Muddy Creek, York County, 9/27/14

[DaveKile]

Stevie-B invited me out on Saturday for real good day on Muddy Creek. The water levels were were not too low as it had rained a few days earlier. Beautiful clear sunny day and was a little worried the bright skies and low fall water would slow things up for us. Air temps were in the upper 60's when we arrived mid morning and pushed into the upper 70's when we left later in the afternoon. The water was gin clear and 60 degrees.

We started off fishing by the Pines and made our way up to the turn with the big rocks. I started off with a Griffy Nat and then switched over to a caddis. Wide selection of bugs in the air: caddis, slate drakes, small may flies and a few terrestrials seen coming by. Plenty of risers in the stream coming up. Came across a nice stretch of water that the trout we especially active and looked to be taking a small mayfly. Switched over to #20 BWO and did very well after that for the rest of the day. Caught a good number of holderovers and plenty of smaller looking wild brown trout. I put on a #12 Adams for grins walking back to the car and got into a couple more.

Bonus rounds with an eagle and osprey doing fly overs for us. Pictures coming soon.

 

[Maurice]

Sounds like you guys had a great day Dave. Wish I coulda joined ya. I did stop down and caught Steve before he left. He was pestering fish at the wire. Stopped up at the top first and saw another car and the couple was still fishing at the hemlocks so I moved on to the open water knowing you guys already stung a couple dozen through the middle project water.

I got skunked though. (unless you count the sunfish) Little buggers look just like trout rising. Haha. Been catching tons of little bass rising this fall too. Some nice ones to int he 10" range on underwater stuff.

But the real story is the summer holdover survival rate for the spring fish. They seem heavy and healthy and in good numbers. And the wild browns are starting to show up again too in good numbers.

I too noticed the bwos over the last few weeks in addition to the slate drakes and stenos. More steno spinners seen at dusk than I can ever remember seeing.

Summer was good to Muddy Creek this year. Fall fishing should be great. And you are right, we could use some base flow right now. It makes approaching those fish that are rising more difficult requiring longer casts. Pretty technical stuff.

Looks like steve should be your new guide there...You never do that well when I take ya. Haha. 🙂 :-D

 

[afishinado]

Maurice wrote:
Sounds like you guys had a great day Dave. Wish I coulda joined ya. I did stop down and caught Steve before he left. He was pestering fish at the wire. Stopped up at the top first and saw another car and the couple was still fishing at the hemlocks so I moved on to the open water knowing you guys already stung a couple dozen through the middle project water.

I got skunked though. (unless you count the sunfish) Little buggers look just like trout rising. Haha. Been catching tons of little bass rising this fall too. Some nice ones to int he 10" range on underwater stuff.

But the real story is the summer holdover survival rate for the spring fish. They seem heavy and healthy and in good numbers. And the wild browns are starting to show up again too in good numbers.

I too noticed the bwos over the last few weeks in addition to the slate drakes and stenos. More steno spinners seen at dusk than I can ever remember seeing.

Summer was good to Muddy Creek this year. Fall fishing should be great. And you are right, we could use some base flow right now. It makes approaching those fish that are rising more difficult requiring longer casts. Pretty technical stuff.

Looks like steve should be your new guide there...You never do that well when I take ya. Haha. 🙂 :-D

:-o don't tell the commish!!

 

[DaveKile]

Mo,

The funny part he was relying on me to guide him around. I had been there a few more time than him so I was the expert. Missed your guiding skills, but we did pretty well. They weren't as easily spooked when we went out last November. Looking forward to getting there again soon.

 

[blueheron]

Nice report Dave, how about some bird pics?

 

[Stevie-B]

Dave,

Thanks for coming. I really enjoyed the day. As well as we did I guess we can leave Mo at home from now on. (Missed your company Mo.) Fish were rising all day and I think I caught around 7 wild fish. Stayed for about an hour after you left and ended up with four more.

Here are some of the pics I snapped:

And for the birders, I managed this one. An osprey that was checking us out. (I think I need to get a lens with a bit more reach.)

 

[Mike]

Afish,
That Muddy Ck holds fish over throughout unusually cool summers is consistent with the characteristics of many other streams. From a fall stocking program standpoint, it is much more important that the stream is well utilized (sees numerous angler trips). The holdovers are a bonus and we certainly like to see that, as it enhances the fall fishery, but with modest and perhaps intermittent summer survival of trout in the C&R area, the abundance of holdover fish does not affect the fall stocking rate.

 

[DaveKile]

A lot of credit for the stream goes to Muddy Creek TU! The members there really do a lot of good things like so many TU chapters across the state. A lot of guys like Maurice, Fritz and others on the site help out with conservation, access issues, stocking and more. Thanks guys.