“The” Breeches / The Run - 8/1/25

[JG63]

Had a nice morning at this popular special reg area - hadn’t been there in years but a brother-in-law wanted to shake off 20 (or so) years of fly fishing “rust” and we had a little time. The weather cooperated with clouds, and air temps in the 60F range. Water temps from “The” Run downstream to the Allenberry Dam were in the mid 60s. I put on my old guide hat and put him onto a nicely colored Brown at the recently destroyed head of “The” Run at about 0800 hrs - a cream #12 Mop Fly turned the trick - there is virtually no cover and nothing but shallow water coming out of the lake now - the first 100 yards inexplicably hold a few fish but the numbers of fish are dismal compared to years past. I realize it is mostly stocked, but without habitat or depth, it’s a moot point - the overall level of this stretch is at least a foot below what it was in the ‘80’s - urban sprawl takes its toll. We then headed to the main stem of the YB and fished approx 3 hours with NO rises seen, NO fish spooked/spotted, and NO hatch activity whatsoever - I was able to help his casting and mending skills as we switched from nymphs to dries, then streamers, and finally back to a mop where he managed one more Brown and I stuck a hatchery abused Rainbow with a “secret” streamer pattern - in all, a comparatively slow day was good to get out. Takeaways - I can still put folks on fish - the three separate Great Blue Herons and resident Osprey look well fed, turning over stones yielded a VERY few Caddis cases, and several tiny Stenacron type nymphs - though it is August and a somewhat poor time to work these waters, I expected way more than we received as far as fish spotting, workable rises, good habitat and bug sightings - all of which explained the total lack of fly fishermen in nearly 5 hours total fishing time. It was good to get out and have a student outperform the teacher as planned - but the next time may be further North - my Cumberland Valley streams continue to shrivel up as more wells drill into the aquifer 😕