I'm up in Sullivan right now at my brother in law's place. Through his property he has a stream listed on the natural repo list, a trib to the Little Loyalsock. It looks like an amazing stream. I fished it for several hours tonight to no luck. No risers at all. My brother in law's father in law, who lives w/ them, said that its been getting below freezing at night and only into the 50s during the day. Is this affecting the fishing action? Any tips on how to get these trout? The water looks way too good to be void of fish! I know they're there.

I tried a dry dropper w/ a prince nymph tonight, also a san juan worm, no luck. I'm relatively new to small stream fishing, so any advice would be appreciated.

Try a size 14 Royal Wulff dry fly, it's one of my favorites for small native brookie streams.

I did, and an Adams Parachute.

Shucks. I'm gonna get out tomorrow during the warmest part of the day instead of the evening, see what I can drum up.

I agree. I think your best chance for success is during the warmest part of the day this early in the year.

Cool. Thanks. I may tie on a green weenie from the top fly. Or micro buggers. The water looks BEAUTIFUL. I just can't accept that the trout wouldn't be there.

Good luck. Let us know how you make out.

Oh I will.

Sas,

Maybe they're not there.
Perhaps this is just a poor stream with few trout(?). Honestly, I don't think the weather conditions have anything to do with it. Keep in mind that just because a stream is on the NR list doesn't mean it has a good population of wild fish. There are countless streams up in that area. I'd try a different one.

But this one is in the back yard haha!

They're there, from what the locals say. I will try again tomorrow. If I have no luck, I will drive up the road a little.

skitter small dries in the riffles. Cover a lot of water. Don't spend a lot of time in one place unless you get action. If they are there you catch some. Watch your shadows and stay low. They are very spooky but other than that very easy to catch. Brightly colored wet flies can work as well. Good luck.

^+1

what he said Andy...srsly, keep moving. try to get out around noon.

good luck dude!

It could be the weather, specifically the bluebird skies all this week. I had my slowest day ever on my favorite brookie stream this week. In the dead of winter I do better and see more risers. Sunny skies, cool temps have bug activity way down.

Yeah, I'd agree the sunny skies and probably low, clear water conditions aren't helping ya any Squatch. Like most small stream Brookie anglers, my best days seem to come when the water is higher, and usually falling after a good rain. This often means you have to plan to fish these streams within 24 hours (or less sometimes) of the rain event, because they fall fast. Focus on keeping your profile low and really taking your time planning out and getting into proper position to make each cast. When conditions are like they are now, slowing down and thinking each hole or run out from afar first really seems to help me.

Another thing...make sure you're fishing the tails of the pools and riffles too...and assuming you're fishing upstream, fish them first. A lot of times in low, clear conditions on Brookie streams a fish holding in the tailout will spook first and bolt up to the head of the pool, spooking the entire pool. If you see this happen, don't waste your time...just move on. As you approach a hole, it's tempting to fire that first cast up to the best looking spot at the head of the pool, but in doing so I often find that I end up putting the rod, my shadow, fly line, something over the tail of the pool and spook a fish there. IMO the best (but not necessarily the easiest) way to combat this is simply to catch the fish at the tail of the pool and release him in the next pool downstream that you just fished!

As far as flies, I agree with the above advice...RW/Adams/Caddis in the shallower pocket water. If there's Brookies in there, the water should be warm enough that they'd hit a dry. If you find one of those big, deep holes, I wouldn't hesitate to put on a small, weighted Bugger though.

in general the warmest parts of the day are 3pm-6pm which is when the water will be the warmest ....why not purposely try to spook fish to make sure they are there. With low flow and a small stream you should see them...flies dont matter IMO

Alright I'll focus on the tails of pools instead of the heads of them. Thanks for the tips.

Skies are really clear, but this stream has TONS of cover. There were bugs coming up last night. I'm ready to try this again! Thanks everyone.

Did cover a lot of water. I Just kept moving.