Tionesta Creek, Forest Co, 4-28-2024

[Prospector]

Time Fished: 330pm - 500pm

Weather Conditions: Mix of clouds and sun, 3 short rain showers, Air Temp 70 degrees

Water Conditions: Clear, water temp 60 degrees

Insects: nothing visible, but did see about 15 - 20 rises

In my drive upstream I only saw one other fisher. He was fishing where I parked. He quit before I made it to the stream. He caught “his limit”. I decided walk upstream and fish a streamer down a long stretch of water. This has worked well in years past.

Right off the bat I had 2 misses and then hooked a rainbow that leaped and tossed the fly. I soon caught a nice 16” brown but then had quite a dry spell. I debated whether to take off the streamer but I stuck with it. After the long drought I caught 2 rainbows in pretty quick succession.

That would be it for me. The water was in great shape and I would have stayed longer but I had an errand to run.

Of note, I have caught a couple of 16”browns so far. That’s pretty rare for me. I tend not to catch fish that size. Maybe the PFBC kept more “holdover” browns and stocked them this year. Whatever the reason, it has been a nice bonus.

 

[troutbert]

Of note, I have caught a couple of 16”browns so far. That’s pretty rare for me. I tend not to catch fish that size. Maybe the PFBC kept more “holdover” browns and stocked them this year. Whatever the reason, it has been a nice bonus.

Or could it be that these browns came up from the river?

 

[Bruno]

I caught a beer Buzz at The Seldom Inn 🙂 Which if you happen to be in the Tionesta Area has some pretty good grub since reopening

 

[Prospector]

Or could it be that these browns came up from the river?

Could be. I’m not sure how to determine that. They are very nice.

 

[Prospector]

I caught a beer Buzz at The Seldom Inn 🙂 Which if you happen to be in the Tionesta Area has some pretty good grub since reopening

Yes, my wife and I went the week it opened. Snow on ground. However we haven’t been there since. Both of our meals were excellent. I got Prime Rib and I think she had a pork chop.

 

[troutbert]

Could be. I’m not sure how to determine that. They are very nice.

If you have any photos of those browns, the super sleuths here on paflyfish could figure it out. Or at least state our opinions on it.

"River fish" would probably look different than recent stockies.

 

[Solitariolupo]

If fishing the top part it would be from the lake. If fishing bottom it could be river but more than likely it was stocked.

 

[Prospector]

You are in partial luck. I’ve only kept 3 trout this year. My wife wanted me to bring some trout home so I kept one of those browns. I think it’s stocked but the entire fish is not available for review.

Also note, I caught browns in the 16” range on 2 different creeks.

 

[Prospector]

Tionesta Creek, Forest Co, 4-30-2024

Time Fished: 330pm - 600pm

Weather Conditions: Mix of clouds and sun, Air Temp 70 degrees

Water Conditions: Clear, water temp 60 degrees

Insects: Caddis where flying upstream in low numbers. Maybe 10 per minute.

I started out fishing a picket pin under a Caddis wet. I worked this rig about a quarter mile and only caught 2 (Brookie & rainbow). Both on the picket pin.

I saw quite a few rises as I ran the wets so I walked back where the highest concentration of risers were. I tried a tan Caddis but no takers. Then I tried a red quill and also no takers. I switched to a midge and caught 2 rainbows in short order and then the pool shutdown. That was very strange. They just stopped rising.

I decided to walk upstream and work a streamer through some nice water. After about 10 minutes I had a great strike and it broke me off. That was the only strike on the streamer.

Although it was a slow I’m glad I fished this stretch since it’s been at least 8 years

I included a photo of a stonefly on a streamside tree. Don’t be afraid to toss around hefty stoneflies in this creek.

 

[Prospector]

Tionesta Creek, Forest Co, 5-1-2024

Time Fished: 500pm - 820pm

Weather Conditions: Sunny, Air Temp 75 degrees

Water Conditions: Clear, I forgot to get temp

Insects: When I arrived, Caddis were in streamside brush and pretty active. Between 7pm and 730pm a million had to fly past. They were in constant motion generally heading upstream. I didn’t notice any laying eggs. They must have been mating. I caught one mayfly.

No one else was fishing this section. I started out working through 100 yds of water while swinging 2 flies (olive woolly bugger and Royal Coachman wet). Caught 1 on the coachman. I went back to the top of the riffle and switched to a streamer but had no strikes. Fish began to rise so I switched to a dry and had no takes but only 3-4 fish were rising periodically.

I decided to try the tail end of the pool with the green woolly bugger and I did land one. At this point the rises were more frequent in this slower water. There must have been about 15-20 active trout in this area. I tied on a sz18 Red Quill and just about every fish took it but I missed or lost half of them. After the remaining trout became wise to the Red Quill I tried a sz 16 Caddis and caught one more and lost a few. All told, I landed 9 rainbows. As stated earlier, the rainbows in Tionesta are running on the small side.

I addition to the trout, the toads seem to be in full mating mode. Singing and floating around. This might be 3 weeks early.

As I got back to my truck, a woodcock was making his chirps just 20 yds away. Then he made 3 different mating flights while I was there. Every time he landed about 20 yards from me.

 

[Bruno]

Thanks for these reports. I am going to head back up in a few days.

