Prospector
Well-known member
Summary
I had to leave early to attend a wedding in South Carolina on Monday so I checked out of camp this morning. So this won’t be as extensive as usual. I did not research the flies as much as usual.
Our week in Kettle was a good time despite numbers of fish caught being down significantly. This was a result of clear days, low hatches, low water, basically a total lack of Caddis population (this really concerns me). I heard green drakes were strong the week before and I heard BWO were okay. Our group saw very few insects. Spinner numbers were okay and what seemed to fall after dark generated a lot of rises. I have not had a good small stream experience in May or June. That concerns me. Everyone is concerned about the long term impacts of the drought last year (Photo from Oct 2020 attached)
My 16 year old nephew joined us for the first time. My father was thrilled about that. He had a great time and picked up things quickly. I had him in the morning and my father tutored him in the evening so he got a few perspectives and really came up the learning curve.
Number of fishers was way down. Many great spots had no cars. It really gave people lots of options. FFO was also very lightly fished. By the same token, I don’t remember a year were the FFO section seemed so devoid of fish. Probably have to go back to Operation Future in the 80s.
Detail by Day
=============
Sunday June 6
=============
FIrst Fork Sinnemahoning DHALO
Time: 1230pm to 2pm
Weather: partly cloudy 82 degrees
Water 70 degrees at 2pm, clear low
Insects: None
Fished DHALO. No strikes on nymphs or dries. I knew where some of the big trout were so I hoped to give my nephew a chance at a lunker, but by the time we arrived the stream was dead. Fellows leaving said they had a nice BWO hatch at 730am and then caught some other fish until about 11am. I checked temp when we left and 70 degrees is too warm.
Kettle Creek
Time: 715pm - 930pm
Weather: 78 degrees at 715 but 67 at 10pm, Overcast
Water: 66 degrees, clear
Insects: not a lot. Dark Caddis, light Cahill spinners, sulphurs
I fished alone since my nephew went with father. Despite what seemed like very few insects there were a lot of authoritative rises. I finally concluded it was either emerger rises or very active spinners in the film that caused the trout to make excessive splashes.
I tried several flies until settling on a crippled Sulphur and that was the ticket. Caught all trout on that fly. Used several since it was getting chewed up and sometimes being taken deep so I just cut off the fly.
10 rainbows, 1 brook
=============
Monday June 7
=============
Kettle Creek
Time: 630am-800am
Weather: 58 degrees
Water: Clear
Insects. Rusty spinners. White spinners
Made streamer pass with Nephew before breakfast. Got 1 brown on muddler. Tried nymphing for a bit but had no strikes. Some rises but none were consistent. Probably cleaning up last nights spinners.
Kettle Creek
Time Fished: 930am - 1130am
Weather 73 degrees clouds and Sun
Water: 62 degrees in kettle, checked a trib 56 degrees
Insects: BWO, ISO cases
Took nephew to a long standing BWO stretch hoping to get some easy opportunities for him. In first 15 minutes he had his first Kettle creek trout a fat Brookie. He also had about 8 other takes but was having trouble transitioning to hook setting and stripping the fish in. Had excessive slack. I left him alone once he had enough advice for one day. I got a brook on a dry and a rainbow on a wet. We did not hit a BWO hatch but the trout were taking them without hesitation. But after they saw the fly once they were not returning. Nothing else worked.
Kettle Creek
Time: 1215pm - 130pm
Weather 80 degrees, cloudy
Water: no temp taken.
Insects. None
Had a mid day spot lined up for some quick action and got my nephew on the spot that had a good but heavier dry fly riffle. This would be good to show him how to fish a such a location without sinking a fly. Tried a Caddis first but needed the upgrade to a Humpy to keep it from sinking. It took several casts to get some attention from the depths but once it started several fish in varying sizes charged up. It was almost like other fish noticed fish rising and also started to look up. He got 2 browns and was a pretty excited kid with the 6-7 strikes he had.
Kettle Creek
Time 645pm - 925pm
Weather 70 degrees sunny
Water 64 degrees clear
Insects:big Caddis, Sulphur, ISO, March Brown Spinners
I fished alone. Lots of ISO cases on the rocks so I started by swinging a zug bug but never had a strike. Switched to a woolly bugger and had a few on that I didn’t land. Rises increased and I switched to a Yellow Adams & got a few takes but lost them. Sparkledun in yellow was on fire but for whatever reason I was missing or losing most of them. Almost every fish took it. Caught some on BWO after the Sparkledun ran its course. Got 8 rainbows 2 browns and a brook.
