Mar 30, 2003 By Rod Schoener 9 min read

Just for kids! That’s something we didn’t hear enough in the past when it came to fishing and hunting outdoor activities.

At last, adults are beginning to recognize the importance of getting youngsters involved in such activities and staging special events for youngsters only such as pheasant hunts, spring gobbler hunts, duck and goose hunts, squirrel hunts, special deer hunts, BB gun shoots and fishing activities such as tournaments and derbies.

Unfortunately, when it comes to fishing, youngsters have always had to compete with the adults for space.

Recently many sportsmen’s clubs have built fishing ponds just for the youngsters, and others close the trout ponds to adults for the first couple hours of the season or hold a “kids only” day prior to opening day, when the youngsters can fish alone for trout stocked just for them.

Those events are great, but they are club oriented and only permit youngsters with a direct connection to some club member to participate.

Realizing how tough it is for youngsters to compete with adults for fishing space during trout season, Fayette County Waterways Conservation Officer Scott Opfer and the Dunlap Creek Lake Task Force worked out a plan that will allow the small pond at the backwaters of the lake to be used as a “kids only” fishing area.

Opfer said, “The lake is heavily used. It’s a pretty big lake, but it’s tough for kids. We had that pond there that was originally built for sediment control, and we figured if it would hold fish it would be a perfect place for kids.

“We can put some fish in there, and they are not going to get away. They are more or less contained, and the youngsters can catch them.

“There was a place in my last district that had a kids area on a creek. A local sportsman club would sponsor it. They would come out the night before and put a big tent up. They’d have prizes for the kids and they would give hot dogs away and have pop for them. There was always three to four hundred kids there, and I figured we could do something like that here.”

Opfer than noted how instrumental Al Packan and the Dunlap Lake Task Force has been to get the project moving, getting Menallen Township to go in and brush hog all along the sides of the pond.

“It was really thick before,” Opfer said. “Kids can get back in there now, and the township dumped and spread tons of gravel in the nearby parking lot to eliminate the mud and ruts.

“A lot of people seem real enthusiastic about it, so I think there will be a good turnout.

“The only other kids’ area we have here is at the Izaak Walton League’s park, which is kind of far for a lot of people. We figure this will service at lot of people. A lot of people from Uniontown and Brownsville and even Pittsburgh come to Dunlap, so we’ll see what happens.”

Opfer noted that the Fish and Boat Commission is not allowed to stock trout an area like this, so they are counting on some help from the Yough Fisherman’s Association and Trout Unlimited, and the Dunlap Lake Task Force may try to raise additional funds and purchase some fish for the area.

There is a pipe that goes under the road, allowing water to flow between the pond and the lake, depending on lake levels. Opfer said that a screen will be placed over the pipe to keep the fish on the kids’ side.

A special permit was issued for the area, allowing it to be used as a “kids only’ area for 45 days, beginning with the opening day of trout season. Once the 45 days is up, the area will revert to open fishing, as it is a popular carp fishing spot.

In commenting on the current trout stockings, Opfer said, “We had a late winter stocking at Dunlap Lake. The trout were small. They came from the Reynoldsville hatchery. After that, the trout from Reynoldsville have been larger. The regular spring stockings include much larger trout. Everyone has been complimenting me on them. Traditionally, trout in the late winter stockings have been small. We stocked Meadow Run and Dunbar, and the trout have been very nice.”

Prior to his assignment in Fayette County, Opfer was in northern York County.

Opfer, who comes from Elizabeth in Allegheny County, was assigned to Northern York County upon graduation from training school. He said that he had spent a lot of time hunting and fishing in Fayette County, so when he saw the job was coming open, he jumped on it. He replaced long-time Waterway’s Conservation Officer Jim Ansell in the fall of 2001.

He said that Fayette County is so different than York County, which was heavily populated with many big highways.

“The county had two stocked trout streams and a couple of lakes, which were actually pools on the Susquehanna River behind dams,” he said. “There was a ton of people there who were into boating.

