Tough sledding at Roaring River

[Foghorn]

 Susie and I had a short getaway trip to Roaring River this week. Checked the stream Monday evening and the water was a little off but a good color for fishing. Got a late start Tuesday and noticed that the crowds weren't bad. We didn't see a lot of fish and the fishing itself was slower than I'd ever seen. No problem, we would check out the C&R. The last flood had moved a lot of gravel and their were stretches of water 100-200 yards long where the water was a foot deep. We did catch enough fish to make it interesting and lost a fish in the campground section in the 5-6# range. As we headed to the car that afternoon, the topic of low fish numbers was addressed. One gentleman told Susie that the board showed releasing a total of 100 fish. I thought that was a little hard to believe until I went to the park store to get our tags for Wednesday and saw the same totals for fish released . I wouldn't have bought a tag other than its a 5 hour drive from home and we were already there.  Younger brother was seeing the same low numbers of fish at Montauk . Looks like a Michigan salmon trip might be on the lineup now.

[ollie]

RR hasn't been fishing like it used to IMO. Even during the C&R season you rarely even see any big fish in there anymore. Sure, you can rack up the numbers with the stockers, but very rarely do you see anything bigger in there. When I first started going to C&R it was about 15 years ago and I would catch at least one over 20" every time I went. Shoot, one year I caught over 3 of them in one day!  Haven't had that happen in a long time. 

[Foghorn]

Lady selling tags told me "there's a lot of fish in the stream. I'd politely told her no, I've been coming here 50 years and this is the fewest fish we've ever seen. There were more fish by the big bridge going to the fly zone and the campground areas. I didn't make it to the fly zone so it may have some carryover fish from recent stockings. You are correct on the lack of size in their fish. 100 fish 2 days in a row won't allow for much carryover.

[tjm]

2 hours ago, Foghorn said:

the board showed releasing a total of 100 fish.

I wasn't aware they published the stocking numbers daily, but with the stockings  continuous throughout the season based on tag sales there should always be about the same number of fish in the spring run.  100 fish seems low, that would indicate a past year's sale of only forty tags.  But the week school starts is likely one of the slowest weeks for parks, and mid week that might not be unusual.

 Given the numbers of people I've seen there over the past 3-4 years, it's hard to believe they had a day with that few tags. That stream is different fishing than it was years ago and I blame that on dredging, The more canal like that they make it the less I like to fish it. Of course the canal will hold more fish the bare banks hold more "anglers" per foot.

I'd pay double for tags if they let the creek go wild and plant the banks with overhanging bushes. trout like shade.

I'd also like to see tag numbers there limited to  about 200 on any single day, so that everyone has a space around them and the weeds can grow.

[Foghorn]

They have a neon looking sign directly behind the counter where you buy tags. Little brother was talking to a campground host at Montauk that told him they were only stocking 1.5 fish per person. That may or may not be accurate. Probably load it up for the Labor Day weekend crowd. The boys made it more difficult at Bennett in zone 1 after dredging zone 1 .

[tjm]

I haven't been to any of the other parks to fish in a lot of years,  hard to recall what Montauk was like 30 years ago, but I picture a natural stream in my memory. Been through BSSP  a  time  or two more recently, maybe two years ago, didn't like the look of it. 

One fish per tag or twenty fish per past years  tag, it would automatically get loaded up for every long weekend. Those weekends always sell more tags, so next year on that day they stock more fish. New stockers are mostly gone in the first hour, I think and any fish I catch after noon seems to have creek colors rather than raceway colors. I've only been there a few times this year and didn't fish hard those days, unlike past years, when I was there often enough that the locals seem to recognize me. Actually haven't fished it much in the past three years.

[Foghorn]

It was only the second time for us this year at Roaring. I always like the campground area at Montauk as it seemed more natural too.