called our Regional office of the PFBC and let them know our plan and we quickly got an ok. We just had to let them know when we were stocking the fish and they would patrol that stretch. Rather informal but Pine Creek trout management isn't the same as the Three Rivers Management Program.

Thanks for asking!

the meeting went well. A small group of 4-5 locals bantered (mostly) at the meeting.

we all agreed that the situation is serious and that we are all on the same page. before any private stocking goes though we really need to push for the fish commission to reconsider the main walleye stocking (at least in our section of the river). A small stocking of even adult fish isn't nearly to have the impact of the restoration of an annual 30,000 fry.

The fish commission got wind of the meeting and sent an email explaining that there was to be another assessment in 2011 and stocking prior to that would be a bad idea, basically adding fish to the mix just as the fish commission is considering future plans.

we are impressed that the fish commission was willing to work with us and agree that next steps is to urge the fish commission to resume stocking. The key will be to seek as much publicity as possible and get a big enough group to get the attention of the fish commission.

We're even reaching out to groups like Trout Unlimited; whom we're hoping they will support our group as a conservation/restoration effort similar to many that they've done.

an official letter stating our concerns and a name are being worked out as we speak.

At some point in the future we intend to invite the fish commission to give a presentation about walleye to our group. At THAT meeting membership will be key. Basically the more members we can get to the meeting the more seriously the fish commission will take us..

IN short, Even if you've done little walleye fishing in the waters below the dam, we hope to have your support. Think about it this way; If the fishing public goes to bat for kinzua river walleye anglers, the fish commission then will take anglers seriously; and they will think carefully before they discontinue stocking pressured waterways. we NEED to speak up, cause all they accountants will be telling them to slash stocking programs.

if they hide behind beaucratic indefinite deadlines then yes, we do need to act.

we might also want to urge visitors to reconsider before harvesting trophy individuals once the season resumes. I would consider a trophy walleye as any over 20". the smaller ones taste better anyway.

good luck with everything jolie...sound like you are really trying to do something positive