Allegheny River, Potter Co, 5-30-21

[Prospector]

Time: 130pm to 430pm
Weather: 56 mostly cLoudy
Water: Clear, 50 degrees, cfs of about 225 was just below average of 245
Insects: craneflies, sulphurs, few March Browns, black midges, Small BWOs

I made the pleasant 2 hour drive from my camp to my buddies camp just over the Potter line. I love driving through the Port Allegheny / Smethport area. They have those long pastures that extend far up the hillsides. Just very pretty to me. My buddy was at a wedding in Texas but told me to stop by and fish. He owns over 2000 feet of creek front as part of 30 acres. He mentioned I have to walk through the woods and brush to find the creek. Having never been there, on the drive up I pictured this secluded section of river with many rising trout. After about a 5 min walk I finally pop out of the brush and directly across the creek is a campground. There must be 500 people there. Everyone has a golf cart, people are floating past on kayaks, half of them are walking their dog the other half were cooking over their fires. They were having a good time. The best news was the hole where I popped out looked good but 2 guys were fishing. So I walked upstream and fished down.

It was nice water with decent holes and riffles. Also a lot of trees and tree limbs in the creek for good cover and habitat. I never had a strike or saw a rise until I got to that hole where I initially popped out. There were a decent number of insects around. Most every fly had a yellow or light body. I just stayed with that body color and switched the profile. I tried a Humpy, yellow Adams, Caddis, comparadun, etc. Every fly got a take or an obligatory splash without a take just to make sure I knew they saw it and didn’t want it. I spent about and hour in that last hole and landed 3 rainbows and a brown. They rose a little on their own but they were obviously geared up for surface activity and would check out my offerings readily. I couldn’t find that one killer pattern that every fish wanted. They were obviously educated. I think the cloud cover helped with surface activity. No one I talked to caught a fish and I never had a strike below the surface despite fishing a woolly bugger / Sulphur wet 2 fly combo. Only had strikes on dries. The trout were smaller stocked fish.

 

[wildtrout2]

You certainly know your bugs!

Yes, those pastures going gently up the sides of the hills is beautiful to see. I remember a lot of them like that in Bradford county when I used to deer hunt up there a lot of years ago.