Youghiogheny River, Fayette/Sommerset Co. 9/08/2012

[DaveS]

I met up with Fishidiot last Saturday. We floated the middle "Yough" from Ramcatt to Ohiopyle. Despite a threatening forecast, we rigged up and got underway with some morning sun. The upper portion of this float has proved to be a tough nut to crack. For the third time no fish were had in the first few miles.
Water temperature was observed at 65F. After a short break on shore and a few candy bars, Dave continued to hammer away at the likely holding water with his streamer. But Nada.
There were some caddis, the odd Iso, and a few Olives about. The big event was heavy numbers of egglaying Craneflies. Yet no fish seemed interested.
Finally we get a few risers, and Dave quickly swapped rods for a dryfly rig. Dave made a great cast and the big Iso proved too much for the fish!
After a second fish, we swapped spots on the boat and it wasn't long before a very nice rainbow took an Iso for me as well.
FI went back at the fish with the streamer until we'd spot a riser. Then give' em an Iso. Eventually his persistance payed off as the articulating streamer brought a few bass and an incredibly chuncky rainbow to the boat.
The float ended with each of us getting a few more rainbows from a pod of risers near the cable car. These fish came mostly to a BWO rabbit's foot emerger.
All in all it was a great day! It rained pretty much most of the day, once it even forced us off the river. But we perservered. Heck the dryfly was outproducing the streamer, so who can complain!

 

[SBecker]

I opened this thread, praying I was not going to be wittnessing another monster. Out of my own jealousy of course. Sounds like a good trip, even with the rain. Atleast you did not forget your rain jackets. Mmmmm DaveS candy bars lol

 

[Maurice]

Nice report Dave, [Dave] glad to hear you got into 'em.

After the first paragraph I thought I perhaps you two were the jinx'es on the Susky trip. :-D

 

[dc410]

Great report and nice pictures. Those are some really pretty bows! Glad you guys had a good day. The Yough looks like a beautiful river. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Kabutt]

Nice! Are those 'bows streambred? Looks it...

 

[DaveS]

Kabutt,

Fingerlings. But surprisingly good fighters, once they grow up a bit.

 

[Kabutt]

Ahh, wasn't sure. Dunno much about the Yough, but I'm not surprised those river bows give ya a hell of a battle...

 

[Fishidiot]

Thanks again, Dave, for showing me a great float trip on a great river. It had been several years since I'd fished the Yough and, despite the downpour, this trip was one of my best fishing days in recent months - finally shook out of the slump. 🙂
I was indeed surprised that streamers didn't produce more fish considering the dark skies. It's a rare day that I get more trout on dries than subsurface. I was also pleased to see the many shucks of golden stoneflies along the shoreline not to mention the other bugs. I did get out my kick seine and do a brief macro survey on Sunday morning by the bridge in Ohiopyle and then again up at Confluence just below the dam. The results were very poor so the river, obviously, remains infertile based on what little I saw. Nevertheless, it's worth remembering that a generation ago that section was virtually dead.
It's also been awhile since I've hooked good sized bows in a large river and had forgotten how hard they fight! Hearing the scream of a fly reel drag and watching the line zip away and the rod bucking.....good stuff. 🙂 The fish in that river also looked as good as they fought. The rainbow DaveS is holding was probably about 18" and, as you can see, a real beauty.

 

[goodfortune]

I'm glad to see that you had an enjoyable day on the Yough, Dave. If you get the chance to come out to our area again, be sure to check out the Lower Yough for smallmouth - I think that you would enjoy fishing it as well.

 

[YoughRiverGuide]

Fishidiot: infertile? Based on two samplings? Obviously. . .

You are right though. Those rainbows you guys caught look to be the products of an infertile river. Skinny. Malnourished. Poor fighters.

Oh, wait, is that right?

Not for nothing, but a person might expect that a guy who holds himself out to be a bit of an expert might be a slightly more astute observer of the details, i.e., fat, healthy fish that fight hard and that are so keyed in on a specific food source that they ignore streamers.

Seriously though--you couldn't have picked two worse spots to sample bugs. And the rest of the details tell the story. In fact, your two samplings, if anything, when compared with the rest of what you experienced, are anomalous, and should be dismissed as such.

Glad you guys had a good day on the river though.

See below pic for a regular scene from this infertile river - I count seven riseforms plus two fish in the air, conservatively.

 

[Fishidiot]

YoughRiverGuide wrote:
Fishidiot: infertile? Based on two samplings? Obviously. . .

