Muddy Creek, York County, 4/6/09

[Woolybugger]

I fished Muddy Creek Forks, regular section, from 3pm until 7pm.
The water is back to normal and not too shallow....... thank God for the rain we just got.
I caught and released 17 trout, including that big 20" Palie! What a kick on a 4wt! The huge fish actually jumped out of the water twice!!
The big trout came on a size 6 black bugger, and the rest came on Hare's Ears 14's and a PT size 14.
It sprinkled around 3:30 and the wind picked up. It was super cold by 7:00.
I walked downstream over a mile....... hoping to see Maurice with some free burgers, but he was nowhere to be found.
I saw several midge hatches. I also saw a couple trout, or chubs rising. No takers for me with a tiny dry.

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[JakesLeakyWaders]

Conditions were tough on Saturday how does the water look now, thought about going back this Saturday. I managed four trout, and the water was muddy. I'd have probably caught more if I would have gone big earlier. I got tired of waiting for hits and started throwing a clouser before I finished up the day, it worked for me. I found a section that I really like.

 

[HBGMarine]

Hey Wooly, what length 4wt do you use to cast a sz 6 bugger? I just bought a 6'9" 4wt and have a lot of trouble casting anything with weight to it. This past Sunday I was using a sz 12 or 14 bead head bugger and it was tough goings. Any recommendations?

 

[Woolybugger]

Jake,
The water in Muddy Creek seems to be perfect now. Sat was high chocolate milk and Sun was still high and a little stained. It would be great now, but way too stinkin' cold for me. I also use Clousers in the high water. It seems the stockies will hug the bottom and not rise for a regular streamer.

HBG,
That 4wt in the pic is a Orvis Clearwater II and is 8'6".
It's always hard to cast a heavy streamer with a light rod. My recommendation would be to use a heavy leader, maybe 3X, with a short 4lb tippet. With heavy flies you have to keep the entire leader with tippet to no more than 6 feet.
Your light rod will be much more fun to fish with, and soon the water will drop and you will be in great shape with the drys.

 

[HBGMarine]

Well that would explain it then. I've been using a 8 foot leader tapered down to 7x. My other rod is a 8'6" 6wt so I picked up this smaller 4wt to fish the smaller freestone streams I usually fish that don't have a lot of room. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[JakesLeakyWaders]

Here is another tip when casting a heavy bugger on a light short rod. If you have enough room for a backcast sometimes on the backcast I let it hit the water behind me which allows the rod to load better from the bugger dragging in the water. then you are basically slingshotting it. I find I can get away with some big stuff and still get long casts. Also leave a lot of line hanging off your reel and when you go through your forward cast you can shoot the line and you'll be surprised how far you can shoot a heavy weighted bugger. As far as roll casting you really have to get the bugger right on the surface and bring your rod back far enough for a strong fast forward cast to lift it out of the water. If you don't get your timing right on the roll cast and don't have your really heavy bugger right there at the surface when you go into your forward cast, your line will go but the bugger will barely move. Sometime I go to roll cast a really heavy bugger and if the bugger is under the surface there is not enough energy or momentum left for the fly line and leader to even lift it out of the water.

Bye the way,

when I say big heavy bugger I mean size 6-8 with bead head and possibly some lead wrap.