Fall Fishing = Challenging

Barnuba

Barnuba

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Joined
May 29, 2012
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This is my first fall fly fishing and it is proving to be a challenge. The past 5/6 times that I've been out I have been skunked - nymphing and dries. I did real well in the spring and summer...what has changed...any suggestions?
 
Are you still using the same size flies. As the weather gets cooler use larger flies.
 
Barnuba,
Fly fishing on rivers and streams in the fall is indeed difficult. There are some exceptions to this but - generally - it's a tough time of year to catch fish. There are several reasons. For one thing, most streams don't have a lot of fish by late October. Streams that were full of stocked trout in the spring and summer simply don't have any (or very few) left due to harvest or, more likely, warm summer water temps. Streams that were full of hungry sunfish and bass during the summer are often barren as fish migrate out with colder temps. And those colder temps can sometimes put the fish off the feed. Finally, there is often a lot of fish movement in the Oct/Nov time period: fish are migrating to deeper water or to spawning areas so they simply aren't where you saw them in spring and summer.

Keep exploring. Focus more on smaller streams with wild trout. Although it's a tough time of year to catch fish, it's also often the best time of year to catch a very large trout or bass and, as several current threads reveal - the trout are often at peak color.
 
Are you still using the same size flies. As the weather gets cooler use larger flies.

Why is that?

Also .. popular flies to use this time of year east pa?

 
Streams that were full of hungry sunfish and bass during the summer are often barren as fish migrate out with colder temps.

FI, where do they migrate to?

Long trip to the Carolinas or Fl :lol:
 
Stagger,
For the most part, trout and bass are migrating downstream toward bigger water. Again, there are exceptions to this, esp with respect to trout in small streams moving to spawning areas (they often go upstream). However, in many watersheds in PA, trout will move out of colder tribs and lay up for months in bigger rivers or downstream areas and will stay there roughly from the Oct-May time frame. Smallmouth bass move up into small creeks during the summer months and then migrate downstream during the fall to deeper water. This will often be a deep pool in front of a dam. If there are no dams/obstructions, bass may migrate for dozens of miles down into big river systems like the Delaware or Susquehanna.
It varies a lot. These movements can be miles or sometimes just a few dozen yards.

 
I step up fly sizes. Say they were biting on size 14 and 16 nymph patterns during the summer I step up to size 10 or 12 sometimes an 8
 
Yeah definitely go at dusk, to a dam tail water side, the walleye are looking to spawn and they are tasty. And a 5wt will handle an average eye just fine. Throw a nice bright chartuce green booger or meat whistle around the edge of fast water if you feel a bite don't set the hook yet they like three bites, then set it. Sorry not trout but good eats n usually a decent size fish. Oh and kemostats are handy, they have teeth...

And no still no trout for me... Ill give it a week or so then I'm heading up to the Catt. And not coming home till I catch one!(or my back will not let me cast any more...)
 
DJ should we get a stretcher on standby.
 
ballpark me .. when do the fish that were stocked in the fall start to migrate?

Wild browns (VC for example) don't migrate do they?
 
Stagger_Lee wrote:
Wild browns (VC for example) don't migrate do they?

In small, wild streams like VC, usually not. They'll move to spawning sites but this isn't what one would call migrating. Don't be surprised to see bigger fish in areas where you didn't see them in summer however. There are some fish in that stream that do migrate in and out of the Skuke but generally VC has a permanent population. After the spawn, which would probably be mainly in November, some fish in this creek will likely move to deeper pools but that's probably about it.
There's no hard and fast rule about fish migration in the autumn. I've said for years that, in my experience, the bass migration out of small creeks usually coincides with first frost. As they say around here, "YMMV."
 
MA Natures no fool,she knows if fish and aquatic insects don't migrate upstream to drop their eggs,there would be no fish or food for them.
 
Daman- maybe if its a big enough eye!
 
What size squatch?

And where online can I purchase walts worm fo my next around @ VC?
 
I like to drop a size 14 HE (sometimes 12) off of a size 12 EHC. Its my "search and destroy" rig for the fall. Doesn't work every time, but it covers a lot of water and I'll catch trout on the dropper and the dry, and sometimes both flies at once (okay...ONE time I caught fish on both flies, at once).
 
Squatch wrote:

and sometimes both flies at once (okay...ONE time I caught fish on both flies, at once).

Picture or it didn't happen :)
 
Hah! Furthest thing from my mind at the moment! My first thought was, "NO WAY!" My second thought was, "how do I land this?" and my third thought was, "So which fish do I take off first and release?"

For the record, I settled on releasing the top fish first, while letting the second trout in the water until I could release it. It was a rush, though! I do wish I had a camera w/ me, but I'm not sure I would have had the clarity of mind to take a good picture.
 
the last 2x i have fished VC i have used an ant. I did hook one on Copper HB nymph. Even though the fish are not rising, i have gotten several strikes.
 
I am fishing a small Class A tailwater stream in York County. I did sling a #12 Caddis yesterday and had a few trout roll over the fly...I will keep trying!!
 
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