Muddy Creek, York County, 2/24/2013

[salmonoid]

I fished Muddy Creek FFO section Sunday afternoon with a friend, from about 1:15 - 5:15. Water temperature was about 45 degrees, which just about matched the air temperature. There was some slight insect activity but nothing that I was able to see close-up and positively identify. Last year, I encountered little stoneflies, so maybe that's what was emerging.

The water was extremely clear; the rain and drizzle from the day and night before did nothing to add any sort of turbidity to the water. We definitely moved fish but I found most of them short striking, especially if I could see them. I surmise they could see me as well 🙂 The areas that I did well in were in mostly deeper water, where the current moving would block their view of me. The wind was definitely strong at points, making casting difficult, and it reminded me that it is still winter time.

I caught my fish (no wilds, all stocked) on white sucker spawn and olive wooly buggers. I had many half-hearted takes at the sucker spawn, again, especially with visible fish. And I had many half-hearted stabs at the bugger.

With the exception of Opening Day, and maybe a trip to some presason DHALO or FFO sections, this will probably be the majority of my stocked fishing. However, I felt the fish were well distributed and saw quite a few larger 16"+ fish, perhaps more so than I've noticed in recent years.

 

[Maurice]

Your experience with the short strikes and follows is typical of freshly stocked fish. I am curious what species you were catching and their condition? I would suspect the rainbows were from the fall (more colorful and cleaner fins) and perhaps browns with some decent color from being held over from last spring.

There are/were decent numbers of fish left from fall stockings (all rainbows) that we fished over all winter. When the new fish come into the mix it can disrupt the fishing because the new fish don't know how to take a streamer and the resident fish seem to get lock jaw for a few weeks.

After a couple weeks the balance reestablishes itself.

 

[Maurice]

And so it has...I had a rain day at work so I hit the creek at about noon and fished til 5:00pm. THe water was up about 9" and green. Whether from this storm or Sandy the bedload has really flushed from the runs and the deeper pockets are plenty. It was difficult to cover all the water. Water temp was 43.3 and rose a degree or two during the day. I saw exactly two stoneflies in the air and two rises unrelated to the flies I say but I suspect they were taking stones. I started out with a dumbell eye baby brown trout streamer with a few fish taking but I couldn't fish it slow enough. So I went with an IPW and gnarly (read broken hackle) beadhead wooly bugger. I fished it low and slow with an indicator. Immediately I started catching more fish regularly.

The fall stocking rainbows are large and plump. I lost as many as I caught and missed a few takes as well. It was a day I haven't seen in a while. Fish were everywhere in the system but the margins were most productive. It was difficult to get deep enough with the higher flows. But I was persistent. I caught a mix of new bows, Bows from the fall, Browns stocked last spring and a few wild browns.

Periods of sun made the day more enjoyable.

 

[1wt]

Maurice wrote:
It was a day I haven't seen in a while. Fish were everywhere

Where are the pix, dude? Are you promoting Muddy Creek because you are the TU boy for that creek? Strange..... very strange indeed!

 

[Maurice]

Nope, just a good day on the crik....for some strange reason I could not get the pics to upload.

 

[1wt]

Maurice wrote:
for some strange reason I could not get the pics to upload.

LOL ! maybe try to "embed" them? Just click "embed" on the bottom right of your computer?

 

[salmonoid]

Mo, my 'bows were likely holdovers. They had nice color to them. The browns were all freshly stocked. I am extremely spoiled this winter because of catching all wild browns, which made those stocker browns look pretty fugly...

 

[Dale49]

Fished Muddy this past Friday. One run, opposite bank about 100 yards above the hemlocks, hooked 9 fish, 2 browns and 7 rainbows landed 7. Fished this run for and hour 15 minutes. When I hooked a fish, wnet to bank at let it rest for 5 minutes

Bows were very colorful and quite large. One brown around 17 inches. At first tried nymphs, little black stones with no takers. Switched to tandem midges, sizes 20 to 24, light gray and cream thread bodies.

 

[Maurice]

Dale are you saying you caught your fish on top? or midge pupae underwater offerings? If on top my hats off to ya. Midges in the Outhouse hole on top would never be my choice.

 

[Maurice]

salmonoid wrote:
Mo, my 'bows were likely holdovers. They had nice color to them. The browns were all freshly stocked. I am extremely spoiled this winter because of catching all wild browns, which made those stocker browns look pretty fugly...

Its pretty easy to tell the difference on the fresh stockers and the holdovers from the fall. One h-o brown from below was a spring stocked fish from 2012. There is a good mix of fish at Muddy this year for sure.

 

[Dale49]

Maurice,

I should have been more specific about fishing the midges. They hit sub-surface. I had several size 8 split shots under a small indicator. When the rig was drifting thru the run, I would 'twitch" the indicator/rig and that's when they hit. Most of the fish were hooked towards the bottom of the run. I could see them flashing in the run.

 

[delta_dog]

Wait for it.....Wait for it......where's 1wt?

 

[1wt]

delta_dog wrote:
Wait for it.....Wait for it......where's 1wt?

"They all look like the same fish to me?" LOL

Only kidding, Maurice. Wonderful pix!

I finally got my new waders, and I'll be fishing Muddy pretty often in the future. I've always loved that creek.

After this snow on Wed, the temp should go into the 50's ..... thank God!

 

[The_Sasquatch]

delta_dog wrote:
Wait for it.....Wait for it......where's 1wt?

After seeing your new rod, I think we need a new nickname for you, dog! Although the idea of a 3 piece rod that short has got me all kinds of excited...

 

[delta_dog]

Andy I can't wait to fish that rod.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

Too windy today! I was thinking about that while I was sitting at my desk, listenin' to that wind howl. Too windy for my 6wt today, I think!

 

[JakesLeakyWaders]

By my count I saw one small wild brown, one really nice looking holdover brown and a couple nice stockies in your pics Mo.