Pennsylvania Fly Fishing
Beginner’s Strategy for Locating Small, Wild Trout Streams in the Wilds of Pennsylvania
I often see a common question come up early in the learning curve for anglers looking to get into small stream, wild trout angling: How do I find good streams to fish? It can be an intimidating first hurdle to overcome, but once over it, the way is open to a very rewarding angling experience. It requires some homework, often good for a cold evening in the dead of winter with your beverage of choice. You’ll swing and miss sometimes, but the home runs you hit will be well worth the strikeouts.
Below is the method that I’ve developed and relied on, and that has led me to many good small stream days in the woods of Pennsylvania:
1. Locate via some simple Googling, the following three lists published, and regularly updated by the PFBC: 1) Natural Reproduction List. 2) Class A Wild Trout List. 3) Wilderness Trout Streams List. They contain different...
Beginner’s Strategy for Locating Small, Wild Trout Streams in the Wilds of Pennsylvania
I often see a common question come up early in the learning curve for anglers looking to get into small stream, wild trout angling: How do I find good streams to fish? It can be an intimidating first hurdle to overcome, but once over it, the way is open to a very rewarding angling experience. It requires some homework, often good for a cold evening in the dead of winter with your beverage of choice. You’ll swing and miss sometimes, but the home runs you hit will be well worth the strikeouts.
Below is the method that I’ve developed and relied on, and that has led me to many good small stream days in the woods of Pennsylvania:
1. Locate via some simple Googling, the following three lists published, and regularly updated by the PFBC: 1) Natural Reproduction List. 2) Class A Wild Trout List. 3) Wilderness Trout Streams List. They contain different...
B-52's and the attack on First Fork
"So Dave, how’s it going?" This was the booming voice of Ron "Trout Dog" Kolman. Ron is somewhat of a local legend for about 50 yards of guardrails along Route 872 on the special regs section of First Fork in Potter County. We were staying up at Greg Sipos's camp for one of our annual spring pilgrimages to God's Country. Both of them were kind enough to take me under...
Tying and Fishing Midges
Many times the rising fish you see in the winter are taking midges. I’ve done well in the winter fishing midges on warmer afternoons. It’s great covering rising fish fish in the winter since I become tired of dredging the bottom, doing the chuck-and-chance-it to unseen fish. I could never stand watching fish rise in front of me without giving them a try.
Tying Midges
Midges are not hard to tie. I use a small sized emerger hook which is a wide gape 2x short curved hook. For dries, just add a thread body and a few fibers for wings or a wisp of dubbing for pupa:
Hook: Emerger hook size 20-28
Body: Thread (black, cream, brown, white, olive) to match naturals. I always try to catch a few insects with my net before I select a fly. If I can't capture a natural, I'll usually try black first.
Wing: 8-12 CDC fibers, or Z-lon...
Tying Midges
Midges are not hard to tie. I use a small sized emerger hook which is a wide gape 2x short curved hook. For dries, just add a thread body and a few fibers for wings or a wisp of dubbing for pupa:
Hook: Emerger hook size 20-28
Body: Thread (black, cream, brown, white, olive) to match naturals. I always try to catch a few insects with my net before I select a fly. If I can't capture a natural, I'll usually try black first.
Wing: 8-12 CDC fibers, or Z-lon...
When Big Bass are Easy: Mastering Pre-Spawn Bass Fishing Techniques
By Dave Weaver (Dave_W)
While most Pennsylvania fly fishermen target river smallmouths during the summer, bass can be successfully targeted all year and the "pre-spawn" is among the best times, especially if you're after large fish. When water temps hit the mid 40s - this would usually coincide with mid March here in the southcentral part of the state - river smallies become noticeably more active and move up out of their winter hibernacula. These winter locations are usually the deepest part of a river, often the low, deep, slack water in front of dams. As bass become more active, they start to spread out a bit but still tend to eschew current.
By this time of year, they start to feed quite a bit more but, unlike summer when most of the bass lay up in front of boulders and mid river structure and aggressively hit poppers, my experience has been that pre-spawn bass are shoreline...
Top 10 Fly Patterns for Fly Fishing in Pennsylvania via ChatGPT
ChatGPT is an innovative technology that has been in development for years. Artificial intelligence (AI) was once limited to science fiction and academic circles. However, it has become widely available to the masses in recent times. AI systems are now used for a variety of purposes, such as producing prize-winning art, writing college papers, developing recipes, proofreading texts, and much more.
As a self-learning model, ChatGPT can answer complex questions. I was curious to know how knowledgeable and precise ChatGPT is about fly fishing. Therefore, I asked a reasonably straightforward but subjective question about fly fishing patterns in Pennsylvania.
The questions I asked:
“List for me the top ten fly patterns for Pennsylvania.”
The answer:
As a language model, I do not have personal opinions or preferences, but I can provide you with...
As a self-learning model, ChatGPT can answer complex questions. I was curious to know how knowledgeable and precise ChatGPT is about fly fishing. Therefore, I asked a reasonably straightforward but subjective question about fly fishing patterns in Pennsylvania.
The questions I asked:
“List for me the top ten fly patterns for Pennsylvania.”
The answer:
As a language model, I do not have personal opinions or preferences, but I can provide you with...