pcray1231
Well-known member
Wed. June 10th.
Spent the day on a medium sized stream which I know to hold wild brookies, browns, and rainbows. This stream has been good to me in the past and produced the wild “slam” nearly every time I visit. This was not to be one of those days, it was low and clear and fishing poorly. I managed one smallish wild brown and one native brookie, but no rainbows. My friend got the skunk.
Went to Oil Creek at Drake Well in the evening. Ridiculously crowded, and we spent most of the evening looking for a place to fish. Reminded me of why I don’t like the special reg sections on this stream, there must have been 8 guys in a half mile stretch. We ended up walking well over a mile along the tracks before I even wet a line. 8:30 by the time we were fishing. Plenty of rising fish though, sulfurs, blackish olives, March Browns, you name it the spinners were there. But this was just not to be our day. I got 6 and my buddy 4, got back to the car at 10:30 with a 45 minute drive home.
Thurs. June 11th
Fished 2 smallish tributaries to the Tionesta for native brookies during the day, you know the ones that are supposedly too acidic to be good wild fisheries. On the first I caught 8 and my friend 6 in about an hour and a half, with some respectable 7-8” fish mixed in. On the second I got a dozen more and my friend had 11, even bigger ones here. We were getting into more and more, and bigger size, as we went upstream, but we wanted to hit Oil again in the evening so we turned around.
Back to Oil in the evening, this time to open regulation water, from a different access point that I know well. Still a heck of a walk but at least I knew the water. Just as many fish, didn’t see another fisherman, though some scattered rain showers may have had something to do with that. I caught 17 and my friend got 10 in the evening, one of mine was a respectable 16” brownie that looked wild but was probably a holdover (sorry, no picture due to downpour at the time, didn’t take many pictures on Oil at all). Again back to the truck after 10 due to the walk of over a half hour.
Fri. June 12th.
Fished the upper most access point on a medium sized stream that drains directly to the river. Got lost on the way there, and we had to be back at camp by early afternoon to meet my dad. So we only fished an hour and a half. This stream has wild brookies and browns, and its stocked. I got 10 wild brookies, not much size. My friend got 6 wild brookies, one wild brown, and a stocked brookie, the stocker was by far the biggest fish.
At lunch and went back to Oil in the afternoon, parked at Drake Well again but walked further, past the reg section to avoid the guys. Plenty of fish. I again caught 16 despite spending most of the time coaching my dad to fly fish. He musta had 50+ hits but was consistenly too slow on the draw and had too much bow in the line. He did manage 3, all of which unfortunately swallowed his fly (hence thats why he hooked em), his first ever on a dry fly. My buddy got 19. One of mine was a 6” wild looking brown, the first I’d ever caught on Oil but with some of the tribs it has, I expect there’s a few. Same bugs as the previous two nights, and again an awful lot of them. March Brown spinners seemed to be the fly that worked best.
Sat. June 13th.
We spent the day fishing a brookie stream that runs into the Tionesta, one of the same ones we fished Thursday but this time we started where we had ended on Thursday and went much farther upstream, for much longer. My first fish was a handsome 10 ½” wild brookie, one of my biggest ever. Little did I know we’d top that twice. My friend landed a 13 ½” wild brookie, the biggest I ever saw. Yes, I measured it, with a regulation tape measure. My dad, who was throwin bait, landed a 12” fish that day too. The monster trout and my 10 ½” are both shown in the picture series, though I didn’t get one of my dad’s 12 incher. Final score was 16 for me, 14 for my friend, all on dry flies, and my dad 7 with the worms. All wild brookies except 1 was a small wild brown, though my dad had an 18-20 inch brown chase his worm in one exceptionally deep pool.
Didn’t fish the evening, just built a campfire and celebrated one heck of a trip. Just got back home this evening.
Pictures will be coming as soon as I get them uploaded (there’s 40 some and its taking a while).
Spent the day on a medium sized stream which I know to hold wild brookies, browns, and rainbows. This stream has been good to me in the past and produced the wild “slam” nearly every time I visit. This was not to be one of those days, it was low and clear and fishing poorly. I managed one smallish wild brown and one native brookie, but no rainbows. My friend got the skunk.
Went to Oil Creek at Drake Well in the evening. Ridiculously crowded, and we spent most of the evening looking for a place to fish. Reminded me of why I don’t like the special reg sections on this stream, there must have been 8 guys in a half mile stretch. We ended up walking well over a mile along the tracks before I even wet a line. 8:30 by the time we were fishing. Plenty of rising fish though, sulfurs, blackish olives, March Browns, you name it the spinners were there. But this was just not to be our day. I got 6 and my buddy 4, got back to the car at 10:30 with a 45 minute drive home.
Thurs. June 11th
Fished 2 smallish tributaries to the Tionesta for native brookies during the day, you know the ones that are supposedly too acidic to be good wild fisheries. On the first I caught 8 and my friend 6 in about an hour and a half, with some respectable 7-8” fish mixed in. On the second I got a dozen more and my friend had 11, even bigger ones here. We were getting into more and more, and bigger size, as we went upstream, but we wanted to hit Oil again in the evening so we turned around.
Back to Oil in the evening, this time to open regulation water, from a different access point that I know well. Still a heck of a walk but at least I knew the water. Just as many fish, didn’t see another fisherman, though some scattered rain showers may have had something to do with that. I caught 17 and my friend got 10 in the evening, one of mine was a respectable 16” brownie that looked wild but was probably a holdover (sorry, no picture due to downpour at the time, didn’t take many pictures on Oil at all). Again back to the truck after 10 due to the walk of over a half hour.
Fri. June 12th.
Fished the upper most access point on a medium sized stream that drains directly to the river. Got lost on the way there, and we had to be back at camp by early afternoon to meet my dad. So we only fished an hour and a half. This stream has wild brookies and browns, and its stocked. I got 10 wild brookies, not much size. My friend got 6 wild brookies, one wild brown, and a stocked brookie, the stocker was by far the biggest fish.
At lunch and went back to Oil in the afternoon, parked at Drake Well again but walked further, past the reg section to avoid the guys. Plenty of fish. I again caught 16 despite spending most of the time coaching my dad to fly fish. He musta had 50+ hits but was consistenly too slow on the draw and had too much bow in the line. He did manage 3, all of which unfortunately swallowed his fly (hence thats why he hooked em), his first ever on a dry fly. My buddy got 19. One of mine was a 6” wild looking brown, the first I’d ever caught on Oil but with some of the tribs it has, I expect there’s a few. Same bugs as the previous two nights, and again an awful lot of them. March Brown spinners seemed to be the fly that worked best.
Sat. June 13th.
We spent the day fishing a brookie stream that runs into the Tionesta, one of the same ones we fished Thursday but this time we started where we had ended on Thursday and went much farther upstream, for much longer. My first fish was a handsome 10 ½” wild brookie, one of my biggest ever. Little did I know we’d top that twice. My friend landed a 13 ½” wild brookie, the biggest I ever saw. Yes, I measured it, with a regulation tape measure. My dad, who was throwin bait, landed a 12” fish that day too. The monster trout and my 10 ½” are both shown in the picture series, though I didn’t get one of my dad’s 12 incher. Final score was 16 for me, 14 for my friend, all on dry flies, and my dad 7 with the worms. All wild brookies except 1 was a small wild brown, though my dad had an 18-20 inch brown chase his worm in one exceptionally deep pool.
Didn’t fish the evening, just built a campfire and celebrated one heck of a trip. Just got back home this evening.
Pictures will be coming as soon as I get them uploaded (there’s 40 some and its taking a while).
