Prospector
Well-known member
SUMMARY
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From a weather perspective the week started out rainy and warm then it turned chilly, then warm rains came. The spinnerfalls were consistently productive. There were some massive ones. Oddly the daily hatches did not match up with what we were seeing in Spinners. I did not fish to an true hatch all week, where that hatch has the stream alive. The hatching was a trickle not a flood. We caught most fish on dries during the day just by blind casting hoping to pull a fish up. Most places on Kettle where we fished had more brook trout than the previous 4 years. The small stream fishing was really good. The winds were about as strong day in and day out as I can ever remember for the first week in June. It made casting a challenge.
Over the course of a week three of us landed 387 trout. Possibly the most fish we combined to land. For comparison the three of us landed in 2019 (292), 2018 (340), 2016 (247). My father wasn’t able to come in 2017 but two of us had 267. So definitely the most caught in the last 4 years.
The wildlife was also pretty amazing. Bear, Elk and Deer were spotted on a regular basis. Although as the days warmed later in the week the bears were not as active during the day.
DETAILED WRITE-UP (by day/location)
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SATURDAY MAY 30
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Location: Kettle Creek FFO, Potter Co
Time Fished: 630am - 230pm
Weather Conditions: Mix of clouds and Sun, 50 degrees at 630am climbing to 71 by 230pm
Water Conditions: 56 degrees at 7am; clear,
Insects: Lots of variety but not a lot of any one type. BWOs were most numerous, Lime Sallies, large dark Caddis, small green bodied Caddis, March Browns, Yellow Drake, Slate Drakes plus several spinners laying eggs at 1030am incl coffin flies, Slate Drakes, small rusty spinners
I had hoped the previous nights rain would put some color in the water but it was clear at daybreak. I started with a streamer and the browns were chasing. Many were just swirling without striking but I ended up with 5 browns. Actually a low number for the long stretch of water I covered.
When I reached the final hole (one of my favorites) I didn’t have any strikes there so I decided to rig up a nymph and 2 wets before heading back toward the truck. I made one pass and caught a rainbow and a brook on a Royal Coachman Wet.
I turned back upstream and switched to a BWO dry and only brought up one fish that ultimately refused it 3 times. I put on a Dark Caddis and began getting takes. Over the next 3 hours I caught 1 brown, 1 rainbow and 6 brookies on that Caddis. Not many, but what was encouraging was the number of brook trout in the main stem of Kettle. At a time when the PFBC and the Sportsman’s clubs aren’t stocking them.
In terms of other people, while I was on the stream I crossed paths with 18 different people. I think one group was 6 guys plus their guide. That a pretty big number but it was Saturday morning.
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water Clinton Co
Time Fished: 630pm - 900pm
Weather Conditions: Mix of clouds and Sun, very windy, 68 degrees
Water Conditions: 58 degrees; clear,
Insects: When I arrived there were slate drakes, yellow drake, and other smaller Mayflies hatching in low numbers. Later there was a pretty significant spinner fall. There were several waves that went something like this. First, Dark Caddis showed up, then a smaller group of coffin flies, once coffin flies were gone more dark Caddis came, Slate drake spinners were visible but also some harder to see smaller flies had to be there since the rising fish were only mildly interested in the larger spinners I tried. When got back to the truck there was a size 14 or 16 yellow or orange bodied spinner on my bed cover.
When I go this particular spot I always start off swinging wets down and across until fish begin to rise, then I switch to a dry. I had 4 strikes on the wets but lost them all. Caddis always show up first so that is what I tied (same fly that worked in morning). The initial rises were real sporadic. Most were from small brook trout that had been pushed into secondary lies. Nearly every rising fish took the Dark Caddis. The few that didn’t take it really looked it over well. Finally after catching or hooking almost every active fish, by walking up and down a 50 yard area, I was forced to change flies since none of the remaining risers wanted it. Initially I had caught 1 brown, 4 brookies and lost twice that total. About this time the larger fish began to get active just as I had taken off the best fly.
The Caddis was the best fly by far but I did catch a few on various spinner imitations. The spent wing spinners were somewhat effective and an upright wing spinner wasn’t effective until after sunset. It was a very nice night with lots of action, lots of misses, lots of bugs and no mosquitos yet (this location always seems to have the most mosquitos in Kettle Creek Valley).
I ended with 6 rainbows, 3 brown, 5 brook trout.
While on the stream I crossed paths with no one. On a Saturday night...
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SUNDAY MAY 31
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water Clinton Co
Time Fished: 11am - 2pm
Weather Conditions: Mostly Sunny, 58 degrees
Water Conditions: 56 degrees, Clear, 144 cfs which is just a few points over the norm
Insects: Hatching: Couple Types of Caddis, BWO sporadically (most numerous fly), other Mayflies
There was a decent amount of insect activity when I started but very few rises. I tied on a nymph and 2 wets and worked the riffles and the pool. I had 3-4 hits without picking up a fish so I changed out the point fly and soon got a fallfish. I don’t get many fallfish anymore. Fallfish had built 6-8 spawning mounds in the slower water along the far bank. These mounds seemed taller that I recall. Forty years ago fallfish were pretty common all the way to 18”. The ones I caught were about 11”.
Getting back to the rises, The BWOs usually have a rapid intense hatch lasting 45 min to 1 hour, but today the sun seemed to prolong the process. The same amount of hatching took 3 hrs to complete. There were not a lot of rising fish. I used a BWO but it wasn’t very effective.
I ended up with 1 brook trout and 4 fallfish. This hole was one of these best holes in the creek. It’s the first hole I ever fished in Kettle. Did opening day here for 5-7 years in a row. But now it fishes well 1 out of 6 times.
While on the stream I crossed paths with 3 people but they were leaving as I was arriving.
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water Clinton Co
Time Fished: 7pm - 9pm
Weather Conditions: The valley I was in was very shaded 62 degrees
Water Conditions: 56 degrees, Clear,
Insects: Couple types of Caddis laying eggs, coffin Flies, some Pale Evening Duns
I made an effort this year to fish new locations so I stopped at 3 places that permit walk in fishing. The first one was a long slow pool near a number of cabins. There was no insect activity and there were people in their camp yards. It wasn’t my type of area. Instead of fishing I chose to head to spot #2 which was the opposite. It had fast riffles which was best suited for sub-surface fishing. I wanted to dry fly fish as part of a spinner fall so once again I headed elsewhere. Spot #3 was also an empty parking spot (no one at any of 3 predetermined locations I picked). I walked back to the creek and the spinnerfall was underway. I was using a dark Caddis dry and just blind casting I had 4 strikes in the first 10 mins. So I stuck with that fly and just spent the night blind casting and working upstream in the likely spots. The fish seemed to be keyed into Dark Caddis naturals that were bouncing on the water and the trout were trying to time up when the natural hit the water. After the Caddis became hard to see I switched to a coffin fly to end the night and caught one on it.
I ended up with 4 brook trout and 2 rainbows. This stretch was loaded with little brookies, probably had 30 brookies in the 4-6” range tried to grab my fly. The brookies I caught were a nice size.
