I believe I'm done fishing for the year. I can't see myself getting out in 2013 again. Reflecting on this year, I have to say, it's been a monumental year for native brook trout. I did more small stream brook trout fishing in more areas of PA than I have in prior years.
The interesting thing about the brookies this year is the over all size. The mild summer, good flows, it made for an excellent year for big brookies. I caught more "legal size" natives in 2013 than I ever have before, including several in the 11" range. My largest to date was the beautiful 12" native that I caught not 10 miles from home.
As I look towards 2014, it's time for a new focus. I hope to attempt bigger waters this year. Of course small mountain streams will still be a regular event, but I'd also like to try for bigger browns and bows, and do so more aggressively than I have the past several years. Trips to State College, trips to PA's "Trophy Trout Waters", trying a few more tail waters, the upper branches of the Delaware River, these are definitely on the agenda for the year. We'll see how it plays out.
Monday, December 30, 2013
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
The Trip in Review
This is long overdue, but sometimes I just need some time to digest things. Plus, my school work load is doubled up now, so posting time is limited. Still, here is what I can remember from our trip north.
We were, no doubt, disappointed that the national park was closed. It would have been my first trip to the Smokies, and I planned this trip for quite a long time. Still, going north into the Pennsylvania wilds was like a trip down memory lane for us. Camping at Ole Bull State Park, stopping in at Kettle Creek Tackle Shop, even a trip to the old "honey hole" on Kettle Creek, it was like the "old days" for my dad, brother, and me. This is where it all began for us. We learned how to fly fish here. So by the time we arrived at Ole Bull, we weren't even thinking about the Smoky Mountains.
The trip started beautifully. A bald eagle was spotted on the way up, and I was glad to buy a camera with a 10x zoom! Day one started on Hammersley Fork. This was less about the fishing and more about seeing a patch of virgin hemlock trees that survived the logging boom of the mid 1800s. We arrived on the Hammersley around 9:30am Thursday, Oct. 10th. The spawn wasn't under way yet, and the water was holding around 50 degrees, despite night time temps into the 40s. The brookies were off at first, but as the sun came out, so did the fish. My dad and brother fish small streams less than I do, so it took them a while to get their chops, but it was a beautifully wild stream. After about a mile or so of fishing upstream, we reached the Forrest Denlinger Natural Area trail head. A hike up the side of the mountain would land us right in the middle of virgin timbers. The hike up was brutal. I believe it was a climb of about 700ft in altitude in less than a mile. It took some time for us to get up there as we were in our waders (not the best hiking gear!) and were toting our vests, chest packs, and fly rods. About half way up we dumped all our fishing gear. We figured no one as coming up to take it! When we reached the top, we realized how worth it the hike was. The trees were absolutely stunning. It was a sense of the forest as it once was. My dad said that he heard about these timbers for almost 30 years, but never took the time to find them. He was glad to finally see these trees.
We arrived at Ole Bull around 4:00pm, after a hearty lunch at Debs/Cross Fork Inn, set up camp, then headed to the old 'honey hole' on Kettle Creek. Kettle was just stocked, but oddly enough, the only trout that I caught was a 4" wild brownie.
The next day we decided to hit up Cross Fork. This is a stream I've fished in passing, but never spent the time I felt the stream deserved. The stream would become our main focus for the rest of the trip. We fished three sections of the creek. Friday we fished a middle portion of the stream that was just littered with wild brownies. Some of them were quite significant in size. There was so much good water, every run and pool looked trouty, that fishing was slow because you didn't want to overlook one inch of this stream. Saturday we went to the more popular stretch of Cross Fork. As we were entering the stream at the bridge, some bait chuckers tried to hole jump us and get upstream of us.That didn't work out for them, as we fished a lot faster than they did (and with every cast the one guy was caught in trees), and we soon got up stream of them. It didn't matter anyway. This stretch obviously sees more pressure than other stretches, and didn't fish very well. I knew of another stretch that I fished during the Spring, so we got in the truck and drove upstream several miles, well upstream of the two prior sections we fished. Here, it was all native brookies. The stream goes into a series of splits, and the water can get pretty skinny. It's littered with brookies though, and we all ended up having a double digit day on this stretch.
