Turkey Hunting and Brook Trout

[noodle one]

Last night (April 30) I went out to try to roost some birds and went to a spot were I have never tied before. There is a small stream not far from my house that is down from the ridge that I can hunt. I have never hunted the bottom by the stream , but have started birds from the ridge down in the bottom and have had them come up to me. Some times they would hang up on me down in there and I would think to myself that I need to find out who owns the land and ask for permission to hunt it. I have always gotten my birds and would never got around to ask. Now I have lived here for (40) forty years and when my kids were small I would take them down to the bridge to catch shinners and never looked for trout. Last night I parked by the bridge to listen for birds. I was there about 15 min. when down the road came a pickup and pulls up and the guy in it asked if I was fishing the stream. I said no, I was there to listen for turkeys and that there wasn't anything in the stream that I wanted to fish for and all that was in there were shinners. He told me that he owned the land and stream and he didn't mind people hunting and fishing if they asked for permission. I introduced myself and told him were I live. I told him that I had never hunted the stream bottom, but that I hunted up on the ridge and have called birds up out of there and have always wanted to hunt it and asked for permission.He told me no problem and I could hunt it. We then started talking about the stream and fishing . I told him that I fish the W B Delaware and that I don't keep any fish and that there wasn't anything in the stream that I wanted to fish for ,just shinners.He then told me that it was loaded with small brook trout. He said that there were some people who were fishing it and taking everything out that they could catch and never asked for permission. He told me that there are a lot of 4" and 5" ins. in the stream and a few bigger ones 10"ins.  He told me that he didn't mind people taking a few of the bigger ones ,but let the little ones grow. I said they would probably would die anyways because the stream dries up in the summer. He told me that there is always a little water running all summer and all the bigger holes hold water. I said that they must have come from someones stocked pond with all the rain. He told me that he has owned the land for (6) six years and that they have always been there. I told him about a small stream that I knew of and a lot of guys found out about it and were keeping everything and they fished it out and today you would be lucky to find a trout in it and it was a shame and he shouldn't tell to many people about it. He told that  was the reason he was keeping a close eye on it. He then gave me permission to fish it.  I probobly will never fish it ,but it is good to know.  Well things didn't work out for me today with the turkeys, but all is good. I have more new land to hunt and I now know were there are some brooks if I ever want to fish it. There always tomorrow for turkeys.

[MuzzyLoader]

Great post Noodle... thanks for sharing.  Isn't it fun to meet landowners (for the first time), swap stories, and receive positive results from the interaction?  I know it doesn't always happen that way, but your positive results I'm sure happened because you were sincere and honest in your conversation with him.

Good luck hunting/fishing...