Weekday FlyFishing (on going blog)

sal, those are great pictures of the Letort. I just retired and that stream is on my list to fish this spring. I heard about the tricky currents and swampy conditions but your pictures have prepared me better for my trip there than all the verbal discriptions everyone else has given me.

What flies do you suggest to use in early spring?
 
For the early spring i would suggest BWO's, Midges of all varieties , the usual suspects......scuds and cress bugs of course, buggers and if later spring/summer a pale evening dun.

Good Luck!

oh and keep in mind....in my pics its the winter time. By spring the streamside vegatation is going to start to make this more difficult. Also its easier to fish now because the swamp is frozen by spring it can swallow you. But a disadvantage to the winter is....no place to hide. But the advantage is a great BWO hatch every year and the trout take them 🙂

day 3 pics coming 🙂
 
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Cold
Wednesday was cold in the morning and the above pic suggests such. This fishing was going to be slow for no doubt.

Knees knocking in the middle of a stream can be frustrating and annoying but sometimes you just need to get out. The stream we are fishing is an Urban stream that harbors a class A wild brown trout population. Spectorfly met up with Jay for the first time and all three of us went fishing. I wouldnt have probably come to this stream but it is close to jays house and he only ever fished it for 5 minutes once before. Time to show him around.

These streams always amaze me. They are nettled right in with our everday lives. Driving to work probably 20,000 people drive right by this stream and dont realize how many wild trout are in it. Worse yet...
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They dont realize how beautiful they can be.

The fishing was really slow and at the end of the trip here we had only landed a few fish. I did miss about 5 and spectorfly i think even more. Thats ok, i have had proflic days on this stream and its just nice to be out and get a break from family life.

Eric @ stream

Reflecting Morning Light

Jay stalking a fish

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After Jay left we decided to head to a stream thats close by that i caught a 16-17 inch wild brown out of and saw a 20 + inch bow and other fish.

Well the Large bow is still down there along with a bunch of others in that hole. The problem is other trout take your offering before him. I did hook him last summer but he came off. Im guessing this bow @ 23 inches. Somewhere in there.

While we didnt catch him but saw him we did land a few fish.

Always loved the color of bows in the winter
The pic didnt do the fish justice.

Eric with a wild brown

After this we went to the Lower Special Regs area of the Tully. I hate this stream. I cant even tell you how much i dislike it. The water was high on Wednesday and had a strong flow. We didnt stay long. Not my cup of tea ;-)

I wanted to go fishing today but since the wife left it has been ......drink....fish.....drink fish.....work........drink fish. I needed a break. Sorry Lehigh guys i needed to sleep and clean the house before the wife killed me. :lol: Sometime soon.

Next trip is this weekend with Dan. Wish us Luck! :-D

P.S. Jay that fish is right by your house go catch him this week :-D
 
Great report. I like your idea of a PAFF thread that is essentially a trip-by-trip fishing blog. I don't think anybody's done anthing quite like this. By spring, I think it's gonna be a mighty long thread. 🙂 Maybe you could break it into "chapters" or something.
Anyway, I'm enjoying it. Good luck fishin with Dan.

PS: Good advice on Letort conditions and flies - I'll second it.
 
Thanks. 🙂

Ya i didnt want to drag this one on that long but just till the end of this week. I figure Dan will have a wonderful essay as usual and i can add the last trip from my perspective here.

However i will do this from time to time. At the very least people love the pics and get some useful info through conversations in the threads.

Ill probably make one for the first 3 weeks of trout season after this one 🙂
 
that stream is unbelievable... if only it was located somewhere else... it's remarkable how no one knows there are trout in there.. you should try below the class a section down to the mouth.. there are some nice fish to be had, just watch out for the bums living under the highway bridge... I've seen some large fish directly above where your standing when you took the picture of Eric @ stream..

This fish was caught below the class a section, there are definitely much bigger fish down there..
 

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Yes i agree and we have been down there. We even discussed it on this trip. Up @ the bridge above where Eric was is a Larger one that always sits @ that bridge. Hard to approach we saw him 3 times that day.
 
No worries Sal from us lehigh guys! Glad you had such a good week you needed that. Just as long as I get a chance to be your camera man one day!
 
if the water is class A there might be more people than u think fishing there , like through the week , early morning summer & fall
 
Dan didn't ask me to go Saturday......I guess he's still mad at me for laughing at his leaky waders last trip! Hahaha.
 
Your the one person on this board that can ALWAYS join me.
Every single time.

Hey, what was that? Was that my phone ri..... oh no. I guess not. ;-)

And the day was changed to sunday.
 
