Yellow Breeches Cr, Cumberland County -6/9/09

[STONEMAN]

Fished below the hatchery last night just downstream of the Montsera bridge. Even though there were many dark caddis fly fluttering around, there were practically no fish rising. Finally, after a frustrating hour of changing flies and resorting to throwing nymphs and wooly buggers, I landing 2 small but beautiful browns that i spied rising below the bridge on a bwo. Not a very fruitful evening but the creek in that area is absolutely gorgeous when the mist moves in.

 

[David]

I love when the mist rolls in on a stream...except for the Yough...gives me the creeps in the mist there for some reason.

 

[Squaretail]

The Breeches was a real disappointment last year, and this year only seems to be worse. From what I understand, the latest governing folk of the club that has almost 40,000 trout to stock, do their best to make sure the "put and take" policy is utilized to the hilt. And the state seems to have upped the percentage of rainbows compared to browns when they stock it, which dont holdover as well as the browns. It shows when you fish it. Plus even Allenbury has been lacking any real numbers.
The good news? The wild trout seem more abundant.

 

[PatrickG]

I talked to one of guys at the Yellow Breeches fly shop and he said there are virtually no fish in the Allenberry section. I fished it maybe 2 weeks ago and managed one really nice brown on a nymph but didn't see anyone around me catching anything. I've been having pretty good luck fishing along creek road, there are still tons of fish in there, although it gets pounded by the bait fishers. I even managed a grand slam on Monday using mostly nymphs with one caught on a dry. I will agree that there seems to be more wilds, mostly browns from my experience.

Caught this rainbow on Tuesday right by leidhigh drive and he looked good although his left eye was damaged from something.

 

[JackM]

Here's the evening mist on the Yough:

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Thats nice Jack. Where you wading or in a boat?

That water looks like it could be dangerous to wade. :-o

 

[Fishidiot]

I'll second Squaretail's observation regarding the SR section of YB this year - it's lousy. The Run isn't much better either. The trout population in both sections is very low this year.

 

[JackM]

At that level it is safe to wade. I am standing about knee deep I suppose. By navigating upriver and across from this point, I can walk to the other side.

Speaking of boats, if you look downriver and near the left-hand side of the photo you can see two yellow kayaks that were fading off into the mist.

 

[afishinado]

Fishidiot wrote:
I'll second Squaretail's observation regarding the SR section of YB this year - it's lousy. The Run isn't much better either. The trout population in both sections is very low this year.

Why is that Dave? I fish the YB once in a while, usually before or after I get my butt kicked on the Letort. It seems whenever I stop in the YB shop, they complain about low numbers of fish in the stretch. They even have (or did have) a donation jar on the counter for raising money to stock the SR area. Do the stocked fish move out or perish? Is it not stocked with enough fish? Given it is such a popular spot to fish; you would think the FBC would try to address the problem since it seems to be a recurring theme.

 

[dryflyguy]

David wrote:
I love when the mist rolls in on a stream...except for the Yough...gives me the creeps in the mist there for some reason.

Whenever I'm in that pea soup fog on the yough, I always think of that old sci-fi movie, "The Fog" - Eerie.
It also makes it quite hard to look for risers when you can't see more than 10-20 feet away

 

[tomgamber]

Where is Adrienne Barbeau when you need her?

 

[Fishidiot]

Afish,
I'm not really sure but you're right it has been (and remains) a recurrent theme. There was a popular conspiracy theory a few years ago that the PFBC was withholding trout from the SR section in retaliation for fly fishers role in closing the Big Spring hatchery. While I don't buy into this theory, there does seem to be a lot fewer fish than back in the 80s/90s. Ditto with The Run - very few fish the last few years. I don't know about the ratio of browns to bows stocked but in the past the best fishing at Allenberry by far was for brown trout. You could wade out in front of the pavilion and fish a single spot for hours as there were always large groups of browns sipping surface stuff under the big sycamore trees. This is rare now. I don't know the solution. The fishing isn't a complete loss and this section can still show you a good day. Some of the browns I have caught there this year apear to be wild. I have never seen browns in the SR section of YB in the past that I thought were wild (so there is some good news). The money jar at YBO was primarily to help stock large fish in the autumn and I have helped raise funds for this.

