Mornings have turned chilly in the Laurel Highlands. Here’s the Rock Run Water test results for October 2, 2021.

Air Temperature: 54° F
Water Temperature: 53.5° F
Linn Run Discharge: 3.99
Linn Run Gauge: 1.55
pH: 7.55
Alkalinity: 9.6

Our next monthly meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, October 6 at 6:00 PM and it will be at the Bear Rocks Community Center east of Mt. Pleasant.  The Center is on Big Spring Road.  Coming from Mt. Pleasant east on Rt. 31, go up 3-mile hill and turn right near the top before a brown building, which is Doug and Michele’s new fly shop, then turn left at the Pizza Shop. Continue to the Bear Rocks Community brown, wooden sign.  The club is on the right, parking on the left.  We are not requiring masks but some may prefer to wear them.

This is also our Annual Membership Meeting.  We will hold an election to fill two vacancies for Directors positions.  We have changed the format of our meetings somewhat.  The Executive Committee will conduct business in advance of the monthly meetings and report significant decisions to the members.  That, we hope, will minimize the length of the business meetings.  Committees will still need to be prepared to give their reports and we’ll update members on all upcoming activities.  Then, at the end of each meeting we will allow time for socializing and provide light food and soft drinks.  This will allow members more time to catch up on fishing and other activities.  Our November monthly meeting will be back at the Loyalhanna Watershed barn in Ligonier.

The Rivers Conservation and Fly Fishing Youth Camp was back in 2021 after a one-year hiatus due to COVID. This year, FTTU awarded a full sponsorship to local student Nicholas Vargo to attend the camp which ran from June 20th through the 25th at Messiah College along Yellow Breeches Creek in central Pennsylvania. Nicholas gave a short talk and slide show on his experiences at the camp at our September meeting. He said the camp really opened his eyes on the importance of cold water conservation and increased his fly fishing and fly tying skills ten-fold. The camp has college level courses on a variety of topics related to cold water conservation. Nicholas said he particularly enjoyed the electrofishing session which revealed some of the fish species inhabiting Yellow Breeches Creek. The kids had time to fish each day before classes in the morning and again in the evening.

If you know of a deserving young person who would be interested in attending the camp in 2022, contact us for more information at info@forbestrailtu.org. The camp is open to boys and girls aged 14-17 and will be held June 19 – 24, 2022. FTTU would be interested in sponsoring at least one local student.

Good numbers from Rock Run this month. Even though recent storms raised the flow a little, alkalinity increased.

Air Temperature: 75° F
Water Temperature: 67.5° F
pH: 7.5
Alkalinity: 12.3
Linn Run Gauge: 1.44
Flow: Low and clear.

RR_pH Chart 2021

After an absence due to COVID in 2020, the Military Veterans Fishing Outing is back. This year, it will be held on Saturday, October 2nd from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm at the Kingston Veterans and Sportsmans Club in Latrobe. The event is sponsored by the Kingston Club and FTTU.

The outing is open to all active duty or veterans of the U.S. military. Participants do not need to be disabled, but 30 spots are reserved for disabled vets. The event is free but you will need to register if you would like to take part. To get registered, email us at info@forbestrailtu.org. You can also participate as a mentor or volunteer. For more information on volunteer opportunities, contact us at the same email address.

Fishing will be done on the club’s lake for stocked trout and panfish. No fishing license is required and all tackle will be provided by FTTU. Volunteer mentors will be on hand to provide help for the disabled and instruction to those who would like to learn to fly fish. A grilled lunch will be served by the local Boy Scout Troop.

We have held this event in 2018 and 2019 and it has been an extremely successful and fun day. See the Community Service page for a report from 2019 and a slide show. Hope to see you there!

Midsummer low flows greeted the testers. Rain, please!

