French Creek - Chester County - 4/2/22

[afishinado]

To keep the tradition of fishing for trout on the first day, I travelled just 15 minutes from my home to my opening day spot on French Creek. Since things usually are crowded early, I always skip the early morning and arrive later. I got to the stream at 11:30am. There were only a few vehicles parked along French Creek Road, less than I've ever seen for the first day of trout. I found a pull-off right next to "my" hole with a few guys fishing on the opposite bank. I geared up and walked down to the creek. Speaking to the three spin anglers, who were together, they said the fishing was terrible and one angler only hooked a chub there. By the time I tied on my flies (a hares ear on a dropper and a wooly bugger on the point) the three anglers headed downstream. I had the hole all to myself.

After measuring out a few casts I cast into the prime spot a caught my first trout of the day. An ugly rainbow (I really am not fond of stocked rainbows) but it had some heft. I fished the hole for about an hour and caught at least a dozen fish, all rainbows and most of decent size. A Mom and Dad with two kids showed up so I wished them all good luck in the hole and headed downstream to the riffles. I picked up four or five more rainbows in the riffs below and ended up fishing in the big hole downstream. All the fish took the hares ear. There were a few spin guys fishing the hole and one fly fisherman. Every one I talked to said things were pretty slow all day. I caught another four or five on a hares ear and called it a day at about 3:30pm.

My guess is the water temps were cold in the morning and the fish woke up later in the day. I checked the USGS site and the morning temp was 45* and ended up warming to 54* later in the afternoon. It was a nice day to be out, mid 50's in the afternoon with sunshine and light winds. Another opening day in the books.

 

[Dave_W]

I think things were pretty slow yesterday morning due to cold temps. It was 32 degrees outside in Gettysburg yesterday and the stream I fished starting at about 9:00am was 43 degrees F. I got a couple small wilds but the fishing was really slow for me. By mid-day, things really picked up; most anglers had quit and the sunshine got things going and fish were much more active.

All the wild fish I got yesterday were browns and all the stockies were rainbows. If you look at the PFBC data, they are really focusing on stocking RTs these days (for better or worse) and I think many STWs now get only RTs.

Interesting that you got all your fish on the Hare's Ear. Perhaps warmer water might have produced better results on the Bugger(?).

 

[McSneek]

I think things were pretty slow yesterday morning due to cold temps. It was 32 degrees outside in Gettysburg yesterday and the stream I fished starting at about 9:00am was 43 degrees F. I got a couple small wilds but the fishing was really slow for me. By mid-day, things really picked up; most anglers had quit and the sunshine got things going and fish were much more active.

All the wild fish I got yesterday were browns and all the stockies were rainbows. If you look at the PFBC data, they are really focusing on stocking RTs these days (for better or worse) and I think many STWs now get only RTs.

Interesting that you got all your fish on the Hare's Ear. Perhaps warmer water might have produced better results on the Bugger(?).

The stocked rainbows the PA F&BC has come to favor over the years are pretty ugly. Usually missing most, if not all fins with the exception of a ragged dorsal. Tails are all chewed up. Mouths are misshapen. I know they’re hatchery creations but seems there should be a way of producing something that is a little more aesthetically pleasing. I don’t recall stocked trout being so beat up when I was younger but maybe that is wrong.

 

[Peyton]

I was fishing french creek near saint peters village, lost a 24" palomino on spinning gear(the person next to me already caught a measured it). Later I was using a size 10 stonefly nymph and hooked the 25" rainbow in that hole, it started to run upstream fast so I let it until someone with power bait was yelling at me to not let the fish get in their LINES. I was pulling on it so it wouldn't get tangled, and I saw the poor hook hold, and it popped off. I only caught one rainbow from that hole, and it was only 12" long. Also, I watched 3 guys each take well over the limit of trout, they had 7-10 each and were all protective of their buckets full of fish. The game warden never showed up and my phone had no service to call them. Yesterday I was fishing farther down it and saw 3 wardens there, all writing fines for people.

 

[pcray1231]

I had hoped to take my youngest boy (7) to my cabin to do our traditional opening day, like I did when I was young. I haven't done it in a few years, but he's old enough now to introduce him to the tradition. Unfortunately opening day ceremonies for little league baseball fell on the same day and won out. I mean, baseball is wonderful, but do they really gotta put on a non-game day, just pomp and circumstance thing for 7-16 year olds and their parents and make it the morning of the trout season opener?

My extended family still went. They did well. It happened again on a largish stream, where they concentrated the fish in a small area. My dad tried to help stock. In a 4 mile stretch they used to have 9 or 10 stocking points, each with a bucket brigade of volunteers carrying fish up and down from each. Now they say due to the several hour drive from the hatchery, they have to stock the fish in ____ amount of time so they don't have time for that, the whole stretch has to be stocked in 30 minutes or something. 2 stocking points 4 miles apart, fish cannon at each. And plenty of fish, and fishermen at those 2 spots with nothing or nobody in between. They caught as many or more fish than ever, but it's a less enjoyable experience overall.

Still wish I coulda taken the boy. Oh well. I'll get him out over the next couple of weeks.