In fact, your two samplings, if anything, when compared with the rest of what you experienced, are anomalous, and should be dismissed as such.

Well yes, I've pretty much concluded that what I found in my survey wasn't representative of what exists in the stretch we fished. While I don't contend that my survey was scientific and have never "held myself out to be an expert".... I did endeavor to be systematic with sampling methodology with respect to riffle depth, number of kicks etc. Curiously, when just rolling some rocks in the stretch we fished, I saw considerably more mayflies and caddis.....thus I was surprised when the samples from similar sections up and downstream failed to turn up similar results. Apparently, you are indeed correct that the sections I sampled were not the best for bug life. I also so no stone shucks in the sampled sections even though they were common where we floated. Hhmmm...
Clearly the fish are healthy and we saw plenty of insect activity. It's a wonderful river....and a bit mysterious. 🙂

 

[greenghost]

It's a wonderful river....and a bit mysterious. 🙂

FI,
And that is the essence of this river. Like a stunningly beautiful woman who appears out of nowhere, flirts with you, then suddenly disappears. Leaving you wanting and wondering.

Glad you guys had a good day. btw - As someone who has fished the river for over 30 years, I can tell you that the fertility is exponentially better than it was 25 years ago. Not as rich as what you're used to in the waters of SC PA, ;-) but it's getting there.....

 

[Ramcatt]

greenghost wrote:

It's a wonderful river....and a bit mysterious. 🙂

FI,
And that is the essence of this river. Like a stunningly beautiful woman who appears out of nowhere, flirts with you, then suddenly disappears. Leaving you with a burning infection that requires 3 days in a hospital

fixed

 

[DaveS]

OUCH!

 

[greenghost]

Ramcatt wrote:

greenghost wrote:

It's a wonderful river....and a bit mysterious. 🙂

FI,
And that is the essence of this river. Like a stunningly beautiful woman who appears out of nowhere, flirts with you, then suddenly disappears. Leaving you with a burning infection that requires 3 days in a hospital

fixed

LOL!
Unfortunately, rarely do you get to go "all the way" with the Yough. Most of the time it's a tease!

 

[Ramcatt]

thats wasn't a joke or some dirty methaphor

 

[greenghost]

Of course not. This site is rated PG.

 

[YoughRiverGuide]

Ramcatt wrote:

greenghost wrote:

It's a wonderful river....and a bit mysterious. 🙂

FI,
And that is the essence of this river. Like a stunningly beautiful woman who appears out of nowhere, flirts with you, then suddenly disappears. Leaving you with a burning infection that requires a total of 5 days in a hospital over two separate occsasions

fixed

fixed

 

[Ramcatt]

oh yeah... you got the extended stay plan

they just gave me couple bags of morphine and a note that said "don't do that again"

but back to the topic at hand
so after a day of catching chunky risers, you kicked up a few rocks above your butterfly net, coming up empty and you want to say the river is dead?

 

[pwk5017]

Ok, to go along with what Fishidiot observed, I have read reports in newspapers etc. calling the yough "infertile". Whats the deal? It is a pseudo tailwater, arent they typically "very fertile" due to the plankton and algae growing in the stillwater above the dam release? This then leads to an incredible population of filter feeding insects. However, the yough cant be a true tailwater, because of it mixing with a freestone WW stream. So, what is it?

I have never noticed or observed much bug activity on the river. Ive never seen a fish rise. I havent seen much in the way of bug life on rocks. I have only seen a decent amount of stonefly shucks. Still, they are never too abundant.

Now, with all of this observation, I still wanted to ask fishidiot why he said the river was infertile. I even typed up a decent response last night, but never posted it. Like him, I have never noticed much in the way of bugs, but unlike him, I have always observed tons of baitfish, and enormous crayfish. I assume it cant be infertile if it holds that quantity of baitfish.

Cant agree more with what everyone said about the river. Everytime I walk away from the river, I have a heart to heart discussion with myself on whether i would ever care to fish it again. The answer is always "no". I hate it. Wading it requires so much effort. You walk the damn trail for miles to reach accessible stretches. All of this would be forgivable if you had banner days, but they never come. My last outing I managed two river chubs and one 11" smallmouth. I had 4 trout on(one of them being a beefy 18" bow) and a smallie around 16-17". This always happens. I hook into some decent fish after 7 hours of fishing and they get off. It is salt in the wound. And still, i go back. I dont know if I do it out of stupidity or what, but I cant get enough of the yough. I find myself day dreaming about it while commuting, and live for the day I "crack it". I am not 100% this river is even crackable, but im borderline obsessed with it.