RE: NANFA-L-- French Creek

matt ashton (ashtonmj2003-in-yahoo.com)
Fri, 22 Jul 2005 07:05:30 -0700 (PDT)

I am sure I have said it in the past...but again...I highly recommend the Meadville Ave bridge and the Venango bridge. I have done fish and mussel surveys there in the past for PENNDOT and have seen anywhere from 5 to 7 out of 10 of those darter species with good regularity.

Rob Criswell <ammocrypta-in-hotmail.com> wrote:
I noted an earlier French Creek email but was too busy to respond and then
forgot to.
Good spots on French Creek that can accomodate a number of vehicles include
Utica (Western PA Conservancy access area on the left descending bank in
town), Cochranton (there's a small park on the upstream side of the bridge
in town), the PA Fish and Boat Commission's Meadville Access off route 322 a
few miles SE of Meadville, and Venango (from the steel bridge that is now
closed downstream), which is a great site. All of these sites have some
riffle habitat.

You could conceivably see 10 species of darters, including variegate,
bluebreast, Tippecanoe, gilt, spotted, longhead, and eastern sand darters
and 4 madtoms -northern, mountain, stonecat, and brindled; Ohio lampreys are
fairly evident this summer also, along with many more common species.

You're limited to a 4'x4' seine and must have a fishing license (3-day
tourist is $25), which you can buy locally or on the PFBC website. Most of
the fish I named are E or T and must be returned immediately to the water if
caught. 50 "baitfish" may be kept daily or in possession. From the summary
of regulations on PFBC's website - " BAITFISH includes all forms of
minnows; suckers, chubs, fallfish, lampreys, eels between 6 and 8 inches in
length; gizzard shad 8 inches or less; and all forms of darters, killifishes
and stonecats (except those listed as threatened or endangered species).
Legally taken gamefish may be used as bait. It is unlawful to use or possess
goldfish, comets, koi and common carp as baitfish while fishing." Regs and
E T and C lists are on the PFBC website.

The PFBC may consider snorkeling to be swimming, which is not permitted-in-
the PFBC access areas. Snorklers may want to avoid the Meadville Access
location or call the Regional Office (which is just outside Meadville -
814/337-0444) for clarification first.

French Creek has been quite low much of the summer - its come up a bit in
the last day or two due to T-storms. Keep an eye on the gauge for Meadville
at the COE website: http://wmw.lrp.usace.army.mil/current/ua.html
2.5 is a normal reading (its 2.05 right now) and 2.0 is good; it had been
around 1.5 last week. If it gets much above 3.0 its difficult to work and
will probably be muddy.

Pymatuning is a good place to stay, but Crawford County has a campground in
Colonel Crawford Park on the COE Woodcock Creek Lake project which is just
outside of Saegertown, and only a couple miles from French Creek.

Sounds like fun, but I have a sports tournament with my son in York that
weekend.

Hope this helps.

Rob

>From: "Crail, Todd"
>Reply-To: nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org
>To:
>Subject: NANFA-L-- French Creek
>Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 11:24:11 -0400
>
>Hi gang,
>
>This is slipping up on me faster than I'd like it to :) Still planning on
>doing an outing-in-French Creek the weekend of July 29th - 31st. I plan to
>arrive on Friday night and set up camp. Actually, I'm hoping that the two
>folks coming with me can just knock off on Friday and we get there early to
>really scout. I can't promise this though. One of the people coming has a
>nose to the grindstone advisor right now.
>
>I haven't heard back from Wally, so we're going to be going by suggestions
>if
>I don't get there to look. I'm open to taking any suggestions... Probably
>the
>classic mussel localities are a good place to start. Matt Ashton, can you
>please see if you can get any of that information? I'm going to see if I
>can't get some info from Dr. Cavender as well.
>
>I looked into camping. I think our best place to stay will be-in-
>Pymatuning
>State Park:
>
>http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/parks/pymatuning.aspx
>
>
>That will give us a good place to start and within a short drive of our
>locations, and a nice general meeting place. It looks like we'll be
>staying
>at the Tuttle Campground, as that is the designated dog area. We could
>meet
>in the Visitor parking lot-in-a time we all agree on.
>
>So I guess what would best now, is for those who are definately going to
>contact me off list with when you'd like to arrive, and with any cell phone
>info, stuff like that so we can be as organized as possible. Once we have
>a
>good idea of who what when where, I'll reserve a campsite on the phone (and
>ask for an open block) and then pass along the campsite number so others
>can
>do the same.
>
>I'd also ask that you buy your liscences on-line if that is even a remote
>possibility, or prior to Saturday morning. They can be purchased-in-the PA
>Fish and Boat Comission Outdoor Shop:
>
>https://www.theoutdoorshop.state.pa.us//FBG/fish_secured/FishOutdoorShop.asp
>
>
>Okay. Anything else?
>
>Looking forward to it!
>
>Todd
>The Muddy Maumee Madness, Toledo, OH
>It's never too late to have a happy childhood.
>http://www.farmertodd.com
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