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| Logjam stud. |
I had a déjà vu moment this morning after catching eight stocker rainbows in probably ten casts, on my way to probably 100 fish in 6 hours on the water. I definitely had a similar morning last spring on this same creek, when I had to work through dozens of ravenous stockers to find the wild browns, including a PB for this creek. The creek is a Class A wild brown trout creek without a doubt, so it gets annoying that they stock it. Who hates catching 100 fish in a day? Me sometimes, I think. These rainbows hold over too, so there are many, many pretty bows in the creek. Even the ones from this year have been in for a good long soak. They fight and jump and tangle stuff up, like bluefish without teeth. I swear some rainbow natural reproduction is happening on this creek too. It is a high gradient, mostly freestone stream, and stocking predates triploids, so it is not impossible that pockets of wild bows have taken hold throughout the watershed. All this is to say that I was catching rainbows to browns at 10 to 1 or more. That sounds more fun than it is. I had multiple doubles and stopped netting them, just shaking them off the barbless hooks when I could. Doing rough math, that is 17 fish an hour, a fish every 4 minutes or less. Silly. I started fishing at 7 AM, and I quit at 2 PM, not because the fish stopped eating, but because I had had my fill.
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| At least 8 bows in 10 casts before some browns began to mix in. |
Why do I subject myself to this? Well, because it is not like this in the summer and fall when many of the bows disappear and the browns reassert their dominance. There are also some really nice small stream wild browns for all this rainbow perseverance. Not another PB for this creek today, that may take a while since the fish last year was huge, but I found a few tanks in places where I’ve always expected tanks and had yet to catch the dominant fish in the hole. I tangled with a couple others that got off and would have been day makers on other mornings: fishing log jams and tight quarters, so I had to rope fish at times, and that does not always end well. Fish were on caddis imitations, a CDC tag fly and various caddis pupa and larva imitations. At my last hole of the day, I changed flies four times and caught fish each time I changed flies if that gives you any idea of home many trouts were in this hole. Catch two, no hits, change flies, catch two more, no hits, change flies, catch two more. Silly, I tell you.
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| Early start was effective. Another solid brown. |
Around mid-morning, the best fish of the day came from a log jam that I have to target from upstream, careful not to muddy the hole crossing and moving into position. I always knew it was a big fish hole, and it finally paid dividends this morning. This was a short stud who looked like he’d recently been mousing or chasing YOY, just thick with a big belly. But I caught a good fish before 8 AM too, after a dozen rainbows, and landed at least one more solid one before 10 AM. There was a slight stain and summer (not spring) flows but the fish were really happy today. I was beginning to worry that big fish were outnumbering little guys, the future big fish, but that concern was allayed after a brief lunchtime break. When I returned to the game after a snack and some coffee, the small and average wild browns got active too.
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| Many wild browns, so imagine the bows. Another shot of the stud. |
I was still having to contend with rainbows well upstream of obvious stocking points, but the ratio was starting to even out some more, maybe 3 to 1 rainbows to browns. I caught a YOY or two and a few two-year-olds, which only underscores how much this creek does not need to be stocked in this section. I should have brought a stringer and taken 5 for Eric’s smoker, but what is 5 when facing 100? My guess is that the water has been low, so the conditions have not been great for bait-soakers or spinner-chuckers on this section of the creek. I even went as far as to check the stocking schedule for the county just to confirm that I had not arrived on a stocking day or something. Nope. The creek got a stocking over a month ago. It’s a shame that this discussion of rainbows dominates a post that should have focused on the many wild browns I caught during this otherwise fantastic outing!
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| Bonus shot |
Hmm. I remember a post last year where you had similar success wading thru a raft of stocked rainbows. If its same stream I hope you were getting choked out by the pollen. Thing are starting to heat up a bit so its time for our annual spring fling. Ill give you a buzz when the big water is primo.
ReplyDeleteTight lines
Joe
Oh, man don't give me nightmares about that tree! I have not been to that creek yet, but it is on my list. I am ready when you are, Joe. I almost went to the river yesterday, but I figured it was my chance to fish a small creek with the 1/4 inch of rain overnight. I will text you soon!
DeleteMeant to say weren't getting choked out. Oops. My bad
ReplyDeleteUnreal catch right there LSD. Perhaps the Commish is going heavy on the streams with better water quality in these drought conditions?
ReplyDeleteI've been doing some musing about Rainbows this week. Specifically with their propensity to show up in unlikely place. Is it possible because they are spring spawners and stocked in the spring move around thinking of love? Or in other words, if the heavy stocking took place in the fall would stocked browns an brookies be the ones wanderlusting the waters of PA?
Hey I'm past due for a difficult question! :)
RR
DeleteThese fish have actually become fall spawners, I believe. You may have given me an the idea that I will have to look for redds in some places this fall. As far as the numbers of them, it is just that I never see anyone fishing here a week after they have stocked, and it's been probably 6 weeks, so the locals are done with them. I do believer rainbows are predisposed to wanderlust, as well.
DeleteSo you got my musing going further. Did some Googling (AI, forums, sites.) Take with a grain off salt. :) The Rainbows the PFBC stock are modified in some way to become fall spawners because the eggs won't make it through the winter, so they won't take over streams. The Delaware River Stock of Rainbows were introduced inadvertently and actually are spring spawners?
ReplyDeleteOne issue that came up is when private groups stock rainbows, they often do it without approval from the PFBC and stock spring spawners.
It begs the question, for me anyway, why the PFBC didn't consider this approach with Brown Trout? So I had a college buddy who took me to spring runs in SEPA on private land where his buddie's Grandfather privately stocked Brownies and virtually nobody knew or had access. I was there in late 70's and there was a very healthy population there many years later.
Curious if anybody else has thoughts? I've bought a trout stamp for the last 8 years and only went a few times in total since then. My retirement has taken me in different fishing directions. LOL
It gets weirder, RR. Look up triploid trout. That is what the Commish stocks these days so that they do not reproduce. They can't account for private hatcheries, but their own PFBC-raised rainbows are sterile, and some private stockings are purchased from the Commish.
DeleteBut they do stock fingerling rainbows still and I believe they are diploid and fertile.
DeleteWeirder is right. So they grow faster and bigger because they don't waste energy spawning which is fine in streams without holdover potential. In your stream, the faster growing triploids probably put a dent in the YOY wild browns.
ReplyDeleteRR
Honestly, not many of them live long enough. When I fish this creek in the summer and fall, the rainbows are in the minority again. It just sucks that during prime time and hatch season that rainbows dominate. Next post will feature some pretty bows that grew from fingerlings in a stream. They were a blast to catch. They used to stock fingerlings in the Brodhead, and I caught some in the high teens that were all but "wild." They never really started reproducing there and not enough were caught to continue the practice there.
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