Big Spring and Letort, Cumberland County, 3-3-2015

[Mucka]

Luckily, work afforded me the opportunity to fish this water that I'd otherwise probably never make it out to otherwise. It's been months since I've been out, and I have always wanted to see what the limestone streams were all about. I started out at Big Spring FFO section at about 10:00 this morning. Temps were around 25, no wind and cloudy. Started out with a bugger in some of the riffles which immediately moved some smaller fish that I didn't see, but they quickly rejected it, and didn't bother with it after. Worked my way around, up and down. Got a few more looks at buggers, but rejected last minute. Fish we're rising to what I assume were midges (I couldnt even see what they were taking), but, I didn't have anything that they paid any attention to. I came across a couple of Brookies that appeared to still be on a redd, and plenty of other rainbows around... so I thew on a size 16 single egg... that got a lot more attention. I panicked twice and pulled the egg from 2 different fish prematurely. I let it roll down the tops of the weed beds.. once it got hung up they'd move in on it to take it... and I'd pull it straight from their mouths. I only managed the one little guy below. Saw some monster fish, and one brown that was an easy 22" working his way up stream. I forget where I read it, but someone described Big Spring as an aquarium to study fish.. I think that's a perfect description. It was a neat experience to say the least.
From Big Spring I headed to Letort to try my hand at some wild browns. I have a class A stream in my back yard at home, but I've taken the skunk from there twice, never bringing any fish to hand. This is a demon I needed to conquer. I pulled in about 2:00 Winds were beginning to pick up, and it rain/snow/sleet mix was moving in off and on. I parked at Vince's Meadow, and began to work my way upstream swinging and stripping an olive bugger.. there didn't appear to be any surface activity to speak of. Third cast in, and I had one on! Short lived however.. long distance release. I continued to work my way up, and was still finding and hitting fish. I fished up and down from the lot and was able to bring 4 fish to hand, and losing 2 more. I was quite surprised. I was also surprised the amount of fish in there. I spooked a ton in the process of walking the bank. Spotted one fish just up from the interstate that was pushing 18-20". No interest in the bugger, and while tying on something new, he must have slid off into the weeds. Packed it in about 4:30 when the freezing rain really started coming down. Ice on the guides went from bad to absoutuely unbearable. All in all, great day for a newbie in the Cumberland Valley!

Wgmiller sorry I missed you today- didn't get over there in time- I appreciate the invite to show me around.

 

[Fishidiot]

Great report. Glad to see the CV treated you well. You can now say you've caught a trout from Letort - a great PA tradition and something to be proud of. Nice!

 

[streamerguy]

Awesome!! Sounds like you had a fun and successful day fishing the holy waters. Bet it felt good to get some fishing in after a rough winter!

 

[Biggie]

Good for you. Sounds like you did OK for the first time on either stream.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Very sweet! Congrats!

 

[foxtrapper1972]

Hey! I talked with you there. I probably spooked that big brown your way! Glad you had success. Those streams can sure be tough! Crack the code and you can catch some nice ones though.

 

[Mucka]

Thanks guys! Felt good for sure.. was happy to just be on the water yesterday since winter won't seem to end. Being able to bring some of my first wild fish to hand was the perfect cherry on top.

Fox it was good talking with you yesterday! Hopefully you had some more luck after we parted ways.

 

[geebee]

wow. congratulations - catching a LeTort wild brownie is quite an achievement i hear.

i have to get up there one day.

 

[wgmiller]

Glad to see you made it to both waters. It's tough to turn down OT at work when the opportunity arises, so that meant no fishing yesterday. Warmer weather with hatches would have made the decision much tougher!

They're both fascinating in their own way and very rewarding when you start to catch fish in them. Big Spring is just a neat stream with some tremendously large rainbows and beautiful brookies. There are techniques for fishing each stream as they are their own "animal". The fact that you hooked up and landed fish in the Letort is a success in and of itself. She frustrates many anglers who are new to her waters and will make you "pay your dues"!

 

[jkilroy]

Congrats on a successful outing to two of the hardest streams in PA! Those streams get the best of all of us. I hooked a 2' brown in the letort one time and about gave me a heart failure. I broke him off.

 

[Mucka]

Back to reality today! Swung by letort again on my ride home for a few hours at the bonnie brook? Access. Managed to move quite a few and had a few swipes, but no hook ups or any other action to speak of. There were some fish rising.. saw a few bwo's about and a lot of midges. Great little stream you all have out there!
Forget the handle of the gentlemen I chatted with in the parking lot.. nice talking to you today, hopefully I'll see you at the spring jam this year.

 

[MattBoyer]

Mucka wrote:
Back to reality today! Swung by letort again on my ride home for a few hours at the bonnie brook? Access. Managed to move quite a few and had a few swipes, but no hook ups or any other action to speak of. There were some fish rising.. saw a few bwo's about and a lot of midges. Great little stream you all have out there!
Forget the handle of the gentlemen I chatted with in the parking lot.. nice talking to you today, hopefully I'll see you at the spring jam this year.

That was me. Nice talking to you, sir. Always a nice day to be on the Tort!

Boyer