Letort Spring Run, Cumberland Co., 02/01/2009

[3wt7X]

I made it out to the Letort this morning from 10:00 am to about 01:30. An absolutely beautiful day to be on the water, with forty degree weather and little to no breeze. I fished the Heritage section near the monuments. I began the day nymphing with a size 18 bead head pheasant tail under an indicator. I had a single strike using that technique, but I only managed to keep the fish on for a headshake. Around noon I noticed numerous midges and blackstone flies coming off and the fish began to rise sporadically. I switched over to a size 18 griffith's gnat and lengthened my 6X leader to about 12 foot and managed to land an 11in wild brown. It was my first trout from the Letort, so enjoyed the moment for a couple minutes and headed down I-81.

 

[Fishidiot]

3WT,
Congrats on your first Letort fish - always a memorable experience. It looks like a Letort fish too - few spots. There are a lot of 'em like that in there.

 

[3wt7X]

Thanks Fishidiot, I alway think that it is pretty amazing how the same species of fish can vary in color and design the way that trout do. I hope that fish is the first of many I catch out of the Letort. It is a frustrating but addicting stream and it definately brings out any fly fishing weaknesses that an angler might have.

 

[Squaretail]

I reluctantly drove past the Letort to get to Falling Springs today. Glad I did cause you were exactly where I would've went. Nice job on switching to what they were eating.
Didnt see any of the big fellers?

 

[3wt7X]

Squaretail,
I did see some nice fish in the 14-16in range, but nothing over 16. In fact, there was a nice fish in that range rising side by side with the one that I caught, but as is usually happens the smaller fish was the test dummy. Until the fish began rising, I was basically blind casting from my knees to the deeper runs and weed lines using a delicate nymph indicator setup. I am not very experienced on the Letort and I was fearful that if I spotted a fish then it was probably already spooked.

 

[Fishidiot]

Regarding the appearance of Letort fish, I've always found them interesting, not necessarily the most colorful trout but their spots are often pretty sparse and large. While I don't buy the view that one can differentiate strains of brown trout by their spotting (at least not here in PA), there does seem to me to be some genetics at work in the Letort population. The photo below depicts a sparse spotted Letort fish. My records indicate I caught this guy on a McMurray Ant on June 21st 1985 in the middle Heritage section. I was able to count only about 28 spots on this 15 inch fish.

 

[JackM]

It only had 2 spots on the left side? 😎

 

[Fishidiot]

:-D :-D
Now yuh know the "flip side" of the story...

 

[greenghost]

3wt7x
Congrats on your first Letort trout. It's a special place in the annals of American fly fishing. And even though it's a mere shadow of what it once was, the trout are still skittish and it still requires above average skills to come away successful. I'm sure the memory will be with you for the rest of your life. May it be the first of many.