=============
Tuesday June 8
=============
Kettle Creek
Time: 1030am to 1230pm
Weather overcast light rain 68 degrees
Water: no temp taken
Insects small brown mayflies midges
As part of the education process I took my nephew to a super slow section to help him understand proper fly placement, how to eliminate fly drag, and how really small flies can be an advantage especially with young eyes. He got the hang of it pretty quick and caught 2 rainbows and Sm bass and lost several. I got a rainbow on a BWO and lost some on midges. Quite a few fish rising in this section but not all were consistent.
Kettle Creek
Time 215pm to 330pm
Weather sunny 80 degrees
Water: no temp taken
Insects. None
The nephew took a nap so I decided to try behind camp in the heat of the day by fishing the shade. Several fish coming up and I got 2 browns on beetles.
Kettle Creek
Time: 730pm - 915pm
Weather: cloudy light rain, 74
Water:
Insects: 1 Coffin fly, yellow sallie, Small BWO,
I fished alone. Had parked at another destination but heard thunder as I was putting on waders so I went to an area that was close to the road because it sounded pretty wicked yet quite far off. There was thunder threatening all evening but ended up being a few episodes of light rain. Lots of rises. Went through lots of flies but three top producers were BWO, rusty Spinner and Caddis. Got 7 browns, 1 rainbow 1 Brook on dries.
=============
Wednesday June 9
=============
FFO
Time. 11am - 215pm
Weather: 73 degrees cloudy and occasional thunder storms
Water clear 59 degrees
Insects. Light Cahill, 1 Caddis,
Very few signs of fish in FFO. Fished riffles, pools and overhanging trees for over 1/2 mile stretch and just got 2 Rbw. Taught nephew to fish a beetle. He had about 10 strikes but couldn’t hook any. We quit due to a Thunder storm that hit when we were at the old gabion hole.
Kettle Creek
Time 520pm - 930pm
Weather: overcast 70 degrees
Water: cloudy
Insects. None
Since water was cloudy after the storm I wanted to fish streamers behind camp. We all went and the 2 older guys wanted to fish dries so they waited until there were sufficient rises. My nephew stepped into his favorite spot and I fished top to bottom just moving through. A lot of fish chasing streamers but I only got a brown and rainbow.
I wanted to fish a stretch I’d never fished that has 2 holes. So I drove to it and no one was there. About the time I was at the end of the first hole (I caught 1 on 5 strikes) some guys jumped in the next hole at 8pm. So I went back to camp and found a spot there with the guys.
There were Lime sally, March Brown, big dark Caddis, iso Spinners. Spinner Fall was slow in coming but in pitch black it was in full swing. The timing was great for the trout but I couldn’t see my fly after the first couple of fish. I caught a rainbow and a brown.
=============
Thursday June 10
=============
Kettle Creek
Time 645a - 815a
Weather sunny 68
WAter. Slightly off color
Insects Caddis, spinners
Tried Streamers, had some interest but no takes. Missed a few on BWO and a terrestrial also lost one on woolly bugger
Young Woman’s Creek
Time: 1045a - 115p
Weather: Sunny 75
Water clear 56 Degrees
Insects. ISO
My nephew’s first day on a wild trout stream with tight windows. His casting on day 5 was quite good and once he understood how to adjust casting angles his fly placement was super. The problem was he didn’t bring up many fish. I’m a little concerned about the population on YWC. The deeper holes rarely produced a take which can happen but not as often as it did. He got 1 brown and 2 brook trout. Last year in June when water levels were ok there were trout that were pushed in the 3rd and 4th options for lies. This year none of those areas held fish. We will need to keep an eye on that.
The big news is we saw a rattlesnake in the streamside grass. We could only see the back third and it only had 3 rattles. The grass was knee high and it was in clumps like are common within 10 ft of the stream. My nephew was totally freaked out so I fished the last few holes with no luck while he waited in the woods edge where there was no vegetation. We were within 100 yards of our jumping out point anyway so we just headed back to the truck.
