Falling Spring, Franklin County, 6 April 2015

Millsertime

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My job brought me to Washington D.C. and I had the whole day to get there from the Pocono’s so I stopped in Franklin County and fished one of the limestoners on my list. I’ve seen beautiful fairy tale like pictures of Falling Spring in the summer time with weeping willows providing canopy to weary trout so I’ve had a strong desire to fish it for some years.. The day was gorgeous as it got into the mid 70’s, much different than what the Pocono’s have recently experienced as I still have snow in my backyard. I fished from around noon – 3 pm. I didn’t see any hatches or rises and the majority of the fish I saw first saw me. I give props to the guys who fish this stream regularly as I’m sure the big ones don’t give up easily.

I thought about posting one of those “hey I’m planning to fish Falling Spring on this day. Where can I access the stream and what hatches should I expect, blah blah blah” posts to the general forum but figured it was pointless as I already got all of the information from paflyfish.com archives and Google earth. I mostly fished the Greenway Meadow as it seemed the least technical. Everything above it was so shallow and the cabbage channels were extremely tight and I had no clue on how to fish it effectively as I have very limited experience with limestoners.

I’m sure there are large bows and browns in Falling Springs but I didn’t spook or catch any. I had a lot of small trout “attack” my flies but most were too small to get their mouth’s around my hook. All trout caught were bows and caught on small un-weighted streamers. The picture of the bow below was the average size that I caught. I enjoyed this stream and saw numerous stream improvements and it was a pleasure not to see “Posted” signs all over the place as this stream runs through a neighborhood. There must be some good collaboration between property owners and the Greenway/TU. The strong stench of manure while fishing was interesting but I got used to it eventually.
 

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Great report. and nice pics, IMO you fished the more picturesque part of the stream.

"Everything above it was so shallow and the cabbage channels were tight and I had no clue how to fish it effectively"

One of my favorite ways to fish the weedy channels is by making slack downstream casts while maneuvering your nymph/streamer through the middle of the channels (small buggers/marabous are great flies for this). The upstream approach is fine to but the current is working against you instead of with you as in a downstream approach and some movement in the fly is not always a bad thing. Lots of times the fish are tucked up under the vegetation in the channel keeping you out of sight until they come out to intercept a fly. Low profile is a must.
I too have not caught anything over 15" in the heritage section in some time, although I do know of one behemoth brown in quarry meadow that I've been seeing for 2 years now. I might have to borrow Night Stalkers 7-8wt
 
Nice report.

(Glad you utilized the past reports/info available here on the site)
 
Nice report. I wanted stop out there this year when we took a swing at YB, but stopped in at big spring as well. Looks like an interesting little limestoner. Hopefully get to check it out someday.
 
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