Yesterday my son and I participated in an educational program through the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Comission. It was very interesting, the kids got to dig around in a good trout stream, looking for all kinds of life. They found caddis larva, emergers, stonefly larva, crayfish, and all sorts of other things. Water temp was 57, 13% dissolved oxygen, pH of 7. Some trout are stocked in this stream, but I had to ask why we have 2 local lakes, both shallow and mostly mud filled, that get stocked with over 10,000 trout each? The bottom line is that on opening day of trout season, there are a lot of people out there trying to catch their limit to take home, and even if that is the only time they fish for trout, they spend a lot of money on licenses. The system doesn't always make sense to guys like me who would rather see them spend more on improving good cold streams, and extending the favorable environment that would result in returning our waterways to what they once were.

I noted that when William Penn first got this land, every stream in the state was full of brook trout.... the lady from the state just nodded her head.