Any Ice At Birch Creek Yet?

[DKStroutfitter]

Has anyone been up to Birch Creek lately?
Is there any Ice yet?
Fill free to PM me if you would like.
Thanks in advance,
DKS.
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[BearLakeFishGuy]

No ice at Birch Cr. Res. Heck today it had to be at least in the mid 50's up here. Unbelieveably warm for December!
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[brookieguy1]

Birtch Creek Reservoirs fishery has been devastated to a "put and take" fishery. People that have got on here after seeing pics of large tigers and posted replies like "Birtch Creek is no secret" after being asked to please not mention the name have over-exposed the lake. Folks have gone up there at prime fishing times and sacked the big boys up. Now that it's a well known fishery average fish size will be dinks like Huntington. Bound to happen I guess. Have to find other Tiger waters now.
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[packfish]

Certainly my feeling also on this one.
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[Flycasting]

Since Birch Creek has been on the fishing report and the board at Sportsmans forever, I hardly think it is, or has been a secret.
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[cadresults]

[left]The great thing about Birch Creek is its location. With the closure of Monte in the winter and the long commute. Most will usually go elsewhere. Its also difficult to fish through the ice. It can be tough to locate them.[/left] [left] [/left] [left]I hate when info about smaller lakes are posted. I wish it was done through PM's. But, nothing we can do about it...[/left]
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[Flycasting]

Yep, it's far away from most people, and tough to get to during the winter.
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[DKSRenegade]

So just when did all this take place?
I must have missed all the fuss about BC.
And just how do you ask someone to PM you when you don't know who has the information?
Loosen up and go fishing for pete sake!
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[Flycasting]

Completely agree with you. People get all ruffled just for mentioning Birch Creek.
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[brookieguy1]

I'm not upset anymore, just dened. I watched a lake degrade from trophy status to not worth visiting in about three years. One of those lakes to put on the "remember when" list. I think the best thing now would be to make it artificials only with a 1 or 2 fish limit. If folks are happy with just going fishing and catching small tigers with bait, they can go to Huntington.
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[Flycasting]

I guess I just disagree with you regarding the quality of the fishery. There are still many nice Tigers taken out of there all the time.
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[brookieguy1]

Flycasting I would have totally agreed with you 1 year ago. I guess the more I argue about it the more curious people get about it so I'll just let it end here. All I know is it is that fishing it for me went from average size 18 inches and 1 out of 3 being over 22 inches to about average 14 inches and 1 out of 20 being over 18 inches!
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[DKSRenegade]

I can see the point about small waters with big fish, but who gets to fish them?
I like to protect places against overfishing to but let's face it, it's not just because people find and fish these places, it's because people take too many of the big fish home.
That's why I started fly fishing some 20 years ago.
It makes it a lot easier to release a fish unharmed.
I know that everyone can't and shouldn't have to fly fish, but everyone "can" learn how to share the fish and quite being so greedy with what they feel that they have to take home with them.
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[Fin-S-Fish]

Just so you know there are alot more "secret" tiger waters out there to find. One lake I won't ever mention is easily accessible, well for me at least, and the first time I fished it I landed a 24 inch 5lb 2 oz tiger. Unfortunately a hen with no colors just the maze stripes across the back. But size and fightwise I will remember it for a lifetime. It jumped 7 times and took 10 min to land. I saw more colored up tigers up to 28 inches cruising by. I can't wait for it to freeze.

[brookieguy1]

+1 DKS. Artis only and a 1 fish limit could save it. Maybe it's time for me to go to some R.A.C. meetings and bring it up instead of just whining about it. I appologize if I offended anyone with my sour sounding posts.
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[Flycasting]

No need to apologize bro! You are passionate about fishing! Nothing wrong with that!!! [cool]
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[wiperhunter2]

I'm not sure what you are talking about when you said,"[#ff4040]If folks are happy with just going fishing and catching small tigers with bait, they can go to Huntington[/#ff4040][black]." [/black][black]Tonight on Roughing it Outdoors, they showed a 25 inch 5 lb tiger that was caught out of Huntington. Plus a couple of weeks ago one of the guys on another site caught a 4 or 5 pound tiger that was caught in your old favorite lake, so there are still some nice fish being caught there. On this site we have talked about that lake for years, so it is nothing new, no one is targeting it, as a matter of fact there are guys that would rather fish the lake that is just across the road instead. Anyway, that is just my opinion, many people fish for the big ones but few catch them. WH2
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[ScottyP]

I would agree with that too. Tigers have been around for long enough now that there are several waters where there are good classes of fish from 18-24". There seems to be a certain formula for good tiger growth: find a lake where they have been planted for at least 3 years that has a good forage base (minnows and scuds come to mind) and is somewhat off the beaten path and they do well. Lakes between 6,000 and 8,000 feet that are somewhat shallow with good weed growth also fit this formula.
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[Nibble_Nuts]

Take it easy. There are still plenty of big tigers in there. A few weeks back I caught a 25" tiger there and released her. One of my buds caught a 20.5" hook-jawed male the same day and released him. There are still plenty of big ones in there. As time goes by, more people will inevitably learn of this place and go there. That's the way the dice roll.
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[RyanCreek]

Well, I'm one of those people who just heard about Birch Creek and plan on fishing it now. I've always loved them Tigers. I very rarely keep fish unless somebody I'm fishing with wants to try one, which means I took somebody fishing who doesn't go much and I wanted them to catch fish so I went somewhere with lots of 10 to 12 inch rainbows. Yeah fish taste good, but I don't like the trouble of cooking them. I fish for the experience and take pictures, then when I'm done I run by Wendy's and grab a burger instead. I think the DWR does a good job of managing plant and take waters from looking at the stocking reports. Of course we could always use more fish. But they have really bumped up their Tiger Trout production.
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