Kettle Creek
Time: 630pm - 930pm
Weather: 78 overcast
Water 70 degrees, clear
Insects: spinners
I fished alone and went back to the hole I tried to fish the previous night. Fished through using woolly bugger caught one lost one. Switched to Sulphur emerger none. It was a late rising hole. Spinners came late. Once fish started to rise every one took my BWO. I was noticing some fish were having trouble after the fight, so I checked water temp and it was 70 degrees. Luckily colder weather came on Friday. I caught 4 Browns, 2 rainbows and a brook
=============
Friday June 11
=============
Kettle Creek
Time : 8am - 1215om
Weather 65 cloudy
Water 60 degrees low and cleAr
Insects. Small numbers of Sulphur, para, March Brown IsO
Started with 3 wets and had just a few strikes. Fish started rising so I switched to the same BWO and it worked well but I missed a lot. Caught 8 brown 1 rainbow. 1 Brook
Miscellaneous
===============
Chatted with Wetfly01 on Wednesday evening after taking a break from my streamer fishing. Always a lively conversation.
Maxima12 gave me a nice hand tied 3 Wet Fly leader and I fished it Friday morning. It really performed well. No tangles. I’ve never put the extra effort in to tie them correctly but now I see the new standard.
Deb’s eliminated their streamside dumpster so there is less chance to see a bear streamside in Cross Fork. They now drive the garbage daily to the dropoff area just north of the Cross Fork creek bridge.
Some new posted signs are showing up along the stream and those areas are not getting stocked. As property is being transferred to new owners they may not understand the ramifications of the signage.
There are some stream improvement projects being vetted by the various groups in the area and a fisher access idea I brought forward this past week. I had a meeting and supplied a design, just need to get pricing and approval. In the scheme of things it’s pretty minor but should be a benefit to many over the course of a year.
I had to leave early to attend a wedding in South Carolina on Monday so I checked out of camp this morning. So this won’t be as extensive as usual. I did not research the flies as much as usual.
Our week in Kettle was a good time despite numbers of fish caught being down significantly. This was a result of clear days, low hatches, low water, basically a total lack of Caddis population (this really concerns me). I heard green drakes were strong the week before and I heard BWO were okay. Our group saw very few insects. Spinner numbers were okay and what seemed to fall after dark generated a lot of rises. I have not had a good small stream experience in May or June. That concerns me. Everyone is concerned about the long term impacts of the drought last year (Photo from Oct 2020 attached)
My 16 year old nephew joined us for the first time. My father was thrilled about that. He had a great time and picked up things quickly. I had him in the morning and my father tutored him in the evening so he got a few perspectives and really came up the learning curve.
Number of fishers was way down. Many great spots had no cars. It really gave people lots of options. FFO was also very lightly fished. By the same token, I don’t remember a year were the FFO section seemed so devoid of fish. Probably have to go back to Operation Future in the 80s.
Detail by Day
=============
Sunday June 6
=============
FIrst Fork Sinnemahoning DHALO
Time: 1230pm to 2pm
Weather: partly cloudy 82 degrees
Water 70 degrees at 2pm, clear low
Insects: None
Fished DHALO. No strikes on nymphs or dries. I knew where some of the big trout were so I hoped to give my nephew a chance at a lunker, but by the time we arrived the stream was dead. Fellows leaving said they had a nice BWO hatch at 730am and then caught some other fish until about 11am. I checked temp when we left and 70 degrees is too warm.
Kettle Creek
Time: 715pm - 930pm
Weather: 78 degrees at 715 but 67 at 10pm, Overcast
Water: 66 degrees, clear
Insects: not a lot. Dark Caddis, light Cahill spinners, sulphurs
I fished alone since my nephew went with father. Despite what seemed like very few insects there were a lot of authoritative rises. I finally concluded it was either emerger rises or very active spinners in the film that caused the trout to make excessive splashes.
I tried several flies until settling on a crippled Sulphur and that was the ticket. Caught all trout on that fly. Used several since it was getting chewed up and sometimes being taken deep so I just cut off the fly.
10 rainbows, 1 brook
=============
Monday June 7
=============
Kettle Creek
Time: 630am-800am
Weather: 58 degrees
Water: Clear
Insects. Rusty spinners. White spinners
Made streamer pass with Nephew before breakfast. Got 1 brown on muddler. Tried nymphing for a bit but had no strikes. Some rises but none were consistent. Probably cleaning up last nights spinners.
