Potter County Pre-Fishing Report: Stockin' and Shed Huntin'

Not even Mother Nature can stop spring.  She can keep the temps in the 20s and 30s when they should be in the 40s.  We can see snow up here into May.  But offer a few days of temps in the high 40s and the Bluebirds start nesting, the buzzards start showing up, and with a little rain the frogs come out of the mud and make their journey across Route 6 to the Allegheny (many do not make the crossing). 

The other part of spring that MN can't stop are the annual rituals of stocking and shed hunting.  About this time of the year the state and local rod and gun clubs load up trucks with millions of hatchery-raised trout to be distributed across thousands of miles of streams.  The state provides the fish and the trucks, while local anglers provide the labor.  On Saturday the Roulette Fish and Game Club held its spring stocking event on the West Branch of Fishing Creek.  About twenty folks showed up to observe, chat about fishing and hunting, and provide a hand in corralling the trout and loading them into the truck.  The hatchery isn't large; one raceway about 80 feet in length and 30 or so feet wide.  But amazingly the club was able to raise about 2,800 trout (minus a few taken by the minks) from fingerlings provided by the state hatchery in Oswayo.  By the time Saturday rolled around the Brown, Rainbow, Brook and Golden Trout were between 8 and 10 inches, with a few in the 12-inch class.

The weather was perfect for the event.  Temps in the 30s when folks arrived at the hatchery at 9:00, but sunny skies which warmed the day into the lower 50s by afternoon.  There's not a lot of science involved in stocking.  Step one is getting the fish into the holding tank in the back of the truck.  The solution is to herd the trout into a corner, then simply start scooping and dumping the fish into paint buckets, which are then dumped into the holding tank.

Once in the truck, it was time to head to the stream.  Again, not much to it.  The truck stops at places along the stream, the bucket brigade that has been following shows up, and then hauls down buckets of fish to the stream. (which, by the way, included 6 buckets of fish in the stream behind the West Branch Tavern, oh yeah)  What's neat about the event is the number of kids, and especially girls, who really enjoyed dumping the trout into the stream.  The other neat thing about the stocking is getting a better sense of the water and great fishing spots, which by the way are where the fish are.

The first stocking finished about 11:00, then it was back to the hatchery to reload the truck.  Most of the little kids by now had ziggied off for a scheduled Easter Egg hunt, leaving the remaining stocking to the adult-kids.  By about 12:30 the second stocking was completed, and The Friendly beckoned!

The other rite of early spring is "shed hunting", which entails walking through the woods looking for buck antlers.  The conversation at the hatchery confirmed that this is serious business, with people rambling around the mountains in search of that huge rack.  The prospect of climbing was not especially appealing, but we do have a bit of woods in the back of the property.  So Mary and I took a walk through the woods, first to check out the areas that she's cleared, but also to enjoy the spring day.  While I wasn't really hunting, while walking along a neighboring field I just happened to spot something white in the brush.  A closer look and, viola, I became a successful shed hunter.

Mother Nature's going to reassert her influence over the next week, with rain, snow, and temps barely into the 40s.  But while she can make outdoor activities tough, she can't stop the opening day of trout season in a couple of weeks.  With a stocking of Fishing Creek by the state scheduled a few days before opening, and with the water in good shape, we should have some decent fishing well into the summer.  And if not, well the West Branch Tavern is a stone's throw away.

Tight Lines,

Mikey D Fishing