“Did you have fun?”

Letort

Letort

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 14, 2008
Messages
489
City
Carlisle
Asked my wife after I got home from fishing the Letort last night. I didn’t know how to answer.

Zero fish in the net - in fact, didn’t even move a fish.

Fell through multiple muskrat holes, tangled my fly in various floral along the stream, hauled in grasses on the few nymph casts I made, sank up to my knees in muck to the extent I had to lie on my back and use both hands to pull my leg out of the muddy vacuum and swarmed by various flesh sucking insects.

What defines fun for you? Fish in the net, time outside, other?

Can’t wait to get back on the Letort soon.
 
If not fun, it sounds like someone was outside in the natural world: experiencing it, sensing it; exerting their body and mind; for several hours free of the chains of that technological Sloth most human beings subject themselves to. A brief freedom from that alone, can't be bad.

(you don't have to go back to the Letort; I haven't, yet! LOL)

Joe
 
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I live 10 minutes from the Letort, so its my default stream once other waters warm up.

It’s also my screen name.

So i will be back - many, many times, hopefully.

As i think back, some of my most successful trips have been short hits while running errands and have the gear with me. 15-30 minutes here and there.

Maybe a lesson in there for me.
 
Regarding getting stuck in the Letort mud. Has that ever felt dangerous? It did seem dangerous to me one time I fished there. I waded right in the stream and started sinking down in the mud. Somehow I got out of there, but it seemed pretty dicey there for a while. I felt like I was in danger of drowning, and that was not fun.
 
troutbert said:
Regarding getting stuck in the Letort mud. Has that ever felt dangerous? It did seem dangerous to me one time I fished there. I waded right in the stream and started sinking down in the mud. Somehow I got out of there, but it seemed pretty dicey there for a while. I felt like I was in danger of drowning, and that was not fun.
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One time I stepped down off the bank and I was instantly up to my waist in straight mud. I had to lean backwards and then try to turn myself over before trying to dig my hands into the ground behind me to drag myself out. At least there was an actual bank in that spot. Not fun
 
Pretty much the same things I experienced on my few visits there

Did have some decent fishing one trip there.
Was on a cool overcast fall day
And some olives were hatching
 
I have never felt endangered. Pissed off, covered in mud, frustrated, etc., but not life threatening.

Last night was my stupidity - I know the mucky mess the Letort is. But the stream bottom in front of me looked like a solid, sandy bottom and I needed a better angle in which to drop my fly on the opposite side. It wasn’t solid. Short of laying down, it is almost impossible to extricate yourself, because to free one foot, you have to put all your weight on the other and vice versa back and forth. That just makes the problem worse.

Quicksand wasn’t the problem I thought it would be when I was a kid, but then I met the Letort.
 
Letort said:
Asked my wife after I got home from fishing the Letort last night. I didn’t know how to answer.

Zero fish in the net - in fact, didn’t even move a fish.

Fell through multiple muskrat holes, tangled my fly in various floral along the stream, hauled in grasses on the few nymph casts I made, sank up to my knees in muck to the extent I had to lie on my back and use both hands to pull my leg out of the muddy vacuum and swarmed by various flesh sucking insects.

What defines fun for you? Fish in the net, time outside, other?

Can’t wait to get back on the Letort soon.
Click to expand...

Type 2 Fun
 
It’s mostly about the places, exploring. It also about the people I’m with. As I’m winding down my “to do” list, I’m trying to make it a point to fish what’s left on the list (duds most likely, there’s a reason why it’s taken me this long to get to these) with one of my best fishing friends.

I’ll say it’s less about catching fish, though I’ll admit I certainly prefer a day to involve catching them.

It’s also about what am I packing for lunch. Is there an awesome dive to check out after? Other than extreme NW or SW PA I can likely tell you the best food around, to a 25 mi radius on the map.

I’ve found that “fun to fish” streams are important to me. Good, consistent, fun to fish habitat. So happens good fun to fish habitat often correlates to good fish populations.
 
Letort said:
Asked my wife after I got home from fishing the Letort last night. I didn’t know how to answer.

Zero fish in the net - in fact, didn’t even move a fish.

Fell through multiple muskrat holes, tangled my fly in various floral along the stream, hauled in grasses on the few nymph casts I made, sank up to my knees in muck to the extent I had to lie on my back and use both hands to pull my leg out of the muddy vacuum and swarmed by various flesh sucking insects.

What defines fun for you? Fish in the net, time outside, other?

Can’t wait to get back on the Letort soon.
Click to expand...
You had the typical experience I USED to have. Drive over it now and just gaze up stream as I cross the bridge and move on. lol
 
Fun for me is a lot of things. Falling in holes, catching grass and rolling around stuck in mud does not sound like fun to me but I’ve also never tried it. I did slip and fall on a boat ramp once and that sure wasn’t fun. I can be outdoors on my patio so having fun while fishing is not simply being outdoors. When I go fishing, fun to me is catching fish. I’m not the least bit enamored with trout so if a had a choice between a crappy trout stream or a pond loaded with panfish, I’ll take the fun of the panfish pond every time.
 
I have fished the Letort a few times and it was one of the least fun streams I have ever fished. Not catching a lot of trout was not my complaint, it was the other things you mentioned like the heavy vegetation on the banks and in the stream, the sucking mud, and the insects that seem to ignore insect repellant. Great to get out fishing but many, many more enjoyable streams to fish in Pa.
 
I am not going to lie and say every outing or all my time outdoors is fun. My wife used to wonder why I would be in a mood after doing something I love... I had to explain that the bad ones make the good ones that much better.

"You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both, and there you have...." I always thought the Facts of Life theme needed country cover version 😉
 
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Not too long ago I had one of those outings where just about everything went wrong: car battery was dead, needed to stop for gas, accident shut down the road, and forgot half of my fly boxes...I like to think we've all had those days. 5 minutes into fishing brutal stream conditions, I slipped on an unassuming rock and went a** over tea kettle and slid straight into the water filling my waders with mud and silt and cold water.

After checking to make sure nothing was bruised too bad aside from my ego, I decided to cut my losses and just head home. On the way home I stopped for a gas station pick me up (could be a whole other thread, but for me it's as simple as a roller dog and a mtn dew). While I was sitting in my car in the emergency clothes I keep in the trunk, which fit me MUCH better when I put them in there a couple of years ago, I just had to laugh at myself.

Much like life, it's all about perspective. With time, my worst outings and absolute sh**-shows are some of my favorite stories to tell and look back at with a laugh.

Trying to understand that while in the moment is my current pursuit.
 
I mentioned to someone that if all fly fishing streams were like the Letort, overcrowding would not be a problem.

Probably be less than 100 fly fishers world wide willing to consistently put up with that.
 
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