Hatchery General Contractor

[fishinwrench]

5 hours ago, tjm said:

 

I'm confused about what your complaints target, are you disappointed in the fish or in the park management ?

 

The needless spending of considerable amounts of our money...... to produce less. 

Also the degradation of stream habitat. Specifically by adding hatchery outflows to areas that congregate fish into small confined areas, and pulling them away from what used to be more natural holding habitat. 

Granted, if all your "flyfishing" consists of... is drifting glo-balls under a bobber with less than 10 feet of line out, then it's all good for you.   But if you'd rather exercise some true flyfishing skills, or learn various techniques.....they are pretty much killing that option.   

[snagged in outlet 3]

20 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

.they pretty much killed that option.   

FIFY

[tjm]

Doesn't that park have a stream nearby that is more or less wild and natural where a person could actually fly fish?

I've  always considered the parks as "almost fly fishing", because there are always other people in the way. 3/4s of which will walk right into a fly line. Or cast a spinner across your line. 

Some day I will learn to dangle a fly under a bobber, but so far it hasn't worked for me. I try that method once or twice a year whenever I find a nice bobber by the creek. The same with those balls, I've been picking them at RRSP up in mint condition for 40 years and try all of the ones I find, but have yet to catch a single fish with one. It's crazy, because I've seen hundreds of trout caught by both those methods. I've even asked others exactly how to set up a bobber rig.

I think the first time that I fished BSSP was in the mid '80s and it did not have any "real fly fishing" even then. It's why I've been back there so infrequently since. I did kill some good sized trout, but it was not "fun". Montauk was nicer than BSSP  back then with some green stuff and bushes by the stream,  but the fish were smaller on the days I was there. 

Truth is you can't have thousands of people walking back and forth without destroying the vegetation and eventually the banks. And I appreciate the Parks most for the fact that they keep all those people in one place, leaving the White Ribbon areas and "warm" streams  for antisocials  like myself. We need to plant more stinging nettle. 

[Xraydude]

I’m in 100% agreement with Wrench (😳) that Bennett is not the same. 
There used to be a nice pool for families that’s gone. Festivals were held in the park, gone. Gravel wash-in from the roads dredged out occasionally, gone. There used to be areas along the stream where families could set up some chairs and watch their folks fish and give backcasting room. Yeah, say it with me, gone. The natural hatchery runs with gravel bottoms instead of a concrete were beautiful and gave a more natural setting. I’m sure a dread to clean, so gone.  The hatchery water used to cascade over large rocks entering the stream, gone for industrial sized “toilets”draining into the stream.  Last time I stayed in a cabin, I had to kill 70 plus flies before we could settle in. I’m gone. 

[fishinwrench]

11 minutes ago, tjm said:

 

I think the first time that I fished BSSP was in the mid '80s and it did not have any "real fly fishing" even then.

 

I'm afraid that my personal consideration of your input being, at least partially, "Trolling".....has now been confirmed.  😉 

Not that I don't enjoy it, jus'sayin'. 👌

[fishinwrench]

29 minutes ago, tjm said:

Doesn't that park have a stream nearby that is more or less wild and natural where a person could actually fly fish?

 

It's pretty good for swinging leeches & woolybuggers,  And the nymping can be decent on certain short stretches during certain flow rates.  But you'll not get enough interest doing anything else to justify the efforts. 

It could be much better if some enforcement on outlaw gigging existed.  

[tjm]

Nope, just telling it like I saw it. People lined up wading into the stream and following each other down river a step at a time to get out and repeat. Other people "Fly fishing" with spinning rods. The prettiest part of the park stream was the bait area as best I recall. I think we stayed there in passing  three times in the mid/late '80s and I never went back until year before last and again last spring. From my perspective it's just as bad now as it was then. 

The pool was DNR and had zilch to do with fishing and dredging and chairs take away from fishing. That's one of the things MDC did to  down grade RRSP is extensive dredging and stream modification in the lower section of the Park. 

But I was probably spoiled at that time having been fishing in the North East for 9-10 years, where it was rare to see two other anglers on any given piece of water other than the Bay. And none of the streams had been "improved" or "maintained" since the mills stopped using water power. 

[tjm]

4 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

It could be much better if some enforcement on outlaw gigging existed.  

Enforcement costs money and is pretty scarce everywhere, I can't recall the last time I saw an Agent in the park at RR and although I saw agents on streams three times last year (the first in several years) none of them asked me for a license. I did notice that they were in pairs which didn't used to be the case. 

[fishinwrench]

There are 3 (somewhat short) areas of the stream that have truly consistent hatch activity.  And one of the best ones USED TO BE (and still is)  a little tricky to access and wade.   But guess what they did?  Piped in a hatchery outlet, so now all the fish just sit in its flow awaiting the next glo-ball.

Nevertheless it was, and kinda still is, a great place to hone your skills.   Basically if you can consistently catch fish in those 3 stretches.....then you could pull it off anywhere in the world that trout live.   

Truly the only places at Bennett where being OVERLY CROWDED is a definite possibility, are the manicured spots where you can step easily into the water within spitting distance from your truck.   And those are NOT the areas where actual flyfishing skills matter. 

[tjm]

Some people would say oh no, no, wild trout are different; or oh no this river is special because it's a "spring creek" and you have to use 18' leaders with triple aerial mends. But I'll bet you are right trout are pretty much fish brained and try tasting everything to see if it is food. 

I guess I didn't find those short stretches.