DoctorWater15
Member
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2016
- Messages
- 50
I had a few days off of work, so made a trek up north to fish, and certainly lucked out with the weather and conditions. I fished Slate Run, Cedar Run, and Pine Creek from 4/19 through 4/21. On 4/20, I fished Cedar Run.
I started fishing just upstream of its confluence with Pine Creek. I fished from 8:30AM to 2:00PM, and worked my way fishing upstream. I primarily focused on the lower section, since the water was pretty low as I peeked at the stream after a few miles up from the confluence with Pine Creek. I ended up fishing a total of about 2 contiguous miles of the stream. Today started off a little warmer, starting in the low 50s, and warmed to the low 70s. It was nice and sunny all day with no clouds, which was nice.
The water temperature was 44F, so a little on the chillier side, but heading in the right direction for the season. The water was crystal clear (could see straight through to the stream bottom even in the deepest holes), and flows were a little on the reported lower side. I hadn't fished Cedar Run before this, so don't have a comparison as far as flows, but it did seem a little low for this early in the season.
There were sporadic hatches throughout the day, starting with a few blue wing olives, then some tan caddis, and then later in the afternoon a few red quills. I did see one or two march browns, but nothing major in that respect.
I caught 4 fish, with have of them being of some serious quality. I caught one of the Cedar Run monster browns from underneath a log in a nice hole, who ended up taping out at 18in. I caught what was likely a holdover stocked rainbow that had swam upstream that was 14in as well. The other two were decent as well, in the 8-10in range. I was shocked to have caught some large fish here, and was hooting and hollering and shaking after landing the 18in while brown. That was the highlight of the trip! All fish were found in the slightly deeper/slower pools just down from the faster water or riffles above. None were caught (although a few seen and spooked) in the super slow tailouts or pools with no broken water for cover. They were all nymphed up, caught on general attractor patterns with the most popular being a duracell jig or a pheasant tail frenchie with red accents I tie. The large brown took the frenchie pattern. None were interested in the small streamers I tried. As mentioned above, the fishing was much better down low, and slowed pretty quickly as I moved upstream, which could have been due to the lower temps and lower flows this early in the season.
Again, it was my first time fishing this stream, and what a treat it was to catch some large fish on such a small creek. I had read that it held some larger trout, but certainly never expect to catch those, so that was really awesome! Similar to Slate Run, it's a really pretty stream, but I did find Slate Run to be prettier overall. In the same vein as Slate Run, you have to put in some work to hike to some of the stream, and the hike out was no joke, but a place I'll definitely return to fish, maybe later in the season when the water is a little warmer.
I started fishing just upstream of its confluence with Pine Creek. I fished from 8:30AM to 2:00PM, and worked my way fishing upstream. I primarily focused on the lower section, since the water was pretty low as I peeked at the stream after a few miles up from the confluence with Pine Creek. I ended up fishing a total of about 2 contiguous miles of the stream. Today started off a little warmer, starting in the low 50s, and warmed to the low 70s. It was nice and sunny all day with no clouds, which was nice.
The water temperature was 44F, so a little on the chillier side, but heading in the right direction for the season. The water was crystal clear (could see straight through to the stream bottom even in the deepest holes), and flows were a little on the reported lower side. I hadn't fished Cedar Run before this, so don't have a comparison as far as flows, but it did seem a little low for this early in the season.
There were sporadic hatches throughout the day, starting with a few blue wing olives, then some tan caddis, and then later in the afternoon a few red quills. I did see one or two march browns, but nothing major in that respect.
I caught 4 fish, with have of them being of some serious quality. I caught one of the Cedar Run monster browns from underneath a log in a nice hole, who ended up taping out at 18in. I caught what was likely a holdover stocked rainbow that had swam upstream that was 14in as well. The other two were decent as well, in the 8-10in range. I was shocked to have caught some large fish here, and was hooting and hollering and shaking after landing the 18in while brown. That was the highlight of the trip! All fish were found in the slightly deeper/slower pools just down from the faster water or riffles above. None were caught (although a few seen and spooked) in the super slow tailouts or pools with no broken water for cover. They were all nymphed up, caught on general attractor patterns with the most popular being a duracell jig or a pheasant tail frenchie with red accents I tie. The large brown took the frenchie pattern. None were interested in the small streamers I tried. As mentioned above, the fishing was much better down low, and slowed pretty quickly as I moved upstream, which could have been due to the lower temps and lower flows this early in the season.
Again, it was my first time fishing this stream, and what a treat it was to catch some large fish on such a small creek. I had read that it held some larger trout, but certainly never expect to catch those, so that was really awesome! Similar to Slate Run, it's a really pretty stream, but I did find Slate Run to be prettier overall. In the same vein as Slate Run, you have to put in some work to hike to some of the stream, and the hike out was no joke, but a place I'll definitely return to fish, maybe later in the season when the water is a little warmer.
