Muddy Creek, York Co. - March 20, 2011

[JakesLeakyWaders]

Fished the lower FFO section of Muddy Creek today for the first time in a while. I arrived around 9:45 a.m. and surprisingly the water was clear and visibility was about 3 feet. The water was still high and difficult to wade in my hip boots and had a slight green color to it.

I started out with a small green beadhead wooley bugger and landed a brown and a few rainbows, lost a few rainbows as well. Small stoneflies were present throughout the day.

The water was clear enough to identify hooked fish yet I could not see any trout feeding due to the high water. Typically on Muddy you can pick out the holes where trout should be, but with the water so high and clear many of those spots that are normally waist deep were closer to chest deep.

I switched to a tandem rig of beadhead prince and a small stone fly but had no more hook ups. I also realized I am missing two packs of stick on strike indicators and had to use these big flourescent styrofoam indicators. They actually worked pretty well for the conditions The water was just too fast and high today to nymph without a big indicator.

Around 2:30 p.m. when I was getting ready to leave there were more stoneflies and the fish started rising to them. I could have stayed but I waded in over my hippers a few times during the day and my pants were pretty wet. There were a few sections I could not wade and had to get out of the water because of waist deep water right up next to the bank.

 

[wgmiller]

Wow, sounds like Muddy is still flowing good. I had the same experience a few weeks ago and found myself wading in water that was getting up on my chest. I look forward to visiting Muddy again when the levels drop and clarity gets better. I can just tell this is a "fishy" stream!

Thanks for sharing...

 

[sholgate]

I almost went there this afternoon, shucks. Great report, thanks.

 

[Maurice]

Jakey,

I went through the lower end at around 2:30pm. Six cars down there. I fished the top from 3:00 til 6:30 and got 7. ONe on top and the rest on baby brown trout clousers and wet stoneflies son the swing.

Some heavy bows and browns and one wildie. Never made it past Toms Run.

Lots of stoneflies on the water. Three fish rising steady, only got one of them. Clumsy, sloppy fat rises. I think they were large fish. the one I got on top was around 14". A brown.

 

[JakesLeakyWaders]

Yeah when I left there were no extra spaces. That's how the lower end is, lol. Either no one can seem to find the upper end parking ;-), or they don't like hiking down to the creek when they find their way to the upper end 😛, because it's usually empty when I go there. Then again, I rarely ever see anyone fishing the middle section between the big rock hole in the lower end and Tom's Run so what's that tell you about how adventurous people are :roll:

You didn't make it down to Tom's Run and I didn't make it up to Tom's Run. I bet that section right there only gets a few anglers a week compared to right down at the bottom where everyone hangs out.

Those stockies are hangin' tough though. That waterline was waaay up in the brush and rocks in most places from the recent rains. You could see how high it was by all the washed up debris along the banks.

Didn't catch any Muddy Creek wild brownies today, I'll have to bring the 2 weight out this year and poke around a few spots.

Here's a pic from the slow lower hemlocks section where the old timers can wade safely, lol.