On the way to fish I saw 2 elk, while fishing I saw 2 beaver and a deer.
On the stream I didn’t see anyone else fishing this 300-400 yard stretch so I fished all of it.
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MONDAY JUNE 1
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water Clinton Co
Time Fished: 11am - 230pm
Weather Conditions: Mostly Sunny, very windy, 55 - 70 degrees
Water Conditions: 56 degrees
Insects: At 11am Coffin Flies and other spinners were in riffle laying egrf, also Caddis & Lime Sallies appear to be hatching
The area I picked is lightly fished mostly due to the lack of holes and abundance of shallow riffles. If you are someone that is mobile and can tolerate quickly fishing through shallow stretches you will be rewarded with the knowledge of 4-5 fish holding locations. Sometimes the deeper runs are obvious and other times it’s only a foot or two of depth that holds the trout. The nice thing is they rarely get fished to so they are eager to strike. When you find a larger concentration it will set you up for a spinnerfall location later in the week. So I set out flipping a woolly Bugger around. This time there were 4 spots that held fish. Caught 2 at the first one, didn’t land any at location two, then the 3rd spot was pretty good and got 2 more but spot number 4 held the mother load. Got 12 and must have missed or lost 30 others. Ended up with 14 Rainbows, 1 Brown, 1 Brook all on the Bugger except the brown that took a March Brown Nymph.
Ran into 3 families of geese hanging out together (all with an even number of goslings 2,4,6). I saw 1 other angler way downstream from me.
While I was off on this excursion, the guys at camp saw a momma bear and 2 cubs (same ones we saw 2 weeks ago)
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Location: Young Woman’s Creek, C&R, Clinton Co
Time Fished: 430pm - 645pm
Weather Conditions: Sunny, 72 degrees
Water Conditions: 52 degrees, Crystal Clear
Insects: not a lot to start. Your basic Caddis & small Mayflies but when I left it was just insect soup. As I drove toward North Bend spinners were just smashing the windshield continuously.
I tied on a Caddis dry and fished upstream. I was being pretty stealthy but the trout were a little more tolerant than I expected. There were times I’d catch my fly on a streamside branch and after untangling I’d flip it slightly upstream and I’d get a take. The browns definitely have taken over this particular stretch. They held all the good lies. Several nice fish showed themselves and I got a few of them. Overall I landed 12 Brown and 5 brook.
I flushed a woodcock creekside, about 15 feet from the waters edge.
Closest angler to me was 1/2 mile away. I saw only 3 people in the length I drove. No issue to find a spot of your own.
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water Clinton Co
Time Fished: 8pm - 915pm
Weather Conditions: 65 degrees, Clear
Water Conditions: Clear
Insects:
Tried to beat it back to Kettle from Young Woman’s as quick as I could because I had a location picked out to fish the spinnerfall. When I arrived at such a late time I was thankful no one was there. The big dark Caddis were working the riffles in high numbers laying eggs and the brown drakes were mating over the riffles. There were other bugs present that I didn’t take the time to identify because the action was fast and furious. In the first 45 minutes I got 15 on a dark Caddis. Every fish wanted it and they were even more aggressive when it began to drag at the end of the drift. After the 15th fish my fly was beginning to be hard to see as it was not riding as high. I didn’t want to cut it off but I felt I had to. Unfortunately, my replacement fly (which was a size larger) did not catch a fish. I chose a bigger fly since it was getting darker and a larger profile was easier to see. After many refusals I tied on a rusty spinner and caught 1 more. So 15 fish in 45 minutes and 1 in the last 30 minutes. The right fly and right size does make a difference. All 16 were Rainbows.
Saw a total of seven buck and a doe between driving over and ones that crossed the riffle above me.
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TUESDAY JUNE 2
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water Clinton Co
Time Fished: 620am - 705am
Weather Conditions: Cloudy, spitting rain, 42 degrees
Water Conditions: 52 degrees, Clear, above average cfs
Insects: none
I fished a streamer before breakfast on about a 300 yard stretch. Had only 3 strikes. Didn’t catch any. In slow backwater locations I saw trout occasionally sipping what I assumed were remnants of last night’s spinner fall.
When I quit, I noticed a guy standing in the riffle way upstream where I had started. He was the only person fishing at this early hour.
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water Potter Co
Time Fished: Noon - 1230pm
Weather Conditions: 54, Cloudy
Water Conditions: 52 degrees, clear
Insects: 2 lime sallie, 2 cream Cahills
Picked a popular section that I seldom fish. Fished 2 holes upstream with a Caddis and then back down through both holes with a woolly buggers and had no strikes. The fish seemed to be sluggish. A few fish came up for the cahills, but chose to go elsewhere.
2 guys came upstream and stopped in the hole below me and fished back down.
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water Clinton Co
Time Fished: 130pm - 255pm
Weather Conditions: Sunny 63 degrees
Water Conditions: 56 degrees, 130cfs
Insects: Insects began to hatch at 2pm. BWO, March Brown, maybe a brown drake and a yellow mayfly
Swung a wet combo down and across until the amount of rises caused me to switch to a dry. The fish were pretty active in this hole. Had lots of strikes (30+) both underneath and on top. Caught 4 on woolly bugger and 3 on a BWO dry. 4 rainbow and 3 brown. Had to leave before I wanted to (to attend a conf call), while fish were still rising. Bummer.
Saw no one else fishing in this area.
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Location: Cross Fork Creek C&R, Potter Co
Time Fished: 4pm - 850pm
Weather Conditions: Sunny, 72 degrees
Water Conditions: 54 degrees, Crystal Clear
Insects: several insects hatching including Pale Evening Duns, Light cahills, Green drakes, Brown Drakes. The spinnerfall starts early in narrow valleys and it was loaded with insects. It seemed that each riffle had a unique theme. One riffle would be loaded with Stonefly (both dark and golden) while another one would be mostly Mayflies and Caddis. I’d guess I saw a dozen different insects involved in the spinnerfall.
I fished my favorite section of Cross Fork creek. I don’t know if it is the best section but it’s where I fished as a kid and every thing is familiar to me and has a memory. I chose to fish an attractor dry fly upstream methodically yet quickly hitting the key fish holding locations. This stream always fishes well. The brookies are everywhere in Cross Fork creek and eager eat anything that resembles a bug. The stocked rainbows in my mind are just an unnecessary addition to an ecosystem that isn’t broken. It just pushes the brookies a notch down the food chain. But eating is something the brook trout are good at. I must’ve had 150-200 strikes during my time on the creek. I caught many brookies under 6” but I didn’t catch a brown under 6”. I find that odd. All browns were larger than 9”. All rainbows were over 10”. There seemed to be more wild browns 40 years ago.
