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Fishing: Creek cleanup will not happen overnight
Fifty years ago, Green Drakes disappeared from Spring Creek in Centre County after someone from a Penn State University chemistry lab dumped cyanide into the water. The big mayflies haven't been seen there since. "A bunch of us tried to reintroduce them by planting nymphs in the stream and duns in the foliage," said Dan Shields, of Lamont, Pa., who wrote about the incident in his book "Fly Fishing Pennsylvania's Spring Creek." "We even netted thousands of spinners from another stream, but they never took hold. We tried for three or four years, but it was no use." Although the recent train derailment and chemical spill on Sinnemahoning Portage Creek in Mc-Kean and Cameron counties was much bigger and more deadly, experts are cautiously optimistic that insects will rebound on what had been pristine, wild trout water, but predict a long, slow process.
Event features fishing legend
The Blue Grass Chapter of Trout Unlimited will host a special event on Monday, Aug. 14, with fly-fishing legends Dave and Emily Whitlock. Dave Whitlock is a renowned conservationist, fly tyer, writer and artist. His presentation and fly casting demonstration will be held at 6 p.m. at the Good Ol' Days Farm, 544 Old Frankfort, in Midway. Reservations are required, and tickets are $30 per person. For tickets call Holly Phipps at (859) 351-7158, or e-mail: hphipps@ballhomes.com. "How fortunate for the world of fly fishing that Dave Whitlock was born in the right place, in the right era, and got started on the right road," wrote John Randolph, editor of Fly Fisherman, in 2000. "In a sport where the arcane is standard fare, he makes fly-tying innovations and new fishing techniques practical and understandable.
The Batten Kill stocking: A matter of class?
If you've been following the Batten Kill trout stocking controversy, you know that the state, in the name of keeping hungry anglers happy, wants to stock the main stem of the Batten Kill with 1,000 sterile rainbow trout (fish whose sole purpose is to be caught and eaten; sterile so, in theory, the fish won't affect wild populations of brown and brook trout). The conservation group Trout Unlimited claims it's naive to think that such a stocking program won't effect the native fish. On Tuesday night, TU hosted a presentation by ecologist Robert Bachman at Burr and Burton's Riley Theater designed to reinforce its stance on the issue. Bachman, a former fisheries supervisor for the state of Maryland, was an entertaining speaker. A roundish, older gentleman, he projected the distinguished, rumpley aura of a college professor.
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