Fished for about two and a half hours before the heat chased me back starting at 3:00ish today. The water had a lot of color to it but it was at a good level to wade in and I haven't been able to fish much this year. Fish didn't want to play up top but I caught a decent 12-13 inch smallmouth (my biggest fish on the fly so far!) as well as a small rock bass and the two smallest redbreasts I've ever seen. I had another slightly smaller smallmouth hooked but it took a spectacular jump out of the water and tossed the hook. All the fish came on a size 4 black beadhead wooly bugger. All of the fish I caught came from branches along the bank in the slower sections, I did see some minnows being chased and jumping and saw the occasional splash in the pools in the middle of the stream but couldn't tempt them. They liked it dead drifted bouncing off the bottom (maybe they thought it was a crayfish? I've noticed that the smaller crays under 3/4 of an inch or so have a pretty dark color here) or stripped extremely slowly.
West Branch Codorus, York, 6-29-12
- Thread starter iirz
- Start date
PSUFishMenace
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- Aug 12, 2009
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I had very similar results on the Brandywine this evening. Used a size 4 black/olive WB like you did and only caught two 8-9" smallmouths and a few sunnies. Pulled everything from around tree trunks with a deep and slow retrieve like you mentioned. The usual spots I catch them, the deep rocky runs, seemed devoid of fish. Idk if they really weren't there or my presentation was off but it was kind of disappointing to not see anything in the same spots where last year there would be 5-10 bass. Water temp was upper 70s.
lestrout
Well-known member
PSU - maybe there's still muskies hanging around from last year on the Brandywine?
tl
les
tl
les
