pcray1231 wrote:
I made a trip to Erie this weekend (Fri and Saturday). Here's my report.

So we quit at 12:30 or so, went to the Avonia tavern for food and drink, and then called it a day.

pcray1231 wrote:
I made a trip to Erie this weekend (Fri and Saturday). Here's my report.

Fri: Went to Elk in the vicinity of Girard. Was parked before first light and went in by flashlight. Water was fairly high, and brownish green. Maybe a foot of visibility. I didn't think it was gonna be that bad, but it was. I fished there till about 11:30 without having so much as a bite. I didn't see anyone else with a single hookup. I covered some water, and talked to several people along the way, and nobody had a single bite.

pcray1231 wrote:

So, I called it a loss, went through a BK drive thru for lunch then drove to the east side. Tried 16 mile first. Just a zoo. Didn't even park, I have zero desire to fish like that. So I drove over to 12 mile, where there were only a half dozen vehicles or so. Low and gin clear, not many fish in the stream. There were like 8 guys up under the bridge in the plunge pool, so I didn't dare try to fit in that. The bottom pool was open, with fish, but it was quickly apparant why. Awfully skittish, no current, and as soon as a fly hit the water they b-lined directly away from it. There were like 4 guys on the wall a little ways up playing with a handful of visible fish, didn't push in there either.

But in the 50 yard stretch above the wall and below the bridge, there's some pocket water. Nobody was fishing it. Walked through, and at first saw zero fish. But on REAL close inspection I found a few in there. Amazing how a 2 foot football of a trout can dissappear in 2 ft of gin clear water on top of a slate bottom! Anyway, I'd find 1 fish, catch him, then get mobbed by people. lol. "Look guys, there's only 1 fish there, and I just caught him." Then I'd walk up 20 yards and find another, and get mobbed again. I ended up landing 3, lost 2, till I was out of water and fish. So I called it a day and went home.

pcray1231 wrote:
Saturday: Met FarmerDave farther up on Elk. Again, started walking before daylight. Lots of guys. But lots of water too. Water condition was perfect green, couldn't ask for better. You couldn't see fish, so it was just fishing good looking water. In the morning, we didn't do very well, and neither did anybody else, leading everyone to question how many fish had made it up that far. But it looks like it was just cold, cause by by late morning there were fish being caught here and there, and I was no exception. We were covering water, fishing a pocket here and a tailout there. I landed 4 (counting a long line release as I was beaching one, but I had touched it so I'm calling it a catch), lost 2, and missed 2.

pcray1231 wrote:
I couldn't see fish, but I could see bottom and fished the darker lines where I thought they'd be laying.

pcray1231 wrote:
...

I wouldn't doubt the afternoon was very good. But FD had some wader issues, and I could stay in domestic good graces by leaving early and getting to the in-laws at a decent time anyway. So we quit at 12:30 or so, went to the Avonia tavern for food and drink, and then called it a day.

pcray1231 wrote:
:) And THAT'S why I can't see my feet, even without the Richardson. haha.

Luckily, I don't have a sweet tooth. But I do have a grease tooth.

pcray1231 wrote:
PS and OT. PatrickC, I owe you a huge thank you. A few years back you helped me with a chronic ankle problem. I had seen a doctor who prescribed me foot inserts (arch support), but it made things worse. After some questioning, you told me to try lateral heel wedges. I won't say it's totally gone. But it's a LOT better, like night and day.

pcray1231 wrote:
It might have been that on Friday, things would have picked up a little later in the day if I had stuck to Elk for the afternoon. Thursday night was full of rain/sleet/snow, and places upstream in the watershed had several inches on the ground, which proceeded to melt quickly with the warm ground. It may have been more about water temperature, rather than clarity. As I said, the clarity wasn't perfect on Friday, but I didn't think it was all that bad either.