Kinzua Creek

By conditions do you mean just lack of fish or water quality, etc...???

Was there last week and didn,t catch a thing. Did see some beat up fish in the deep hole by the large rock.

Last week My dad and I doubted the reports of lack of fish but were shocked to see that they are true. We fished Kinzua creek all over on Tuesday and in the delayed harvest area Wednesday and only caught one trout. Did catch some nice bass in there though. We decided to hit smaller streams Wednesday evening and Thursday. Meade Run provided some nice brookies. Nothin more beautiful than native brookies. Caught a few and quickly released them.
 
We were also shocked at the amount of water in the reservoir. Havent seen it that high late in the summer. We fished at red bridge and the lot up north of there but didnt even get a bite.
 
The beer was cold though and I wasn't at work for the whole week. So I have no complaints.

Its been slow all year. I helped with the stocking and of course the numbers that went in were down again this year. I think more fish go out before June 12th or when ever they opened up, than people realize. I know there was a problem on the upper end with fish holding. A number of us fished the upper end early in the season and it was void of fish. So far no one has any answers. According to a number of people the ph was OK but I can't swear to that I didn't check it myself. As far as the DHALO area I gave up on it early in the season , had better luck below Westline. But it really gets hammered with roads going down both sides. Sure is a pretty area though , that and the South Branch .
 

I fished the DHALO section about three weeks ago. I didn't observe any fish or aquatic insect life. According to our calendar here at home, that was right around the time when a large hatch of cahils should've been coming off, at least they had been for the last 8 years. I also noticed the stream seemed to have a much larger ammount of sedimentation than normal, and that all the sediment had a decidedly orange color to it. About a week after I had fished it my father and a family friend went out and had the same lousy luck in the DHALO area. In fact, they didn't catch or see any trout until they got below the area where another stream (thundershower run I think) entered the stream. We all agreed that somewhere upstream of the DHALO area a lot of silty runoff with that orange color is entering the stream. I hope it clears up before the fall stocking.

I have fished there almost my entire life....it is the impact of the oil/gas drilling.

We also noticed an increased orange color in the stream while we were there. A few times along the bank I'd come across pockets of water close to the stream that had a shimmer to it. More of them in the delayed harvest area, but did see a few further downstream past were Kinzua creek and Meade run meet. Hope that isn't a trace of oil in there.
 
Hopefully everything gets fixed up for our trip next year.....

There was also a small oil spill into the South Branch of the Kinzua Creek, about half way between Kane & Red Bridge a couple of months ago. I went there to fish & there were absorbent buoys stretched across the creek, with oil backed up behind them. The sportsman are paying are getting screwed double by the oil companies with high gas prices & poluted streams.

Sportsmen must be vigilant when in the outdoors. With the cost of oil coming down a bit more unscrupulous actions will probably be happening with drillers and suppliers trying to keep the money flow high. Brine water and waste water form drilling are to big culprits to stream water quality but also remember sediment and run off from the well sites. Added with the spring acid snow melt, global warming and poachers. the streams of NWPA are ill fully under assault.
If one sees problems do be hesitant to contact the PAF&BC or PA DEP. We are these agencies best eyes and ears in the afield.
Chris

Esox. I have never seen a no bait area with so many bait fisherman.  The special regs, was never popular with the locals.
In fact they go out of there way to kill a lot of trout. In defiance of the policy on the 1 1/2 miles protected.
Your not going to get much help from the commish. And confronting just about gets you killed.
 
I have gotten good result by just acting like I didnt care. With a friendly I just was upstream and there are two water ways patrol men. That shags some****for a while. I know it isnt the real solution.

That's the first I heard of a spill on the South Branch.  That's a **** shame.  I've caught a few native brookies in that stream... hell, big Kinzua too for that matter.  Not many, but a few here and there.  Brutal

ORIGINAL: Nuclearsteel

Internet = too many people, and the ones that kill all they catch. 

 
I can honestly say the crowds I have seen in my 10 years of fishing the creek have remained nearly the same.  As far as people keeping what they catch, I personally rarely keep trout however, as long as it is within the law I have no problem there. 
 
 If you read the above posts, the general consensus of them is that mining and natural gas extraction have resulted in a number of environmental issues in Kinzua Creek.  These include but are not limited to; sedimentation and acid-runoff from abandoned mine sites, both of which cause serious harm to the fishery.  It seems to be heading into a true put and take fishery, the lack of aquatic life there makes me question the possibility of any significant number of trout surviving a summer.  Perhaps this may be the very reason why there are fewer trout, no holdovers combined with the fact that the PFBC is stocking fewer fish and that would account for far less fish.
 
I think the next major issue is the poaching that takes place.  Perhaps, we should write our concerns to the PFBC.  If they are approached (by letter) from a number of fisherman, rather than one, who share the sam common knowledge that poaching is a huge problem on Kinzua Creek, I think they will be more likely to take some positive steps to correct it. 

Since it addresses some of our concerns, I thought I'd post this article written by the McKean County WCO that appeared in the 6/05 PA Angler.
 
http://www.fish.state.pa.us/anglerboater/2005/01janfeb/reg5diary.pdf

dano
 
  Good article!  Thanks for posting it.

I wish I could remember who showed the pixs of the mud in the lake but it all was about runoff. There has been a great neglect of the drilling and lumber take to alow this to happen.