The weather was great, the scenery was stunning, the fishing was great, and it was a trip that I think the three of us will remember for quite some time. I forgot how much I love this area of my home state. It was, in a way, like going home for us.
We were, no doubt, disappointed that the national park was closed. It would have been my first trip to the Smokies, and I planned this trip for quite a long time. Still, going north into the Pennsylvania wilds was like a trip down memory lane for us. Camping at Ole Bull State Park, stopping in at Kettle Creek Tackle Shop, even a trip to the old "honey hole" on Kettle Creek, it was like the "old days" for my dad, brother, and me. This is where it all began for us. We learned how to fly fish here. So by the time we arrived at Ole Bull, we weren't even thinking about the Smoky Mountains.
The trip started beautifully. A bald eagle was spotted on the way up, and I was glad to buy a camera with a 10x zoom! Day one started on Hammersley Fork. This was less about the fishing and more about seeing a patch of virgin hemlock trees that survived the logging boom of the mid 1800s. We arrived on the Hammersley around 9:30am Thursday, Oct. 10th. The spawn wasn't under way yet, and the water was holding around 50 degrees, despite night time temps into the 40s. The brookies were off at first, but as the sun came out, so did the fish. My dad and brother fish small streams less than I do, so it took them a while to get their chops, but it was a beautifully wild stream. After about a mile or so of fishing upstream, we reached the Forrest Denlinger Natural Area trail head. A hike up the side of the mountain would land us right in the middle of virgin timbers. The hike up was brutal. I believe it was a climb of about 700ft in altitude in less than a mile. It took some time for us to get up there as we were in our waders (not the best hiking gear!) and were toting our vests, chest packs, and fly rods. About half way up we dumped all our fishing gear. We figured no one as coming up to take it! When we reached the top, we realized how worth it the hike was. The trees were absolutely stunning. It was a sense of the forest as it once was. My dad said that he heard about these timbers for almost 30 years, but never took the time to find them. He was glad to finally see these trees.
We arrived at Ole Bull around 4:00pm, after a hearty lunch at Debs/Cross Fork Inn, set up camp, then headed to the old 'honey hole' on Kettle Creek. Kettle was just stocked, but oddly enough, the only trout that I caught was a 4" wild brownie.
The next day we decided to hit up Cross Fork. This is a stream I've fished in passing, but never spent the time I felt the stream deserved. The stream would become our main focus for the rest of the trip. We fished three sections of the creek. Friday we fished a middle portion of the stream that was just littered with wild brownies. Some of them were quite significant in size. There was so much good water, every run and pool looked trouty, that fishing was slow because you didn't want to overlook one inch of this stream. Saturday we went to the more popular stretch of Cross Fork. As we were entering the stream at the bridge, some bait chuckers tried to hole jump us and get upstream of us.That didn't work out for them, as we fished a lot faster than they did (and with every cast the one guy was caught in trees), and we soon got up stream of them. It didn't matter anyway. This stretch obviously sees more pressure than other stretches, and didn't fish very well. I knew of another stretch that I fished during the Spring, so we got in the truck and drove upstream several miles, well upstream of the two prior sections we fished. Here, it was all native brookies. The stream goes into a series of splits, and the water can get pretty skinny. It's littered with brookies though, and we all ended up having a double digit day on this stretch.
The weather was great, the scenery was stunning, the fishing was great, and it was a trip that I think the three of us will remember for quite some time. I forgot how much I love this area of my home state. It was, in a way, like going home for us.
Monday, October 7, 2013
From the South to the North
We are a few days out from what was supposed to be my first trip to the Great Smoky Mountains. The ongoing government shutdown appears to have put the death blow to that plan. Plan B is to head north. The campsite is now booked, and we will be going into the Hammersley Wilds of northern PA. It's an area of wild trout, virgin hemlocks, and great wild life. It ain't the Smokies, but the northern Appalachians will no doubt prove to be as lovely and wild as their southern counterpart.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
The Smokies in Jeopardy
The government shut down as of midnight last night. As a Libertarian, I rejoice at the bloated dead corpse of the government becoming a little less bloated.
