2013: The Year of the Brookie

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!