First Smallie

[djs12354]

Fished the Tulpehocken today with Dan (Moonbeam) for a couple of hours this am.
This was one of our "Let's go look at a "new" place to fish" trips. We had breakfast with the Tulpehocken chapter of TU and then hit the water by the Tully House.

No luck with trout but did have some fun with bluegills and a few smallmouth bass.

Got this guy with a bead-head nymph. Took a few gills with a #14 dry stimulator, which I would twitch just as it started to show drag.

After this outing, I'm inclined to just stay away from the trout streams (except for Aug 28th @ the LL) and just enjoy the boat I finally found and target the WW species.

 

[Foxgap239]

Dave, I think I got the smallie bug too. Trying to get DD to get me a fix!

 

[CathyG]

Dave,

if you now have a boat the smallies have been hitting at Long Pond near Honesdale. And Prompton must have been stocked with hybrid stripers because my friend caught one (not on a fly) July 4.

Cathy

 

[djs12354]

Foxgap239 wrote:
Dave, I think I got the smallie bug too. Trying to get DD to get me a fix!

Fox, We've been on the water with spinning gear for a couple of weeks now, fishing Prompton Dam, between Carbondale and Honesdale.
Hitting the early am hours, and getting some largemouth bass and rock bass. It's a kick watching them slam a jitterbug twitched near cover.
Finally got my order of bass flies in, so next time out the 7 weight will be out for more serious activity.

 

[djs12354]

CathyG wrote:
Dave,

if you now have a boat the smallies have been hitting at Long Pond near Honesdale. And Prompton must have been stocked with hybrid stripers because my friend caught one (not on a fly) July 4.

Cathy

Cathy,

I'll have to head over to Long Pond. I forgot that it had smallies in that piece of water. I had been thinking of going over to Belmont and giving that a try. Have you heard anything about there?
Hadn't heard about Prompton having hybird stripers in it. Seems to bee more shallow than they would prefer?

Dave

 

[Fishidiot]

djs12354 wrote:
After this outing, I'm inclined to just stay away from the trout streams (except for Aug 28th @ the LL) and just enjoy the boat I finally found and target the WW species.

Definitely a good plan.
it's long been my opinion that too many beginning fly fishermen (esp nowadays) focus too much on trout. As I like to say, "think outside the trout box" ....and you'll make your new experience with fly fishing much more enjoyable, not to mention you'll have more places to fish closer to home and probably catch a lot more fish during the summer months.
Enjoy!

 

[CathyG]

I'll have to head over to Long Pond. I forgot that it had smallies in that piece of water. I had been thinking of going over to Belmont and giving that a try. Have you heard anything about there?
Hadn't heard about Prompton having hybird stripers in it. Seems to bee more shallow than they would prefer?

Prompton gets as deep as 45'. And who knows why the fish commission does some of what they do.

I haven't fished Belmont in years. It has smallies and largemouths, walleye, muskies and panfish. Never had a lot of luck there but people get nice walleyes out of there and absolutely huge ones out of Prompton.


White Oak has big bass but the parking and launch area are really small. Miller pond is full of pickerel and trolling motor killer stumps and logs even in the middle of the pond.

Long Pond is a natural pond so no stumps or logs to speak of (a few broken trees that got caught in ice and deposited away from shore). It has a nice easy launch and big parking lot. There are rocky shore lines with drop offs where the smallies seem to like to hang out, especially across from the launch. I mostly get small ones but every once in a while a slammer, usually on a popper. It has cottages and the docks are always good fishing. The people are friendly and talk to you while you're throwing hooks at their docks.

The down side is its an unlimited horsepower lake and in summer the water skiers are out.

Long Pond (aka Lake Alden) also has walleye and some big panfish. The state record pickerel came out of it. It gets stocked with trout but I don't have a clue where they go once they've been in there a while.

Long Pond is my favorite place for warm water fishing.

Cathy

 

[TUrainbow88]

Nice smallie!!! Heard there were some bass in there.