French Creek, Chester Co. 5/13/2011

[Van_Cleaver]

Fished off the dirt road for a couple hours starting around 4:30. Weather was clear, and mostly sunny. Stream was clear and 61; maybe a lttle under average flow. Mostly caddis, and midges, though I did see a couple Sulphers. Only a couple risers, though several fish broke water; probably chasing emerging caddis. Moved around twenty fish and landed a little less than half. They are seeing a lot of pressure, but decent numbers remain despite the blood thirsty chebbs that seem to live for the killing of trout, especially the big ones. No monsters today, but I found a bunch of fish in the moving runs, though they are getting harder to dupe. The coming rain should be a big help. Should be a couple more derbies in the area, which will reduce the pressure on this area, as well.

 

[skiltonian]

i hit the pickering today and noticed the same things, except got a lot to come up to a sz 18 brown caddis emerger with 7x and upstream presentation and found some big un-pressured fish that would hit anything, including brookies. here's the catch, got kicked out due to non-FFs ruining it for everyone where i was given prior permission to fish there .

 

[Van_Cleaver]

Sounds like you ran into some of the fish put in by Chester Valley, since the state doesn't stock brookies. It's a shame that a few jerks can ruin the access for all. There are plenty of places on French that are still holding fish and not getting pounded, but I was short on time and was able to sneak my truck into a tight spot next to one of my favorite fast runs. However, one of the chebbs spotted me landing my second fish and just about ran to the next nice run below me. As a reasult I only got one shot at an area that hadn't been fished. It did produce three hook ups on the way down and about the same on the way back. I also did well with a no 18 brown soft hackle with a light thorax, though most hits came on the swing, or when I mended on a longer cast.

 

[Lonewolve]

what the heckis a Chebb?

 

[Van_Cleaver]

Sorry, I should have added a footnote. Chebb is a term my brothers and I borrowed from R Crumb, a sixties comic writer and artist. Over the years we have tweaked it from racist redneck, (the original) to trash throwing, spot crowding, stringer jangling, truck chasing, (nuff said?) angler, who is apparently obsessed with the idea of killing as many big trout as possible. You see most of them in the more popular stocked areas, and any derbies which promote stocking of large fish draws them like cow flops attracts flies.