I'm in the same boat as you, All I seem to catch is Pike, Panfish, Bass, Turtles, Catfish, Chubs, Carp, Drum, Bowfin, Native Brookies everything they don't stock  Walleye on the lower Allegh. river where they are not stocked. I'm fine with that. I'd not stock for some yrs. 'cept Trout & Byrds where needed for baitfish control, other states supply them for us anyways. Start putting all that $$ into habitat for natural reproduction.
 
crappy
 

$40 for 2 year boat registration, isn't all that much.  The key to not making it a huge expense, is not owning 20 boats!!!
 
 Tim, we only have 15 at this time & a few ain't  got new stickers so there!!

anzomcik

EMitch
BTW, my youngest got suckered in on the "voluntary Musky stamp". 

Help me out, your complaining about lack of stocking and acknowledging bigger fish cost more to grow, but then say your youngest got suckered into the voluntary musky stamp, which goes right to the musky stocking program.

From just what I read it seems your youngest has done more to help the “issue” than you, and you say he got suckered?

• I'll tell ya why I think he got suckered, as I am in total agreement with BTDT about the "fishy" smell. Both of my boys belong to 3 Rivers Musky Club, and in October of '17, they were responsible for stocking pool #4 at Freeport, (our home port), with 1400 muskies from the Fish Commission. I'm not a member, but I helped out with loading the boat twice, and provided some of the containers and aerators to help get the job done. You really couldn't call them fingerlings 'cause they were all 10 + inches long; some I saw were about 13-14 inches long. So, what's the problem? For one thing, you're stocking them in the fall and and the weedgrowth and cover is gone. Little or no cover makes them easy prey for muskies, northern pike and bigger walleyes.When I asked the driver (commission biologist) what he thought the survival rate would be, he told me only about 1%. . And that's stocking fish of a size big enough to eat each other. The Musky Club, (so I'm told), donated a large round tank to raise musky fry in, as the belief is that those fish swimming constantly in a circle against the pressure of the pumps grow stronger, faster, and more hearty than fry raised in retangular tank. The Commission is most likely wasting the money.
• I'm now a senior, with a lifetime license, and I bought the trout stamp, (and the Erie stamp), even though I haven't fished for stocked trout on inland waters for 35 years. Haven't even been to Erie in the past 4 years, but every year that we went up, we bought a button from 3 C U. Why, because we believed then, (and now), that that club does more for steelhead fishin' than the commission does.
• I also subscribe to Pennsylvania Angler& Boater, and for the end of '17, when they published their income and expenditures, fully69% of the $111 million went to administrative costs. In other words, wages, salaries, and benefits for commission personnel, plus additional expenses for vehicles and fuel.
• I don't know where we'll all be goin' with this in the future; most likely extra money stamps for predator species, and probably not for bottom feeders. PGC charges kids 12 to 16 for a "junior" license. PFBC probably could do the same for a junior fishin' license. A lot of guys fish for trout and head off to camp with their kids, especially for the opener, and since Dad fishes, he's most likely gonna spring for a license for the kid. It would increase revenue somewhat. But how much would ya be willing to stand for a general license increase. Our resident license fee is approaching a full year fish for any species Non-resident New York license. Maybe just give up on Pa. and fish N.Y.?

Chris,
I have 3. 1 has sticker and the other two just sit behind my shed... Never know when I might want to use again!

EMitch

• I'll tell ya why I think he got suckered, as I am in total agreement with BTDT about the "fishy" smell. Both of my boys belong to 3 Rivers Musky Club, and in October of '17, they were responsible for stocking pool #4 at Freeport, (our home port), with 1400 muskies from the Fish Commission. I'm not a member, but I helped out with loading the boat twice, and provided some of the containers and aerators to help get the job done. You really couldn't call them fingerlings 'cause they were all 10 + inches long; some I saw were about 13-14 inches long. So, what's the problem? For one thing, you're stocking them in the fall and and the weedgrowth and cover is gone. Little or no cover makes them easy prey for muskies, northern pike and bigger walleyes.When I asked the driver (commission biologist) what he thought the survival rate would be, he told me only about 1%. . And that's stocking fish of a size big enough to eat each other. The Musky Club, (so I'm told), donated a large round tank to raise musky fry in, as the belief is that those fish swimming constantly in a circle against the pressure of the pumps grow stronger, faster, and more hearty than fry raised in retangular tank. The Commission is most likely wasting the money.
  

