Mill Creek, Lancaster Co., 3/9/13

[dc410]

Went out this afternoon to try to learn something about this smallie pre-spawn thing. Fished a new area of the Conestoga for a short time - no luck. Ended up fishing a section of Mill Creek that I had never fished before. Water temp was in the mid forties but still no SMB action. Maybe I'm fishing the wrong spots. However my SMB outing quickly turned into a poor man's bonefish outing. I spooked a pod of about 6-8 large carp. I quietly worked my way into position and waited until they resumed their previous locations (about 15 minutes). I promptly lined them and off they went again (these fish are not stupid). I waited until they returned again (another 15-20 minutes). This time I tried not to get my fly to close to them. I cast my Holschlag Hackle Fly about 5 feet directly in front of the closest fish. I watched it move up to inspect the fly and in the fading light when it opened its bright orange mouth it looked like someone turned on a light bulb. I raised the rod tip and it was game on! About a 10 minute battle ensued. As best I can estimate the fish was somewhere between 26 an 27 inches long and probably pushing 8 lbs. (maybe more) It was a total blast to land that fish on my 5 wt. I snapped a few photos (sorry about the blurry pictures - I think I got some carp slime on my phone). The one picture shows the almost flourescent orange color of the inside of its mouth. Definitely the biggest "minnow" I ever caught on a fly rod, but the quest for the 30 incher continues!

 

[bigslackwater]

That thing is a beast! Congrats!

 

[The_Sasquatch]

It's still a little early for the smallies. Were you fly fishing the Stoga there at the water treatment plant south of the city around 3pm today?

 

[dc410]

Squatch,

Yeah, that was me. You should have stopped to shoot the bull. Maybe, you could have taught me something. I'm totally new to this early season SMB fishing.

dc

 

[Fishidiot]

Now there's a fish that will give yuh a fight. They do like those Holshag Hackle Flies. 🙂

 

[Fishidiot]

Pre-spawn smallies should be getting in gear now. Watch those water temps - you want about 42 degrees to get 'em up off the bottom and on to current breaks. They usually start to feed heavily as temps rise toward 50, which is usually mid March around here. Although the weather is really warm, we just had a shot of snow melt and sometimes that will actually drop water temps and put the fish off the bite.

 

[wgmiller]

Ask Sal about the 'Stoga south of the city... We fished it below the sewer treatment plant along 324 last summer, but it wasn't very productive. Now the Engleside area was productive, but you gotta drop in where it isn't posted (Posted at the Dirty Ol Tavern). Stay in the river and you're fine as it is "navigable water".

 

[TimRobinsin]

Nice job!

 

[Mike]

As you try different spots along Mill Ck, if you end up finding SMB between the mill dam at Rt 772 and New Holland, I would appreciate a heads-up. We stocked that stretch twice with fingerlings about a decade ago or a little less, and we never were able to return to evaluate the success or failure in establishing a reproducing population in that stretch. No SMB were present in that stretch during a survey and that led to the stocking. Likewise on Pequea Ck from the dam immediately upstream from Rt 741 for about an 8 mile stretch. No SMB were present during a survey. We have seen positive results from those Pequea stockings at the 896 bridge.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

Yeah Sal and I passed you! We were coming back from fishing for brookies in the southern end of the county. We talked about smallie fishing at lunch then, (late lunch!) and decided its too early for both of us ;-) We'll hook up on it soon though. I'll keep in touch!

 

[geebee]

great fish !

 

[phillyfly]

A buddy and I floated the stogie on Saturday from 11-4 and we got the skunk so dont feel so bad. The stogie is a much bigger body of water but at the hottest part of the day the water temp was 46.5. Friday it read 43 so I really think it is too early. We floated a section a good ways below the waterworks dam and had no action working sculpins in deep holes. We even brought a spin rod and searched with tubes with no results.