Alnitak
Member
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2014
- Messages
- 314
Long time since I've posted much on this site, but I've done plenty of fishing in that time. This week was a vacation week in Jim Thorpe and I spent most of it fishing a bunch of different streams in Carbon, Luzerne and Monroe counties. Yesterday the flow on the Pohopoco finally dropped down low enough to hazard getting in and fishing a bit--early in the week it was running as high as 620 cfs.
My nephew and I got in at USGS station on Old Mill Road at about 10 am; the flow was down to 175 cfs and the water was about 63 F which felt like bathwater compared to some of the nearby streams we had just been poking (temps were in the high 40s and low 50's F on some of the small streams). With the warmer water the fish were actively feeding, although there wasn't a lot of action on top.
We were both rigged up with dry flies and droppers from our previous fishing so we went to work and were rewarded with a lot of fish. We both had several wild browns, but the rainbows were far more abundant. Personally I avoid fishing for stockers, but these fingerling-stocked rainbows are a lot of fun and behave much more like wild fish, so I could make an exception. 😉 We both caught several dozen fish over two hours and a good number were in the 12-15" size range. Plenty of fish in the 8-10" range, including all of the wild browns I caught. My nephew had a few larger wild browns.
The browns mostly were hitting top water, and they were after the hatch du jour, which was mainly some small sulphurs--I'd say size 24--and some tiny little midges and tricos. I had been fishing a very bouyant size 14 Royal Wulff variant so I left it on and managed to have one nice 14" bow smash it. The rest of my fish were caught on the bottom on a green weenie or beadhead Royal Coachman nymph--that fly is a great all-around stimulator that brookies and rainbows in particular seem to love, but all trout have trouble resisting.
We took a break for lunch and went back to the house we rented to pick up my brother-in-law and returned around 3 pm and fished again through 6 pm. We basically stayed in a stretch of stream about a quarter of a mile long centered on the USGS station and once again caught tons of fish. There was a small dark quill hatching in the afternoon, again about a size 24, and a bit more top water action from the browns. My nephew stuck with a size 20 sulphur as we saw more sulphurs and a similarly-sized yellow sallie popping off in small numbers. He caught almost all browns on top. I used a Prince and the Royal Coachman nymphs and caught an obscene number of rainbows, mostly smaller. I lost count somewhere around three dozen. I lost one 16" as I was struggling in the current to net it and I had one monster smash my nymph--it broke off my rig as I was using 6x tippet.
I caught a few smaller rainbows--in the 6-8" range that did not have a clipped adipose fin. Do they not clip all of the fingerlings they stock there?
It was a nice place to go and just catch some fish without having to think about getting tangled in the rhododendrons.
Jeff
My nephew and I got in at USGS station on Old Mill Road at about 10 am; the flow was down to 175 cfs and the water was about 63 F which felt like bathwater compared to some of the nearby streams we had just been poking (temps were in the high 40s and low 50's F on some of the small streams). With the warmer water the fish were actively feeding, although there wasn't a lot of action on top.
We were both rigged up with dry flies and droppers from our previous fishing so we went to work and were rewarded with a lot of fish. We both had several wild browns, but the rainbows were far more abundant. Personally I avoid fishing for stockers, but these fingerling-stocked rainbows are a lot of fun and behave much more like wild fish, so I could make an exception. 😉 We both caught several dozen fish over two hours and a good number were in the 12-15" size range. Plenty of fish in the 8-10" range, including all of the wild browns I caught. My nephew had a few larger wild browns.
The browns mostly were hitting top water, and they were after the hatch du jour, which was mainly some small sulphurs--I'd say size 24--and some tiny little midges and tricos. I had been fishing a very bouyant size 14 Royal Wulff variant so I left it on and managed to have one nice 14" bow smash it. The rest of my fish were caught on the bottom on a green weenie or beadhead Royal Coachman nymph--that fly is a great all-around stimulator that brookies and rainbows in particular seem to love, but all trout have trouble resisting.
We took a break for lunch and went back to the house we rented to pick up my brother-in-law and returned around 3 pm and fished again through 6 pm. We basically stayed in a stretch of stream about a quarter of a mile long centered on the USGS station and once again caught tons of fish. There was a small dark quill hatching in the afternoon, again about a size 24, and a bit more top water action from the browns. My nephew stuck with a size 20 sulphur as we saw more sulphurs and a similarly-sized yellow sallie popping off in small numbers. He caught almost all browns on top. I used a Prince and the Royal Coachman nymphs and caught an obscene number of rainbows, mostly smaller. I lost count somewhere around three dozen. I lost one 16" as I was struggling in the current to net it and I had one monster smash my nymph--it broke off my rig as I was using 6x tippet.
I caught a few smaller rainbows--in the 6-8" range that did not have a clipped adipose fin. Do they not clip all of the fingerlings they stock there?
It was a nice place to go and just catch some fish without having to think about getting tangled in the rhododendrons.
Jeff