The sour point is that the national parks closed, and this of course could have a negative effect on my trip to the Smokies. While I don't understand how the Federal Government can tell citizens to stay off of land that they owe (remember...we the people own those national parks, not the government!), I must respect the laws. We are coming up with a "Plan B" should the park not open within the next 9 days. Most likely, we will be camping at Ole Bull State Park in north-central PA and fly fishing the legendary Hammersly Fork wilderness. It ain't the Smokies, but it's still wild country with bear, elk, and hilljacks.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Prepping for the Smokies
I'm not one to blow money on fly fishing trips. Mostly, because I have no money. A few years ago, however, there was a few threads on PA Fly Fish about fishing in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. As you know from this blog, I'm a small stream fisherman at heart. My imagination started racing with images of back woods small streams inhabited by wild rainbows. I did something unimaginable. I actually started to plan a trip.
A few searches on the internet, and I had a campsite reserved on the North Carolina side of the park, in the Oconaluftee watershed. I emailed my dad to tell him about the trip, and invited him, my brother, and my cousin to come with me. My dad was immediately on board. My cousin confirmed his attendance a few weeks ago. Last night, I got the call from my brother that he'd be able to come along.
A few searches on the internet, and I had a campsite reserved on the North Carolina side of the park, in the Oconaluftee watershed. I emailed my dad to tell him about the trip, and invited him, my brother, and my cousin to come with me. My dad was immediately on board. My cousin confirmed his attendance a few weeks ago. Last night, I got the call from my brother that he'd be able to come along.
This trip is a tribute to the fly fishing trips I took with my dad, brother, and cousin when we were younger. We learned how to fly fish in Northern Pennsylvania, cutting our teeth on streams like the Little Kettle. We'll be leaving around 3am the second Thursday of October, arriving in North Carolina around noon that day. We'll have two and a half days to hike, fish, and enjoy the park before packing up and coming back to PA that Sunday. Apart from fishing the Oconaluftee, we're planning on hiking up Bradley Fork, fishing several of it tribs.
You can expect a large photo dump and post from this trip, and hopefully that photo dump includes lots of fish, black bears, elk, and other "exotic" wild life. If anyone is interested in doing a trip to the GSMNP, it really is quite affordable. Our campsite is around $20 a night, and it's stream side. A 10 day NC non-residential license is around $10, and as long as you're in the national park, no trout stamp is required. The NC license allows you to fish both the TN and NC side, and I would recommend Little River Outfitters in Townsend TN as a great source of information. Their online forum has bee incredibly helpful in planning this trip. It's a month out, but the excitement is unbearable.
Sunday, August 18, 2013
More Big Brookies
I had the chance to show an out-of-town friend around my local gem of a stream. More big brookies were had! Enjoy the photo dump!
Keith gets a good drift
Old restoration work done in the 60s
First one of the day for Keith
Keith pulled out a nice chunker!
Keith workin' the line
And the hookup
Very pretty fish. These brookies definitely have a unique coloration
Here's a big'un for ole' Squatch!
I HATE CHUBS!!!
The big'uns never hold still!
There he is. A very nice native. I caught him just minutes before Keith caught his chunker, in the same hole even!
Keith's big chunker. Same hole as mine. Unreal.
Saturday, August 17, 2013
It Pays to Break the Mold
It's been a stunning August in Lancaster County. Temps in the upper 70s to mid 80s, low humidity, and excellent rainfalls have kept our small streams in stunning shape, and the brookies are benefiting. Monday evening I jumped at the chance to get an hour and a half or so of fishing in on my local Lancaster hotspot.
Knowing I had a limited window, I decided against fishing my normal stretch. My normal haunt takes about 2 hours to fish from start to finish, and then there's the walk back to the vehicle. In the spirit of time and adventure, I decided to break the mold a little bit and try a section of the stream that is just below where I usually start. I've fished a good stretch of this stream, but the stretch I decided to fish, I've never fished before. When starting down stream, I usually stopped just below this stretch, and when starting upstream, I started at the pool just above. I'm very glad I started where I did. There are some excellent stretches in this section, with hefty browns and brookies. I caught several fish and all of them seemed fat and healthy.