I learned something today. I always fish an attractor dry fly. I don’t change it unless it starts to sink but I replace it with the same fly. For years a humpy or a Royal Wulff were my favorites but I got frustrated by the amount of misses I had. So 4 yrs ago I began using a smaller Caddis. Today I was in a hole prior to the spinnerfall and only the small fish were working. Luckily I was still in the hole when the spinnerfall started. This pulled the larger fish from their haunts and they fanned out into feeding stations. I’m talking just 4-5 fish in the 10-13” range when before it was only 4-6” brookies. The bigger fish showed very little interest in my #16 Caddis. So instead of moving upstream I experimented looking for a large mayfly in my small stream flybox. I found a nice sz 14 comparadun with a yellow body. Every one of the large trout took it on the first cast and unfortunately I didn’t get a good hookset into any of them and didnt land any. But lesson learned on my part, a bigger fly will catch some nicer fish that may have no interest in the Caddis.
I still had 3 places to try upstream so I tied my Caddis back on and quickly hit the “old standby” spots. In the final hole I caught a few brookies at the tail end of the pool (where they often lay) but then saw a nice fish come up in the faster riffle. He wasn’t interested in my Caddis. Cut off Caddis, tie on comparadun and 2 casts later I’m taking his picture...a nice brown. I figured I should try a few more casts in this deep riffle. Sure enough an even bigger brown took the fly that previously didn’t show any interest in my Caddis. Unfortunately I lost him while I was trying to unzip my camera pocket, but I learned I needed to tie some fresh humpy’s (which I did the next morning).
I ended up with 23 brook trout, 3 Browns and 2 Rainbows.
No one else was fishing this stretch.
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WEDNESDAY JUNE 3
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Location: Kettle Creek FFO, Potter Co
Time Fished: 11am - 230pm
Weather Conditions: Mix of Sun & Clouds, Rained briefly, 74 degrees
Water Conditions: 58 degrees, a little off color
Insects: Just a few. BWO, Brown Drake, Light Cahill, some Caddis
Went to the creek after 3 thunderstorms had passed (one in middle of night and 2 in the morning). I was thinking the stream would be offcolor and the browns would be turned on. Half the plan worked. The stream was cloudy but the browns weren’t real active. I fished a streamer through 5 holes. I did have quite a few strikes but not anywhere near as many as I had hoped. I hooked 4-5 but only landed one.
After the streamer experiment ended I tied on a BWO since I had seen some and I started working upstream. I managed a brookie at the head of the pool then decided to try the next hole downstream. I’d caught some on dries there on my first morning. When I arrived I was encouraged to see some rising fish. My BWO didn’t impress any of them, so I switched to a sz 18 dark Caddis and the opposite happened. Nearly every fish took it. In quick succession, I caught 4 real nice fish. But I had to leave again for my call into work.
I caught 4 rainbows, a brown and a brook
After my call on the way back to camp I saw a momma bear with a single cub. Talking to the landowner she said there were 3 different bear families staying around the area. Family sizes of 3 cubs, 2 cubs and 1 cub with varying sizes of the mothers and cubs to make identification easy.
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water, Clinton Co
Time Fished: 6pm - 715pm
Weather Conditions:
Water Conditions: 61 degrees, off color
Insects: a few Caddis
Went back to location I fished at 130pm yesterday. It was quite the contrast. The water was up which I thought would be good but it maybe made it worse. I made a full pass swinging a Woolly Bugger and never had a strike. Second pass was with a streamer. Had about 10 strikes and got a brown. I have fished this spot many times and this was the only time it was dead.
No one else fishing.
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water, Clinton Co
Time Fished: 740pm - 910pm
Weather Conditions: Sunny, 75 degrees
Water Conditions:
Insects: Caddis, Pale Evening Duns, Brown Drake spinners, Slate Drake Spinners. Probably many other insects
Decided to come back to an area that I hit earlier in the week for the spinnerfall. As I approached the riffle the stream was already alive. I started with a sz 16 dark Caddis. It was effective but not irresistible. Twelve seemed to be its ceiling for my dark Caddis tonight. Some Mayflies were around so I switched to a BWO since it was still on my vest from earlier in the day. It got some looks but otherwise it was ineffective. I went back to a Caddis and dropped down to sz 18 and picked up 4 more. After observing Pale Evening Duns hatching I chose a Yellow Comparadun from my mayfly box and caught the final 3 fish. All 19 were rainbows.
Had a group of 4 fishing above me 200 - 300 yards away
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THURSDAY JUNE 4
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water, Clinton Co
Time Fished: 620am - 750am
Weather Conditions: Cloudy/Foggy 55 degrees
Water Conditions: 56 degrees slightly off color
Insects: just a few; 2 Slate drake spinners laying eggs, a yellow sally, a few small Caddis
Made 3 streamer passes before breakfast. Not much action but it did improve with each pass. By third pass larger fish were active, they were more aggressive and made more attempts at my fly. I only caught 2 browns. No one else on the water.
A hen merganser came past with 13 ducklings in tow. She had a tremendously productive nest.
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Location: Upper Kettle Creek C&R, Potter Co
Time Fished: 1115am - 230pm
Weather Conditions: 72 degrees mostly sunny
Water Conditions: 56 degrees, Clear
Insects: Small Caddis
I decided to fish upstream so I tied on a Caddis dry. It was only mildly effective. I did catch some but I expected to have more strikes. On the way out I switched to a woolly Bugger and I had some bigger fish begin to show themselves. Missed most of these larger trout (8-10” range). Ended up catching 9 brook trout.
This is the first place I encountered a water snake all week and I saw 2.
Saw no one else. There really weren’t very many cars on Kettle from Cross Fork to Oleana. FFO had most with 4 at bridge and 4 on upper end.
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water, Potter Co
Time Fished: 400pm - 600pm
Weather Conditions: Cloudy, 71 degrees
Water Conditions: 58 degrees, 170cfs, Clear
Insects: small numbers of Caddis & BWO
Heading back toward Cross Fork I stopped to fish a stretch that has grown to be a favorite. There were some rising fish but there were not enough insects to support sustained rising. However just a methodical, “casting across the width” approach, inching upstream brought up a lot of fish. By now the Caddis was the only searching fly I was using. Another guy in our crew was doing the same thing but with a BWO. So either one worked well when you had to make something happen.
Got 11 brook and 3 Brown. One of the Browns was 4” so it was wild and I also caught a 9” brown that looked wild.
Had a fawn jump up and run from streamside cover while I was fishing.
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water, Clinton Co
Time Fished: 720pm - 830pm
Weather Conditions: Rainy, 65 degrees
Water Conditions: 56, High, Offcolor
Insects: Slate Drake Spinners, Pale Evening Duns hatching
Wanted to get back to a good spinnerfall location but as I was leaving the truck a light rain started. I tied on a woolly bugger at the truck hoping I could cut it off when I got to the creek and replace it with a dry fly (I had a 10 min walk). Unfortunately it rained harder by the time I got there and so I caught 2 on the Bugger. The rain slowed and probably a dozen fish were rising maybe one every 2 min. I tied on the yellow comparadun, caught one and the rain came back so I left. All 3 were rainbows.
