I taught him the dry dropper too, lest anyone think I was breaking Squatch Orthodoxy!

Maybe Swattie would be interested, I hit up one of the wild streams in the northern part of Lanc yesterday afternoon (no hunting on Sundays!). Lots of redds (this is the stream where Fox got the wild bow), but I only caught 2 brookies. Glad to see the redds. No fish paired up.

It was a squatch nightmare though. Chub after chub...one of them was like, 10" long and all colored up. Nasty.

Didn't see your last post until now Squatch...my FIL and I stopped by there a few weeks ago and saw lots of redds too. Given the timing I assumed they were Brookie redds. My FIL got one holdover Bow, and I took the skunk, although I missed a nice Brookie in the hole below the old mill dam on the trib that comes in there.

Sorry about the Chubs...I usually don't catch a ton on that stream actually, although its neighbors are a different story!

I don't usually either, so it tells me the trout are holing up already.

It just means the chubs are holding in the water they are most comfortable with, the trout are there, try very light streams, or white WB, the trout WILL respond in kind.

I have some micro buggers. I should try stripping some of them through.

Swattie, I can't believe your FIL got a bow! I would have thought they were all harvested at this point. I always wondered what the odds are that any are left. Sal's brother got one of those golden 'bows they stocked in March....caught it in October.

A few make it I think...and leave the evidence the following year that they do!

The one my FIL caught didn't look very good. It was a nice 12-14" range fish, but was very skinny. I'm guessing it won't make it through the Winter.

Hope he kept the bow for dinner!

Been seeing a lot of mentions abt the Donegal & it's only 90 miles from me. Is it worth checking out one day? Wide or thin and any other info appreciated.

Thanks

Honestly, unless you're in the area, I wouldn't bother. 90 minutes a long haul to fish a mostly stocked water with a few hold overs and some wilds. Its only a 30 minute drive for me, and its border line "worth it". I know I'll get some flack for that, but living in the northern part of Lancaster Co, I can be on some "better" streams in 30 minutes. Right now its littered with those stinkin' bows. You fish Valley and the LL, both are better streams than Donegal. I drove 90 minutes to fish Valley, I'd do it again. I wouldn't do that for Donegal. If you want to drive that far to fish a Lanc. Co. stream, let me know. I'll take you to some nice brookie water in the spring/summer.

Thru it out there but figured if I'm actually preparing a trip 90 - 120 mins I can hit some other spots. I'll be doing that (brookie) in '13 and preparing my list. Hope you all have patients

Squatch is right. The Donegal isn't a "destination" stream IMO. If you're local (within 1/2 hour or so), it fits the bill to catch trout and work on skills. It's where I cut my teeth and I'll always consider it my "home stream", but I wouldn't drive any distance to fish it. I can be on the water in five minutes, so for me she's kind of like that girl that always gets called at two in the morning...