DoctorWater15
Member
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2016
- Messages
- 50
I had a few days off of work, so made a trek up north to fish, and certainly lucked out with the weather and conditions. I fished Slate Run, Cedar Run, and Pine Creek from 4/19 through 4/21. I fished Pine Creek in the afternoons on 4/19 (from 3-6PM) and 4/20 (from 2:30-5:30PM), as well as most of the day on 4/21 (from 10AM to 3PM).
I fished primarily the stretch between Cammal up to Blackwell, with the majority of the time spent in "the stretch" from around the Black Walnut Bottom campground up to the confluence with Slate run. I would either park at one of the designated areas and walk up or downstream to find a stretch without other people fishing, or to get to a nice riffle/run, which there are plenty of.
I lucked out with the weather overall on this trip, and it was in the mid 60s on the afternoon of 4/19, low 70s on the afternoon of 4/20, and was from the mid 60s when I started fishing on 4/21 up to about 80F when I stopped. It was nice and sunny each day for me, with only sporadic wind.
The water temperature was between 52 and 56F depending on where I was, which was about perfect for this time of year. Flows were a little low, but pretty good for wading. Flows were about 420-460cfs, slowly dropping over the time I was there since we didn't have any rain. This correlates to about 1.85-1.95ft on the Pine Creek at Cedar Run gauge. The water was nice and clear with no significant stain, and you could see down in some of the shallower flats with that nice blue hue in some of the deeper riffles/runs/holes. You could wade across the stream in some of the wider sections, which given the water temps and bug activity made for excellent fishing.
There were pretty good hatches going on while I was there. There were good hatches of tan caddis each day tapering in the afternoons, but it was going strong on 4/21 from about 1-3PM. There were some sporadic march browns later in the afternoons, but not enough to see lots of fish keying in on them. There were a few BWOs coming off earlier in the day, and some hendricksons a little later in the day. There were definitely some fish feeding on top, but not enough to convince me that it was definitely dry fly fishing season yet.
While I generally try to steer clear of fishing for stocked fish (I know, I'm a total wild trout snob), I did think that the fishing was pretty darn good on Pine Creek! With that said, it had recently been stocked, so I think that there were plenty of fish to catch. I caught most fish on nymphs, fishing slightly larger (like size 14) pheasant tail-like flies (frenchies, soft hackle nymphs, etc.) with decent success. I did catch a few on some smaller streamers (size 10-12 jigged buggers in tan and white) through some of the deeper riffles/holes. I did ironically hook the same large fish three times in one riffle. It enthusiastically took a size 12 tan bugger, and then promptly snapped the fly off my 4x leader. I upsized to 3x and tried again, and it did the same thing! It definitely was a sizable fish, I'd guess it was probably in the 17-20in range. I finally hooked it a third time in the next riffle up (about 50 ft upstream, as it must have been tired of being hooked in it's prior spot), and was able to get it all the way over to net it, and then it hopped off my hook about 4 feet from me. Oh well, I guess that's how it goes sometimes! Most of the fish I landed were in the 8-14in range, with about a 70/30 split of catching stocked vs. some of the smaller wild browns that live in Pine Creek.
Again, it was my first time up in this area, and I thought it was really pretty, and a fun stream to fish! At first I was a little intimidated by its size, but after taking some time to figure it out, I really liked it. Definitely a place I'd come back to. Shout out to the Slate Run Tackle Shop as well, since they were very helpful in providing some information too!
I fished primarily the stretch between Cammal up to Blackwell, with the majority of the time spent in "the stretch" from around the Black Walnut Bottom campground up to the confluence with Slate run. I would either park at one of the designated areas and walk up or downstream to find a stretch without other people fishing, or to get to a nice riffle/run, which there are plenty of.
I lucked out with the weather overall on this trip, and it was in the mid 60s on the afternoon of 4/19, low 70s on the afternoon of 4/20, and was from the mid 60s when I started fishing on 4/21 up to about 80F when I stopped. It was nice and sunny each day for me, with only sporadic wind.
The water temperature was between 52 and 56F depending on where I was, which was about perfect for this time of year. Flows were a little low, but pretty good for wading. Flows were about 420-460cfs, slowly dropping over the time I was there since we didn't have any rain. This correlates to about 1.85-1.95ft on the Pine Creek at Cedar Run gauge. The water was nice and clear with no significant stain, and you could see down in some of the shallower flats with that nice blue hue in some of the deeper riffles/runs/holes. You could wade across the stream in some of the wider sections, which given the water temps and bug activity made for excellent fishing.
There were pretty good hatches going on while I was there. There were good hatches of tan caddis each day tapering in the afternoons, but it was going strong on 4/21 from about 1-3PM. There were some sporadic march browns later in the afternoons, but not enough to see lots of fish keying in on them. There were a few BWOs coming off earlier in the day, and some hendricksons a little later in the day. There were definitely some fish feeding on top, but not enough to convince me that it was definitely dry fly fishing season yet.
While I generally try to steer clear of fishing for stocked fish (I know, I'm a total wild trout snob), I did think that the fishing was pretty darn good on Pine Creek! With that said, it had recently been stocked, so I think that there were plenty of fish to catch. I caught most fish on nymphs, fishing slightly larger (like size 14) pheasant tail-like flies (frenchies, soft hackle nymphs, etc.) with decent success. I did catch a few on some smaller streamers (size 10-12 jigged buggers in tan and white) through some of the deeper riffles/holes. I did ironically hook the same large fish three times in one riffle. It enthusiastically took a size 12 tan bugger, and then promptly snapped the fly off my 4x leader. I upsized to 3x and tried again, and it did the same thing! It definitely was a sizable fish, I'd guess it was probably in the 17-20in range. I finally hooked it a third time in the next riffle up (about 50 ft upstream, as it must have been tired of being hooked in it's prior spot), and was able to get it all the way over to net it, and then it hopped off my hook about 4 feet from me. Oh well, I guess that's how it goes sometimes! Most of the fish I landed were in the 8-14in range, with about a 70/30 split of catching stocked vs. some of the smaller wild browns that live in Pine Creek.
Again, it was my first time up in this area, and I thought it was really pretty, and a fun stream to fish! At first I was a little intimidated by its size, but after taking some time to figure it out, I really liked it. Definitely a place I'd come back to. Shout out to the Slate Run Tackle Shop as well, since they were very helpful in providing some information too!