Saw a doe with a fawn on my walk down. Had 2 guys 300 yds above me and 2 guys 250 yds below me.
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FRIDAY JUNE 5
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water
Time Fished: 830am - 1045am
Weather Conditions: 55 degrees, Cloudy and Foggy
Water Conditions: 59 degrees, Clear
Insects: handful of ISO spinners over the riffle, a few Caddis
Fish were sporadically rising when I arrived at the long slow pool. I started with sz 18 dark Caddis and it got some interest. I caught one early and then emptied my boxes using the typical first week in June checklist for what flies to try when nothing is visible. I got 2 more before I quit on a black beetle. All 3 were browns.
My father and his buddy were also fishing the hole. They were in slightly faster water and caught their fish on BWOs.
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water, Clinton Co
Time Fished: 1215pm - 215pn
Weather Conditions: 68 Degrees, Cloudy
Water Conditions: 58 degrees, Clear
Insects: virtually nothing
This hole is very long with good depth, has a nice riffle and slows down at the end. The fish weren’t doing much so I tried everything. I started with a dry and saw a few risers. Lost one. After a bit of futility, I cut back and tried swinging a woolly bugger and had a few strikes but got none. Tied on a March brow nymph, added three split shot and tried dead drift on bottom. Nothing. So all that was left was a streamer. I made 2 passes with 2 different streamers and caught a rainbow and a brown each time. Had a decent amount of strikes. It left some hope that the day would get better, but the sun came out. Anyway, we were having elk steaks for lunch so I had to get back to camp for that.
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Location: Trout Run, Clinton Co
Time Fished: 600pm - 800pm
Weather Conditions: Sunny, 73 degrees
Water Conditions: Clear
Insects: a few Mayflies hatching
As best I can recall, I hadn’t fished Trout Run since May 1984. Back then it was stocked stream. I’ve been trying to work this stream into my Kettle Creek itinerary for 2-3 years now. I was very pleasantly surprised that it seems to be better than ever as a wild trout stream.
As I learned earlier in the week, I used a larger fly most of the time. In this case a green bodied Humpy. The Elk Hair Caddis also produced some fish. I caught 9 brookies. The first were a little bigger than I expected.
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Location: Kettle creek Open Water, Clinton Co
Time Fished: 820pm - 900pm
Weather Conditions: 70 degrees & Clear
Water Conditions: Clear
Insects: Lots of Small spinners (maybe yellow body) but they didn’t come down until really late. After I left.
I noticed no one was at one of the locations I identified on my list of places to try this week on Kettle. The reason no one was there became obvious, there weren’t many fish rising. If I had more time I could have explored the area by going up and down the creek a littlep. However I spent too much time on Trout Run (which was a good thing). I saw maybe 4 fish rising and I caught a brown. I’ll need to return in better light to truly assess the location. There were quite a few spinners.
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SATURDAY JUNE 6
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water, Clinton Co
Time Fished: 720am - 810am
Weather Conditions: Cloudy 57 degrees
Water Conditions: Clear
Insects: ISO spinners in the riffle at eye level that whole time I fished
Made a few streamer passes before breakfast. Had about 10 strikes and caught none. Quite a few fish rising, some consistent, but most sporadic. No one else fishing.
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Location: Francis Br Slate Run, Tioga Co
Time Fished: 215pm - 345pm
Weather Conditions: Sunny 78 degrees
Water Conditions: 60 degrees, Crystal Clear
Insects: only the punkies, so thick I had to wear a headnet for only the second time in my life
Never fished off these forest roads before so I had a few false starts. First stop I ended up below the confluence of the Francis Branch and the main stem of Slate. I walked pretty far down a moderately steep slope, only to get within 30 yds of Slate and have a cliff between the water and me. So I trekked it back up to the truck and drove further west.
Finally got to a point where I could see Slate pretty close to the road again and there was a camp (maybe called Devils Den). I thought they surely would have access to the creek. So I park there and start to descend. I’m 25 yards away and I see a green fly line cast out toward the middle of the pool below me. How in the world could I pick the one hole where someone is fishing. I hadn’t seen any cars or people at any camps. So I head back to my truck and drive west.
Crossed the bridge at the Francis Branch and picked a spot there. Just worked upstream for 1.5 hrs. At first there were no fish for a long way. Was either related to shale bottom with no holding cover or it was related to not enough drop in elevation to keep the oxygen up. Caught 7 brookies on a yellow Humpy
Those camps seem pretty isolated. Might only to be able to access them by snowmobile. Pretty area and neat wilderness location.
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Location: Little Kettle, Potter Co
Time Fished: 445pm - 740pm
Weather Conditions: Sunny, 79 degrees
Water Conditions: 61 degrees, flow a little below average.
Insects: coffin flies, large dark Caddis, stoneflies, few yellow sallies, Mayflies, just a good mix
Headed to the creek in a very familiar spot. It changes a little every year but the main holes are the same. I can usually tell early on whether there are lots of brookies by how many I catch in the marginal water. Today no brookies in the first long riffle meant low brookie numbers. First 6 fish were 3 brown 3 rainbow which was noteworthy since I’ve never caught a rainbow here. I think the first brookie was my 11th fish. As I went further upstream brookies became more dominant, although I didn’t catch any large ones.
Ended up with 13 browns, 8 brook, 3 rainbow. This is a big turnaround from 2015 when my catch ratio was 5 brook for every brown. On this day it was 0.6 brook for every brown. A loss of nearly 85% of the brookies.
As I released my last fish, there was a huge splash that at first thought was a huge trout grabbing something, but soon I realized a beaver came swimming down and I startled taking off a trout.
I didnt see another angler although a tent was pitched at the Hungry Hollow Bridge.
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Location: Kettle Open Water, Potter Co
Time Fished: 815pm - 915pm
Weather Conditions: 66 degrees Sunny
Water Conditions: 59 degrees clear
Insects: large dark Caddis, mayfly spinners large and small.
Since I stayed at Little Kettle so long, I got leftovers in terms of a spinnerfall location. However I did connect on my 3rd cast on a nice brown. I assumed I was destined for a big night. Well that brown would be the end of my night. I hooked 3 others and lost them. The rest of my night was a comedy of errors. Tying on a good fly but not being able to see it. Tying on a bad fly and being able to see it plain as day. Trying to switch flies and not being able to get the line through the eye. That happened about 5 times.
Finally I packed it in. Only good thing again was no one was on the stream.
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Extras
= Less fisherman than in past years
= Change in stocking practices (locations close to the road) had people fishing places that normally get lighter pressure
= Water level is lower than it had been the last few years
= Spinnerfalls were super all week which is a little odd since we didn’t fish a hatch all week
= hopefully the large brookie population in the main stem of Kettle can survive through the next 9 months. They will need to get some rain at right time all summer to make it through. The low water levels right now will make that difficult.
