West branch caldwell creek

[Troutbum82]

I went to the wb of caldwell creek a few weeks ago and it was a big let down. I have read that it holds many large browns but i didnt even see a fish. i hit all the overhead cover with streamers and nymphs i was very thorough and never even saw a fish. If anyone can give me some info on this stream it would be much appreciated thanks.

 

[Maurice]

I fished it about 15 years ago and had a similar experience except for one incident where I walked up through a shallow riffle and stepped into a tailout and a large trout scooted right past my feet.

 

[Bruno]

I would suggest going to Cougar Bob's

 

[jayL]

Bruno, ya got a good schtick going here. I demand a reply to every stream info request with the best local bar.

 

[dryflyguy]

I had the same experience on the west branch as you - until I finally caught a few wild fish there last summer on crowe beetles.
However, given the huge holes it has for such a small stream - I'm still rather puzzled why I haven't done better. I keep thinking there's gotta be a lot of fish in it.

Cougar Bob's looks like a palace compared to the hallton hilton

 

[Bruno]

dryflyguy wrote:
However, given the huge holes it has for such a small stream - I'm still rather puzzled why I haven't done better. I keep thinking there's gotta be a lot of fish in it.
\n

Nymphs and buggers maybe ?????

 

[dryflyguy]

Naw - what fun is dredging on small streams?

And I do OK on other small streams that have deep holes

 

[Troutbum82]

Yea im thinking that there is alot of fish in it too. It has been written about in severeal books by some well respected fly fisherman. Sometimes browns can be extremely illusive.

 

[brookiesRfun]

Threads like this are why I am tight lipped about wb. Spot burning is real folks....besides theres no trout in the wb.

 

[bikerfish]

fished it before, never got a thrill out of it. caught some, but never did great. lots of hilljacks in the area as well. I think I hear banjos playing!
better streams in the area IMHO.

 

[Swattie87]

brookiesRfun wrote:
Spot burning is real folks.....

Especially when you are as inept as me at applying sunscreen...drives my wife nuts at the beach when I look like a polka dot dress after the first day.

 

[Troutbum82]

Lol banjos. Yea thats some back woods fishing up there.

 

[pcray1231]

Grew up fishing the area, my family's camp is near Tionesta.

The WB is not one of my favorite streams, mostly because I never took the time to learn the in's and outs. Yes, there's tons of fish there. No, it's not easy. It frequently seems totally dead and skunkings are common. But at other times, there's fish everywhere. That's the kind of place you can fall in love with, I just never did.

Lots of "easier" wild trout streams in the region. You kinda gotta throw out the class A list and go by the natural repro list, most of the class A's fish worse than the non class A's.

 

[Maurice]

pcray1231 wrote:
Grew up fishing the area, my family's camp is near Tionesta.

The WB is not one of my favorite streams, mostly because I never took the time to learn the in's and outs. Yes, there's tons of fish there. No, it's not easy. It frequently seems totally dead and skunkings are common. But at other times, there's fish everywhere.

Really???!!!

 

[pcray1231]

yeah, though it's been 6 or 7 years since I've set foot on it, I usually fish the main branch of Caldwell, which has a fair number of wild brownies in addition to stockies. I've had exactly 1 decent day on the WB. But yes, there's fish plenty of fish. And plenty of cover.

 

[RLeep2]

Regarding the West Branch..

It isn't very friendly to the incidental visitor. Its a stream to be learned over an extended period of time and even after you've learned it, it will still usually insist on being either stingy or moody or both. So, the fruits of learning the stream more often than not are seeing what you do work now and then rather than racking up a pile of fish on a regular basis. It was the first wild trout stream I ever learned well, and in that it served me well when I started going elsewhere a lot. It made a lot of other places seem pretty easy by comparison.

Tons of fish...? I dunno. I've had some pretty amazing days there, but almost all of them were 15 or more years ago. Most of my information is dated, but when I used to regularly see copies of the surveys on the WB (from the mid-70's to the late 90's) , they usually ran between 50-60 kg/ha (about 5 kg/ha of which was usually brook trout, interestingly enough). But I don't think its carrying that many fish now mostly because it has been missing from the Class A list for the last couple years. Which means that in addition to the fish remaining stingy and moody, there are apparently also less of them.

I guess what it comes down to is that if you learn the West Branch, you aren't necessarily entering a place in your relationship with the stream where you are now catching a lot of fish there. More like you're maximizing your ability to take advantage of the scattered times when the stream trips into the ON position and more like you've played a tough chess opponent to a draw.

 

[Troutbum82]

Hey thanks alot rleep that was helpful and thats what i kind of thought was going on up there i like the tough streams so i may return to it this fall and really work the creek on a strategic level

 

[brookiesRfun]

Swattie87 wrote:

brookiesRfun wrote:
Spot burning is real folks.....

Especially when you are as inept as me at applying sunscreen...drives my wife nuts at the beach when I look like a polka dot dress after the first day.

LOL!

 

[brookiesRfun]

RLeep2 wrote:
Regarding the West Branch..

It isn't very friendly to the incidental visitor. Its a stream to be learned over an extended period of time and even after you've learned it, it will still usually insist on being either stingy or moody or both. So, the fruits of learning the stream more often than not are seeing what you do work now and then rather than racking up a pile of fish on a regular basis. It was the first wild trout stream I ever learned well, and in that it served me well when I started going elsewhere a lot. It made a lot of other places seem pretty easy by comparison.

Tons of fish...? I dunno. I've had some pretty amazing days there, but almost all of them were 15 or more years ago. Most of my information is dated, but when I used to regularly see copies of the surveys on the WB (from the mid-70's to the late 90's) , they usually ran between 50-60 kg/ha (about 5 kg/ha of which was usually brook trout, interestingly enough). But I don't think its carrying that many fish now mostly because it has been missing from the Class A list for the last couple years. Which means that in addition to the fish remaining stingy and moody, there are apparently also less of them.


I guess what it comes down to is that if you learn the West Branch, you aren't necessarily entering a place in your relationship with the stream where you are now catching a lot of fish there. More like you're maximizing your ability to take advantage of the scattered times when the stream trips into the ON position and more like you've played a tough chess opponent to a draw.

RLeep2 hit it on the head....Not a good stream to fish on.. Moody
Thats okay I will continue to fish it.