East Branch Antietam, Franklin Co. 10/2/11

[bigslackwater]

I went out from about Noon until 3pm today. I fished the Antietam in Micheaux SF. Air Temps hovered in the mid to upper 40s and there was a slight drizzle but the rain mostly held off. Water was higher and faster than normal but was very clear considering all the rain. This was my first time fishing this particular stretch and I had a great time! I found that that canopy and vegetation along the banks wasn't as bad as some of the other places I've been fishing. I actually got to do some real casting, rather than just lobbing the line under tree branches and getting hung up most of the time.

At first I was trying to fish streamers, and then a streamer with a BH prince dropper. After about a half hour of no luck, I switched to a large olive colored wooly bugger (probably a size 10 or 8). I used a strike indicator about 2 feet up from that. That did it! I caught two brookies, one after another. I fished the bugger downstream through a riffle that emptied into a pool. Both fish were caught while stripping the line back through the riffles. My first brookie was larger than the one pictured. I fumbled around with my camera and he hopped out of my net before I got a shot! I'm not sure if this one (picutured) is native/wild or stocked. Regardless, they were both very pretty fish. If some of you with more experience can let me know if this is a native, I'd appreciate it. It would be my first.

Overall it was a good morning. I'm starting to feel more like an fly fisherman and less like a beginner 🙂

 

[streamerguy]

Yes, it is a wild/native brook trout. Too little and pretty to be a stocked fish.

 

[Swattie87]

100% wild Brookie. Very nice fish!

 

[bigslackwater]

Wow! Thanks for the quick response. Still kickin' myself for letting the first one get away before a pic. Oh well.

 

[Fishidiot]

Bigslack,
No doubt - they're wild brookies.
The term "native" and "wild" mean the same thing for brook trout. Wild browns in PA usually aren't called "natives" since they're an introduced species in PA. Brook trout and lake trout are the only "native" trout found in PA (and they're actually char).

One minor tech note: please consider downsizing your pics before posting so many in one thread. I usually downsize my pics to about 150kb before posting. When so many large size photos are uploaded into one thread it can slow the ability of some to read the thread in addition to causing (sometimes) the reader to scroll side to side. They're beautiful pics and we encourage this sort of thing but smaller photos are better.
Thanks,
Dave W

 

[willscreek]

I can't believe I haven't fished there this year, I live only about 12 miles from there. I love starting at the spillway and going waaayyyyyy down stream. I've actually caught browns through that stretch.

 

[JackM]

That stream looks very enticing. Thanks for the pics.

 

[bigslackwater]

Fishidiot, Thanks for the info on the wild/native classification. That all makes sense. I did resize my pics on my computer. It seems like I cant edit my original post, or I would replace the pics with the smaller versions. If it is possible to edit that, please let me know how...if not I'll keep it in mind for the future.

 

[JackM]

What I do if I intend to post pictures here that will be hosted here (that is, attached with the image upload feature), is to reduce them to either width of 640 pixels or width of 720 at most. Your brookie picture is about 3600 by 2700 pixels in dimension. No need to make them that size for message board viewing.

The other option is to find an off-site photo-host and then link in the url for the hosted photo so you can use it in-line such as this:

Here I have used html coding format:

"" closing.

 

[JackM]

Better view of html image code as used in the above post:

 

[ryguyfi]

Yep I started using photobucket for my pictures here on paff and it has saved me a bunch of time trying to edit my pictures before attaching them to posts.


Nice little brookie stream you have there. I like higher water sometimes for streams like that. Hunt and stalk those fish. Hide, make every cast worth it, and fish EVERY possibly holding spot. I've caught a number of fish in places my buddies just passed right up. I wouldn't be surprised if you could go out there and catch a ton of fish with some new techniques. Good job on those fish though!

 

[bigslackwater]

thanks for the tips guys. I will use my photobucket for any future pictures or I will resize them accordingly.

Jack M, no i did not catch a trout there. I tried to cover just about every hold spot I could find on the stream...I honestly cant remember casting to that spot there by the tall grass. I would hope I did because it sure looks nice in the pic!

You'll notice the last two pics, I was messing around with shooting at water level. I had the camera about 1-2 feet off the water. It seemed to capture the feel of the water better than at standing level. By the way, this is the same camera I dropped in the creek over the summer 🙂

 

[pcray1231]

The fish is definitely wild. Thats a very large stream for wild brookies, you found a nice one!

 

[bigslackwater]

This one was 5-6 inches I'm guessing? You should've seen the "one that got away"! I'd say it was 10" and even more colorful.

 

[Tups]

I was in Mont Alto last summer and crossed over Antietam Cr. I recall it being much smaller than depicted in your photos. Am I thinking of the wrong branch? Anyway, gorgeous pics. Wish I was there.

 

[Fishidiot]

Tups wrote:
Am I thinking of the wrong branch?

Yes, you saw the West Branch.