Lititz Run, Lancaster County, 3/27/09

You got me *shrugs*
 
salvelinusfontinalis wrote:
ok true. but those fish want real food. On lititz they dont. Ive heard people here say that Lititz fish are as hard as Letort fish.
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That is probably true. But not b/c they are wild weary trout. It's b/c people are feeding them pellets. So to catch fish it sounds like a matter of luck rather then skill. I don't see how you could disagree with this statement b/c it'll just contradict everything you just wrote above.
 
I grew up fishing Lititz Run and learned how to fish fly-fish in the C & R section. I recently moved to Philly for school and have fished Valley a few times. I would say that Valley Crk. is more difficult; however, I am not nearly as familiar with the stream as I am with Lititz Run. In particular, I think that the sub-surface fishing is harder at Valley Creek. Dry fly-fishing is equally challenging on both, IMO. The best surface action I have had on both was with midges and terrestrials, but I only began fishing Valley in the late summer. Maybe after this spring, I'll change my mind. As for the pellets, the fishing can be excellent for about 5-10 minutes if you are lucky enough to be out when the farmer decides the fish are hungry and you remembered to bring a pellet fly. Pellet feeding is the only thing on Lititz that brings a lot of fish to the surface. The hatches will bring a few here and there, but pellet feeding time is like a sulphur hatch on a freestone stream. JustFish, when you get to fishing at Lititz Run, be sure to take a few wooly buggers. They are my go-to fly when nothing else is working at Lititz. Scuds, midges, small nymphs, occasional BWOs, caddis pupae and emergers, etc. will all take fish at Lititz Run; however, IMO, a properly presented wooly bugger/streamer will take more fish (especially big fish) than anything else regardless of whether there is a hatch occurring or not. My personal irony with regard to Lititz Run is that when I was first teaching myself to fly-fish (10 yrs ago) on Lititz I would have many days where I could catch 12-15 trout in an afternoon. Now that I've improved my skills 10-fold, I consider half a dozen fish to be a good day on the C&R section.
 
Nope i dont disagree. its being there on the right day at the right time.
 
crs5942,

Thank you for the useful info. I am eager to fish it. So pretty much the same flies I use at Valley. Thanks hoping to get out there this week if I can. I think it's an hour or so away.
 
I was hoping youd chime in crs.

I totally agree about the buggers. Im partial to the white in about size 10 with the crystal and pearl flash. Ive caught my fair share of big ones on that pattern.

Other than that scuds and cress bugs. Pink san juan worms and midges, midges,midges and more midges. All colors.

There as been a good brown caddis hatch on this stream the past few years. Cross your fingers 🙂

crs are you talking about when the project first started? About catching all those fish when you first started? If you are then i totally agree. The fishing was easier but some of those fish (the big ones) are fish from that time frame. Easy to see (with all that angler experience) whey they are hard to catch now.

Oh yeah almost forgot.

JustFish,
there is alot of "dead water" on Lititz Run also. Places with nice holes but not so many fish. I would recommend you start at the Springhouse area. This will put you over some very nice trout in a short stretch of stream. What day are you going? Being that i live in the area I could show you where to park and where the farmers lane is you can walk down to the stream. Takes you about 1-2 mins to get to that stretch rather than fishing up from the hess farm. But if you plan to fish all day, it really doesnt matter. Just make sure when you go through the killer sheep field your on the opposite side of the stream from where you park. :lol: I hate that ram!
 
There were large, tan caddis coming off all afternoon on Friday. Sal, my biggest fish at Lititz has come on a size 10, white crystal bugger. I've caught big fish on brown and olive crystal buggers as well. With the exception of one brown on a wet griffiths knat, I think that all my 20+" fish on Lititz have come from wooly buggers or streamers. I have caught many in the 16-19" range on a variety of sub-surface stuff but the big ones like eating bait-fish. I was disappointed though on Friday, as I had tied up several muddy buddy/sculpin like streamers that were 3-4" long but I was unable to get any hits on them. I did, however, only tie them in a natural muskrat color with a deer hair head. I know some of the big boys at Lititz like larger meals, because I've seen some inhale fish as big as 7".