“Here I’ve got the Mon, the Yough and the Cheat, all the trout streams, Virgin Run, Dunlap, Yough Lake, a pretty good diversity.”

Opfer is assigned to patrol the boating pool on the Monongahela River, where he spends most of his weekends, but “I’d rather be on the Yough Lake. It is a lot prettier.”

From January to August of 2002, Opfer put his career with the Fish and Boat Commission on hold, while he served in Kuwait with the 229th Engineers out of Kingwood, W. Va.

Immediately upon his return to Fayette County, he aggressively and enthusiastically resumed his duties at Fayette County Waterways Conservation Officer.

Since Fairchance and Smithfield boroughs now have sewage systems, I asked if it was possible that Georges Creek could possibly be stocked more in the future.

“Actually we stock it from the confluence down to the Route 119 bridge,” Opfer said, “It is still probably OK a little bit below that, but once York Run hits it, it just kills it. Where they meet, York Run is about half the size of Georges Creek and it has a pH of 4.0. It just wipes it out, which is unfortunate, because streams of similar size such as Jacobs Creek on the Westmoreland County line are teaming with aquatic life, and that goes into the Yough. If we had Georges Creek going into the Mon, and it was clean, we’d have sauger, walleye and bass swimming up the stream.

“I look as it as more of a warm water fishery.”

Then I asked if there was any chance of doing any type of stocking along the section of Georges Creek that has become much cleaner because of the elimination of sewage. Opfer said that the majority of stream would have to be open to public fishing in order for the Fish and Boat Commission to stock it, and he didn’t know if the landowners would be for that or not.

“I think access would be too difficult, which is why the stocking boundaries are where they are now,” Opfer said.

“Most fishermen are responsible, but you get a couple guys in there that maybe break a gate down or leave some litter and the landowner gets upset, and there it goes.”

I mentioned that Virgin Run Dam could be a much better fishery with just a few improvements to which Opfer noted that the old docks that were removed from Dunlap Creek Lake are going to be put in place at Virgin Run.

“I saw the old docks were in pretty good shape, so I called Jack Frith to see what the county was going to do with them, and he said, ‘nothing.’

“I said that a lot of guys have asked over the years if we could get something at Virgin Run. Then I asked him would you mind giving them to us to take down to Virgin Run, and he said, ‘No. No problem.’

“The county is going to drop them off down there. The township is going to supply a backhoe to unload them, and our people are going to install them. We’ll have a nice dock at Virgin Run, now.

“Virgin Run’s problem is the weeds. It is basically a shallow lake, and every other year they draw it down to kill the weeds off. That works for a little bit.”

I suggested that I thought it would be nice if some of the brush could be eliminated on the side of the lake near the road to make more area for shore fishing.

Opfer said, “I don’t know if they’d be up for that, because their big thing now letting the vegetation grow up to the edge so it shades the water, allowing terrestrial insects to fall in. They seem not to want to clear away overhanging vegetation.”

In getting back to the plans at Dunlap, Opfer said, “I think Dunlap Lake if more fished than any other body of water in the commonwealth. It seems like every other week in trout season, we’re dumping a bunch in; it does get used.

“A lot of people don’t know this lake is here. I didn’t know this lake was here until I got this job, and I fish as much as anybody.”

Opfer also pointed out the Dunlap Lake Task Force has filled out an application for the Adopt A Lake Program. “What happens there is that our biologist will come out and look at the lake, and they’ll decide if we can put some kind of fish structure in there to enhance the fishery like porcupine cribs, discarded Christmas trees and stuff like that, because there is very little structure in that lake,” Opfer said.

“He’s going to come out in June to meet with the group, and hopefully they can put something in there to improve the walleye fishery. We do stock walleye in the lake.”

I asked if there has ever been a report of walleye reproduction at Dunlap. Opfer said, “I don’t think so. Every year or so, someone pulls out a monster walleye. I know that the walleye have to be eating some of the smaller trout we put in.”

Individuals or groups interested in making a donation to help stock trout for the youngsters can see Al Packan at Captain Al’s on the lake.

Rod Schoener is the Herald-Standard outdoors writer.