Lititz Run C & R area - Lancaster County 7/17/09

[wgmiller]

I met up with crs5942 this morning around 07:00 at the C & R area.

We started our fishing at the concrete bridge at the end of the C & R area. Air temps were in the 70's. Insect activity consisted of the usual midges along with some others such as dragonflies, tricos, etc. We worked the pool below the bridge for a good bit with crs5942 landing one nice rainbow in the 17" range. Trico spinners were the order of the day as time and again returning to the pattern yielded strikes. I tried some different dries (creme midges, etc.) with no luck. They were going after trico spinners of all things. crs5942 did have some luck with a black cricket pattern he had. He did in fact land one nice brown on that pattern which I didn't get a picture of.

The water level is starting to drop and we certainly could use some rain. The color was a bit off, although with the polarized glasses seeing fish wasn't a problem. I took a stream reading and got 64 degrees which is pretty good for mid-July. Many of the weeds that lined the bank have been trimmed down, so there is little cover to make your cast and avoid spooking the fish. We saw fish as we worked upstream and invariably, they saw us too! There is a large amount of vegetation on the stream bottom; couple that with the lower water level and the fishing can be tough. The "big boys" were definitely laid-up.


I got the old 'skunkeroo', but still had a great time. I had a few refusals, but it was a great learning experience fishing such a small fly like the trico. This is a stream crs5942 grew up fishing and he knows it well!

crs5942 with his nice rainbow on a trico spinner

crs5942 keeping a tight loop while working the upper end of the meadow area

The lower end of the C & R area at the concrete bridge

 

[crs5942]

It was a pleasure fishing with wgmiller this morning. The fishing was tough once the sun came up, but I was able to land 3 and hook a few more. I planned on fishing sub-surface and ended up fishing size 24 tricos on a 5wt. I think the cricket and hopper fishing should take off any day now. Overall a very nice morning on Lititz Run. Hopefully we get some rain today and tonight.

 

[gfig19]

fairly new to fly fishing. i finally got up to this side of lancaster because anywhere south the trout have gone bye bye(low water levels, warm water ect)

i was there yesterday trying an adams, and a parachute the most i got was rejected looks by the fish. i saw little moths getting hit hard but i couldn't match the fly, is this where the trico spinner comes in? i still haven't nymphed the stream which is how i get most trout in other locations.

thanks for any tips. btw love the area. i hope we do get rain soon!

 

[crs5942]

Small caddis, midges, and small spinners should be good when the water is low. Sometimes twitching a midge right after it lands on the water can produce a strike as opposed to dead drifting it. Also, I've had fish on Lititz refuse a dry fly and then turn around and swim 3 or 4 feet downstream and suck it in. Be sure to let it pass over by several feet as they are watching it longer than you think. I hope this helps.

 

[gfig19]

yea i'll have to keep the fly floating a bit longer, that's great advice. i wont give up so easily on my drys 🙂

 

[afishinado]

crs5942 wrote:
Be sure to let it pass over by several feet as they are watching it longer than you think. I hope this helps.

I sight fish a lot, and found that many educated fish often follow the dry downstream, and examime it waiting for it to drag. As soon as the fly drags they turn up their nose and swim back to their holding spot. Getting a little extra drag-free drift often is what you need to catch a tough fish.

I was sight fishing with a buddy that was a fairly new FFer. We watched a fish come up several times, follow the fly downstream and turned back when it strated to drag. I told him to reach on the cast and put another mend in the line and leader before it reached the fishes holding area. He did that and the fish followed like before, the fly traveled another foot or two without dragging and the fish took the fly. It was as if he had the drift measured and only hit if it didn't drag past a certain point.

 

[ryguyfi]

afishinado wrote:

crs5942 wrote:
Be sure to let it pass over by several feet as they are watching it longer than you think. I hope this helps.

I sight fish a lot, and found that many educated fish often follow the dry downstream, and examime it waiting for it to drag. As soon as the fly drags they turn up their nose and swim back to their holding spot. Getting a little extra drag-free drift often is what you need to catch a tough fish.

I was sight fishing with a buddy that was a fairly new FFer. We watched a fish come up several times, follow the fly downstream and turned back when it strated to drag. I told him to reach on the cast and put another mend in the line and leader before it reached the fishes holding area. He did that and the fish followed like before, the fly traveled another foot or two without dragging and the fish took the fly. It was as if he had the drift measured and only hit if it didn't drag past a certain point.

Those plastic sandwiches at Subway look mighty tasty sometimes... small brained trout HA!

 

[sdavies1]

Where are some of the better places to fish lititz run?

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Creek Road. Lititz Run parallels creek road in the C&R area.

 

[sdavies1]

thanks alot

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

You ever need some advice about that stream dont be afraid to send me a pm. I have alot of experience on that stream, just ask anytime bro :-D

 

[rodwalker]

First time posting, have visited the site for about a year. I tend to take my rod for a walk more than actually catching anything on this stream. However, I like to fish tricos on the tully and did not know there was a trico hatch on Lititz. I will be giving it a try to see if my luck improves.