I started fly-fishing Lititz in the mid 90s when I was in my early teens. The C&R project was just finishing completion and there were 10-12" fish stacked up in every hole. In those days, I primarily fished san juans, prince nymphs, egg patterns, and wooly buggers. I can remember having a few great days with hot pink egg patterns and some great days where all I did was strip prince nymphs downstream; however, most of my good days were due to size 8+10 wooly buggers. At that time there weren't many big fish in Lititz Run but the numbers were great. I can even remember taking my younger brother fly-fishing for the first time on Lititz Run. He caught one trout, even though his line rarely landed in the hole. Nowadays, it would be suicide to take a first-time fly-fisherman to Lititz Run. I had many great days on the stream in my youth, but it is still rewarding to have a day where I can catch a few when other anglers just watch spooky trout all day. Some day, when I have my school bills paid off and I have a few more decades of fly-fishing experience, I hope to write a book about Lititz Run, the spirit of fly-fishing, and the size 10 crystal wooly bugger.
 
The caddis are already coming off!? im checking weather for towmorrow for after work ;-) :-D

I suppose there are sculpin in Lititz. I never heard of them in there but im sure they are. Lots of chubs. I need to tie a chub streamer. I bet they would eat that :-D
 
60 with 5 mph wind. Im so there 🙂
 
Sal,

Last year on Lititz Run I hooked a 7 inch chub and had a 20 inch brown inhale the entire thing. Since the trout wasn't hooked it eventually realized it could just spit the fish out and get away. If you develop a good chub fly, please send me the recipe.
 
Will do ;-)
 
I think it'a about as tough as a stream as they come. That includes Valley and Letort and ranks right up there with them.
 
spectorfly wrote:
I think it'a about as tough as a stream as they come. That includes Valley and Letort and ranks right up there with them.
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We established that, but not for the reasons of the other two you mentioned. The fish are pellet fed everyday. They are eating dog food consistently NOT NATURAL FORAGE. Therefore it's not an accurate assesment to put them on the same ballfield as the Letort or Valley. So when they refuse your fly it's not b/c of your fly or you.....Their looking for PURINA DOG CHOW. As mentioned before, a lot of fish come out of nowhere when those pellets start floating down. Fish you would normally not see....they do the same thing at LLH in the area they call the kiddie pool. I don't think you can compare Lititz to the other two mentioned. The fish may be really big there. But it's b/c they're being fed dog food, not natural forage. So your comparison is not really a comparison at all.

Don't put spin on this. I didn't say it wasn't hard. But the level of difficulty is due to being fed dog food.

Therefore, you really can't put the three in the same park. You can put the Letort and Valley in the same park but not Lititz.
 
To boot, take away the dog food for 3-4 months and those long plump fish will turn into long skinny fish. Most of those big fish in there didn't get big b/c of survival of the fittest. So a trophy somewhere else isn't a trophy there IMO.
 
As far as the sculpin go, there must be some in there. I was at the Evening Rise fly shop the other week and they had a "Lititz Run sculpin" fly but I was too cheap to pay the $6 or whatever it was for the fly :-D
 
6 bucks,,wow for a couple more bucks you could tie 25 of them,,its crazy what fly shops charge for flys,, and really,, cant we all just get along,!!!,,lol must we have a pissing contest over 2 different excellent trout streams.
 
jfetkin wrote:
6 bucks,,wow for a couple more bucks you could tie 25 of them,,its crazy what fly shops charge for flys,, and really,, cant we all just get along,!!!,,lol must we have a pissing contest over 2 different excellent trout streams.
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It's not a pissing contest just some facts being stated. Also if I had a fly shop I'd charge the same. What are they supposed to do charge you what they pay in materials. Their charging you for their time spent tying. It seems like common sense to me. That is why I tie my own.
 
I think your over thinking this JustFish ;-)
 
I think you do over think it. Seeing as you haven't fished it yet I don't think you can acuratly assess it either.

They do eat natural food in there also. They don't just rely on pellets. They eat them when offered but it's not their sole diet. Minnows, freshwater shrimp, stoneflies, midges, BWO, sculpins, ect are all the diet for them.
Cast a midge in there when the trout on Lititz are rising to midges and see how many times they look at the fly but refuse it. Same goes for BWO's. Then watch them rise to the natural beside your fly.
Throw a scud in there when there is no surface activity but you see them feeding on the bottom and watch them ignore the fly time and time again.
They got big from pellets, but they haven't lived this long in there to be dumb. They've grown very smart over they years. I've seen and have run into the same on Valley and Letort.
Natural trophy's. No. But that's not what this discussion started on.
Compare the 3? Yes, I think I can, and I think I did and that's my opinion based on what I've experienced on the 3 streams, under the same conditions, with the same hatch going on and fish feeding on that hatch.
 
Hey justfish,, I do tie my own, and to me it seems that you just like to dissagree with people,,lol, sal and spectorfly know that river real well and i would take there word on what they say there if i were you, especially since you never even fished it. its all good tho bro,,Justrelax
 
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