Geocaching at Mutant Beach 07-10-05

Geocaching at Mutant Beach

"Mutant Beach is a Gas"

Retrieved online at http://www.bradfordpa.net/Judys/GeoCache/Mutant/Mutant_Index.html on July 28, 2006 [BROKEN LINK- 19 June 08]

Posted on site:

Hidden by "zenrider" July 8, 2005.
Quick easy grab. This area became locally renowned because of a chemical spill that killed the creek. Everything was dead and floating the next day. Slowly it has revived and there is a trout project upstream 1/4 mile for flyfishing. Rumors of mutant fish in the area for a while. But if you watch on a sunny day, you might see the mutants swimming. Don't let your kids swim here, really. Bring a pencil. Log only.

MPBS NOTE: This is the first time we have heard this story. This anecdote may have derived from a fish kill upstream caused by runoff of sealant from newly paved parking areas at Pitt-Bradford [date of incident needed].

Follow-up by Zenrider via Mutant Mail on July 29, 2006:

The chemical spill referenced on your page is the incident referred to in the cache description. FYI. Pre chemical spill, you could catch lots of fish or minnows or other fish bait here. One cast with a minnow seign would yield 10 limits of minnows. I have not caught a minnow in that stream since the incident.

Post Spill: The day it happened, I went to the creek and there were dead bellies everywhere. Suckers, bullheads, brown trout, brook trout, yellow perch, stream darters, bowfin, hard and softshell crawfish and helgremites were among the many species I found laying in the creek bed. There were several species of fish I had not formerly seen nor heard of and can still not find a reference listing them. Strangely, I did not find one dead carp nor have I ever seen carp in this stream. The very few fish available for years had defects. Like one eye or blinded or missing and deformed fins and horrid black markings on the skin. Now nothing much except eels can be found here.

[MBPS NOTE: We personally have seen some carp over the years migrating upstream toward Mutant Beach but not of the size one would expect. Also, as a joke, one time we fished there (circa 1997-99) and actually caught an 9" trout at Mutant Beach. However, it was obviously a stocked fish from upstream]