Thank you for lending a hand in 2017. You may be interested to know since your last involvement with musky stocking the PAFC has changed their musky stocking program.

They are now stocking waters every other year. With half the fish as they previously stocked which was ball parked at a fish an acre. Now it’s 1 fish per 2 acre, every other year.

Instead of fall stocking they switched to spring stocking, to address the concerns some of which you mentioned. They are holding the fish to yearlings. Where they are a solid 12-14” fish.

All the pure musky are raised in the linesville hatchery, as opposed to a handful of other smaller local hatcheries. Making the process more efficient.

Pa has developed a way to “teach” (lack of better word) the baby musky to eat dry pellet food. This reduces the feeding cost to raise these fish to be yearlings.

When asked the survival rate of the new system they spoke with confidence that most will make it the first year in the wild, no numbers were assigned. But great improvements have been made in the past year or so survival rate will be significantly higher

I also asked about what it takes to stock the state with musky the round answer is about $200k for 30,000 give or take fish a year under the new program.

There is a lot more information on this as I talked to Jared Sayers the manager of the linesville hatchery couple weeks ago for a couple hours. He has been a part of the musky stocking program since 2007, if anyone is interested I can send them a link. In there he discusses the voluntary musky permits.

I applaud the effort of your two boys being members of three rivers, and the purchase of the voluntary musky permit.

With the advancements pa has made to the musky stocking, I hope some of the techniques and technology could trickle down to other species to improve stocking success.

crappiefisher
 Just like the lottery. Our seniors should be living the high life now. Would be good but too many handsss in the cookie jar I  believe.

AIN'T THAT THE TRUTH!!!
 
 
 
 
20 boats,  GOOD Grief  so your the guy, fishin Pymie, with one boat on each foot???

Good Musky info ....thanks .....are they still stocking Tiger Musky ? I've heard rumors it has been discontinued .  

anzomcik

EMitch

• I'll tell ya why I think he got suckered, as I am in total agreement with BTDT about the "fishy" smell. Both of my boys belong to 3 Rivers Musky Club, and in October of '17, they were responsible for stocking pool #4 at Freeport, (our home port), with 1400 muskies from the Fish Commission. I'm not a member, but I helped out with loading the boat twice, and provided some of the containers and aerators to help get the job done. You really couldn't call them fingerlings 'cause they were all 10 + inches long; some I saw were about 13-14 inches long. So, what's the problem? For one thing, you're stocking them in the fall and and the weedgrowth and cover is gone. Little or no cover makes them easy prey for muskies, northern pike and bigger walleyes.When I asked the driver (commission biologist) what he thought the survival rate would be, he told me only about 1%. . And that's stocking fish of a size big enough to eat each other. The Musky Club, (so I'm told), donated a large round tank to raise musky fry in, as the belief is that those fish swimming constantly in a circle against the pressure of the pumps grow stronger, faster, and more hearty than fry raised in retangular tank. The Commission is most likely wasting the money.
  

Thank you for lending a hand in 2017. You may be interested to know since your last involvement with musky stocking the PAFC has changed their musky stocking program.

They are now stocking waters every other year. With half the fish as they previously stocked which was ball parked at a fish an acre. Now it’s 1 fish per 2 acre, every other year.

Instead of fall stocking they switched to spring stocking, to address the concerns some of which you mentioned. They are holding the fish to yearlings. Where they are a solid 12-14” fish.

All the pure musky are raised in the linesville hatchery, as opposed to a handful of other smaller local hatcheries. Making the process more efficient.