 

[Prospector]

Tionesta Creek, Forest Co, 5-3-2024

Time Fished: 1015am - 115pm

Weather Conditions: Sunny, Air Temp 75 degrees

Water Conditions: Clear, water temp was 60 degrees

Insects: Caddis are all over the streamside brush, a decent amount in the air.

I decided to fish a fast, fairly shallow riffle with 3 wets. It’s a place many people overlook or just don’t want to deal with moving downstream after every cast in a decent current.

Flies were Top - #12 Dark Caddis wet, Middle - #12 Royal Coachman wet, Bottom - #10 Olive Woolly Bugger.

I just swung the 3 wets down and across and let the current do the work. I probably fished 500 yards. Every fly caught fish. Eventually I had one break off the Royal Coachman and the woolly bugger trailer.

I took this chance to change my middle to a #12 Grizzly King and added the same olive woolly bugger. The Grizzly King caught some trout. It’s real simple fishing.

I had 52 strikes and landed 19 rainbows. I kept 4 for dinner tomorrow since my wife is here.

For those of you interested I grabbed the stomach contents of all 4 in a few photos. Photo 8977 is just an closeup of 8976 to show the caddis better. Also the toads are laying eggs and fighting for mates. It was quite the bar scene.

 

[Prospector]

Tionesta Creek, Forest Co, 5-4-2024

Time Fished: 445pm - 745pm

Weather Conditions: Cloudy, Light Rain, Air Temp falling from 57 to 50

Water Conditions: Clear, water temp was 60 degrees

Insects: Some Caddis were out and about but most were hunkered down. Also caught a Quill Gordon Dun while crossing the creek. Photos attached

I went back to the same location as yesterday. As I arrived a father and son were fishing the area I hoped to fish but I walked past them. The dad said they had caught plenty and they were leaving since his son was hungry. He suggested to jump in where they were but I slid down creek a bit. I was soon into fish. I used 2 flies - Olive Woolly bugger and a dark Caddis wet. I worked the riffles swinging the flies in the fast current. I hadn’t caught a brown yesterday but today 3 of the first 6 fish were browns.

The fast current meant that there was no need to put any movement to the flies. Just let them swing. Action was consistent from 445pm thru 6pm in the riffle. At that point I hit the riffle of a long hole. I had a flurry of 6-7 strikes and misses in 5 min and then it went dead for an hour. At that point I was in a hole and I tried to solve it with fly changes. Nothing worked for the next hour.

I took the loss and decided to go back to the riffle to see if they turned off too. They did not, but the browns did. Caught 6 more rainbows to close out the day.

All told I had 47 strikes and I caught 12 rainbows (one in the 18”-19” range), 4 browns and a smallmouth bass (the earliest date I’ve ever caught a SM in the Tionesta).

It’s been a strange year. I have a lot of slow days on Tionesta in late April/early May but this year has been different.

 

[Prospector]

Tionesta Creek, Forest Co, 5-5-2024

Time Fished: 630pm - 815pm

Weather Conditions: Cloudy, Air Temp 64 degrees

Water Conditions: Clear, water temp was 58 degrees

Insects: A lot of Caddis are around. If you happen to wade past a tree hanging over the water you get a true appreciation for how many there are. I saw quite a few stick Caddis cases on rocks, so they are hatching. In general Caddis numbers are strong.

The woolly bugger has been producing so I decided to run only one fly today. Swinging extra flies wasn’t worth it over the last few days. I made a couple passes in the same stretch and I had 23 strikes and caught 10.

From there I was curious if a streamer would generate any interest. I fished it through and I had 5 swirls but never felt any strikes. I took a flyer and tried a large Gold Ribbed Hares Ear nymph. The GRHE did not get strike. Last pass before dark I put on a Dark Caddis Wet and fished it through. I had one strike and caught a brown.

I ended up with 8 rainbows and 3 browns.

One other guy fished above me 250 yds away for maybe an hour.

 

[Prospector]

Tionesta Creek, Forest Co, 5-6-2024

Time Fished: 630pm - 800pm

Weather Conditions: Sunny but the area I fished was shaded, Air Temp 67 degrees

Water Conditions: Clear, water temp was 64 degrees. Hopefully some rain or cooler weather is on the way.

Insects: A lot of Caddis. They really made a push about 730pm

This area was tougher to fish. It is pretty deep and has multiple currents and some large rocks in unexpected places. I switched back and forth between both currents. I started with an olive woolly bugger and had a bunch of strikes but only hooked 2 and both got off.

There is a point where the currents meet up and unify. At that point I thought a fly change was necessary to a more aggressive fly (a streamer), but it only generated one strike (a swing and a miss).

I had noticed occasional rises by multiple fish so I tried a few different Caddis flies. All had dark bodies. It was tough to see the small Caddis in the choppy riffle so I switched a larger one and I had 5-6 takes and caught a rainbow.

I switched back to the green woolly bugger for about 20 minutes and I caught a couple browns. It was about this time that the Caddis were fairly heavy in the riffle.

I had 23 strikes but only caught 3.

 

[Bruno]

Is the bridge open?

 

[Prospector]

Is the bridge open?

I heard it was but I rarely go over it. Also heard from my neighbors up here that they were catching rainbows in the lake.