My phone range earlier today, someone inviting me to go......wasn't you. I'm learning your game quite well, Jedi Master.
 
LL,

You got it bud. I havent forgotten you guys and the riddle of that creek. Such a precious gem it is, thats for sure. I know we will solve it soon . 🙂But I bet, Spring would probably be best. The extra flow and slightly off color water will allow us some fish. Especially after some nice rains. :-D Just a guess but i bet that would help solve some of the issues on that very tough little stream.
 
if the water is class A there might be more people than u think fishing there , like through the week , early morning summer & fall

Yes people fish this water. There is also a trny held on this stream that makes the wild trout hide for dear life.

Most people that live here ask me if they stocked it and looked confused because im fishing in the winter or another time "out of trout season". I tell them im fishing for wild brown trout and they even get more confused. The next question is predictable......


Theres wild brown trout?

They just dont know what they got ;-)
 
LL, I LOVE your quote! You don't know how many times I have wanted to SCREAM that into the phone!
 
whheff wrote:
sal, those are great pictures of the Letort. I just retired and that stream is on my list to fish this spring. I heard about the tricky currents and swampy conditions but your pictures have prepared me better for my trip there than all the verbal discriptions everyone else has given me.

What flies do you suggest to use in early spring?

whheff

My favorite hatch on the Letort is the Sulfurs, don't miss it!

PaulG
 
Pics From today on the way.......
 
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When a trip starts out this way....makes you wonder.
Some reason, this only made me want to tailgate him more on the way to Falling Springs Branch. Mainly because i know what kind of special stream it is and i was getting anxious.

We (Squaretail, Spectorfly, Slaymaker and Sal) the 4S's met @ the Chambersburg McDonalds before heading to the heritage area.
Once there we decided to split into 2 groups of 2 and cover more stream. Me and Squaretail went upstream. Eric and Slay went down.

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It didnt take too long for these 2 knuckleheads to start their usual stuff. What was really funny was watching Chicky dig up stuff and a trout rise to what she was digging up. Dan and I found it amusing. We thought of casting to that fish but it swam away, i think chicky did well feeding the trout :lol:

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The stream in this upper end is fairly shallow. Make no mistake, large trout do exist here even in the swallow weed choked stream channel. I spooked a 16-17 incher and Dan had 2 trout (both fairly large) break his clouser crayfish off. I managed 3 small trout. One was maybe 10, that i lost due to getting my rod tip tangled in the trees above me on the hook set.
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Small but a jewel. 🙂

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These were the extent of the pics i took. Meanwhile in a stream section far away..................

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Slay and Eric were working one of mine and Dans favorite sections. I remember this summer i took Slay to the Upper Tully. He actually commented on leaving his rod in the car and watching because he knows limestone spring creeks can be hard. I told him that if he did that he would be making a big mistake. Today Slay landed the first fish and ones of the nicest size. He is becoming a great fly angler and photographer. Enjoy some of his pics:

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Eric on Falling spring

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Do i see a fish? :lol:

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Large dead rainbow

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Loved this pic Slay!

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why do people insist on doing this?

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Me trying to catch a fish 🙂

After we fished our sections, we met back up and headed down stream. This section of stream does not have very good habitat like above. However, it contains some very large trout. In a short distance we saw 4 trout and im sure 3 of them were over 20 inches. One might have been 27. The fish was huge.

Good luck sneaking up on them. Even when the extremely large fish was in front of you in clear water....you could hardly see him. Yes it was a male with a huge hook jaw, that im sure of. I think the only way to land these trout is to catch them in a different lie, or catch them on top. They were all sitting in shallow flat water.

Eric casting 🙂

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You can thank the gracious landowners and the greenway for access. I love this stream just for that :-D

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Me 🙂

What is up with this christmas tree in the water? :lol: It was lit up!

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Motley Crew 🙂

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A muskrat!

Dan Casting to a very nice fish

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Doesnt slay take great pics! I loved this one!

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Scuds and sculpins! We had taked about what color the scuds in FS might be. Slay found out for us. Tan and brown. 🙂

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Dan all foggy just like our polarized glasses.

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How many fish did we catch?

Needless to say the fishing was hard, as Falling Spring can be. I consider this trip a success. Why you may ask?

Friends, Dogs, a decent day and a few trout.

I heard a saying once....

Give a man a fish he eats for a day, Teach a man how to fish he eats for life.

With these SCPA limestoners im just glad we have a thing called a McFish :lol:
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I forgot to mention:

I was throwing a BWO nymph tandemed with a olive scud.

All the strikes i had were on that nymph. BWO nymphs must be crawling around in that stream. Shame nothing hatched *shrugs*
 
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