The real gem came at the end of the night, though. As I was wading through the pool which is directly down stream of my usual starting point, I saw a rise in what I assumed was structureless frog water. If I didn't see the rise, I would have waded right through the pool to get to the bank and start the treck back to my vehicle. I made my cast just above the rise, and my fly got POUNDED. This fish jumped clear out of the water. All I saw was a pink belly. I thought I must have caught one of the hold-over rainbows that are still in there from the spring stocking. This would have excited me, actually, because I've never caught a bow in the stream and I was ready for a trifecta (even if the bow was a stockie).
What I brought to hand was even better, though! Landing the fish, I discovered that what I caught was a very large native brook trout. I've always though the ruler on the Eagle Claw Featherlights were cheesy and put there for the bait slingers who picked up the EC rod in an attempt to "try fly fishing". I was glad to have them on this night! I held that brookie up to that ruler, and it measured 12" dead on the nose. This is by far my largest brookie to date! I quickly took its picture and released it. When I got back to my car later and looked at the picture, I feared I mis-measured. My Sasquatch paws made that fish look tiny. So, just to reassure myself, I took a picture of me holding a 12" ruler haha! I sure am glad I decided on something different this night!
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Christening of "The Box"
I had an experience early last week in which an older friend gave me all of his fly fishing equipment. He'll never fish again. It was a ceremonial event, at least in my mind. We both knew this day would come, we both weren't looking forward to it, but time and age are cruel mistresses. I'm honored to receive his gear. This is a man who learned to tie and fish from the great Joe Humphreys. He was at Penn State when Milt Eisenhower was there. He's got stories of Ike stopping by the college to meet his brother before heading out to the region's legendary spring creeks. He's been tying as long as he's been fishing.
I don't take this lightly. The closest thing I can liken it to is when Johnny Cash gave Bob Dylan his guitar...except while I have no problem likening my friend to Johnny Cash, I ain't no Dylan.
Still, he gave it to me. Fly tying supplies, hand made rods (the only graphite I'll fish with!), old click pawl reels lined with Cortland 444 DT lines that are still quite usable, boxes of leader material, and the crown gem of them all-a hand built Richardson fly box filled with his flies.
Most of his flies were rusted out, and it pained me to throw out so many flies, but I was able to salvage quite a few, and I've been fishing this past week with a mixture of his flies, my own ties (which are getting better!), and ties made by a friend of mine.
I've been told the best I can do for this fellow, who I'll never ever be able to pay back but I'll sure try, is to send him pictures of my fishing adventures. He takes pleasure in knowing that his stuff is still being used, so here you go old friend. This stuff is built to last, don't be surprised if my own children use it some day!
I don't take this lightly. The closest thing I can liken it to is when Johnny Cash gave Bob Dylan his guitar...except while I have no problem likening my friend to Johnny Cash, I ain't no Dylan.
Still, he gave it to me. Fly tying supplies, hand made rods (the only graphite I'll fish with!), old click pawl reels lined with Cortland 444 DT lines that are still quite usable, boxes of leader material, and the crown gem of them all-a hand built Richardson fly box filled with his flies.
Most of his flies were rusted out, and it pained me to throw out so many flies, but I was able to salvage quite a few, and I've been fishing this past week with a mixture of his flies, my own ties (which are getting better!), and ties made by a friend of mine.
I've been told the best I can do for this fellow, who I'll never ever be able to pay back but I'll sure try, is to send him pictures of my fishing adventures. He takes pleasure in knowing that his stuff is still being used, so here you go old friend. This stuff is built to last, don't be surprised if my own children use it some day!
Monday, July 29, 2013
Frustrating Weekend.
I found this weekend to be incredibly frustrating. My wife was very gracious, as she let me go fishing three nights in a row. Thursday night began with me skipping out on band practice to hit up my local favorite.
Here's the deal. I fished a stretch that last year I did very well on, but haven't fished that much this year yet. Last year it was easily 95% brookies/5% small browns. Something happened this year. In the two hours I fished, I only landed 5 trout (well under par), and 4 of them were browns. I don't like the idea that browns may be pushing out the brookies in this stream. Further sampling may be needed.