= I saw 5 fawns. Three were laying within 20 ft of the creek. Fourth one was standing 20 yds from creek and last one went with its mother across a field to a creek edge, then 5 min later they trotted back to the woods
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From a weather perspective the week started out rainy and warm then it turned chilly, then warm rains came. The spinnerfalls were consistently productive. There were some massive ones. Oddly the daily hatches did not match up with what we were seeing in Spinners. I did not fish to an true hatch all week, where that hatch has the stream alive. The hatching was a trickle not a flood. We caught most fish on dries during the day just by blind casting hoping to pull a fish up. Most places on Kettle where we fished had more brook trout than the previous 4 years. The small stream fishing was really good. The winds were about as strong day in and day out as I can ever remember for the first week in June. It made casting a challenge.
Over the course of a week three of us landed 387 trout. Possibly the most fish we combined to land. For comparison the three of us landed in 2019 (292), 2018 (340), 2016 (247). My father wasn’t able to come in 2017 but two of us had 267. So definitely the most caught in the last 4 years.
The wildlife was also pretty amazing. Bear, Elk and Deer were spotted on a regular basis. Although as the days warmed later in the week the bears were not as active during the day.
DETAILED WRITE-UP (by day/location)
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SATURDAY MAY 30
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Location: Kettle Creek FFO, Potter Co
Time Fished: 630am - 230pm
Weather Conditions: Mix of clouds and Sun, 50 degrees at 630am climbing to 71 by 230pm
Water Conditions: 56 degrees at 7am; clear,
Insects: Lots of variety but not a lot of any one type. BWOs were most numerous, Lime Sallies, large dark Caddis, small green bodied Caddis, March Browns, Yellow Drake, Slate Drakes plus several spinners laying eggs at 1030am incl coffin flies, Slate Drakes, small rusty spinners
I had hoped the previous nights rain would put some color in the water but it was clear at daybreak. I started with a streamer and the browns were chasing. Many were just swirling without striking but I ended up with 5 browns. Actually a low number for the long stretch of water I covered.
When I reached the final hole (one of my favorites) I didn’t have any strikes there so I decided to rig up a nymph and 2 wets before heading back toward the truck. I made one pass and caught a rainbow and a brook on a Royal Coachman Wet.
I turned back upstream and switched to a BWO dry and only brought up one fish that ultimately refused it 3 times. I put on a Dark Caddis and began getting takes. Over the next 3 hours I caught 1 brown, 1 rainbow and 6 brookies on that Caddis. Not many, but what was encouraging was the number of brook trout in the main stem of Kettle. At a time when the PFBC and the Sportsman’s clubs aren’t stocking them.
In terms of other people, while I was on the stream I crossed paths with 18 different people. I think one group was 6 guys plus their guide. That a pretty big number but it was Saturday morning.
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water Clinton Co
Time Fished: 630pm - 900pm
Weather Conditions: Mix of clouds and Sun, very windy, 68 degrees
Water Conditions: 58 degrees; clear,
Insects: When I arrived there were slate drakes, yellow drake, and other smaller Mayflies hatching in low numbers. Later there was a pretty significant spinner fall. There were several waves that went something like this. First, Dark Caddis showed up, then a smaller group of coffin flies, once coffin flies were gone more dark Caddis came, Slate drake spinners were visible but also some harder to see smaller flies had to be there since the rising fish were only mildly interested in the larger spinners I tried. When got back to the truck there was a size 14 or 16 yellow or orange bodied spinner on my bed cover.
When I go this particular spot I always start off swinging wets down and across until fish begin to rise, then I switch to a dry. I had 4 strikes on the wets but lost them all. Caddis always show up first so that is what I tied (same fly that worked in morning). The initial rises were real sporadic. Most were from small brook trout that had been pushed into secondary lies. Nearly every rising fish took the Dark Caddis. The few that didn’t take it really looked it over well. Finally after catching or hooking almost every active fish, by walking up and down a 50 yard area, I was forced to change flies since none of the remaining risers wanted it. Initially I had caught 1 brown, 4 brookies and lost twice that total. About this time the larger fish began to get active just as I had taken off the best fly.
The Caddis was the best fly by far but I did catch a few on various spinner imitations. The spent wing spinners were somewhat effective and an upright wing spinner wasn’t effective until after sunset. It was a very nice night with lots of action, lots of misses, lots of bugs and no mosquitos yet (this location always seems to have the most mosquitos in Kettle Creek Valley).
I ended with 6 rainbows, 3 brown, 5 brook trout.
While on the stream I crossed paths with no one. On a Saturday night...
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SUNDAY MAY 31
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water Clinton Co
Time Fished: 11am - 2pm
Weather Conditions: Mostly Sunny, 58 degrees
Water Conditions: 56 degrees, Clear, 144 cfs which is just a few points over the norm
Insects: Hatching: Couple Types of Caddis, BWO sporadically (most numerous fly), other Mayflies
There was a decent amount of insect activity when I started but very few rises. I tied on a nymph and 2 wets and worked the riffles and the pool. I had 3-4 hits without picking up a fish so I changed out the point fly and soon got a fallfish. I don’t get many fallfish anymore. Fallfish had built 6-8 spawning mounds in the slower water along the far bank. These mounds seemed taller that I recall. Forty years ago fallfish were pretty common all the way to 18”. The ones I caught were about 11”.
Getting back to the rises, The BWOs usually have a rapid intense hatch lasting 45 min to 1 hour, but today the sun seemed to prolong the process. The same amount of hatching took 3 hrs to complete. There were not a lot of rising fish. I used a BWO but it wasn’t very effective.
I ended up with 1 brook trout and 4 fallfish. This hole was one of these best holes in the creek. It’s the first hole I ever fished in Kettle. Did opening day here for 5-7 years in a row. But now it fishes well 1 out of 6 times.
While on the stream I crossed paths with 3 people but they were leaving as I was arriving.
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water Clinton Co
Time Fished: 7pm - 9pm
Weather Conditions: The valley I was in was very shaded 62 degrees
Water Conditions: 56 degrees, Clear,
Insects: Couple types of Caddis laying eggs, coffin Flies, some Pale Evening Duns
I made an effort this year to fish new locations so I stopped at 3 places that permit walk in fishing. The first one was a long slow pool near a number of cabins. There was no insect activity and there were people in their camp yards. It wasn’t my type of area. Instead of fishing I chose to head to spot #2 which was the opposite. It had fast riffles which was best suited for sub-surface fishing. I wanted to dry fly fish as part of a spinner fall so once again I headed elsewhere. Spot #3 was also an empty parking spot (no one at any of 3 predetermined locations I picked). I walked back to the creek and the spinnerfall was underway. I was using a dark Caddis dry and just blind casting I had 4 strikes in the first 10 mins. So I stuck with that fly and just spent the night blind casting and working upstream in the likely spots. The fish seemed to be keyed into Dark Caddis naturals that were bouncing on the water and the trout were trying to time up when the natural hit the water. After the Caddis became hard to see I switched to a coffin fly to end the night and caught one on it.
I ended up with 4 brook trout and 2 rainbows. This stretch was loaded with little brookies, probably had 30 brookies in the 4-6” range tried to grab my fly. The brookies I caught were a nice size.
