Deer Creek, Harford Co, MD 7/8/18

[sarce]

A friend who is new to fly fishing and myself did a "float" trip on the upper reaches of Deer Creek, ending at Hidden Valley Nature Area.

My friend wanted to start out using my Tenkara setup (which he wanted to buy from me, as I've had it for two years and never touched it). Before even launching, he caught a couple fallfish and a little smallmouth. However the trip nearly turned disastrous as right around the first bend, he hooked a large fish (probably a stocked trout) and the entire Tenkara line detached and vanished! I was able to walk back up to the car and grab a backup 5 wt fly rod, which was probably a better option than trying to fashion a long leader for a rod I'd never used before.

We continued and the water was pretty shallow at first with many short drags, but it gradually improved as we went downstream. My friend was in a kayak and I was using my inflatable SUP as a kayak with a cooler for a seat. I hit far too many minor bumps to actually stand on the board, but it navigated shallow riffles with ease. It was more used as a mode of transportation than a fishing platform on this trip. We would beach ourselves and wade fish the larger pools, and we also checked out a few tributaries in search of wild trout, to no avail.

Flow was 115 CFS at Rocks gage. After floating I'd say this is the absolute minimum flow that you'd want to float. However if you go much higher the strainers would become dangerous, there were 3 or 4 spanning the entire stream that we had to get creative to get around.

While Deer Creek is heavily stocked in many areas, there is some old survey data out there that indicates a low population of wild browns in certain sections. We didn't encounter any on this trip, but we also probably would have spooked them by floating over the faster runs that looked trouty. The water was a bit warm to target them as well. I imagine there are a couple in just the right spots but most of the water is not suitable for them.

Water temp was 64 at noon and 72 at 4 pm. The second water temp was taken after I caught and released a stocked rainbow that slammed a streamer. I think it was only about my third stocked trout of the year and of course it hit a smallmouth fly. I am surprised it survived the heat wave the week before and still had an appetite.

Overall we caught countless fallfish and river chubs, maybe 8 or so smallies each, and a few sunnies and rock bass. Really awesome way to get someone hooked on fly fishing!

 

[JimKennedy]

you just answered the question I had about Tenkara rods. I don't hook all that many big trout, but when I do, I like to have a sporting chance of landing them.

By the way, best place for wild browns in Deer Creek is from Eden Mill Dam down to the picnic area in Rocks State Park. They are few and far between, but during my October excursions to hit the fall stocking in Deer Creek, I average about 1 wild brown for every 10 rainbow in that section. This is about as close to consistently catching wild browns in Deer Creek as I've ever come. Forget trying to catch them when the creek is getting any fishing pressure at all because once they're put down, they stay down. Also, I can report they are in the creek as far down as the old Army intake below Route 161. I caught one there while fishing late in the shad run and had a reliable report of another bruiser coming from that territory.
Nice bonus, catching those Deer Creek browns, but do not count on more than about one every two or three trips.

 

[Mike]

They are more numerous within a short stretch in Pa, but the stream is small, as are the fish.

 

[redietz]

JimKennedy wrote:
you just answered the question I had about Tenkara rods. I don't hook all that many big trout, but when I do, I like to have a sporting chance of landing them.

I have a friend who targets carp with a tenkara rod, and has landed steelhead with one. It just a question of being familiar with the equipment.

Here's some videos of people landing larger trout on Tenkara:

Twenty inch trout on Tenkara

Tenkara and 5x

Tenkara in Argentina

How to land big browns on Tenkara


There's also a video of a guy in France landing an 8 1/2 pound rainbow on Tenkara, but it was in a fairly small pool and he just threw the rod and let the fish tire itself.

You're unlikely to catch a trout in PA or MD that can't be landed on a Tenkara rod.

(My PB on Tenkara is about 15", but that's more limited by the size of the fish where I fish than what the rod can handle.)

 

[sarce]

JimKennedy, thanks for your reply. Great to hear they are that far downstream. I have caught a few farther up, above the stocked areas, and a couple tributaries have given up one or two browns, which I assumed were random straggler fish that came from the main stream.

 

[Swattie87]

sarce wrote:
However the trip nearly turned disastrous as right around the first bend, he hooked a large fish (probably a stocked trout) and the entire Tenkara line detached and vanished!

Probably a big Fallfish. They pull harder than Trout of equal size. 😛

 

[sarce]

^Hahahaha