Friday night I fished another freestoner. It's listed on the Class A as a solid wild brookie stream. I can't understand this stream. I had a stellar day on it a few months ago and it convinced me that this stream is indeed a Class A stream, but since that day I haven't had great fishing on it. I couldn't have asked for better conditions on Friday night. A bit overcast, water was a little stained, but you could still see well, but the strikes were low. If I took you to this stream, you'd think every hole should have trout in it, but I had to work very hard for every strike. The biggest concern again-mostly brownies, only one brookie.
What is going on? Are the brookies just being stubborn? Are the browns taking over and pushing out the native fish? I've never known a scenario where the brownies will rise and feed more willingly than brook trout. I pray that things aren't shifting to favor the brown trout population, but I fear that is the case.
Saturday night I drove 30 minutes to fish a spring creek-this time intentionally seeking wild browns. I arrived at the stream, geared up, heard "scattered showers" on the weather report, stepped in the stream and the sky opened up. I'm not one to be scarred off by a little rain, but this was no "scattered shower". I sat under a canopy and waited for 45 minutes for the rain to end...when I left it was still dumping buckets.
Frustrating weekend for shizzle.
Here's the deal. I fished a stretch that last year I did very well on, but haven't fished that much this year yet. Last year it was easily 95% brookies/5% small browns. Something happened this year. In the two hours I fished, I only landed 5 trout (well under par), and 4 of them were browns. I don't like the idea that browns may be pushing out the brookies in this stream. Further sampling may be needed.
Friday night I fished another freestoner. It's listed on the Class A as a solid wild brookie stream. I can't understand this stream. I had a stellar day on it a few months ago and it convinced me that this stream is indeed a Class A stream, but since that day I haven't had great fishing on it. I couldn't have asked for better conditions on Friday night. A bit overcast, water was a little stained, but you could still see well, but the strikes were low. If I took you to this stream, you'd think every hole should have trout in it, but I had to work very hard for every strike. The biggest concern again-mostly brownies, only one brookie.
What is going on? Are the brookies just being stubborn? Are the browns taking over and pushing out the native fish? I've never known a scenario where the brownies will rise and feed more willingly than brook trout. I pray that things aren't shifting to favor the brown trout population, but I fear that is the case.
Saturday night I drove 30 minutes to fish a spring creek-this time intentionally seeking wild browns. I arrived at the stream, geared up, heard "scattered showers" on the weather report, stepped in the stream and the sky opened up. I'm not one to be scarred off by a little rain, but this was no "scattered shower". I sat under a canopy and waited for 45 minutes for the rain to end...when I left it was still dumping buckets.
Frustrating weekend for shizzle.
Monday, July 22, 2013
Long Overdue
I know it's been quite some time since I've made a post. Part of that is laziness, part of it is being insanely busy, part of it is I feel like I rehash the same experience time and time again. "Oh I fished for brookies last night, caught x amount of fish, it was fun." I'm a small stream fisherman. It's what I do. It ain't that exciting to most people, but it's what I love. Squatchin' around in the woods, catching natives, it's perfect to me.
So in early June I headed up to Potter County (God's Country) with the family for a week long vacation. This was the highlight of my summer so far. You can see my photo dump from the trip below. Since this was a family vacation, my fishing time was limited. My wife wasn't keen on sitting around the cabin all day every day with a toddler and a 4yr old while I'm out pounding the streams. I promised my wife I would not do this to her. Instead, I got up at 5:30am every day on my vacation, fished any one of the multitudes of small streams that are within a 10 minute drive of my cabin, and was back in time to eat breakfast with my wife and kids. A few days I snuck out for a couple of hours in the afternoon.
I've been fishing this area of the state as long as I can remember, and I've been fly fishing it since I was 16 years old. In all of my years of fishing, I have never seen the fishing so good. Every single stream had great flows. The temps were perfect. Most of the days, the skies were overcast, if not a little drizzly. Every pool held fish. Every run produced strikes. When I think about fly fishing in Potter County, I dream of weeks like this.
This summer is a rare event in the life of a North Eastern fly fisherman. The solid amount of rain, the relatively cooler temps ("relative" is the key word...we just had a full week of solid heat indexes of 100 degrees), it has produced a fishing experience that I've not seen in quite some time. You'll forgive the lack of posts from me...I've been busy fishin.