On the way to fish I saw 2 elk, while fishing I saw 2 beaver and a deer.
On the stream I didn’t see anyone else fishing this 300-400 yard stretch so I fished all of it.
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MONDAY JUNE 1
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water Clinton Co
Time Fished: 11am - 230pm
Weather Conditions: Mostly Sunny, very windy, 55 - 70 degrees
Water Conditions: 56 degrees
Insects: At 11am Coffin Flies and other spinners were in riffle laying egrf, also Caddis & Lime Sallies appear to be hatching
The area I picked is lightly fished mostly due to the lack of holes and abundance of shallow riffles. If you are someone that is mobile and can tolerate quickly fishing through shallow stretches you will be rewarded with the knowledge of 4-5 fish holding locations. Sometimes the deeper runs are obvious and other times it’s only a foot or two of depth that holds the trout. The nice thing is they rarely get fished to so they are eager to strike. When you find a larger concentration it will set you up for a spinnerfall location later in the week. So I set out flipping a woolly Bugger around. This time there were 4 spots that held fish. Caught 2 at the first one, didn’t land any at location two, then the 3rd spot was pretty good and got 2 more but spot number 4 held the mother load. Got 12 and must have missed or lost 30 others. Ended up with 14 Rainbows, 1 Brown, 1 Brook all on the Bugger except the brown that took a March Brown Nymph.
Ran into 3 families of geese hanging out together (all with an even number of goslings 2,4,6). I saw 1 other angler way downstream from me.
While I was off on this excursion, the guys at camp saw a momma bear and 2 cubs (same ones we saw 2 weeks ago)
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Location: Young Woman’s Creek, C&R, Clinton Co
Time Fished: 430pm - 645pm
Weather Conditions: Sunny, 72 degrees
Water Conditions: 52 degrees, Crystal Clear
Insects: not a lot to start. Your basic Caddis & small Mayflies but when I left it was just insect soup. As I drove toward North Bend spinners were just smashing the windshield continuously.
I tied on a Caddis dry and fished upstream. I was being pretty stealthy but the trout were a little more tolerant than I expected. There were times I’d catch my fly on a streamside branch and after untangling I’d flip it slightly upstream and I’d get a take. The browns definitely have taken over this particular stretch. They held all the good lies. Several nice fish showed themselves and I got a few of them. Overall I landed 12 Brown and 5 brook.
I flushed a woodcock creekside, about 15 feet from the waters edge.
Closest angler to me was 1/2 mile away. I saw only 3 people in the length I drove. No issue to find a spot of your own.
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water Clinton Co
Time Fished: 8pm - 915pm
Weather Conditions: 65 degrees, Clear
Water Conditions: Clear
Insects:
Tried to beat it back to Kettle from Young Woman’s as quick as I could because I had a location picked out to fish the spinnerfall. When I arrived at such a late time I was thankful no one was there. The big dark Caddis were working the riffles in high numbers laying eggs and the brown drakes were mating over the riffles. There were other bugs present that I didn’t take the time to identify because the action was fast and furious. In the first 45 minutes I got 15 on a dark Caddis. Every fish wanted it and they were even more aggressive when it began to drag at the end of the drift. After the 15th fish my fly was beginning to be hard to see as it was not riding as high. I didn’t want to cut it off but I felt I had to. Unfortunately, my replacement fly (which was a size larger) did not catch a fish. I chose a bigger fly since it was getting darker and a larger profile was easier to see. After many refusals I tied on a rusty spinner and caught 1 more. So 15 fish in 45 minutes and 1 in the last 30 minutes. The right fly and right size does make a difference. All 16 were Rainbows.
Saw a total of seven buck and a doe between driving over and ones that crossed the riffle above me.
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TUESDAY JUNE 2
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water Clinton Co
Time Fished: 620am - 705am
Weather Conditions: Cloudy, spitting rain, 42 degrees
Water Conditions: 52 degrees, Clear, above average cfs
Insects: none
I fished a streamer before breakfast on about a 300 yard stretch. Had only 3 strikes. Didn’t catch any. In slow backwater locations I saw trout occasionally sipping what I assumed were remnants of last night’s spinner fall.
When I quit, I noticed a guy standing in the riffle way upstream where I had started. He was the only person fishing at this early hour.
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water Potter Co
Time Fished: Noon - 1230pm
Weather Conditions: 54, Cloudy
Water Conditions: 52 degrees, clear
Insects: 2 lime sallie, 2 cream Cahills
Picked a popular section that I seldom fish. Fished 2 holes upstream with a Caddis and then back down through both holes with a woolly buggers and had no strikes. The fish seemed to be sluggish. A few fish came up for the cahills, but chose to go elsewhere.
2 guys came upstream and stopped in the hole below me and fished back down.
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water Clinton Co
Time Fished: 130pm - 255pm
Weather Conditions: Sunny 63 degrees
Water Conditions: 56 degrees, 130cfs
Insects: Insects began to hatch at 2pm. BWO, March Brown, maybe a brown drake and a yellow mayfly
Swung a wet combo down and across until the amount of rises caused me to switch to a dry. The fish were pretty active in this hole. Had lots of strikes (30+) both underneath and on top. Caught 4 on woolly bugger and 3 on a BWO dry. 4 rainbow and 3 brown. Had to leave before I wanted to (to attend a conf call), while fish were still rising. Bummer.
Saw no one else fishing in this area.
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Location: Cross Fork Creek C&R, Potter Co
Time Fished: 4pm - 850pm
Weather Conditions: Sunny, 72 degrees
Water Conditions: 54 degrees, Crystal Clear
Insects: several insects hatching including Pale Evening Duns, Light cahills, Green drakes, Brown Drakes. The spinnerfall starts early in narrow valleys and it was loaded with insects. It seemed that each riffle had a unique theme. One riffle would be loaded with Stonefly (both dark and golden) while another one would be mostly Mayflies and Caddis. I’d guess I saw a dozen different insects involved in the spinnerfall.
I fished my favorite section of Cross Fork creek. I don’t know if it is the best section but it’s where I fished as a kid and every thing is familiar to me and has a memory. I chose to fish an attractor dry fly upstream methodically yet quickly hitting the key fish holding locations. This stream always fishes well. The brookies are everywhere in Cross Fork creek and eager eat anything that resembles a bug. The stocked rainbows in my mind are just an unnecessary addition to an ecosystem that isn’t broken. It just pushes the brookies a notch down the food chain. But eating is something the brook trout are good at. I must’ve had 150-200 strikes during my time on the creek. I caught many brookies under 6” but I didn’t catch a brown under 6”. I find that odd. All browns were larger than 9”. All rainbows were over 10”. There seemed to be more wild browns 40 years ago.