 

[scotto]

I am also surprised at the low fish reports. I fish Allenberry 2 weeks ago and caught 15+ fish in 2 hours. I was using a beetle along the edges , then switched over to a tandem of a light cahill wet & soft hackle PT as evening settled in. With one exception, a rainbow, they were all browns several appearing to be wild and several others seemed to be holdovers.

 

[albud1962]

Fishidiot wrote:
Afish,
I'm not really sure but you're right it has been (and remains) a recurrent theme. There was a popular conspiracy theory a few years ago that the PFBC was withholding trout from the SR section in retaliation for fly fishers role in closing the Big Spring hatchery. While I don't buy into this theory, there does seem to be a lot fewer fish than back in the 80s/90s. Ditto with The Run - very few fish the last few years. I don't know about the ratio of browns to bows stocked but in the past the best fishing at Allenberry by far was for brown trout. You could wade out in front of the pavilion and fish a single spot for hours as there were always large groups of browns sipping surface stuff under the big sycamore trees. This is rare now. I don't know the solution. The fishing isn't a complete loss and this section can still show you a good day. Some of the browns I have caught there this year apear to be wild. I have never seen browns in the SR section of YB in the past that I thought were wild (so there is some good news). The money jar at YBO was primarily to help stock large fish in the autumn and I have helped raise funds for this.

Can you say BLue HERON?
DEP ultimately closed down Big Spring, and for the fish commission to target fly fishermen at yellow breeches makes no economic sense. There are a lot of out state license plates in the parking lot. There are plenty of fish in Clark Creek and other DHALO's so what wouldn't they reduce the stockings there also?
I don't think the SR water is getting as many fish from the coop as before. The fish commission has cutback on stocking in general so the lack of fish may be from just an overall decline in stocking numbers. It would be interesting to get some first hand information from someone who assisted in the stocking this year. I do believe the heron population can be having an impact on the number of trout available especially in the run where there isn't much cover for the fish to hide.

 

[Fishidiot]

albud,
You may be right about heron predation but the truth is I see more herons everywhere these days so I'm not convinced it is the problem on the SR section of YB. In fact, I see more herons on streams which get less pressure (like Clarks) or the "open" water on YB and where there are more trout. It just seems there are not as many trout and/or they are migrating out of the SR.
I actually heard from a reliable source that a pair of bald eagles actually laid up in Boiling Springs late this winter and cleaned out The Run. Apparently, the birds moved on to Conodoguinet by late springtime. Nevertheless, The Run has been stocked since and there remains few fish in it. It has been years since I assisted with the stocking of the SR section so I can't say what the brown/rainbow ratio is/was.
Again, I should emphasize that this section can still fish well as scotto and others can attest but there simply has not been the number of fish overall in the last couple seasons. 2006 was bad too.

 

[tomgamber]

I want to see numbers. Even though I have seen herons on many waters I refuse to believe that they are responsible for more trout mortality than fishermen. It just make no sense. And let me theoretically give in for a minute and say IF they do kill more fish than fishermen so what..bird gotta eat too.

 

[Biggie]

Like most other reports, it depends on who you talk to. Two weeks ago I talk to a husband and wife in the parking lot at the run and they said they didn't even see a rise or fish below the dam in the SR area. I told that I had netted 6 or 7 and lost a few that morning down there. I have to agree with others though that there are fewer fish but still enough to have a decent day, numbers wise.

 

[Squaretail]

A "decent" day can still be had, I agree. But the spec regs section isnt in the same ball park of what it was. Yellow Breeches Outfitters has barely seen a nickel of my money and why in the world would anyone spend the money to go to Allenbury, no matter how nice, for decent fishing. Dont get me wrong, for the most part my concerns are self centered. But these places exist because of the excellent fishing that was to be had at the Breeches for years.
I'd really hate to lose yet another flyshop, and Allenbury is the site of alot of flyfishing special events. I can always fish a dozen other streams.

 

[PaulG]

I would have to agree with the guys who says, the reg waters aren't what they use to be, I know alot of the old timmers that fish there all the time and they say the same thing. For myself I fish the reg waters MANY times a year and I don't catch near the fish I use to, I won't quote any numbers because no one would believe me.

I also heard the story about the FC, not putting as many fish in the reg waters because of what happened at BS. I also heard a few years back the guy that was head of the YBAA didn't like flyfishermen so he had them put less fish in the Reg water. I don
t believe that but it was a rumor.

I can't believe I haven't been to YB this year yet, I'll have to get over there and check it out!

PaulG