So in early June I headed up to Potter County (God's Country) with the family for a week long vacation. This was the highlight of my summer so far. You can see my photo dump from the trip below. Since this was a family vacation, my fishing time was limited. My wife wasn't keen on sitting around the cabin all day every day with a toddler and a 4yr old while I'm out pounding the streams. I promised my wife I would not do this to her. Instead, I got up at 5:30am every day on my vacation, fished any one of the multitudes of small streams that are within a 10 minute drive of my cabin, and was back in time to eat breakfast with my wife and kids. A few days I snuck out for a couple of hours in the afternoon.
I've been fishing this area of the state as long as I can remember, and I've been fly fishing it since I was 16 years old. In all of my years of fishing, I have never seen the fishing so good. Every single stream had great flows. The temps were perfect. Most of the days, the skies were overcast, if not a little drizzly. Every pool held fish. Every run produced strikes. When I think about fly fishing in Potter County, I dream of weeks like this.
This summer is a rare event in the life of a North Eastern fly fisherman. The solid amount of rain, the relatively cooler temps ("relative" is the key word...we just had a full week of solid heat indexes of 100 degrees), it has produced a fishing experience that I've not seen in quite some time. You'll forgive the lack of posts from me...I've been busy fishin.
Friday, June 14, 2013
God's Country Photo Dump
Just got back from vacation in Potter County. I have so much to write about, but for now, enjoy the pictures!
Friday, May 31, 2013
Lancaster County Gator Boys!
Pray to God my wife doesn't read this...but this gator was found right where I take my warm-water lunch breaks! I'm pretty sure I could wrastle that sucker in w/ the Fenwick.
http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/855786_Man-finds-alligator-along-Conestoga-River-near-Talmage.html
http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/855786_Man-finds-alligator-along-Conestoga-River-near-Talmage.html
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Returning to first loves
Memorial Day weekend is always a weekend where I go back to my "first loves", the local streams that turned me onto small stream fishing. It's always a balancing act for me. It's a family weekend, so while the tendency is to take 3 full days and go fishing from sun-up to sun-down, a man's gotta be a good man and be with his wife and children. That, in and of itself, is better than fishing. This blog, however, is not a blog on family life, but on fishing life, so I have no guilt about putting aside my family affairs and writing solely about the fishing.
Saturday afternoon was cold and windy. I debated all day if I wanted to go fishing. I stayed in all day, cleaning the house, playing with the girls, but during their nap time I couldn't take it any more. I decided that despite the high winds and the dramatically cooler temps, I would go out for a little bit. I headed to Walnut Run in Lancaster County. Walnut was the very first small stream I ever fly fished in Lancaster Co. It's a tributary to Hammer Creek and took a big blow in the back to back floods of 2010. The fish are finally starting to come back though, and fishing has been solid this year.
I never caught a brownie in Walnut before, but we knew they were there because on my first trip there, my friend Brian caught a wild tiger trout. Saturday, I finally cracked the brown code.
Generally, I don't like to see wild browns moving into native brook trout streams, but this was within the first few hundred yards of the stream entering into Hammer, and out of half a dozen trips up this stream this year, this is the only brownie I found in the stream.
I still find that I spook a lot of fish on this stream. The lower half is very flat, the banks are overgrown, so it's difficult to avoid wading. Whether I'm catching the fish or spooking them, its encouraging to me to see fish in this stream.
Yesterday I decided to hit Hammer Creek itself. This, in my opinion, is the best stream in Lancaster County. It has great hatches, lots of native brookies and wild brownies, a few stocked bows, it's spring fed so it's fishable year 'round, the only thing it lacks is structure. The stream could benefit from a little stream bank restoration and special regs like catch and release fly fishing only, but it's Lancaster County's most popular approved trout water, so the state is happy to pump trout into it in the spring, let the slobs have at it, and then ignore the stream the rest of the year. Apparently our local "cold water conservation" group is just as happy to let things go the way they are as well. Fortunately, despite the neglect and the ever-widening banks (which I suspect the state likes because it keeps the surface water area larger-since they deem a stream's rating based on surface water to biomass of fish. If the surface water is larger it keeps the stream rating lower. If they would have to classify it as Class A, they'd have to stop stocking it.), the fish continue to thrive.