Kettle Creek
Time Fished: 930am - 1130am
Weather 73 degrees clouds and Sun
Water: 62 degrees in kettle, checked a trib 56 degrees
Insects: BWO, ISO cases
Took nephew to a long standing BWO stretch hoping to get some easy opportunities for him. In first 15 minutes he had his first Kettle creek trout a fat Brookie. He also had about 8 other takes but was having trouble transitioning to hook setting and stripping the fish in. Had excessive slack. I left him alone once he had enough advice for one day. I got a brook on a dry and a rainbow on a wet. We did not hit a BWO hatch but the trout were taking them without hesitation. But after they saw the fly once they were not returning. Nothing else worked.
Kettle Creek
Time: 1215pm - 130pm
Weather 80 degrees, cloudy
Water: no temp taken.
Insects. None
Had a mid day spot lined up for some quick action and got my nephew on the spot that had a good but heavier dry fly riffle. This would be good to show him how to fish a such a location without sinking a fly. Tried a Caddis first but needed the upgrade to a Humpy to keep it from sinking. It took several casts to get some attention from the depths but once it started several fish in varying sizes charged up. It was almost like other fish noticed fish rising and also started to look up. He got 2 browns and was a pretty excited kid with the 6-7 strikes he had.
Kettle Creek
Time 645pm - 925pm
Weather 70 degrees sunny
Water 64 degrees clear
Insects:big Caddis, Sulphur, ISO, March Brown Spinners
I fished alone. Lots of ISO cases on the rocks so I started by swinging a zug bug but never had a strike. Switched to a woolly bugger and had a few on that I didn’t land. Rises increased and I switched to a Yellow Adams & got a few takes but lost them. Sparkledun in yellow was on fire but for whatever reason I was missing or losing most of them. Almost every fish took it. Caught some on BWO after the Sparkledun ran its course. Got 8 rainbows 2 browns and a brook.
=============
Tuesday June 8
=============
Kettle Creek
Time: 1030am to 1230pm
Weather overcast light rain 68 degrees
Water: no temp taken
Insects small brown mayflies midges
As part of the education process I took my nephew to a super slow section to help him understand proper fly placement, how to eliminate fly drag, and how really small flies can be an advantage especially with young eyes. He got the hang of it pretty quick and caught 2 rainbows and Sm bass and lost several. I got a rainbow on a BWO and lost some on midges. Quite a few fish rising in this section but not all were consistent.
Kettle Creek
Time 215pm to 330pm
Weather sunny 80 degrees
Water: no temp taken
Insects. None
The nephew took a nap so I decided to try behind camp in the heat of the day by fishing the shade. Several fish coming up and I got 2 browns on beetles.
Kettle Creek
Time: 730pm - 915pm
Weather: cloudy light rain, 74
Water:
Insects: 1 Coffin fly, yellow sallie, Small BWO,
I fished alone. Had parked at another destination but heard thunder as I was putting on waders so I went to an area that was close to the road because it sounded pretty wicked yet quite far off. There was thunder threatening all evening but ended up being a few episodes of light rain. Lots of rises. Went through lots of flies but three top producers were BWO, rusty Spinner and Caddis. Got 7 browns, 1 rainbow 1 Brook on dries.
=============
Wednesday June 9
=============
FFO
Time. 11am - 215pm
Weather: 73 degrees cloudy and occasional thunder storms
Water clear 59 degrees
Insects. Light Cahill, 1 Caddis,
Very few signs of fish in FFO. Fished riffles, pools and overhanging trees for over 1/2 mile stretch and just got 2 Rbw. Taught nephew to fish a beetle. He had about 10 strikes but couldn’t hook any. We quit due to a Thunder storm that hit when we were at the old gabion hole.
Kettle Creek
Time 520pm - 930pm
Weather: overcast 70 degrees
Water: cloudy
Insects. None
Since water was cloudy after the storm I wanted to fish streamers behind camp. We all went and the 2 older guys wanted to fish dries so they waited until there were sufficient rises. My nephew stepped into his favorite spot and I fished top to bottom just moving through. A lot of fish chasing streamers but I only got a brown and rainbow.
