BY KEVIN WOODRUFF

Wyoming County Press Examiner

An unnamed tributary in Centermoreland that leads to Leonard’s Creek in Beaumont has been added to the list of Pennsylvania’s premier wild trout streams.

The 1.3-mile stretch of water is home to brook and brown trout in numbers that Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission Area 4 Fisheries Manager  Rob Wnuk calls “extremely high.”

The body of water has been added to the PFBC’s list of “Class A” trout streams, meaning they are among the top 10 percent in the entire state.

However, there is a catch.

This particular stretch of water is all on private property, so if anglers want to take a crack at catching wild trout, they will have to consult the landowners first.

The large amounts of wild trout were discovered during a survey conducted by PFBC staff last year.

According to Wnuk, who was part of the survey crew, there was a surprised amount of trout in the small area.

“This was the first time we’d surveyed this particular waterway,” Wnuk said. “We (PFBC) try to focus on places we’ve never surveyed before.”

The survey found that there was approximately 92.01 pounds of brook trout per acre of water, and 34.97 pounds of brown trout per acre.

Wnuk attributed the high numbers of trout in the tributary to good water quality.

“It all depends on water quality,” Wnuk said. “If the water was too acidic, you would only find brook trout.”

The process of estimating the number of fish in a waterway is done through a process called “electrofishing.”

Electrofishing is where a small shock is deployed in the water to stun fish in the area so that they will float to the surface.

Each fish is accounted for with a small clip attached to their gills, and the process is repeated the next day.

PFBC then takes the ratio of marked fish to unmarked fish on the second day and multiplies by the mean weight to come up with an estimate.

According to Wnuk, the PFBC does not have to hit a certain pounds per acre number to get a body of water added to the Class A list, they only must prove that trout reproduce there.

The Class A streams are also referred to as “High Quality Cold Water Fisheries,” meaning that there are more strict environmental constraints in place to protect them.

While Wnuk said a water withdrawal site could still be installed on a Class A steam, the Department of Environmental Protection would place higher restrictions on them.

The unnamed tributary in Centermoreland is one of 11 Class A streams in Pennsylvania.

A complete list is below:

*Sorber Run, brook trout, headwaters downstream to mouth (3.1 miles), Noxen Township.

*Burgess Brook, brook trout, headwaters downstream to mouth (1.2 miles), Jenningsville.

*Hettesheimer Run, brook trout, headwaters downstream to mouth (1.6 miles), Noxen Twp.

*Roaring Run, brook trout, headwaters downstream to confluence (2.6 miles), Meshoppen/Noxen Twp.

*Roaring Run, brook and rainbow trout, confluence downstream to mouth (2.4 miles), Noxen Twp.

*South Branch Roaring Run, brook trout, headwaters downstream to mouth (2 miles), Noxen Twp.

*Stone Run, brook trout, headwaters downstream to mouth (2.2 miles), Noxen Twp.

*Sugar Hollow Creek, rainbow trout, headwaters downstream to mouth (4.7 miles), Meshoppen/Tunkhannock Twp.

*Unnamed Tributary to Leonard Creek, brook and brown trout, headwaters downstream to mouth (1 mile), Centermoreland.

*Windfall Run, brook trout, headwaters downstream to mouth (1.7 miles), Dutch Mtn./Noxen.

*York Run, brook trout, headwaters downstream to mouth (2.3 miles), Noxen Twp.