Dunbar Creek and Meadow Run, Fayette County, 1/10/2019

[drakeking412]

I haven't done a report in a long time and one thing I'm trying to do in 2020 is keep a really good fishing log so in the years to come I can look back and maybe even do some data crunching during the slow months. Also today was a really fun day exploring a new set of streams in a super cool area that I definitely don't go to enough.

Forecast for the region is overcast with spotty drizzling in the AM and scattered showers afternoon. Air temp was about 45-50 most of the day. There was nonexistent bug activity even with the warmer temp at both streams except a midge or two, not like it matters I forgot my 3wt anyways.

I left town around 9 something and arrived at the start of the project waters on Dunbar at about 10:45 and had a line wet by 11. The water was a measured 43F and what looked to me low but clear water that was on the rise with the showers. Does anybody know what that old structure is there? It's pretty neat, pretty cool how the water flows around it. I was fishing a tandem fly tightline rig today with thread body nymphs, PTs, and mops so my options were limited to some of the deeper areas. I worked my way up to about 150 yards past the shooting range fishing about every spot that I could sneak my rig into and it was tough sometimes but I managed a fish about every fourth hole. One of the final shots it started to shower pretty good and the browns really responded well and I was able to net 4 from one large pool. All the fish were stocked browns with little to no color in the 8"-14" range. I heard there was reproduction here and wild fish so I was really hoping to find at least one wild fish but no luck. I quit here at 2:45 and decided to go recon Meadow Run and try my hand at some stocked rainbows if there were any left.

I arrived at the Dinnerbell bridge around 4 and fished from there up to "Access point 2" in about an hour. I say fished but it was more like not drown. There was some pretty fast moving water down there and my strength isn't 100% so I played only the safe shots. I think I missed a fish on what was the laziest hookset of 2020 so far but we'll never know lol. I did see a river otter in one of the holes I was going to play, I took a wide berth and then got to the edge and we both had an OH **** moment, no picture though sadly. Then as it was getting dark it was time to again play it safe and find a way back with a goose egg on Meadow.

Overall impression is that Dunbar is a pretty cool little stream that I really wish wasn't stocked over. It in a strange way reminds me of Young Woman's Creek. I've heard good things about the open water too so I'll have to go back and try it more and I did really enjoy it out there. Meadow was sort of a puzzle for me, the current was so strong low then tapered thin by where I quit. Also I might be too late on the Fall stocking but who knows. I'd like to try it again as well with a friend that has fished it before who knows some spots so maybe come spring. I hope some of you were also able to take advantage of the nice spring weather!

Also I'm a bonehead and didn't save any of the fish photos, they weren't lookers by any means though lol.

https://imgur.com/a/fxhZzfy

 

[dryflyguy]

Nice report!

I fished Dunbar twice last year.
Once in late summer. And again in October, when it usually gets a fall stocking.
And didn't do well either time.

The stream is typically low and clear at that time of year, and you can see the fish stacked up in the deeper holes.
But I hardly saw a thing.
Only place I saw some fish in, was the one in your first pic - right across from the shooting range. About 6 - 8 trout there.
And I did manage to catch a few of them there

My impression was that they didn't stock it very well last year. Or there is some serious poaching going on.

As for the structure in your last pic - don't know what it was.
But there must have been some kind of production plant there that required water, years ago
There used to be remnants of four dams up stream of there - which were just recently removed

 

[Acristickid]

Pretty good day for winter.

 

[troutbert]

drakeking412 wrote:

I left town around 9 something and arrived at the start of the project waters on Dunbar at about 10:45 and had a line wet by 11.

All the fish were stocked browns with little to no color in the 8"-14" range. I heard there was reproduction here and wild fish so I was really hoping to find at least one wild fish but no luck.

To catch wild trout you should try further upstream. On Dunbar Creek for sure.

But that is also the pattern on most freestone streams that you'll find more wild trout up in the headwaters than in the bigger water downstream.

 

[greenghost]

Like a beautiful woman who has zero interest in me, Dunbar Creek breaks my heart. It’s a stunning little classic mountain freestone stream with cool, shaded waters. But rarely offers up good fishing.

Over the decades, actually centuries, it has suffered from industry in the area. An iron furnace was built on its banks in the late 1700s. Throughout the next century, the furnace (I think it was called Union Furnace) produced pig iron, coke and silica sand for the glass industry. The supporting infrastructure needed dams, bridges, rails, and roads… the remnants of which you included in your pics. Additionally, the stream has suffered from AMD, poaching and acid rain. An alkali sand buffer was built on one of Dunbar’s most polluted tribs, Glade Run and has helped the water quality somewhat. There is limited natural reproduction, especially in the upper 1/3 of the basin. But, imo, natural reproduction is not sufficient to keep the creek viable as a fishery. Especially with the early season pressure and year-long poaching issues.

Someday, I hope to see it improve and become a viable naturally reproducing fishery. It is certainly is a postcard- pretty stream and, since it’s less than an hour from my house, I do fish it a few times a year … mainly for the view.

 

[JackM]

I have a soft spot for Dunbar, though I haven't fished it in many years. It is pretty and it is dynamic in that it floods occasionally very hard and its pools, runs and riffles change periodically. I "cracked the code" on this crick and invited a friend to fish it with me. I told him I had "cracked the code." We went and he out-fished me 5-1. Meaning, I caught 1 and he caught 5. Embarrassing!

 

[NMR]

Both streams have really wonderful water, but they also receive a *ton* of pressure. So much so that I really don't feel like some loose suggestions will have any impact at all.

Next time you hit Dunbar try turning up Betty Knox Rd. You've got about a mile of project water there, and you'll get into natural repro within a quarter mile upstream of the last parking lot.

After a phenomenal Fall 2018 stocking of healthy and colorful brookies, this year's fall fish were mostly sickly looking browns in my only attempt. I was fishing the headwaters within an hour of my trip.

For scenery alone, go back and fish the "loop" on Meadow. Instead of going upstream from Dinnerbell, head down. There's about a mile worth of really great relatively high-gradient riffle-run water with plenty of deep pools and trails to take you back up to the parking lot on either end.

Meadow, too, got a really poor stocking from what I encountered this fall. You didn't miss much.

 

[greenghost]

JackM wrote:
I "cracked the code" on this crick and invited a friend to fish it with me. I told him I had "cracked the code." We went and he out-fished me 5-1. Meaning, I caught 1 and he caught 5. Embarrassing!

Hey Jack,
If I learned anything over the last 40 years of flyfishing, it's that a stream's "code" can never be cracked! LOL! Every water I've ever fished is ever-changing, dynamic and impossible to predict over the long term. Just one reason why I love this sport. It imitates life. 🙂

 

[Eddy]

I actually catch more wild fish than stockers on Dunbar even though the creek does stump me a good bit. Never had a high fish day there. I have caught a few wild brookies along Betty Knox, but if you're willing to walk about 2 miles past the upper parking above glade run the fishing becomes more consistent. No stockers up there. PAFB lists basically all of Dunbar's tributaries to town as natural reproduction including Gist Run but I've only fished a couple of them with decent success. They are tiny streams though.