3wt7X
Active member
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2008
- Messages
- 704
The pregnant wife gave me the free pass to fish this morning, and after a long day of cleaning yesterday I happily accepted the offer. I decided to stay close and fish Falling Springs Branch, in case the baby decided to make an early arrival. I fished various stretches in the catch and release water from the funeral home all the way up to the posted water above the Greenway Meadow.
I was on the water from 0645 am-0200 pm, and the day started cold with some icy guides in the morning, but it warmed to the lower 40s as the sun came out. The hatches were sparse and I saw a few midges flying around. I would say that the BWOs probably were good after I left, because I caught around five wild rainbows on size 20 BWO nymph. I did not get a stream temp, but I would imagine it was in the normal 50-56 degree range, as I saw the steam coming off during the chili morning hours.
In terms of fishing, I started by throwing light weighed streamers into the few weed channels that I could find that were not dead, and into the logjams and undercuts. I had a lot of short strikes during the first hour while the sun was still coming up. Once things warmed up a bit, I switched to dry dropper rig, which is my favorite nymph presentation on Falling Springs, and I took several small beautiful rainbows. I was in a nice stretch of water and I was crawling downstream after nymphing a small run and I noticed a large brown sitting in the slower water near the tail out of the run. I switched back over to my earlier streamer, and I missed the presentation on my first cast. My second cast was perfect, the fly landed on a shallow weed shelf about 20 feet ahead of the fish. Once I pulled the fly off the shelf and let it dip into the brown’s channel from above, I gave the fly two quick strips, and the big brown moved about two feet to inhale the pattern. Like most of my bigger browns from falling springs, the fight was savage. No big runs, but violent headshakes, irritated looks and a stubborn attraction to the bottom of the channel. I netted the fish after a couple minutes that felt a lot longer period of time and I admired the heavy dark brown for a few seconds before watching him swim off. After that, I nymphed up a few more rainbows on an olive scud before calling it a day.
Falling Springs Branch always amazes me. It is by far the most fickle Cumberland Valley Limestoner, in my opinion at least, but the good days on FSB tend to be really good.
I was on the water from 0645 am-0200 pm, and the day started cold with some icy guides in the morning, but it warmed to the lower 40s as the sun came out. The hatches were sparse and I saw a few midges flying around. I would say that the BWOs probably were good after I left, because I caught around five wild rainbows on size 20 BWO nymph. I did not get a stream temp, but I would imagine it was in the normal 50-56 degree range, as I saw the steam coming off during the chili morning hours.
In terms of fishing, I started by throwing light weighed streamers into the few weed channels that I could find that were not dead, and into the logjams and undercuts. I had a lot of short strikes during the first hour while the sun was still coming up. Once things warmed up a bit, I switched to dry dropper rig, which is my favorite nymph presentation on Falling Springs, and I took several small beautiful rainbows. I was in a nice stretch of water and I was crawling downstream after nymphing a small run and I noticed a large brown sitting in the slower water near the tail out of the run. I switched back over to my earlier streamer, and I missed the presentation on my first cast. My second cast was perfect, the fly landed on a shallow weed shelf about 20 feet ahead of the fish. Once I pulled the fly off the shelf and let it dip into the brown’s channel from above, I gave the fly two quick strips, and the big brown moved about two feet to inhale the pattern. Like most of my bigger browns from falling springs, the fight was savage. No big runs, but violent headshakes, irritated looks and a stubborn attraction to the bottom of the channel. I netted the fish after a couple minutes that felt a lot longer period of time and I admired the heavy dark brown for a few seconds before watching him swim off. After that, I nymphed up a few more rainbows on an olive scud before calling it a day.
Falling Springs Branch always amazes me. It is by far the most fickle Cumberland Valley Limestoner, in my opinion at least, but the good days on FSB tend to be really good.
