Summer brook and brown trout fishing

[Cory878]

Hey y'all I live down here in Texas an hardly ever trout fish but I am totally psyched to go up to PA this June and fly fish for Brooks and browns. I have a eight weight rod. No waders yet. I have a bunch of buggers and leeches nymph and cassis flys comin in. And I was wondering really how do you fish for these species. I will be staying with my grandparents in shavertown and really dot want to go anywhere out of the hour 2 hour radius. Any good spots? What line should I use? Flies? And any other tips would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

[pcray1231]

I have a eight weight rod.

Thats generally very heavy for our waters. 3 to 6 wts are most common, with 5 wt being the best overall. But you're 8 will work. How long?

No waders yet.

In June you can probably get away with wet wading.

And I was wondering really how do you fish for these species.

That depends highly on the streams you fish. We are rich with very small native brook trout streams. And here, a short rod with dry flies will work just fine, the fish aren't picky. They do tend to run small (6-10" is a typical range). On our larger streams, the wild fish are more often browns, and there are stocked browns and rainbows, and these fish run larger (10-14" is typical). But fishing is very different. Buggers and leeches will work in most situations. So will smaller nymphs, like size 14-18 pheasant tails and such, try to dead drift them. Bigger stoneflies too, fish them the same way. Evenings, specially right at dusk, should be a good time for dry flies at that time of year, but it's hard to tell you what to expect without picking a stream. You could have caddis flies, or any number of mayflies (size 14 BWO's, some leftover sulfurs, cahills, Blue Quills, etc.)

shavertown and really dot want to go anywhere out of the hour 2 hour radius. Any good spots?

Within 2 hours, too many to list. The Fish Commission has an app for that.

http://fishandboat.com/county.htm

On the right are check boxes. For terminology, special reg means it has different regulations than the standard state wide regs. For instance, catch and release only, artificial lures only, etc. You can search the website for the regs on the stream you're interested in.

Approved Trout waters mean the water is stocked with trout. These may or may not also have wild trout present, but often they're not our best wild trout streams. Some of them warm up too much for trout in the summer, and depending what part of June you're coming, on some of them the trout fishing may be largely over by then.

Class A streams represent our top wild trout streams, as rated by lbs of fish per acre.

There are many more wild trout streams that are not on this map, though, that are rated class B or below, but can still fish very well.

That is available here in list form by county:
http://www.fishandboat.com/trout_repro.pdf

Or here by map. http://orser7.erri.psu.edu/fishing2005/wild.htm

Tricky to use, go to the layers tab and check what you want to see, then use the pan and zoom functions to go to the area you are interested in. Then when you find a stream you're interested in, click info, and then click on the stream, and it'll tell you what species of wild fish, what sections hold wild populations, whether its also stocked, etc.

Welcome to our state!

 

[Cory878]

So i should propably get a 3 to 6 weight rod? And how do i really fish for these? dry fly should i put on floatant cast upstream and let it just drift down? dead drift? is that just flow with the current woth no drag?
strike indicators? what accesories should i get cause my birthday is tomorrow and im getting a bunch of stuff

 

[pcray1231]

So i should propably get a 3 to 6 weight rod?

Up to you and your finances. Don't know how long your gonna be here and whether its worth it or not. The 8 wt isn't ideal, but it'll work in a pinch. How long is the rod? For big water anywhere from 8-10 feet is normal. For small water, most go with under 8 feet, but you can get away with a longer rod if the rhododendron isn't too thick.

If I were just visiting a place, I don't think I'd buy a new rod just for that trip unless I wanted the rod anyway.

And how do i really fish for these?

Not sure how to answer that. There are many ways to fish, it depends where and when, what you're using. And how to explain it depends on what you're already used to. We're not really familiar with your fly fishing background. Totally new to it? Experienced but just not for trout?

dry fly should i put on floatant cast upstream and let it just drift down? dead drift? is that just flow with the current woth no drag?

Yes, dead drift means no drag, for that, the fly should act like its not attached to a line. Floatant helps for dries. Now, should you do that? More often than not, yes, but there are situations where you want to twitch it and such. And buggers, they can be fished like a streamer, where you're actively pulling it through the water, or they can be fished dead drifted, there's no wrong way on them.

The key is more in placement, reading water. You can only typically get a "drag free" drift for relatively short distances, and you want that to be over where you expect the fish to be. If nymphing, you want the nymph to be at the same depth as the fsih. Trying to explain where the fish lie is far too involved for a message board post, thats where experience really helps.

strike indicators?

Sure, they can help, and are cheap.

