French Creek, Chester County, 4/7/2010

[Van_Cleaver]

Fished after work for a couple hours or so, near Pughtown road. (4:30 on) Sunny and breezy, the water was clear and flowing nicely. I saw fair numbers of caddis, but no rises. Caddis pupa, and soft hackled wets provided about ten hook ups, resulting in five fish released, mostly smallish. Hard to believe they are about to dump more fish in this stream, as there are still a bunch left. Mostly I was fishing fast runs and pocket water.

 

[Giventoflyfish]

Thanks for the report. The creek has been producing well for me over the past month. Still haven't gotten any on top yet despite the nice hatches. They're feeding well on the bottom.

 

[Raven456]

How have the crowds been in the FFO stretch?

 

[giantsjim]

I have witnesed them at the tail end above the bridge where the cable used to hang. I believe that is Sheeder Road. What a party they had opening night: campers, tents, bonfires, the works. I took my two boys there around 5 PM last Saturday with the hopes it would have calmed down. I was wrong.

 

[jayL]

Jim,

Do you mean the covered bridge?

There was tons of room in the stream at that time, at least in the open water. FFO looked more crowded, which I found odd, given that you could have fished it the day before. I was there, as well as jasons and afishinado. Heading down the dirt road, along the stream, I noticed many 50-60 yard stretches of stream with little to no pressure.

 

[marcq]

hit it last monday in the afternoon. there was more people then i every saw there before but found some room in some good water. there was a lot of caddis but nothing rising. was casting an had a caddis larve hooked on my wolly bugger. tied on a phesent tail, didnt have any larve and first cast hooked up. the first time i caught something on something i tied. but stream was ful of larve chad 3 that day.

 

[Van_Cleaver]

French is loaded with fish now, though it is still running high from last nights rain. I omitted the temp. of the water in my Weds. report; it was 61, though it will likely dip with this cool down. Also I went by the stream on my way home from work, and there were lots of caddis, and some yellow craneflies coming off; no risers.

 

[mute]

Id say alot of the streams are loaded with fish right now. Atleast around here. The skippack for instance around evansburg. I belive from that heat spell, the water was 68 degrees and the fish havent been biting the last 3 days, sin ce the second stocking.

 

[JasonS]

Fished the FFO section from 10:30 to 1:30 today. When I got there had the whole section to myself. Only saw one other angler the whole time and that was when I was leaving. Ton of fish in there.

 

[Van_Cleaver]

Fished the open water today. Sunny, breezy, and cool with the water at 54, when I dipped it. Lots of caddis; mostly tan, and some gray, plus yellow cranes. Fished down, the best patterns being caddis pupa, and size 18 soft hackle for a dropper. Covered a lot of water and landed trout in every good run. Moved the truck on the way out to the "Silver Bridge'' (hasn't been silver for years) and landed several more, and called it a day. Though it was crowded, it was easy enough to find some good stretches that were devoid of chebbs. No monsters, but a bunch of nice fish, and one brown did go 14''. The bait fishers weren't doing much business today, from what I saw. Nice day to be on the water.

 

[crs5942]

I fished the FFO section today. Water was clear. Air temperature was about 55° when I started this morning and 74° when I ended in the middle of the afternoon. Water temperatures felt good, but I did not have a thermometer. Tan caddis were coming off in good numbers throughout the day. Very few fish rising though. I caught several on a wax worm pattern, small nymphs, and various wooly buggers. There was a good bit of fishing pressure today, but most seemed to be hooking fish underneath. I was happy to land a 20-21" rainbow today. A few bait fisherman tried to stretch the FFO boundary and fish the big hole that is just above the covered bridge. I am not sure how they found out, but when I first worked my way down to the bridge, two fish & boat commissioners were laying into a bunch of bait guys that were fishing just above the bridge. It sounded like the guys were trying to argue that they never saw the signs. I do not think the commissioners were falling for any BS. I pulled several nice fish from the hole at the bridge. Those fish were only in the "safe zone" by 20 feet. This was my first outing at French Creek. I liked the water near the upper end of the FFO compared to the water near the lower end. Nonetheless, there are plenty of trout and the PFBC is keeping an eye on poachers.

 

[Van_Cleaver]

The lower end near the covered bridge has traditionally been a favorite spot for poachers. Fortunately one of the WCO's is a fly fisherman and is real serious about his job. I've seen him hiding in thick cover with a binoculars on stocking days. You should have seen the upper end of the fly stretch when I started learning to fly fish, thirty years ago. (I'm still learning, BTW) The pools were deep and defined and the local club used to do periodic stream work, as well. Most importantly there was way more water. The levels you see on the stream lately were typical summer flows back then. There are still a lot of nice areas on this stream, however; you just have to explore around a little. The fish will still be there until it get's too warm to fish. Dry fly fishing should start to pick up soon, as well.