South Branch of Muddy Creek, York County 5/15/22

[McSneek]

Fished late morning until a little after 3:00pm. Was surprised to find somewhat off color water but then I recalled we had some storms come through on Friday evening. Water level is actually very good right now. Other than a stray caddis or two no insect activity. Fished my way upstream with a dry/dropper and assorted nymphs with no success. I usually catch a lot of small wild fish on the dropper but they weren’t having it yesterday. Fished my way downstream with an olive bugger and caught numerous stocked rainbows in the likely spots. Had the stream to myself in this stretch.

 

[Maurice]

Fished late morning until a little after 3:00pm. Was surprised to find somewhat off color water but then I recalled we had some storms come through on Friday evening. Water level is actually very good right now. Other than a stray caddis or two no insect activity. Fished my way upstream with a dry/dropper and assorted nymphs with no success. I usually catch a lot of small wild fish on the dropper but they weren’t having it yesterday. Fished my way downstream with an olive bugger and caught numerous stocked rainbows in the likely spots. Had the stream to myself in this stretch.

View attachment 1641225287

Thats a beast of a snapper Steve. Wow!

 

[Mike]

Those were the ones that were not fun to pull out of a trap net. The smaller ones were ok, even if there were 4-5 in the net. The tricky part was when they were all facing different directions. Getting a hand on one without another biting you was a challenge.

Those big ones though were heavy and they were all claws and jaws. Invariably the claws from multiple feet would hook into the net as the beasts were lifted through a normally stitched slice in the net used to remove fish after unstitching the slot. The net that wasn’t much longer than their carapaces were wide. And each time a front foot would get hung up by its claws, untangling the foot was a harrowing maneuver due to the long necks of these critters.

You have to respect them when they are this large. They could be 70 yrs old.