back from the Jam.....

L

LigonierA1

Member
Joined
Oct 4, 2006
Messages
47
The Jam was phenomenal. The fishing was not, at least for the Monday-Thursday that I was there. Tons of high water. It *dumped* Sunday night into Monday AM. Too thick to drink but too thin to plow. Typical for the PaFF crew.

The new acquaintances and renewed friendships were excellent. The food and campfires were extraordinary. There were even a few fish caught on Sulphur duns and spinners.

JackM remains the hardest man to get off a creek I've ever experienced. He's got a mind that won't forget the worst joke ever told. He's a great tarp engineer, though he loses sight of simple and done.

Hank is the best steaks on the open fire chuckwagon cook going.

Greg, we need to fish together in the future. It was a pleasure to meet you and Evan Williams. He's here with me as I type, btw.....

JayL, good to meet the Philly young blood. Thanks for the kindness you demonstrated. Greatly appreciated.

Maurice, good to fish and BS with you for a while.

Paul G.....FPC. Amen.


All in all, it was tragic to have to leave. The fishing wasn't great but the comradery was unparallelled. This is the nature of the event.
 
I will echo what has already been written. I guess that I have oficially become an old man. As of Thursday Night i will NEVER tent camp at one of our Jams again. I will beg borrow or steal my way into one of the cabins.

Josh and Adam, sorry I split on you but the water was high and rising and I didn't look foreward to two more wet whiskey soaked days (another sign that I am an old man). Hopefully you stayed and enjoyed yourselves.


I did happen to have a good night on Spring Thursday. Like Mo says its all about the last 45 minutes of the day.
 
I went up to Coburn and noticed that the creek was high (3 times high when I checked the flow levels).
So I went to shoot the bull with Johas and Jim at the feather hook and was hoping to happen acroos some fellow PAFlyfishers, but none.

I decided to venture to Benner springs where I had decent luck and cathc about 10 fish in 2.5 hours, with one about 16 -- 17".
I even catch 2 on dries.

I'm sure crossed paths with others at benner springs from this board, but didn't actually have a conversation with anyone.

That's my 2008 Jam experience.

(I know it has been mentioned before, but why don't we have a mid summer or a fall Jam as well as a spring one?)
 
My dad and I made a last minute change of plans Thursday morning and ended up camping in Bellefonte instead of at Poe Paddy. The weather and stream levels didn't look good for Penn's so we thought we'd camp closer to Spring Creek. We never made it up to the Jam. Too bad, it would have been good to meet some of you guys.

The move toward Spring Creek was a good one. Thursday night was good at Benner. Dad caught a couple and I was able to land the one in the photo. In my excitement, I forgot to measure it! We didn't fish much Friday, but did ok on Saturday at the Paradise section and above.
 
Glad to hear everyone is arriving home safely. It was nice to meet so many of you. Although after tenting for three days in the rain (no pavilion for me) it is nice to be home and dry out. A half day on Fishing Creek Thursday, Spring on Friday and Saturday resulted in a total of 12 trout! That is working hard for them!

I like the idea of a fall Jam, but I will have to check with my liver first!
 
shultzy: what a gorgeous fish!!!!!!

I hope that beast took a huge streamer of some sort

about 20 inches???
 
This was my first Jam, but I jumped in with both feet. I was up from Monday to Saturday. The fishing was OK considering the high water conditions we encountered. Does the 20 minutes I spent on Penns Creek count as having fished Penns?

I'll echo Ligonier's sentiments about the fishing conditions conditions and the camp ambiance. I really enjoyed meeting and fishing with so many of you.

Ligonier, maybe you can show me Bob's sometime. We could invite Evan Williams to join us. We should probably wait till after your bundle of joy arrives.

Here's a 15 inch Brown I fooled with a parachute sulpher dun on Big Fishing Creek Thursday evening.
 
Got there friday night...good campfire...

Fished Spring all day saturday and got into some sulfurs with Albatross and then a few in the evening with JackM and his son before the lightning chased us off the creek at approx. 8:30pm

Was beat from fishing all day Sat. and the previous night's festivities and crashed early (before midnight).

Rained during morning coffee on Sun. and I was just gonna drive home and watch the hockey game...so I left shortly after 11AM...

then I drove past Spruce and it looked great and was too good to pass up...caught one nice brown and either missed or got last second refusals from several rising fish who were feeding on mostly caddis and a few sulfurs...all in bright sunshine...left Spruce about 4:30 (or about the end of the first period) Little J looked fishable when I passed it too...

All in all a better Jam (fishing-wise) than I expected with the weather...those who left early missed some good fishing...was nice to meet the many new faces...thanks everyone...
 
Hey Ligonier,

Thanks for the kind words. We did have a hell of a time.

Sorry I didn't get to call you for friday or whatever day that was. The phone died, and the streams were too blown out to fish.

Anyway, my story:

I left a little later than I wanted, and arrived at Spring to meet a few of the guys around 7:30. Got a few during a sparse hatch, and headed back to the camp. The cabin was great, and jack's tarp job was well appreciated. Got to bed too late, but figured the rain didn't bode well for a morning trip anyway.

Day 2, we went to big fishing and I got the skunk. Greg caught that nice one, so all wasn't lost.

Day 3, I met paul (acristickid) in the pouring rain at ffp and we found that everything was blown out. Eventually, we ended up in the Maurice mobile flying all through the mountains to find class A's. That night's campfire was one to remember, but I went and forgot all of it. Oh well.

