2013 - Some Great Trout Fishing

[afishinado]

Fishidiot wrote:
Thought I'd refresh this thread and see what folks think now that we're well into autumn.

My general impression is that trout fishing continued to be pretty darn good if not excellent. Lots of PAFF guys have been out all summer and fall and seem to be reporting good sized wild brooks and browns. I'm not hearing as much about hatches but that's probably just due to the season. The small, wild trout streams on South Mountain, esp on the MD side, treated me pretty good last month.
I'd reiterate my thoughts from the OP......wild trout seem to be doing very well, generally speaking, across central PA. The CV limestoners are just packed with wild trout and, I think, the ideal weather conditions this year have produced some very good freestone wild trout fishing in my neck of the woods.

I think, when it comes to trout fishing in PA, the "good ole days are now." And this has been a particularly good year.
Further thoughts? If you commented on this thread in June, did that experience hold up the last few months?

Yeeep. Great season overall this year for wild trout as well as holdover stockies. Good flows early and cooler temps later in the summer. The fall has been very dry, but the water temps are good. As Tim Murphy often says, "tree tumbs up!"

 

[salmonoid]

By far, this has been my best year, in terms of number of fish caught. However, I'd have to do some number crunching to see if that is because I'm catching more fish per outing, or I've just managed to time a handful outing correctly, which resulted in a pile of fish being caught on only a handful of days. The fish I have caught (save one or two) have been very healthy looking and I do not recall seeing as many fat 2 to 4-year old fish as I've caught this year. This is also the first year where I did not really see any fish that were thermally stressed, although that may also be because during the two heat spells we had, I didn't fish (although in past years, I generally did not fish during those spells either; however, it seemed that the cumulative effect of heat wore down the streams in past years, while this year, they remained fairly resilient temperature-wise). I'll be better able to evaluate how the fish faired when I fish a few wild brown trout streams in late November.

I changed jobs, which meant that where I used to be driving over two or three wild trout streams on the way home each day, I now drive over zero, which meant that the drive-by stop off on the way home trips ceased. But I still managed a few overnight packing and fishing trips and had some really great day trips. And the year isn't over yet..

 

[Hook_Jaw]

End of April early may was one of the best springs I've had in many years caught alot of good sized trout when the water was up. Was the worst green drake season I've ever had with the exception of when it was blown out the crowd gets bigger every year. This fall water was real low about the whole time.

 

[LetortAngler]

Well the CV limestoners are still not producing hatches where they used to be. I think the Trico and Sulfur were very sparse this year on Falling Spring, Letort, and Big Spring as far as the main mayfly hatches go. Although 2 hours north where spring, spruce, and the J are, they seem to be off the charts with some of the biggest hatches I've ever seen. Especially the J's Grannom/Sulfur hatch!

 

[csoult]

I've had a good year.

 

[Chaz]

Except for the fall fishing it's been a very good year on brookies streams. As for the fall, I just haven't really been hitting the streams at the right times.

 

[dryflyguy]

After having a great spring season, the fishing held up very nicely over the summer. All of the wet weather in june and july kept the trout streams - around here anyway - flowing well for most of the summer. Because of that, I focused my attention on brookie streams closer to home. I tried at least 5 new streams, and found good fishing on just about all of them.

About the only disappointing fishing for me, was the yough river. It ran high most of the summer, and just wasn't very good for my 3-4 trips there this year. But I always do better down there during low water years anyway.