Fished the Yough yesterday. Had a series of unfortunate events happen.

1) Forgot my landing net... "No biggy" I thought.

2)On my very first fish I had a hard time getting into position in the fast water to land the fish by hand. Almost in reach, the fish made a powerful lunge at a weird angle and "Snap!" went my rod tip. No problem, I always carry a spare.

3) Went back up to the car. Took out my spare. As I was putting on the reel, the seat pulled off the butt. The epoxy simply let loose after many years of use. Easily fixable... if you have epoxy on hand. I didn't.

4) Luckily, I always carry a brookie rod with me (7' Cortland) So that's what I used.

5) Continued fishing. Hooked a monster rainbow on a #18 caddis. It was kicking my butt with that little rod. Took me a long time to get him in and release. As I was pulling the hook out, the fish flopped and the hook went from the fishes mouth into my thumb... deep into my thumb. Luckily, it was only a size 18 and barbless. But the damned thing wouldn't stop bleeding. I have a first aid kit in the car, so I went back up wrapped my finger. And prayed to the fishing Gods to make this bad JuJu go away. In the meantime, my thumb wouldn't stop bleeding. (I blame it on the BP meds I'm on.) The interior of my car looked like a murder scene. It eventually did stop and the rest of the day was "normal."

On the bright side, I caught a few nice Yough bows all on a tiny rod better suited for small fish. (It was actually kind of fun although not great for bringing in a big fish quickly.) And the broken rod is a Sage, so they should have it repaired relatively quickly... A memorable day, in many ways.

Been there...done that. Glad to hear that you caught a few nice fish. What section were you fishing?

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Sections just above Ohiopyle. Having to make a couple trips back to the car was good exercise.

GreenGhost,
Great post,always wanted to try the Yock,never gotten there yet.ever try streamers there?
Tight Wraps & Tight Lines
Rick Wallace

Only a fly fisherman would find a good ending in all of that. I k now because I've been there.

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I have caught some on streamers, but I'm a bit of a dry fly snob. I'll fish streamers, nymphs, etc. only to save myself going fishless, or in very heavy/high water. Ironically, unlike the Lil J or Spring Creek, the Yough is not great dry fly water 90% of the time. You're definitely better off going underneath. I know of some guys who throw big stuff (3"+) for big fish. They claim to catch the really big ones.

greenghost,

Sorry you had to pay so much in dues all at once, glad to see you overcome it!

That's the way to persevere! Anyone that can hang in there on a day like that is a true fisherman. (Or damned stubborn!)



Dave

so if I wanted to spend a saturday into sunday at ohiopyle in say a week or to (going to latrobe airshow to see the blue angels). what advice might you have for streams to fish and patterns to bring? feel free to PM if you don't want to share publicly.

Green congrats on an, well memorable day. To date largest trout I have managed to land left me with a hook buried in my hand. I would love to fish that river but wouldn't even have the first idea where to begin... I would be wading and ideally would like to fish streamers if you had any suggestions on where to begin It would be greatly appreciated pm's would be great too. Thanks in advance.

A Quick note to all you Yough. fisherman/potential fisherman:

Wash/clean your waders, boots, gear, boats, etc thoroughly: Didymo has been documented in the Yough. check the stream locations thread on the subject:

Yock thread

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Stubborn I am.... just ask my wife.

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If you have a bicycle, bring it along, and fish the Yough off of the biking and hiking trail between Confluence and Ohiopyle. There is approximately 9 miles between these two points. The trail, which runs right along the Yough, is an abandoned railroad bed making for an easy ride.