Lancaster county browns

[HopBack]

I took a much needed break from work today and decided to do some hiking on the best trails Lancaster county has to offer :roll: . As part of a last minute decision i decided to pack my llbean pocketwater setup and few of flies.


After a couple of miles of hiking I made my way down to a stream basin and found some crystal clear pools, may of which already had ice forming on the waterfalls.

The LLbean Pocketwater

First pool boss

After the first brown I worked my way down stream and brought a few other small ones to hand.

Just when I was about ready to wrap things up I tossed my fly 1 more time into a deep plunge pool and landed another boss!

All in all a fanatic day hiking and fishing on a seldom fished and often forgotten stream. Just what I needed!

 

[salmonoid]

One of the benefits of all the rain this year has been that streams have gotten a good cleaning. A lot of the fines and compacted leaves have washed downstream, there are new log jams that have formed because of new tree falls into streams, etc. The pictures of the stream show that well. The fourth picture down - both of those logs are new this year and a nice additional scour pool has formed there at the head of the pool. I think that is my most memorable run to fish, as I did battle with a pool boss there for a few years running. He lived at the tail of the pool, under the undercut rock that you can see on the bank (far left of picture four). The water was shallow, there, only a few inches deep, but it formed a perfect little piece of habitat for a fish of 13-14" to grow up and hide out. He'd chase streamers, sometimes four or five times, but there was such a short window to entice him out, and set the hook, that he probably holds the record for the fish that I had consecutive misses on in my lifetime. I eventually did catch the fish, and he was a pretty bronze, sparsely spotted fish.

 

[Swattie87]

Very nice. Love the last dark Brown.

I’m sure I’ve fished this stream, but can’t currently place it from the pics. Good to know it’s doing well though and fish are active.

Had the flu two weeks ago and am still not 100%. Probably gonna take one more weekend on the couch before attempting to get back out.

 

[raftman]

Nice Hopback. That pocketwater is sweet, init?

 

[salmonoid]

And I'll just add, while I don't think there is any stocked or wild debate, discuss amongst yourselves if this is the same fish as your first pool boss.. Proof that you can catch a fish, hold it out of the water for a few seconds, photograph it, and it can be caught again..

A little under a year of growth, as I caught mine 12/23/2017.

 

[HopBack]

Salmanoind that’s definitely the same fish and even fell for the same fly!!

I wonder how long it can sustain that type of growth in that stream? I would estimate it was a very fat 13”.

 

[HopBack]

Nice Hopback. That pocketwater is sweet, init?

Yup, it’s pretty great for that type of fishing.

 

[KGStine]

Hopback,
Great to see some actual fishing content on this site again. Very refreshing, well done.
Ken

 

[salmonoid]

HopBack wrote:
Salmanoind that’s definitely the same fish and even fell for the same fly!!

I wonder how long it can sustain that type of growth in that stream? I would estimate it was a very fat 13”.

I fished it a couple of weekends ago, after about an inch and a half of rain fell the day before. The water was off-color, almost perfect, but was borderline blown out from a flow perspective. Still, I managed a few fish by picking apart the eddies and pockets of relatively still water. My observation was that the fish that I caught and the ones I missed and rolled were on average larger than what I remembered (save for the few genuine 15"+ pool boss outliers). We've had really bad localized flooding this summer, so I was partially concerned about the effects on the trouts, and while I'm sure a few were affected, I think the high flows have overall benefited the fish. I'll need to fish it again in slightly lower flow conditions and see a few more fish, before that is anything more than an anecdotal conclusion about the rainy summer.

Decided to pull my photos off my phone from the end of last year and this year tonight, keyed on the first pool picture, and that is how I found the first match. Looking through the rest of the photos, found out I caught the same fish again on 2/11.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

What, you mean no one was swimming in those big pools!?
Great to see that stream doing so well!

 

[Tups]

Undoubtedly the same fish. I’m almost certain this is a hen fish based on the shape of the face. Hopbacks fish caught on December 12 appears gravid, whereas salmonoids fish has probably recently spawned. Based on this anecdotal evidence we might reasonably conclude that the browns in that steam spawn sometime between the 12th and 23rd of December.

Both are beautiful browns no doubt, but I notice that each has a goggle eyed appearance.

 

[Swattie87]

Tups wrote:
Both are beautiful browns no doubt, but I notice that each has a goggle eyed appearance.

The fish died the first time it was caught and photographed. Hop caught its ghost.

 

[Tups]

Piscis expiravit

 

[Swattie87]

Tups wrote:
Piscis expiravit

Haha...I figured out what stream it is. I'll go catch it again.

 

[Tups]

Well Swattie, I hope you'll have your voluntary wild trout permit when you do. Big Brother is watching.

 

[Swattie87]

Tups wrote:
Well Swattie, I hope you'll have your voluntary wild trout permit when you do. Big Brother is watching.

Ball's in the PFBC's court on that one, isn't it.

I'll wait until after opening day when harvest on WT streams is legal again. That way when I catch it, there will be no debate on whether it'll be caught again. :-o

Are Brownies tasty too?

 

[geebee]

Tups wrote:
but I notice that each has a goggle eyed appearance.

What causes that Tups do you know ?

Could the difference in the fish's condition also be due to a drought summer versus a wet summer ?

& do hens lose their conditioning as much as that ?

Cheers

GB

 

[HopBack]

Both are beautiful browns no doubt, but I notice that each has a goggle eyed appearance.

I didn't notice anything unusual about these fish. Most of the Browns I catch in heavily forested areas have eyes like this. Maybe an adaptation to low light conditions?

 

[sarce]

Nice job! Thanks for sharing. I've only fished that place once, and it's still up there with the best brown trout days I've had numbers-wise. I recognize the big plunge pool, but my memory is fuzzy on the rest of it. I think my biggest was also around 13". Haven't found time to make it back there.

 

[wildtrout2]

HopBack wrote:
Salmanoind that’s definitely the same fish and even fell for the same fly!!

I wonder how long it can sustain that type of growth in that stream? I would estimate it was a very fat 13”.

It's amazing how much bigger that trout got in a year's time! I wish natives had that growth rate. :-D