The first hole I fished, I saw something hanging from the trees. I thought, "someone must have been fishing up here because there's a green weenie hanging from that tree!" I found this odd since the stretch I was fishing is a stretch that most people never fish. As I got closer, I realized it was actually a green inch worm hanging down from a thread of silk! I saw these inch worms hanging down on just about every tree, and the brookies were taking advantage of this situation!
There was also a strong march brown hatch and a sulphur hatch going on. My original fly (a peacock caddis) wasn't doing much. I switched to a royal wulff and picked up a few, but still, I wasn't getting the results I wanted. I switched to a yellow sally (the biggest yellow fly I had-the sulphers were definitely bigger than I had in my box!) and that did the trick. The trout couldn't stay off the thing, and they were nailing it hard.
The stretch I fished took about 2 hours to fish from bottom to top, and I picked up close to 20 trout in that stretch. A great evening on the stream, and a perfect end to the Memorial Day weekend!
PS-my camera is cheap and will not focus on micro-mode. Suck.
A nice brownie
Hammer Creek in full springtime bloom
Saturday afternoon was cold and windy. I debated all day if I wanted to go fishing. I stayed in all day, cleaning the house, playing with the girls, but during their nap time I couldn't take it any more. I decided that despite the high winds and the dramatically cooler temps, I would go out for a little bit. I headed to Walnut Run in Lancaster County. Walnut was the very first small stream I ever fly fished in Lancaster Co. It's a tributary to Hammer Creek and took a big blow in the back to back floods of 2010. The fish are finally starting to come back though, and fishing has been solid this year.
I never caught a brownie in Walnut before, but we knew they were there because on my first trip there, my friend Brian caught a wild tiger trout. Saturday, I finally cracked the brown code.
I still find that I spook a lot of fish on this stream. The lower half is very flat, the banks are overgrown, so it's difficult to avoid wading. Whether I'm catching the fish or spooking them, its encouraging to me to see fish in this stream.
Yesterday I decided to hit Hammer Creek itself. This, in my opinion, is the best stream in Lancaster County. It has great hatches, lots of native brookies and wild brownies, a few stocked bows, it's spring fed so it's fishable year 'round, the only thing it lacks is structure. The stream could benefit from a little stream bank restoration and special regs like catch and release fly fishing only, but it's Lancaster County's most popular approved trout water, so the state is happy to pump trout into it in the spring, let the slobs have at it, and then ignore the stream the rest of the year. Apparently our local "cold water conservation" group is just as happy to let things go the way they are as well. Fortunately, despite the neglect and the ever-widening banks (which I suspect the state likes because it keeps the surface water area larger-since they deem a stream's rating based on surface water to biomass of fish. If the surface water is larger it keeps the stream rating lower. If they would have to classify it as Class A, they'd have to stop stocking it.), the fish continue to thrive.
The first hole I fished, I saw something hanging from the trees. I thought, "someone must have been fishing up here because there's a green weenie hanging from that tree!" I found this odd since the stretch I was fishing is a stretch that most people never fish. As I got closer, I realized it was actually a green inch worm hanging down from a thread of silk! I saw these inch worms hanging down on just about every tree, and the brookies were taking advantage of this situation!
There was also a strong march brown hatch and a sulphur hatch going on. My original fly (a peacock caddis) wasn't doing much. I switched to a royal wulff and picked up a few, but still, I wasn't getting the results I wanted. I switched to a yellow sally (the biggest yellow fly I had-the sulphers were definitely bigger than I had in my box!) and that did the trick. The trout couldn't stay off the thing, and they were nailing it hard.
The stretch I fished took about 2 hours to fish from bottom to top, and I picked up close to 20 trout in that stretch. A great evening on the stream, and a perfect end to the Memorial Day weekend!
PS-my camera is cheap and will not focus on micro-mode. Suck.
Most of the brookies I caught were in this range
A nice brownie
Hammer Creek in full springtime bloom
As I got back to my car, I realized what a mess
a fisherman's trunk can be! Look at all that glass!
a fisherman's trunk can be! Look at all that glass!
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