Monocacy this weekend

The_Sasquatch

The_Sasquatch

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Jul 6, 2011
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Malden, WV
I know very little about the Monocacy in Bethlehem. I'm staying at my cuz's house, w/in walking distance of the stream right in the downtown area. This is a family weekend as we'll be in the area for Celtic Fest. However, I'm taking a rod and hope to sneak out for a few hours Saturday AM (8am to 10am or so, before the big parade). Is the park worth fishing? I've read there are some wild and holdovers in there. From what I understand, it's a spring creek? So, scuds, etc are the norm?

 
I lived about 4 blocks from the monocacy for about 3 years. There is lots of little stream bred browns in it. It gets fished HARD well into June, so slim chance of any holdovers but lots of browns up to about 10, maybe 12 inches. Above illicks mill is the trophy trout section, probably you're best bet but there is some decent water below the dam also. Never really had any luck with scuds but this time of year BWOs( small size 20 tops), tan/ brown caddis, maybe some black, maybe some tricos still, probably not. I have decent luck with ants and beetles in summer. And don't forget the size 32 midges that the trout seem to love there when nothing is hatching. Monocacy has a great sulphur hatch in spring and that is the best time to fish it but fall fishing can be decent.
 
Thanks for the info. I was kind of looking at being able to walk to the stream from my place on Broad St, but maybe a short drive to the T.T. section is more worth the time.
 
Hi Andy - Your plan on walking to the stream is a very good one.

There's a bike/walking path on the West side of the creek - easy access to it from Broad St.

Fish upstream as far as you want to. It's all good water. Lots of small wild browns.

This path goes all the way up to Illicks Mill. I prefer the section just downstream from Illicks Mill Rd - don't be surprised if you hook up with some nice fish.

On the USGS gauge, anything below about 80 cfs is prime.

Hope you enjoy the stream - it's a little gem, and you likely won't see another fisherman.

H.A.
 
You can definetly walk the stream from broad st. Although I would recommend starting at least at union blvd and work your way up( only like 2 or 3 blocks from broad st.) I wouldn't go downstream from broad though. Like H.A. said there is a nice path from there up to schoenersville rd. It is decent in that stretch. Was better until the cement plant cut all the cover down on the east side of the creek this past spring Above there is the Gertrude fox conservation area which also has a path along it (they call it the bridal path) and that is one of my favorite sections of the ATW. Above that is illicks mill and above the mill is the TT section. I prefer the TT water but there is plenty of fish in the ATW and if you don't have much time the TT section can be a lot of walking. I haven't been out there since about mid June so I can't say how it is right now but last fall I caught lots of small browns from union blvd all the way up from mid September thru October. This past spring it was fishing well also.
 
I've got to add one more thing. They do a fishing derby every June at the mill and this year I heard stories of a huge rainbow they stocked for the derby. It ranged in size from 24 to 36 inches depending on who you talked to. Lol. I never heard of anyone catching it so maybe, just maybe it's in there waiting for you. Good luck. It is a nice little creek.
 
Lots of shrimps and cress bugs. I did well on cress bugs and olive wooly buggers. I would try a small green weenie too.
 

They snag all those things out at the end of the day, period, no rebuttal.

Chances are, they simply take those out at night when there's supposedly "no fishing coz we paid a billion dollar bond with the city" but they sit around under the pavillions and fish them out anyways, because, "for the kids" or something.

I promise you, they take every "trophy" they put in right back out.
 
Thanks for all the info, gang. I think I'll stick w/ the original plan and work my way upstream to the mill. It'll be a quiet morning for sure, minus the pipe bands warming up! Fly fishing and bagpipe music-it's like an Presbyterian's version of Heaven!
 
Andy,

This stream is one I've had some luck on in the past but have not fished extensively. The advice above is solid. Especially Ed's about there being some nice fish out of the park.

Imo above the park was always some of my favorite water. The population of fish is mostly 10 to 14 inches but there are some much bigger fish throughout the watershed. Like most big browns though, they are shy, feed mostly at night and stick to heavy cover. In icks mill one year I saw a solid 20 + inch brown leap out of the water.

I always had luck lightly weighting a scud tandem tossing up and letting them swing down and across while twitching the rod tip. Most fish hit after a few twitches. Monocacy is probably a bigger spring creek than what your used to seeing and its easy imo to get away with a longer rod here. Watch out for silt too.

Next few months I'm eating up my vacation to fish. Planned on hitting this one on the way to some vastly superior streams. Let me know how you make out. I think you'll like this watershed considering its a brown trout stream ;)
 
Andy - A correction to my prior post.

The bike/walking trail doesn't start until you get upstream to Union Blvd. It's on the west side of the stream.

If you want to access the stream off of Broad St, walk to the parking lot on the east side of the bridge, and walk down the entrance to the lot. There's access from that point, but you'll be on the east side of the creek. There's a paved path that turns into a road as you get closer to Union Blvd. The west bank in this stretch is basically a cliff.

The section of stream between Broad St and Union Blvd isn't the easiest to fish. There's stone walls along part of it, which makes getting in and out of the stream tough.

Dcap has the right idea - starting at Union Blvd, and fish up to the Mill. That's a pretty good hike....

 
I second the advice. I generally like to fly fish the ATW outside the TT area - seems like they see less flies to me. The area does get hammered, but not many of the bait guys seem to go more than 100 yds from a parking lot. Walking gets you to some nice spots with less pressure. The wild browns seem to always survive and I generally try to get them to rise for a dry fly, but the usual scuds, worms, midges, small pheasant tails that work in any limestoner will work at the Monocacy. Maybe it's just me, but those Monacacy browns seem to be able to take a fly and spit it out faster than any where else. Getting takes can be a lot harder for me than hooking up many days.
 
Creek is only 48 miles from my home .. does it fish well all year round?
 
Stagger_Lee wrote:
Creek is only 48 miles from my home .. does it fish well all year round?
Click to expand...

It's a limestoner. Stays cool in the summer, and warm(ish) in the winter.

The TT section is open year round to fishing. The rest of the stream is ATW.

Is it easy fishing? No. These are mostly wild browns, and they don't see the year round fishing pressure that the fish in the LL do. If you can catch fish on Valley Creek, you'll do OK here. Same kinda game.

 
Good deal. I love these little limestoners in the Fall.
 
HA - What makes u think I'm lookin for easy fishin ;-)
 
Curiosity got me this am and I drove up nice and early (and way hung over lol). Low and clear was on the menu today and HA is right, similar to VC in my opinion but I didn't get hung up in as many trees. Saw and spooked a bunch of fish, got a few takes on a PT and lost one ... very few bugs in the air but not sure what they were and no risers. A nice little stream not far from me and will def head back when i don't have time for a a full day.

No Sasquatch sighting but when I left there were a bunch of dudes wearing kilts so he probably got hung up with more important things to do :lol:



///Also, under my waders I was dressed as it is still summer ... getting a lil nippy out there so layer up gents.
 
I was there this am in a few sections. Stream is fishing great and caught a load of small fish on scuds. Had a large brown chase a sculpin from 30 foot away. As his wake went the opposite direction from me, I thought maybe later this week ill get another chance.

Heard squatch had some luck too. It felt good to get out, I've been working too much.
 
I got it Saturday morning from Union upstream. I only had an hour and a half or so. Caught 5 and missed as many. A few on top, a few on the bottom. Nice stream!
 
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