Getting steelhead to where anglers are, or where anglers can be, remains a goal of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.
It may now be close to doing something about it.
Biologists with the agency walked – i.e. waded – most of their stocked steelhead streams over the past two summers. The idea was to see what in-water obstructions might be keeping fish from moving as far upstream as possible, said Freeman Johns, a biologist in the commission’s area 1 office in Linesville.
That’s important to know, the thinking goes, because if they were eliminated and fish could move further inland, anglers could spread out, too. That would ease congestion.
This summer, biologists finished their surveying, walking the entire length of three stocked streams on Erie’s west side: Crooked Creek, Trout Run and Cascade Creek.
Waterfalls like this one aren’t significant. But there’s little water above them, so steelhead that jump them slide right back down.
Photo: PA Fish and Boat Commission
The only stream left un-surveyed is Elk Creek and it may not need to be.
“We know steelhead can get 20 miles upstream, all the way up to I-79 at the McKean hole,” said Tim Wilson, another biologist based in Linesville. “So even if there are any blockages, they can’t be significant. As far as big waterfalls like on Walnut, we don’t think they exist on Elk.”
Surveying was at times arduous work.
One biologist would wade two to three miles upstream, where another would be waiting in a truck. Then they’d switch off, with one walking another two to three miles while the other drove ahead.
“You were usually pretty stinky by the time you got there,” Johns said with a laugh. “You run into lots of rose bushes. There are lots of logs. You’re constantly climbing over stuff, all in chest waders.”
It paid dividends, though.
“Now we can at least talk about them with, I don’t want to see expertise, but non-ignorance of what these tributaries look like,” Johns said.
What they look like is creeks with lots of obstacles.
In total, on 67 miles of water, the commission identified 67 large barriers, meaning those three feet high or taller, and 186 smaller ones.
There are barriers throughout the drainage, Johns said. But the most and worst are on the east side, typically in the form of waterfalls.
It’s not just how tall they are that’s the issue, though.
“Steelhead are very proficient jumpers. So it’s not just the vertical height, but it’s the depth of the water below, the depth of the water above, the velocity of flow,” Wilson said. “Multiple factors make a barrier a barrier.”
The biggest issue is volume of water.
“Every barrier in the drainage is dependent upon flow,” Wilson said.
Some barriers, for example, are only problems when water levels are low. When they come up, the fish can move upstream.
Fish and Boat Commission biologist Ben Lorson measures an Erie stream waterfall.
Others, though, are substantial enough that fish can’t past them except in the most extreme of high water events. There may be only one or two times a year fish can bypass them, if that.
“Based on that criteria alone, it’s obvious where you want to concentrate your work is on these barriers that function as a barrier almost the entire fishing season,” Wilson said.
The commission has identified four projects it would like to start with. The first is located on Fourmile Creek. The commission wants to remove a waterfall 300 yards or so downstream of a fish passage device near Lawrence Park Golf Club.
That device was put in to help fish move upstream. It works when fish can reach it, Wilson said.
The trouble is, the downstream waterfall keeps them from ever getting to it most of the year.
The plan is to go in with jackhammers and create a channel through the rock of the falls, mimicking the ones erosion has created naturally elsewhere. Wilson thinks the work could be done in a day for about $1,000.
For that little bit, fish could move perhaps three miles further upstream, into a portion of the creek with good habitat and open to public fishing, he said.
Commissioner Ed Mascharka is all for it.
“Some of these projects are so limited in cost, we’ll be able to try this, see if there’s any significant impact, then if need be re-assess that style (of bypass) and see if we have to modify it,” Mascharka said.
The hold-up right now is paperwork.
The commission, like anyone else, has to get permits from the state Department of Environmental Protection before it can work on the streams, Wilson said. It’s pursuing those now.
When that project gets done, the commission wants to tackle another small one on Twentymile Creek and two larger ones, on Walnut and Sixteenmile creeks.
The Walnut project in particular could open 11 miles of stream to fish passage, Wilson said.
The commission will then move on from there, Wilson said. There’s plenty to do, after all, with those 250-plus barriers.
“That’s a lot of potential work,” Wilson said.
Not steelhead, but Keystone Select Trout Waters
The Fish and Boat Commission is trying to take a good idea and make it better, adding eight stream sections to its “Keystone Select Trout Waters” program.
Meadow Run in Fayette County and Buffalo Creek in Armstrong and Butler are joining for 2018. So, too, are Pine Creek in Tioga County, Lycoming Creek in Lycoming, Middle Creek in Snyder, McMichael Creek in Monroe, Tulpehocken Creek in Berks and Quittapahilla Creek in Lebanon.
The Keystone Select program debuted in 2016. It’s designed to give anglers a unique opportunity to catch big fish, and lots of them.
Most stream sections get five trophy trout — those 14 to 22 inches — per mile. Keystone Select waters, managed under delayed harvest artificial lures only rules, get 175 to 225.
Eight stream sections were placed in the program initially. Six more were added for this year.
The addition of yet eight more is meant to fill in gaps around the state and put a Keystone Select water within easy driving distance of all anglers, said Andy Shiels, director of the bureau of fisheries management.
The program has proven popular, he said, especially since anglers can fish delayed harvest waters year-round.
“The response to this has been amazing. Especially when regular trout season isn’t open and this is the only game in town,” Shiels said.
One gap remains.
There is no Keystone Select water in the center of the state, Shiels said. The commission wants to change that, but has yet to identify a suitable stream.
Shiels said the hope is to do that in time for 2019.
Here’s a look at the location of Keystone Select waters for 2018.