Air Temperature: 61° F
Water Temperature: 62° F
Linn Run Discharge: 2.4
Linn Run Gauge Height: 1.32
pH: 7.5
Alkalinity: 11.7

Lowest flow of the year yields the highest alkalinity reading this so far this year.

Air Temperature: 81° F
Water Temperature: 66°F
pH: 7.5
Alkalinity: 10
Linn Run Gauge Height: 1.36
Linn Run Discharge: 2.87

FTTU held a volunteer appreciation day on Wednesday, June 29, on Linn Run and invited the local media to attend. A picnic lunch was the chapter’s way of thanking everyone who volunteered their time and services for the study. Demonstrations of electro-shocking and macroinvertebrate collection were conducted. Josh Penatzer, Project Manager for Loyalhanna Watershed Association donned the battery pack and electrodes and probed the waters while volunteers followed with nets. The sampling was abbreviated because the water was low and they didn’t want to stress the wild brook trout. More extensive electro-shocking will be conducted in the spring during higher water flows and fish will be checked for gill lice then released unharmed.

Andrea Kautz, Research Entomologist for Powdermill Nature Reserve instructed volunteers on how to use nets to collect trout bugs. Alongside the stream, she coached the volunteers how to sort and identify the bugs which are indicators of water quality. They captured an assortment of mayflies, caddis flies and stoneflies in a matter of minutes. Both Andrea and Josh supervised the volunteers on June 16^th when they sampled 12 sections of Linn Run including the major tributaries.

FTTU received a grant through the Foundation For Pennsylvania Watersheds to do a comprehensive study of the Linn Run Watershed with the end result being a Cold Water Conservation Plan identifying problem areas that can be addressed to improve conditions for the native brook trout inhabiting the watershed.

With assistance from our partners at The Loyalhanna Watershed Association, DCNR/Linn Run State Park, The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, Powdermill Nature Reserve, Westmoreland County Conservation District, PA Fish and Boat Commission, The Ligonier Valley School District and our own citizen scientist volunteers, we have so far completed a visual habitat assessment, a macroinvertebrate survey and a water quality analysis. Look for the conservation plan to come out in 2022.

As a tribute to Pennsylvania’s state fish, the brook trout, the Altoona Curve Double A baseball club will be playing their June 25-27 games against the Harrisburg Senators as The Altoona Brookies. The players will wear caps sporting a leaping brook trout and jerseys adorned with the brook trout’s natural colors and markings.

Local conservation organizations will be at the ballpark including Tout Unlimited, the Blair County Conservation District, Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, PA Fish & Boat Commission and the Little Juniata River Association.

On Wednesday, June 16, FTTU volunteers gathered at the Grove Run Picnic area in Linn Run State Park to do a comprehensive aquatic macroinvertebrate collection and study of Linn Run and its tributaries. Andrea Kautz, Research Entomologist at the Powdermill Nature Reserve, and Josh Penatzer, Project Manager with the Loyalhanna Watershed Association, were the professionals who supervised the study. Previously, Andrea conducted a macro identification training session for volunteers via zoom, and both Andrea and Josh demonstrated the use of kick nets, explained the collection protocol, and oversaw the identification, sorting and scoring process on site. FTTU members with previous experience in macro collection led teams that carried out the kick net collection at 11 different sites within the watershed. Each site had at least 200 organisms captured. The samples were collected in buckets and brought back to the Grove Run Picnic Area where they were counted and sorted to the Genus level and then returned to the stream. All this work was carried out between 1:00 pm and 7:00 pm thanks to the great response we had from volunteers and Andrea and Josh’s guidance.

The numbers and types of macroinvertebrates inhabiting a stream are great indicators of stream health particularly the “high quality” Genus’s of mayflies, stoneflies and caddis flies.

The final report for the Linn Run Coldwater Conservation Plan will be produced in about one year.  The study is to determine the overall health of Linn Run and the fishery.  Next step, based on the information collected, is to determine if there are potential remediation projects we can undertake that might improve stream health and trout habitat.