How best to manage Penns Creek’s wild brown trout under discussion

Posted on: May 8, 2018 | Bob Frye | Comments

Wild brown trout grow big.

Wild brown trout populate several sections of Penns Creek.
Photo: PIxabay

Both sides want, in the end, the same thing.

Where they disagree is on how to get it.

And so the fate of one of the most famous wild trout streams in the eastern United States is up for grabs.

Penns Creek runs 66 miles through central Pennsylvania. It originates in Penn’s Cave in Spring Mills, Centre County, and runs downstream to empty into the Susquehanna River near Selinsgrove in Snyder County.

“Limestone influenced,” in the words of Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission biologists, it passes through large tracts of state forest in its upper reaches, including the White Mountain Wild Area.

In that beautifully remote region in particular, it’s home to lots of wild brown trout, many of them impressively long and heavy.

It understandably draws fishermen.

“The scenery and the ability to catch large brown trout are unparalleled in Pennsylvania,” said Dave Christine, a biologist with the commission. “That’s what makes it so special and brings anglers from long distances to fish it.

“It’s an amazing resource.”

Anglers understand that.

Alfred Miller, who wrote under the name “Sparse Gray Hackle” – the name of a trout fly – first put the stream “on the map’ in a 1958 story in Sports Illustrated, said commission board member Len Lichvar..

“And here, 60 years later, it’s still on the map,” Lichvar said.

How to manage it these days is the question.

And a change could be coming.

The commission breaks Penns Creek into eight sections. It regulates them in several ways.

The 7-mile-long section 3, for example, has a harvest slot limit. Anglers can keep fish, but only those between 7 and 12 inches and at certain times of year.

Section 4, meanwhile, is a Class A wild trout stream. Those are “the best of the best” in terms of wild fish densities, Christine said. No stocking occurs.

Further, in its 3.7 miles, fishing is catch and release only, with only artificial lures permitted.

By comparison, section 5 stretches 4.6 miles, from just downstream of Cherry Run to Weikert Bridge. Statewide regulations apply. It gets stocked with 2,000 commission hatchery rainbow trout – plus fish from Union County Sportsmen’s Club – and fisherman pursue them using any tackle, from bait to lures to flies. The creel limit is five fish a day at certain times.

Biologists want to change that.

They want to manage the upstream 3.8 miles of section 5 as they do section 4, with no harvest and only artificial lures – spinners, flies and such — permitted.

A robust wild trout population is the reason.

Section 5 was surveyed in 1977, Christine said. Biologists found 103 wild brown trout then, most between 5 and 8 inches.

It was reexamined — for the first time since — in June of last summer, to see how the population is doing.

The answer is pretty good.

Biologists collected 256 wild browns, Christine said. Most were between 9 and 16 inches long.

And the fishery might be even better than those numbers suggest.

“The results of the survey were encouraging to us, especially given that in 2016, we experienced a severe drought. So we feel that our estimates for 2017 were a bit on the conservative side,” he said.

Trout were especially abundant in the upper 3.8 miles of section 5, he said. It ranks as a Class A fishery, he noted.

It’s not as good – yet – as section 4. There, surveys reveal even higher numbers of wild browns, especially fish between 11 and 17 inches.

“But that just gives us some idea of what section 5 can be someday under alternative regulations,” Christine said.

That’s behind the proposed change.

Biologists want to maintain stocked trout fishing, too, though.

So, part of their recommendation includes adding the lower 0.8 miles of section 5 to section 6. It would be stocked.

The uppermost 4.3 miles of section 7, meanwhile, from the Route 235 Bridge downstream to Creek Road Bridge at Libby Road, would get 2,100 hatchery rainbows.

That would mean more stocked trout over more miles of stream than now, Christine said, all while protecting wild trout.

“This is an exceptional opportunity to improve both at the same time,” he said.

Biologists – looking for the rules to go into effect in 2019 – want the proposal on the agenda for the board’s next meeting in July.

That appears unlikely.

Social concerns are the reason.

Biologists said the majority of riparian landowners – those living right along the stream – and most anglers who answered a survey at a public meeting support the proposal.

However, some of the half dozen or so anglers who spoke at the agency’s April board meeting said their own surveys and petitions indicate otherwise.

Those speakers themselves revealed differences of opinion.

All spoke of ensuring Penns Creek’s fishery remains good, and accessible to all, into the future.

But Charlie Klauger of Weikert says continued stocking is the answer.

Hatchery manager for the Union County Sportsmen – which has stocked more than 113,000 trout in Penns Creek since 1998 – Klauger worries limiting fishing to artificial lures only on section 5 will rule out most children.

“If they go down there and don’t catch a fish, you know where that’s headed. They’re back in front of the TV,” Klauger said.

Bob Laubach of Mifflinburg believes otherwise. President of the R.B. Winter Chapter of Trout Unlimited, he said the priority is doing right by the trout. That will benefit all anglers, including children, in the long run, he said.

“I’m not asking for Class A designation and special regulations just for myself. I’ve been able to enjoy Penns Creek for a good portion of my life,” he said.

“I’m asking that you do this for future generations so they may have the opportunity to enjoy it the same as I have.”

Commissioner Ed Mascharka of Erie County said board members need time to sort it all out.

“I think this is going to take some more discussion,” he said.

Bob Frye is the everybodyadventures.com editor. Reach him at 412-838-5148 or bfrye@535mediallc.com. See other stories, blogs, videos and more at everybodyadventures.com.

Share This Article

Shop special Everybody Adventure products today!