Our Mission: To Preserve, Protect, and Restore Pennsylvania's Cold Water Streams and their habitats.
Old-timer recalls state’s wild brook trout were once larger
by Rozelle Stidd, Huntingdon
I am a member of the Spring Creek Chapter of Trout Unlimited. I will very soon have my 80th birthday.
I read (for the third time) Ken Undercoffer’s article in the last issue of Pennsylvania Trout, containing the committee’s recommendations for the management of Pennsylvania’s wild and native trout.
I heartily agree with the objective of their proposal.
I think they put a lot of work and thought into this proposal. I would like to see the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission adopt their policy, in whole or in part, in the near future, at least on a trial basis.
I was born and raised on the banks of a freestone creek in McKean County, the Kinzua Creek, a tributary of the Allegheny River, a medium-sized stream of over 25 miles in length. It had many freestone tributaries that where all inhabited by native brook trout, including the main creek.
I caught my first trout, a 10-inch native brook trout, in Pine Run, in May of 1926. Ever since that day I have been a lover of trout and obsessed with trout fishing. Pine Run is a fair-sized tributary of the Kinzua, near the village of Guffey, where I was born.
After that first trout, I have never missed many opportunities to engage in my favorite sport of trout fishing.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Kinzua Creek, from about five miles below its source was badly polluted by discharges from the tannery in Mount Jewett. The water was very dark and had a faint bad odor. Locally it was called "Black Creek."
In my memory the polluted part was never stocked but it did have a good population of native brook trout. Many of these were very large. No one, except us children, ever fished for them. It seems that the pollution only slightly singed their tails and fins. It also had a slight effect on the taste of their flesh. It sure did not affect the color of their flesh or their skin.
As a young boy and also as a teenager I caught over a dozen of these native brook trout from the Kinzua in the 20-inch class. In the several nearby tributaries I have caught many dozens of brook trout in the 12- to 13-inch range.
I believe these trout obtained that size because they were not "over-harvested" and lived long lives. I never saw an adult fishing any of these waters until I was 17 years old and then only on rare occasions. I was 15 years old before I caught my first brown trout.
My first brown trout, taken from the Kinzua, was caught at Tally Ho, the present junction of Kinzua Creek and U.S. Route 219. This was in 1936. And at that time, the Fish Commission was stocking brown trout in the south branch of the Kinzua, west of Kane. This branch flows into the main Kinzua about 6 miles west of Westline Village.
Have the watersheds of our present day wild and native trout streams deteriorated so much in the past 70 years that with special regulations, they cannot be managed to produce a quality fishery with much larger trout than at present? I don’t think they have.
From my youthful days I have evolved into a present day fly fisherman who has been practicing and preaching catch and release.
I have fished in most of the northeastern states. A half dozen of the western states, including Alaska. I have yet to find any trout stream managed with special regulations, that did not produce a better quality fishery.
I am well acquainted with Tom Greene and Dick Snyder and think they are both excellent fishery biologists. I consider Greene to be a good friend of mine. As a young adult (in the 1940s) his grandfather Greene was one of my mentors in both fly- fishing and fly-tying.
Thank you for letting my express my opinion on the wild trout proposal. Pennsylvania Trout Unlimited is in good hands with people like Ed Bellis and Ken Undercoffer at the helm.
Keep up the good work.
