OK, so the past six months or so have been one of the more unusual periods on the Codorus since it became a trout fishery. But some folks are getting carried away. Consider the following…
As for the water, let’s remember that the dam is managed as a cold water source for the paper mill downstream. The fact that they created trout habitat was just a fortunate byproduct. They are required to maintain a minimum flow, but that was established years ago - long before trout were ever even in the picture over there. They are well above that minimum flow, even now. While they are under no obligation to manage a trout fishery, they do so voluntarily and with great concern. It’s good PR for them, and they’ve certainly taken their lumps over the years in that category. They monitor the stream temps daily, and stepped up the flows in early May when the weather first got warm. But they’ve been trying to keep the lake full, despite very little rain and snow since last fall, so they’ll have cold water all summer. We’ll be glad for that later.
As for the fish, the low water is going to concentrate them in the deepest runs. When they’re bunched up like that they’re hard to even approach, let alone catch – that’s a lot of eyes in one place. And if they’re in the deeper faster runs, its not worth the effort to rise. They’re conditioned to bottom feed anyway because of the enormous scud population that’s there all year long. And if sulphurs are hatching in good numbers that’s a good sign, even if the trout aren’t taking them on top.
The fish I did manage to catch this year, and others I’ve heard about, all seemed perfectly healthy and normal. They’re just not easy – you need to stay low, move slowly and patiently, lengthen your casts and fish the bottom in deeper runs. If you’re looking for risers you might be out of luck, but the lack of precipitation is the only thing you can really blame. Sooner or later, things will return to normal.