 

[afishinado]

Cory,

Pcray gave you some good advice on tackle and fishing. As far as where to go, here is a link to a Google map from the PA Fish & Boat Commission:

http://www.fish.state.pa.us/county.htm

Zoom in on the area in the NE part of the State (around Wilkes-Barre). Shavertown is in the "Back Mountain" area on the map. The streams in the area are marked. A few suggestions for local trout streams are Harveys Creek, Fishing Creek near Benton and Bowmans Creek. Special regulation areas are marked in blue and the entire stream is marked in brown. Green on the map designates Class A wild trout streams.

Also the North Branch of the Susquehanna River should fish well for smallmouth bass. Definitely give that a try with you 8wt. The Tunkhannock area is closest to where you are staying.

Welcome to PA.......good luck!

 

[Cory878]

Ya I'm using a 9 foot rod. I'll go for some snallmouth but mainly for trout. The thing with dry flies where in the river should I cast? Near the riffles? On them? And dothe trout really seethe dire fly cause I have a hard time believing they do?

 

[pcray1231]

The thing with dry flies where in the river should I cast?

Well, on larger waters, dry flies are typically used where and when fish are rising for natural bugs. In those cases, locating fish is easy, the fish show you where they are by the telltale rings they make on the surface. In June, this will mostly occur after dusk, but before it gets so black you can't see a thing. But on a cloudy day you might get topwater action earlier than that.

With no hatches or rising, you can prospect with dries, but its usually better to go underneath. And knowing where is more difficult. Typically, you want a combination of current, depth, and cover. For feeding fish, ambush points, picture yourself as an underwater bug caught in the current. And where would a trout lay where it doesn't have to expend much energy to hold but can pick off those bugs? Current breaks are often real good, the fish hold in the slower water and watch the fast water, and dart in there for food.

On smaller, less fertile waters, the situation is different. Hatches are more rare, and fish are more aggressive/opportunistic, they'll hit anything, but they're spooky, so the name of the game is to put a fly in front of them before spooking them. Dry fly fishing usually allows you to fish at a greater distance, as casting is easier, and you don't have to worry about underwater snags. Placement is less exact, but the holding water is usually drop-offs, root balls, overhanging banks or rocks, etc.

Yeah, assuming the water color isn't brown, they see them just fine. Whether they'll expend the energy to rise is another story. If they're holding on bottom, one bug isn't worth the energy expenditure to go up that far. If there's a lot of bugs, they'll come up and hold on the surface, thats when you see the rises.

For me, year round, I probably catch about half my fish on top, half underneath. At this time of year, there's more on top. Then again, I chase hatches, choose times and places when dry fly action is most likely to work, etc. because thats what I enjoy. Going at it blindly on medium-large streams, you should spend 90% of your time fishing underneath and picking up fish here and there, and then when you see them rise, you switch to dries, and that remaining 10% of the time will be the hottest fishing. For the really small streams, you should probably spend 90% of your time fishing dries, and go underneath only in those really deep holes where there's whitewater or cover obstructing a view of the surface.

 

[Cory878]

Wow thank you so much! On anglersdream.net what dry flies should I get? No money limit.

 

[Cory878]

Do the dry flies go in the white water or right before?

 

[pcray1231]

For underwater work in June:

Size 14-18 Pheasant tails or hare's ears, Size 6-12 Stonefly nymphs, and wooly buggers or sculpins in olive, brown, or black.

For topwater work: This is a little tougher, cause it depends so much on what stream you're going to fish. And also, you told us June. But June is a time of change for us, it makes a huge difference if its the first week of June vs. the last week. When you comin?

 

[Cory878]

Im coming to PA about the last week of june to mid july for about 2 weeks.

 

[BPS]

Get ants, beetles, hoppers, and the like. Terrestrials they call'em.
Also, Get some adams and stimulators.

 

[dominicleckie]

As the season changes into summer, the Brook Trout get ready to migrate. In summer, fishing is good for Rainbow Trout, but also contains Apache, Brook, and Brown Trout. Stream fishing for big brown trout and brook trout, Walleye and trophy class Smallmouth Bass July & August.

 

[albatross]

I'd say DominicLeckie is some sort of sophisticated robot...

Dominic wrote

As the season changes into summer, the Brook Trout get ready to migrate. In summer, fishing is good for Rainbow Trout, but also contains Apache, Brook, and Brown Trout. Stream fishing for big brown trout and brook trout, Walleye and trophy class Smallmouth Bass July & August.

I read a couple other posts of his (?) and he could almost pass the Turing test.

 

[afishinado]

Resistance is futile.......

 

[Fishidiot]

Diabolical laughter......

After I go fishing in the Poconos for Apache trout (always wondered where to catch 'em).

 

[pete41]

Maybe he meant you would get scalped for the privilege ?
But then,The western tribes didn't do that.