brookie outing report (k-bob and myself, with pictures)

[pcray1231]

k-bob and I always seemed to like the same type of streams, but we finally met up for a day of fishing today. There was a stream in Eastern PA on my "to-do" list for a while, and he knew it, so he acted as my guide.

Lots of fish, some nice sized ones too, plunge pool after plunge pool, got away from the road, public access. It just doesn't get much better. We're at the cross-over point right now with dry flies on the brookie waters, you can catch them on top now, but its still early in the year and still where you can catch more underneath. I used a dry-dropper rig and caught more on the dropper, k-bob stuck with dries. As far as numbers, I stopped counting at 20, but caught well more than that. Between us, I'm confident we topped 50 fish, some of them nice, and moved a real nice one.

Here are the pics. Note, I left my camera on high setting, wait for them to load, and it really helps if you hit "full screen" on the bottom right side. For some reason, they loaded in reverse order, so the first pics happened last.....

http://s58.photobucket.com/albums/g259/pcray1231/5-09-10/?albumview=slideshow

 

[crangler]

awesome looking stream real pretty fish thanks for sharing

 

[bowmandjk]

great pics and the stream looked perfect

 

[jdaddy]

Really great photos! Thanks for sharing. Looks like a great time.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

That was awesome pcray!

That one brookie looked like a good 10 inches. All bright and the stream was wonderful looking.

Your right, it dont get much better!

 

[Fishidiot]

Great photos - magazine quality. Looks like a classic day of great brookie fishin.

 

[bjshaffr]

Great pics! Looks like you both had a great time!

 

[afishinado]

Nice pics, nice stream, nice day, nice fish...........Nice!

 

[JackM]

Truck chasers!

 

[k-bob]

Jack If I saw a truck go up that stream, I would chase it -- and try to buy it Just amazing, the quality and beauty of fishing we have out there! thanks for bringing the camera and posting the pics, pcray!

 

[pcray1231]

Thanks everyone. Seeing how well they came out, I wish I had taken more pictures. Maybe I'll keep that camera on high setting more often. It was truly a fun day.

k-bob, don't thank me for the camera, you carried it half the day! (For everyone else, the trail got a bit too bumpy for my camera velcro system, and I had no pockets, so after a while k-bob carried the camera in his empty rod tube).

 

[wildtrout2]

Those are some real nice pics pcray! Isn't that just the epitome of a native brook trout stream? I'm in my own little world up there. Thanks for sharing them.

 

[FlySwatter]

Excellent! Just the vicarious experience I needed.

 

[pcray1231]

Epitome is the wrong word. It implies it represents the typical. While this is a very, very good brookie stream, it is not typical when representing the larger whole. It is of much higher gradient than average for its size, and thus offers a very different experience. A very good experience, though! Plenty of fish, decent size, great holding water, fairly easy to fish (not too tight), and fairly big (as brookie streams go, anyway).

Flyswatter, thanks. Err, your welcome... We need to meet up sometime this year, maybe I'll take you up on that smally trip mid-summer.

 

[wildtrout2]

Actually pcray, that brookie stream is quite typical on it's lower section. That serious gradient doesn't start until you hit the gorge section, on up.

 

[pcray1231]

Well, granted, but we were in the gorge if I'm not mistaken, right around the middle of it?

Like I said, it is a very good stream. Special. I had a blast...

 

[wildtrout2]

Yep, you guys (at the time) were on the upper middle section. The lower section is rather flat and is very tight. Many spots where a fly rod will not work. Hence my little ultra-lite.

Oh, is this your san juan worm I found?

 

[afishinado]

Ut oh, that looks like a Squaretail Dan San Juan Worm. You may have found Dan's honey hole... Either that or Ol' Festus has moved in...

http://www.paflyfish.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=11851&start=0

 

[pcray1231]

No, not my san juan. I did leave a few flies around though. k-bob used mostly stimulators. I used exclusively dry patterns (parachute Adams, Adams Wulff, Humpy, and parachute sulfurs), with beadhead nymphs underneath.

There was one nice hole where I left the whole frickin rig hangin over the stream, couldn't get out to it. You'll probably find it sometime. Thats why I use mono and not fluoro. I leave too many hanging. Mono degrades, and the hooks will rust too. Fluoro would hang there forever, basically.

We walked along the lower half. Didn't seem too tight to me. I have nothin against the spinning rod, done that many times myself, but I actually do better in the tightest places with a fly rod. Where I do better with spinning rods is in those huge, deep, no current holes with submerged timber everywhere, where you have to actively work a streamer or something at significant depth. Didn't see any of those on that stream.

 

[Squaretail]

Ya know, I never knew that about flouro. Makes me glad I dont like it in general. I wouldnt want to leave line hanging around a place like that either. Great looking stream for sure.