I wanted to fish a stretch I’d never fished that has 2 holes. So I drove to it and no one was there. About the time I was at the end of the first hole (I caught 1 on 5 strikes) some guys jumped in the next hole at 8pm. So I went back to camp and found a spot there with the guys.
There were Lime sally, March Brown, big dark Caddis, iso Spinners. Spinner Fall was slow in coming but in pitch black it was in full swing. The timing was great for the trout but I couldn’t see my fly after the first couple of fish. I caught a rainbow and a brown.
=============
Thursday June 10
=============
Kettle Creek
Time 645a - 815a
Weather sunny 68
WAter. Slightly off color
Insects Caddis, spinners
Tried Streamers, had some interest but no takes. Missed a few on BWO and a terrestrial also lost one on woolly bugger
Young Woman’s Creek
Time: 1045a - 115p
Weather: Sunny 75
Water clear 56 Degrees
Insects. ISO
My nephew’s first day on a wild trout stream with tight windows. His casting on day 5 was quite good and once he understood how to adjust casting angles his fly placement was super. The problem was he didn’t bring up many fish. I’m a little concerned about the population on YWC. The deeper holes rarely produced a take which can happen but not as often as it did. He got 1 brown and 2 brook trout. Last year in June when water levels were ok there were trout that were pushed in the 3rd and 4th options for lies. This year none of those areas held fish. We will need to keep an eye on that.
The big news is we saw a rattlesnake in the streamside grass. We could only see the back third and it only had 3 rattles. The grass was knee high and it was in clumps like are common within 10 ft of the stream. My nephew was totally freaked out so I fished the last few holes with no luck while he waited in the woods edge where there was no vegetation. We were within 100 yards of our jumping out point anyway so we just headed back to the truck.
Kettle Creek
Time: 630pm - 930pm
Weather: 78 overcast
Water 70 degrees, clear
Insects: spinners
I fished alone and went back to the hole I tried to fish the previous night. Fished through using woolly bugger caught one lost one. Switched to Sulphur emerger none. It was a late rising hole. Spinners came late. Once fish started to rise every one took my BWO. I was noticing some fish were having trouble after the fight, so I checked water temp and it was 70 degrees. Luckily colder weather came on Friday. I caught 4 Browns, 2 rainbows and a brook
=============
Friday June 11
=============
Kettle Creek
Time : 8am - 1215om
Weather 65 cloudy
Water 60 degrees low and cleAr
Insects. Small numbers of Sulphur, para, March Brown IsO
Started with 3 wets and had just a few strikes. Fish started rising so I switched to the same BWO and it worked well but I missed a lot. Caught 8 brown 1 rainbow. 1 Brook
Miscellaneous
===============
Chatted with Wetfly01 on Wednesday evening after taking a break from my streamer fishing. Always a lively conversation.
Maxima12 gave me a nice hand tied 3 Wet Fly leader and I fished it Friday morning. It really performed well. No tangles. I’ve never put the extra effort in to tie them correctly but now I see the new standard.
Deb’s eliminated their streamside dumpster so there is less chance to see a bear streamside in Cross Fork. They now drive the garbage daily to the dropoff area just north of the Cross Fork creek bridge.
Some new posted signs are showing up along the stream and those areas are not getting stocked. As property is being transferred to new owners they may not understand the ramifications of the signage.
There are some stream improvement projects being vetted by the various groups in the area and a fisher access idea I brought forward this past week. I had a meeting and supplied a design, just need to get pricing and approval. In the scheme of things it’s pretty minor but should be a benefit to many over the course of a year.
Attachments
-
Kettle FFO Bridge Oct 6 2020.jpg -
First trout in Kettle..a Brookie of course.jpg -
Right before catching first wild brown on YWC.jpg -
Small Sulphur Spinner Measured.jpg -
Small Sulphur Spinner Profile.jpg -
Light Cahill Dun Measured.jpg -
Light Cahill Dun.jpg -
Light Cahill Dun Belly.jpg -
Brown Spinner Measured.jpg -
Brown Spinner profile.jpg -
Brown Spinner Belly.jpg -
YWC ISO Measured.jpg -
YWC ISO Profile.jpg -
YWC ISO Belly.jpg -
Stonefly Measured.jpg -
Stonefly Profile.jpg -
Stonefly Back.jpg -
Kettle Turtle.jpg
