New Class A Wild trout Waters Proposed

[Joe D]

The PA Fish & Boat Commission listed a bunch of waters they would like to have listed as Class A wild trout water. Public comment is open until Christmas. Go to this web page on their site: Form - Comments on Proposed Rulemakings and Notices and tell them that you support Notice 11.15.11

A complete list of the streams can be found on these PF&BC web pages:

http://fishandboat.com/rulemakings/notices/2011_11_15_wild.pdf

http://fishandboat.com/rulemakings/notices/2011_11_15_classa.pdf

 

[David G]

gomez
this is great news keep up the good work

 

[Johnny Utah]

Excellent news.

 

[NJAngler]

Pa's Class "A" list is practically meaningless. Its mostly just a tease showing you how many good streams are out there that 99.9% of anglers will never be able to fish. Sort of like a dad taking his son to a Porsche dealership, getting his hopes up only to have him say 'son these are the best cars out there but your probably never going to drive one let alone own one" "thanks pops but I have to ask: why did you bring me here? good question son, good question...

 

[Johnny Utah]

Pa's Class "A" list is practically meaningless. Its mostly just a tease showing you how many good streams are out there that 99.9% of anglers will never be able to fish. Sort of like a dad taking his son to a Porsche dealership, getting his hopes up only to have him say 'son these are the best cars out there but your probably never going to drive one let alone own one" "thanks pops but I have to ask: why did you bring me here? good question son, good question...

what the devil are you talking about?

 

[David G]

Dude youre dad took you took you to get a porsche and didn't buy one what a fuckin prick

 

[NJAngler]

what the devil are you talking about?

I was trying to make an analogy with the porsche thing. I said 'sort of...' Let me try again...

That class "A" list(and to a lesser degree, NJ WTS list) is SORT OF like a store full of nice gifts that everybody can see through the window but few are allowed to buy. In fact most can't even enter the store. All you can do is press your nose against the window and stare at all those nice gifts.

For instance lets say a newbie to the ff world wants to fish a Class "A" stream. Okay so they go to the PFBC website, bring up the Class "A" list and look for streams near them. Easy so far right? Just for shits an giggles, lets say they live in Bucks County. Nearest choices are as follows:

4 streams sections are listed. Not great but not terrible either. % in private ownership is as follows: 100%, 100%, 92% and 100%. So out of ~ 9 miles of wild trout water, you can - maybe - fish a whopping 0.2 miles. This is my point. This new angler(or veteran angler who's been fishing for wild trout for decades and looking for new places) who was sooo excited to fish for wild trout is now totally discouraged. Knowing those streams are Class "A" is meaningless if I can't even fish them. At least the 'other' list (streams with naturally reproducing trout present) doesn't differentiate between classes. It simply tells you trout are present which is really all the info one needs to know.

 

[Joe D]

In some counties there are miles and miles of Class A trout steams in public ownership, but regardless, Class A water is about the fish, not fly fishing or any other fishing. These streams with special protection status feed into other waters and help keep those other waters clean. Bucks County wild trout would be worse off if those streams weren't in Class A.

 

[Johnny Utah]

In some counties there are miles and miles of Class A trout steams in public ownership, but regardless, Class A water is about the fish, not fly fishing or any other fishing. These streams with special protection status feed into other waters and help keep those other waters clean. Bucks County wild trout would be worse off if those streams weren't in Class A.

Your right on there Joe. That was my thoughts towards the class A.. Thats why i ask him what he was talking about.

 

[bmcgeehan]

Great to hear that PA is moving towards more waters reserved for wild trout! I grew up in the Pittsburgh region and my parents are from St. Marys. Nearly all of the waters were stocked up there regardless of how productive they were. Dumping boatloads of fish in certainly throws a wrench into the natural ecosystem. The high quality limestone rivers near State College are always such a joy to fish because of the lack of stocking (and of course the great hatches). I currently live in Montana and it is a real pleasure to know that every fish that you catch is wild (no stocking period in moving waters, just high mountain lakes and a small handful of large reservoirs). The productivity of many of PA's streams is outstanding, still some of the best hatches I have ever seen anywhere and those fisheries are certainly capable of being wild fisheries.