I learned something today. I always fish an attractor dry fly. I don’t change it unless it starts to sink but I replace it with the same fly. For years a humpy or a Royal Wulff were my favorites but I got frustrated by the amount of misses I had. So 4 yrs ago I began using a smaller Caddis. Today I was in a hole prior to the spinnerfall and only the small fish were working. Luckily I was still in the hole when the spinnerfall started. This pulled the larger fish from their haunts and they fanned out into feeding stations. I’m talking just 4-5 fish in the 10-13” range when before it was only 4-6” brookies. The bigger fish showed very little interest in my #16 Caddis. So instead of moving upstream I experimented looking for a large mayfly in my small stream flybox. I found a nice sz 14 comparadun with a yellow body. Every one of the large trout took it on the first cast and unfortunately I didn’t get a good hookset into any of them and didnt land any. But lesson learned on my part, a bigger fly will catch some nicer fish that may have no interest in the Caddis.
I still had 3 places to try upstream so I tied my Caddis back on and quickly hit the “old standby” spots. In the final hole I caught a few brookies at the tail end of the pool (where they often lay) but then saw a nice fish come up in the faster riffle. He wasn’t interested in my Caddis. Cut off Caddis, tie on comparadun and 2 casts later I’m taking his picture...a nice brown. I figured I should try a few more casts in this deep riffle. Sure enough an even bigger brown took the fly that previously didn’t show any interest in my Caddis. Unfortunately I lost him while I was trying to unzip my camera pocket, but I learned I needed to tie some fresh humpy’s (which I did the next morning).
I ended up with 23 brook trout, 3 Browns and 2 Rainbows.
No one else was fishing this stretch.
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WEDNESDAY JUNE 3
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Location: Kettle Creek FFO, Potter Co
Time Fished: 11am - 230pm
Weather Conditions: Mix of Sun & Clouds, Rained briefly, 74 degrees
Water Conditions: 58 degrees, a little off color
Insects: Just a few. BWO, Brown Drake, Light Cahill, some Caddis
Went to the creek after 3 thunderstorms had passed (one in middle of night and 2 in the morning). I was thinking the stream would be offcolor and the browns would be turned on. Half the plan worked. The stream was cloudy but the browns weren’t real active. I fished a streamer through 5 holes. I did have quite a few strikes but not anywhere near as many as I had hoped. I hooked 4-5 but only landed one.
After the streamer experiment ended I tied on a BWO since I had seen some and I started working upstream. I managed a brookie at the head of the pool then decided to try the next hole downstream. I’d caught some on dries there on my first morning. When I arrived I was encouraged to see some rising fish. My BWO didn’t impress any of them, so I switched to a sz 18 dark Caddis and the opposite happened. Nearly every fish took it. In quick succession, I caught 4 real nice fish. But I had to leave again for my call into work.
I caught 4 rainbows, a brown and a brook
After my call on the way back to camp I saw a momma bear with a single cub. Talking to the landowner she said there were 3 different bear families staying around the area. Family sizes of 3 cubs, 2 cubs and 1 cub with varying sizes of the mothers and cubs to make identification easy.
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water, Clinton Co
Time Fished: 6pm - 715pm
Weather Conditions:
Water Conditions: 61 degrees, off color
Insects: a few Caddis
Went back to location I fished at 130pm yesterday. It was quite the contrast. The water was up which I thought would be good but it maybe made it worse. I made a full pass swinging a Woolly Bugger and never had a strike. Second pass was with a streamer. Had about 10 strikes and got a brown. I have fished this spot many times and this was the only time it was dead.
No one else fishing.
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water, Clinton Co
Time Fished: 740pm - 910pm
Weather Conditions: Sunny, 75 degrees
Water Conditions:
Insects: Caddis, Pale Evening Duns, Brown Drake spinners, Slate Drake Spinners. Probably many other insects
Decided to come back to an area that I hit earlier in the week for the spinnerfall. As I approached the riffle the stream was already alive. I started with a sz 16 dark Caddis. It was effective but not irresistible. Twelve seemed to be its ceiling for my dark Caddis tonight. Some Mayflies were around so I switched to a BWO since it was still on my vest from earlier in the day. It got some looks but otherwise it was ineffective. I went back to a Caddis and dropped down to sz 18 and picked up 4 more. After observing Pale Evening Duns hatching I chose a Yellow Comparadun from my mayfly box and caught the final 3 fish. All 19 were rainbows.
Had a group of 4 fishing above me 200 - 300 yards away
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THURSDAY JUNE 4
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water, Clinton Co
Time Fished: 620am - 750am
Weather Conditions: Cloudy/Foggy 55 degrees
Water Conditions: 56 degrees slightly off color
Insects: just a few; 2 Slate drake spinners laying eggs, a yellow sally, a few small Caddis
Made 3 streamer passes before breakfast. Not much action but it did improve with each pass. By third pass larger fish were active, they were more aggressive and made more attempts at my fly. I only caught 2 browns. No one else on the water.
A hen merganser came past with 13 ducklings in tow. She had a tremendously productive nest.
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Location: Upper Kettle Creek C&R, Potter Co
Time Fished: 1115am - 230pm
Weather Conditions: 72 degrees mostly sunny
Water Conditions: 56 degrees, Clear
Insects: Small Caddis
I decided to fish upstream so I tied on a Caddis dry. It was only mildly effective. I did catch some but I expected to have more strikes. On the way out I switched to a woolly Bugger and I had some bigger fish begin to show themselves. Missed most of these larger trout (8-10” range). Ended up catching 9 brook trout.
This is the first place I encountered a water snake all week and I saw 2.
Saw no one else. There really weren’t very many cars on Kettle from Cross Fork to Oleana. FFO had most with 4 at bridge and 4 on upper end.
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water, Potter Co
Time Fished: 400pm - 600pm
Weather Conditions: Cloudy, 71 degrees
Water Conditions: 58 degrees, 170cfs, Clear
Insects: small numbers of Caddis & BWO
Heading back toward Cross Fork I stopped to fish a stretch that has grown to be a favorite. There were some rising fish but there were not enough insects to support sustained rising. However just a methodical, “casting across the width” approach, inching upstream brought up a lot of fish. By now the Caddis was the only searching fly I was using. Another guy in our crew was doing the same thing but with a BWO. So either one worked well when you had to make something happen.
Got 11 brook and 3 Brown. One of the Browns was 4” so it was wild and I also caught a 9” brown that looked wild.
Had a fawn jump up and run from streamside cover while I was fishing.
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water, Clinton Co
Time Fished: 720pm - 830pm
Weather Conditions: Rainy, 65 degrees
Water Conditions: 56, High, Offcolor
Insects: Slate Drake Spinners, Pale Evening Duns hatching
Wanted to get back to a good spinnerfall location but as I was leaving the truck a light rain started. I tied on a woolly bugger at the truck hoping I could cut it off when I got to the creek and replace it with a dry fly (I had a 10 min walk). Unfortunately it rained harder by the time I got there and so I caught 2 on the Bugger. The rain slowed and probably a dozen fish were rising maybe one every 2 min. I tied on the yellow comparadun, caught one and the rain came back so I left. All 3 were rainbows.
Saw a doe with a fawn on my walk down. Had 2 guys 300 yds above me and 2 guys 250 yds below me.
