Donegal Creek, Lancaster Co, 12/1/12

elonDO

elonDO

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Apr 26, 2009
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Went out to Donegal Creek for the first time today after reading a couple posts about it here on the website. Hit the water around 12:15p & fished until 3:30p. It was a beautiful day to be on the water & did not see anybody else.

Ended up landing 17 trout - 16 rainbows & 1 brown. No huge fish, but many quality fish. Was fishing tandem rigs with streamers at the top & small nymph at the bottom. Was using dead squirrel pattern size 10 (basically a modified bugger, fly made by a great guide I know in NC, can be seen here http://jeffwilkinsflyfishing.phanfare.com/5418440) with size 20 zebra midge. Also used tandem rig with a brown crystal bugger pattern size 10 with size 18 skinny nelson. Initially they were taking the nymph, but late in the day they were taking the streamer. All in all, I was very impressed with this stream & will most certainly be headed back.
 
The "fingerling" rainbows stocked in large quantity in fall were about 7.25 inches long on average. Some were as long as about 8". Were most of your Rainbows of approximately that length?
 
Most were about 8 inches or so. The brown was only about 5 inches.
 
I've been putting a fair amount of time in on the stream and can attest to the fact that the fingerlings have moved around quite a bit since they were stocked...

ElonDO - at that size, the brown would have been a "wild" or streambread brown. The rainbows sound as if they were the stocked fingerlings. All the ones I've been catching have clipped adipose fins which is the telltale sign. I have caught small "wild" bows in the Donegal before however.
 
I was hoping to pull out a holdover or wild fish, but only caught the small 'bows yesterday. I saw fish over a half mile stretch, but definitely higher concentrations in some areas over others. Definitely a nice afternoon to be out and lose some buggers..
 
Stopped in for about an hour this afternoon. Caught six little 'bows (between 7" and 9") and lost two others. The water temp was 54 degrees. Got one on a size 8 olive wooly bugger and all the others on a size 14 Pheasant Tail nymph. They are scrappy little critters. Lots of fun!
 
went out today early afternoon. caught a half dozen bows on pheasant tails, buggers and green weenies. took my 7 year old son out with me. caught his first trout all on his own with the fly rod today- first time i didn't have to help cast or hookup for him...it was cool.
 
Excellent! Glad your boy got into one on his own. The fall stocking program there is a great opportunity for you to get the youngsters into some of those eager 'bows. Welcome to the PaFF forum!
 
dc410 wrote:
Excellent! Glad your boy got into one on his own. The fall stocking program there is a great opportunity for you to get the youngsters into some of those eager 'bows. Welcome to the PaFF forum!
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The 'bows caught are likely not part of the fall stocking program (which has now seen the last stocking for the forseeable future on this stream). The 'bows are part of the experimental "fingerling" stocking of fish, to see if they take on that stream; I think its one of five or so in the state that they are testing out with fingerling stocking. I didn't turn up a single holdover fish from any stocking when I fished the stream last week; fingerlings were about like smolts on the Erie tribs - small, annoying, and getting in the way of anything else (if any holdovers were around).
 
I guess referring to it as the fall stocking program was inaccurate from my part (as I was referring to the fingerling stocking that they tried this year). I did not catch any holdovers either, however I only fished a very short time period and covered very little water. I may have to spend some more time this winter covering more stream to get a better feel on things. The main point of my last post was that what may seem annoying to you could possibly leave a indullable mark in a young anglers mind and maybe kick off their flyfishing career. Donegal Creek has changed a whole lot since I started fishing it in the early 80's. However, it still offers us decent access to a special regulation section of a limestone spring creek in Lancaster County which I still feel is worth a lot. It's a very dynamic world we live in and some things that we feel we should have more control over, in the big picture, we really don't. Hope you get a chance to get into some holdovers this winter. Tight lines.
 
salmonoid wrote:
...fingerlings were about like smolts on the Erie tribs - small, annoying, and getting in the way of anything else (if any holdovers were around).
Click to expand...

That's about right. It's nice to get trout on the line, but in some areas they are so prolific that it's tough to keep them off. There are holdovers and bigger fish in the stream, but you really gotta work to find them (as I'm sure you know). Overall, I'd say total numbers are down and fishing will be pretty rough for the next few years as the fingerlings disappear and no adults are stocked.

Here's a nice 14"+ brownie I landed last week on a white bugger:

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dc410 wrote:
I guess referring to it as the fall stocking program was inaccurate from my part (as I was referring to the fingerling stocking that they tried this year). I did not catch any holdovers either, however I only fished a very short time period and covered very little water. I may have to spend some more time this winter covering more stream to get a better feel on things. The main point of my last post was that what may seem annoying to you could possibly leave a indullable mark in a young anglers mind and maybe kick off their flyfishing career. Donegal Creek has changed a whole lot since I started fishing it in the early 80's. However, it still offers us decent access to a special regulation section of a limestone spring creek in Lancaster County which I still feel is worth a lot. It's a very dynamic world we live in and some things that we feel we should have more control over, in the big picture, we really don't. Hope you get a chance to get into some holdovers this winter. Tight lines.
Click to expand...

Agree on all these points - I wasn't trying to demean the fingerlings or the "sport" they offer. My youngest daughter was thrilled to reel one in (and that experience is worth it regardless of the size or species of the fish). My personal preference would be to target the adult trout that are present and the presence of the fingerlings made that difficult. I am interested to see how they hold up over the year, how they move around, and if a surprise viable fishery might develop, especially if the locals realize they're just stocking "dinks", which are hardly worth poaching.
 
No, it's not. The Donegal trout aren't keyed in on those "Robinsin shiners" yet :-D

But a plain ol' white bugger works well on that stream!
 
Hey! I was chuckin' that "Robinsin Shiner" around last weekend trying to entice some wild brownies and this guy crushed it. For all of you "chub fans" out there, I actually thought he was pretty cool! :-D
 

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Does this mean that the the area north of 772 that is not FFO will not be stocked either.
There are still some holdovers in that area, I caught two nice browns there a few weeks ago.
 
The area of the creek and 772 has always been stocked by the DFCA just prior to opening day. The PFBC never stocked above the top of the fly stretch. The holdovers in there either came up from the fly stretch or were leftovers from the DFCA stocking.
 
Will they continue to stock or will they defer to the Fish comissions intentions. I don't care if DFCA does, I would just as soon not. I am just curious what the plan is. When I have time to fish this is where I go.
 
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