Pa has developed a way to “teach” (lack of better word) the baby musky to eat dry pellet food. This reduces the feeding cost to raise these fish to be yearlings.

When asked the survival rate of the new system they spoke with confidence that most will make it the first year in the wild, no numbers were assigned. But great improvements have been made in the past year or so survival rate will be significantly higher

I also asked about what it takes to stock the state with musky the round answer is about $200k for 30,000 give or take fish a year under the new program.

There is a lot more information on this as I talked to Jared Sayers the manager of the linesville hatchery couple weeks ago for a couple hours. He has been a part of the musky stocking program since 2007, if anyone is interested I can send them a link. In there he discusses the voluntary musky permits.

I applaud the effort of your two boys being members of three rivers, and the purchase of the voluntary musky permit.

With the advancements pa has made to the musky stocking, I hope some of the techniques and technology could trickle down to other species to improve stocking success.

I very much enjoyed the podcast of yours with Mr. Sayers.  very informative.  He seems genuinely interested in seeing this program succeed.  I see nothing about the voluntary program as "being roped" into anything.  

Might "figure of speech" mean anything?

Perhaps the man should have said his son "took the bait, hook line and sinker". ☺

crappiefisher
 I'm in the same boat as you, All I seem to catch is Pike, Panfish, Bass, Turtles, Catfish, Chubs, Carp, Drum, Bowfin, Native Brookies everything they don't stock  

 
I checked out the stocking for Arthur.  It is encouraging that so many fish that aren't stocked are rather readily available.  They haven't stocked channel cats since 2013, so hopefully they are finding good natural reproduction from them.  Since then, only stocking musky, hybrids and walleye.  It would be great if those three species were self sustaining too, but is what it is.  If they were taken off of the stocking list, I wouldn't be too hurt.  I love me some hybrid fishing, but the late nights get harder and harder to recover from.  I hate catching them in the summer, after knowing their low survival rate if C&R.  I don't like keeping too many of them, since they get HAMmRd\\ by those net throwers  and not all that many stocked.  Not to mention primarily stocked to control the gizzard shad and alewives.
 
The amount of large mouth in that lake is pretty awesome to think that they haven't stocked any in at least the last 20 years.  Same with the pan fish.  Although, I had a horrible perch season in the fall.  Hopefully just the weather, and not a trend with the lake or my skills declining!  
 
I would not complain if a jumbo perch stocking truck pulled up next to me while fishing...

 Tim, I grew up a River Rat spending most ov my time along the Oakmont/Plum shoreline, easy walk from home. When Muddy Creek was dammed I was in a higher heaven! Grandmother had property &  old house joining a branch ov Slippery Rock Creek in Coal Town we used for getaways. The river was a blast but Arthur was different with all the panfish & Bass from day one (FOR A KID) Some days we would catch over 50 L/M up Shannon Run the first early yrs. Dang Grandmother had another house very close to M/C where it enters the lake that I never new about. My girlfriend (old Lady) & I were camping (closed) at Lake Arthur Campground on Halloween 1984 & I noticed the old hillbilly shack on the corner & made a joke about it to her. Little did I know we would be living there since that following spring.
 
There were a good bit ov farm ponds that became part ov the lake so helped the stocking tremendously for a head start. They stocked Pike for a couple yrs. when it was first filled but gave up the program saying it was not working (nets in wrong areas) I'm glad they gave up on the Pike because we have no problem catchin' them there. The park did set back the Pikes progress when replacing a old snowmobile bridge with a steel dam. I moaned to the rangers about it, darn thing was killing huge breeders full ov eggs trying to get around it & becoming Coon food. Thank goodness they removed it a few yrs. back. The Channels were stocked more in Arthur than any other waterway in the state since it opened in 1970.
 
 Tim, For the Perch Truck to show up all they would have to do is bring a net full down from Erie in the truck & unload, Heck they could do the same with Eyes, Mother Nature working... too easy & cheap I guess??  Oh well if some Gobby eggs get mixed the better. 
 
Fishing is Fun,
 crappy