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FRIDAY JUNE 5
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water
Time Fished: 830am - 1045am
Weather Conditions: 55 degrees, Cloudy and Foggy
Water Conditions: 59 degrees, Clear
Insects: handful of ISO spinners over the riffle, a few Caddis
Fish were sporadically rising when I arrived at the long slow pool. I started with sz 18 dark Caddis and it got some interest. I caught one early and then emptied my boxes using the typical first week in June checklist for what flies to try when nothing is visible. I got 2 more before I quit on a black beetle. All 3 were browns.
My father and his buddy were also fishing the hole. They were in slightly faster water and caught their fish on BWOs.
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water, Clinton Co
Time Fished: 1215pm - 215pn
Weather Conditions: 68 Degrees, Cloudy
Water Conditions: 58 degrees, Clear
Insects: virtually nothing
This hole is very long with good depth, has a nice riffle and slows down at the end. The fish weren’t doing much so I tried everything. I started with a dry and saw a few risers. Lost one. After a bit of futility, I cut back and tried swinging a woolly bugger and had a few strikes but got none. Tied on a March brow nymph, added three split shot and tried dead drift on bottom. Nothing. So all that was left was a streamer. I made 2 passes with 2 different streamers and caught a rainbow and a brown each time. Had a decent amount of strikes. It left some hope that the day would get better, but the sun came out. Anyway, we were having elk steaks for lunch so I had to get back to camp for that.
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Location: Trout Run, Clinton Co
Time Fished: 600pm - 800pm
Weather Conditions: Sunny, 73 degrees
Water Conditions: Clear
Insects: a few Mayflies hatching
As best I can recall, I hadn’t fished Trout Run since May 1984. Back then it was stocked stream. I’ve been trying to work this stream into my Kettle Creek itinerary for 2-3 years now. I was very pleasantly surprised that it seems to be better than ever as a wild trout stream.
As I learned earlier in the week, I used a larger fly most of the time. In this case a green bodied Humpy. The Elk Hair Caddis also produced some fish. I caught 9 brookies. The first were a little bigger than I expected.
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Location: Kettle creek Open Water, Clinton Co
Time Fished: 820pm - 900pm
Weather Conditions: 70 degrees & Clear
Water Conditions: Clear
Insects: Lots of Small spinners (maybe yellow body) but they didn’t come down until really late. After I left.
I noticed no one was at one of the locations I identified on my list of places to try this week on Kettle. The reason no one was there became obvious, there weren’t many fish rising. If I had more time I could have explored the area by going up and down the creek a littlep. However I spent too much time on Trout Run (which was a good thing). I saw maybe 4 fish rising and I caught a brown. I’ll need to return in better light to truly assess the location. There were quite a few spinners.
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SATURDAY JUNE 6
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Location: Kettle Creek Open Water, Clinton Co
Time Fished: 720am - 810am
Weather Conditions: Cloudy 57 degrees
Water Conditions: Clear
Insects: ISO spinners in the riffle at eye level that whole time I fished
Made a few streamer passes before breakfast. Had about 10 strikes and caught none. Quite a few fish rising, some consistent, but most sporadic. No one else fishing.
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Location: Francis Br Slate Run, Tioga Co
Time Fished: 215pm - 345pm
Weather Conditions: Sunny 78 degrees
Water Conditions: 60 degrees, Crystal Clear
Insects: only the punkies, so thick I had to wear a headnet for only the second time in my life
Never fished off these forest roads before so I had a few false starts. First stop I ended up below the confluence of the Francis Branch and the main stem of Slate. I walked pretty far down a moderately steep slope, only to get within 30 yds of Slate and have a cliff between the water and me. So I trekked it back up to the truck and drove further west.
Finally got to a point where I could see Slate pretty close to the road again and there was a camp (maybe called Devils Den). I thought they surely would have access to the creek. So I park there and start to descend. I’m 25 yards away and I see a green fly line cast out toward the middle of the pool below me. How in the world could I pick the one hole where someone is fishing. I hadn’t seen any cars or people at any camps. So I head back to my truck and drive west.
Crossed the bridge at the Francis Branch and picked a spot there. Just worked upstream for 1.5 hrs. At first there were no fish for a long way. Was either related to shale bottom with no holding cover or it was related to not enough drop in elevation to keep the oxygen up. Caught 7 brookies on a yellow Humpy
Those camps seem pretty isolated. Might only to be able to access them by snowmobile. Pretty area and neat wilderness location.
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Location: Little Kettle, Potter Co
Time Fished: 445pm - 740pm
Weather Conditions: Sunny, 79 degrees
Water Conditions: 61 degrees, flow a little below average.
Insects: coffin flies, large dark Caddis, stoneflies, few yellow sallies, Mayflies, just a good mix
Headed to the creek in a very familiar spot. It changes a little every year but the main holes are the same. I can usually tell early on whether there are lots of brookies by how many I catch in the marginal water. Today no brookies in the first long riffle meant low brookie numbers. First 6 fish were 3 brown 3 rainbow which was noteworthy since I’ve never caught a rainbow here. I think the first brookie was my 11th fish. As I went further upstream brookies became more dominant, although I didn’t catch any large ones.
Ended up with 13 browns, 8 brook, 3 rainbow. This is a big turnaround from 2015 when my catch ratio was 5 brook for every brown. On this day it was 0.6 brook for every brown. A loss of nearly 85% of the brookies.
As I released my last fish, there was a huge splash that at first thought was a huge trout grabbing something, but soon I realized a beaver came swimming down and I startled taking off a trout.
I didnt see another angler although a tent was pitched at the Hungry Hollow Bridge.
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Location: Kettle Open Water, Potter Co
Time Fished: 815pm - 915pm
Weather Conditions: 66 degrees Sunny
Water Conditions: 59 degrees clear
Insects: large dark Caddis, mayfly spinners large and small.
Since I stayed at Little Kettle so long, I got leftovers in terms of a spinnerfall location. However I did connect on my 3rd cast on a nice brown. I assumed I was destined for a big night. Well that brown would be the end of my night. I hooked 3 others and lost them. The rest of my night was a comedy of errors. Tying on a good fly but not being able to see it. Tying on a bad fly and being able to see it plain as day. Trying to switch flies and not being able to get the line through the eye. That happened about 5 times.
Finally I packed it in. Only good thing again was no one was on the stream.
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Extras
= Less fisherman than in past years
= Change in stocking practices (locations close to the road) had people fishing places that normally get lighter pressure
= Water level is lower than it had been the last few years
= Spinnerfalls were super all week which is a little odd since we didn’t fish a hatch all week
= hopefully the large brookie population in the main stem of Kettle can survive through the next 9 months. They will need to get some rain at right time all summer to make it through. The low water levels right now will make that difficult.
= I saw 5 fawns. Three were laying within 20 ft of the creek. Fourth one was standing 20 yds from creek and last one went with its mother across a field to a creek edge, then 5 min later they trotted back to the woods