Day 4 was spent at Benner springs before I hit the road. Around 1, a decent sulphur hatch began, and the fishing was good in the high water. I got a handful on nymphs and six or so on top before hitting the road.

I met alot of new faces, as well as the regular ones and had a great time. I'm completely depressed that it's over.

I'd say thanks to individuals, but I know I'd be forgetting someone for this reason or that, but I'll say that I met over a dozen great new buddies and may have even argued with a few too.
 
Alby! Fishing creek brownies are of a special sort. I'll probably always remember the first trout that size I got from there. And there hasnt been too many since.
NICE job.
 
I'm still almost too exausted to type.... Spent the week with a great group of guys fighting high and heavily stained water. Spring Creek was the saviour of the trip, fishing decent to well each of the days, despite the water conditions.

The final count isn't in, but I think we had around 35 guys show up at some point during the Jam. There was a huge crowd at the firering Friday night, too huge perhaps for my exausted mind and body, and I'm afraid I was grumpy and a little rude to the crowd gathered in the cabin, so I apologize to anyone I offended.

The fishing wasn't great, but the companionship certainly was. Thanks to the group that helped share the costs of the cabin and to all those that showed up to fish and BS at the fires and coffee gatherings. Thanks to Maurice for taking over Paul's duties. We missed you, Paul. Hope you are feeling better.

There were plenty of new faces. I hope you all had a good time and will come again next year.
 
Here goes:

I arrived at the campground around 6:30 am and after roaming around for a few minutes found Paul's camper. Thank God the coffee was ready. Everybody was new face so forgive me if I can't remember your name. When it was time to fish I buddied up (stood around looking desperite might be more correct) with Maurice, Tim, and Christian. We headed up to Spring like most of the guys. These are a great group of guys to fish with.

The fishing started off slow with the occasional fish dredged up with nymphs. Then Dave, yes that Dave, joined us. (It was great talking with you, Dave.) Around mid-afternoon a passing shower prompted the sulphurs to hatch and seveal of the guys caught multiple fish. Things remained slow with a few more fish nymphed up or in my case missing three in the span of ten minutes. We hoped for a spineer fall that never materialized, but I pick up two more fish that were anticipating one. Just as we were packing up a thunderstorm let loose. After a scenic tour of centre county and a bite to eat I had to head home. Next year I'll have to stay the whole weekend to witness the campfire stories.
 
I'm not trying to rush anyone, but I only took one picture at the Jam and it came out black. So, if you took any pics, let's have 'em. If you can't figure out how to post them, PM me and I'll walk you through or you can e-mail them to me and I'll get them up.
 
Anybody know if it stopped raining yet at Coburn?

Well, it certainly was fun. Many faces to names. The rain was a challenge but managed to make the best of it and still have fun.

Even with the streams blown out, Maurice still was able to put me and Jayl on some fish. Also, we ended up going to 2 bars called Brownies on the same day. When does that ever happen?

Fished Spring with Jayl and met dthompson and wayne from the U.K. It seemed the prospects for fishing Saturday were nil in my mind but we made a go of it. I was happy that everyone got into fish that day. We also had a decent sulfer hatch and managed some on top.

The trip was a success. I even spent some time scouting out some new water and different spots on some more familiar ones. Took a ride up to Penn's Cave - just to check it out.

Looks as if the rain is gone and already thinkin of the next outing. Paul
 
Sorry I missed it...sounds like some great comradarie. I was hoping to make it up until the last minute, but couldn't pull it off. I'm sure I'll see some of you on the streams somewhere. I do hope the Philly group brought their beer for the Pens fans!
 
A great time like many already have said meeting up with everyone and putting faces with so many names.

Saturday I enjoyed hooking up with Tim, Christian, Stevie-B, and Maurice over at Spring Creek. We managed to enjoy a nice day of fishing, with a mix of sun, rain, and a hatch to keep us entertained. Later we made our way over to Jack’s fire ring for some laughs. Sunday morning coffee was held at Paul’s camper and lasted until about 11:00 AM. Thanks Paul


I left Maurice just after noon in a downpour. He seemed committed to fish later on that day; I hope he made it out all right today. Maurice the hat’s turned out great!

Maurice and Jack did a wonderful job bringing this together. I truly enjoyed the PaFlyFishing Banner with all the signatures. A very nice touch.

As always I really appreciate everyone’s participation in our community. This is one of things that has happen as an outcome of the site that I could have never imagined 13 years ago.

We will try and get summary page setup with some pictures and things.

Thank you all.

Dave
 
Dave, thanks for the pictures. Anyone have more? Hank, you were camp photographer in addition to cook, and fire-starter, so where's your pics?
 
Here’s Christian, Stevie-B, Maurice, Tim and Dave Kile taking a break at Spring on Sat.

And Maurice after catching a fish (note the fish tail sticking out behind his hand).
 
I just wanted to say thanks to all the guys I met at the jam! You all made me feel very welcome, I'm sorry I had to rush off but my tying station was in danger of being ruined by a flood in my basement.

I will be back next year for sure!!
 
Thanks for the pictures, John. With all our talk of high water, I have yet to see one picture of an angler in deeper than his knees.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Montana Angler Fly Fishing
Montana Angler Fly Fishing
Harman's North Fork Cottages


Real Time Data From
the USGS Site

Share this page

Back
Top