Youghiogheny Fishing Report: 5-6-2013 - 5-7-2013

Beno came down for a visit this past weekend and we headed out to the Yough Monday and Tuesday. Both days were cool, cloudy, and accompanied by constant winds. We thought conditions were going to be perfect for dry flies with the weather and the flow around 800cfs, however we ended up having to nymph just about the entire time we were there. Fishing was a little slow each day but we kept at it and were able to hook into some good looking trout. We each had a few fish that we couldn't land which would have made both days feel a little more productive. 

Beno with a nice Rainbow

Another view

We saw Caddis, March Browns, and a few BWOs flying around but not in enough numbers to get the fish to rise even in the low water. 

I had been talking the Yough up to Ben for a few weeks and although it was a little slower this time around we still had a good time out on the river. Hopefully the next time Ben makes the trip we can run into some action on top.

Penns Creek 5-1-13 thru 5-4-13

The crew headed up to Penns Creek for 4 days of fishing last week, and as usual this water was scenic, bug rich, and just plain awesome.  Matt, Andy, Dad, Marc Billet, and myself decided to fish the bottom end of the creek for the very first time.  We camped a few miles below Weikert and wanted to explore this "new" water.  We fished many miles of water from Glen Iron up thru the Project and discovered that while the Project was spectacular as usual, the open water held up its end of the bargain too.

Each new stretch of river fished gave up multiple hook-ups, and showed the bug life Penn's is famous for.  The days gave us a sampling of remaining Hendricksons, up start March Browns, Tan and Black caddis, small olives, ubiquitous crane flies, and a solid brown stonefly.  Dry fly fishing was best on spinner falls in the evenings, but some persistence with March Brown duns also paid dividends.

Nymphing brought the most trout to the net though.  A full box of ties encompassing each and every subaquatic genera was the menu the trout responded to.  This stream certainly pushes the angler to be aware of the lifeforms available to the fish, and the tier to match them all.  If it was easy it wouldn't be Penns Creek!



























All in all the fishing was decent to good, and our excursion to the bottom end of the trout water proved successful.  Anyone looking for some new holes to look at on this famous water would benefit from exploring the miles and miles of water on this end.

 

 

 

A Couple More Pics From The Trip

Billy Getting It Done On Nymph's

Billet Showcasing An Awesome Brown In The Open Water

Evening Spinner Fall Rewarding Billet

Great Feeling Catching Wild Brown Trout In Non Regulated Water

Perfecting The Roll Cast

Youghiogheny Fishing Report: Hog Fever

Lucky to get another big brown!

Me, Billy, and my Dad headed out to the Yough today from about 10:30a.m. until 5:00 p.m. When we arrived at the stream, so did the wind and it kept up the entire time we were there. Fishing started off a little slow but I managed two underneath, while Billy got four with wet-flies. Around 1:00 p.m. Caddis were everywhere and because of the wind, they were being slammed onto the water. Despite the wind, the fish started rising and although casting was tough we managed to hook into about 20 fish! The hatches happened pretty close to what Matt posted yesterday, although today the Caddis were dominating the water with the Hendricksons popping off here and there. 

Close-up view of my hog

We were all pretty spread out so we couldn't get as many pictures as we would have liked. Tough to take them yourself when it takes two hands to hold them! Gotta love the size of these fish this year, can't wait to get back out there and hook into some more of these heavy trout.

Billy's Rainbow

Youghiogheny Fishing Report: More Of The Same

Phil Getting Rewarded On His First Float Down The Middle

     I floated the river from 8:30-6pm today. The water was flowing at 1500 cfs when we started today but ended up at 1290 by the time we ended (temperature was 48-52 degrees). I think because the water was dropping it may have effected the fishing to some degree.

Average Size Fish So Far This Year

     My fishing partners this time out were Mike (www.brooksbrownsandbows.com) and Phil. The nymphing was "OK" throughout the duration of the float. The high catch numbers were not there but the quality still was. Fish ranging from the 15-18 inch mark were common when we hooked up and the bigger ones we hooked into eluded our boat.


Mike Putting Me On Fish

Me Putting Mike On Fish

      As far as bugs go it was a good day. The black caddis started coming off around 11am in good numbers and had fish looking up. Once the clock struck 2pm the Hendrickson started appearing in good numbers and fish seemed to like those a bit more. There were fish rising but then the wind would pick up and put them down. Then around 4pm an olive caddis hatched in great numbers and fish were eating on the surface. We did manage to get a few fish on caddis patterns and Hendrickson imitations.

Gangster Style

     We ended up bringing 13 AWESOME fish to the boat and probably missed as many. Overall it was a solid day on the Yough, hope these flows stay the same for a few weeks!

Youghiogheny Fishing Report: Pig Farm

Andy's Fat Boy Stud!



22 inch Pig on the Burke Buster

Another View

There were 6 lucky individuals who got to fish the Yough on Tuesday. We had two boats out on the water at 8am. I was lucky enough to get back behind the oars for most of the day. After this float I felt much more comfortable navigating the waterway then I did when I floated with Pat on the Little J. Although I have much more work to do, I think I found another activity I like to do!


That Grin Says It All

The water was flowing at 2000 cfs and was a chilly 45 degrees throughout the day. The weather was sunny and 65 degrees. We ended up bringing 20 fish to the boat on an assortment of nymph's and streamers but the quality of the fish was amazing. Only 4-5 trout were below the 14 inch mark. We had numerous fish exceeding the 18 inch mark and weighing around 3-5 pounds. These fish would be better described as small steel head instead of trout. I can only hope this is a sign of things to come this season on the Yough because we will be in for one heck of a summer if this keeps up.



Gatta Love The Rod In Mouth and Fish In Hand Garrett

Another Burke Buster Victim

What A Day

On a side note the bug activity was ridiculous in the afternoon. An insane amount of black caddis were hatching and also a full bore Hendrickson Hatch. If only the water was a bit lower.......these fish would of looked up and pounded dry's. We only saw 2 fish rise throughout the day but they were both studs. I will be back out on the water Friday and hopefully will have more pigs to show off!


 

 

Hot Flies:

 

#10 Burke Buster

#14 Garrett Special

#8 Ando's Retriever

 



Last Grannom Action of 2013

Phil With A Nice Brown On His First Trip To The J!

A group of us headed up to the Little Juniata to take advantage of the good water flows (345 cfs). The weather was partly cloudy with an air temperature of 55-60 degrees. We each rigged up some nymph's and got into fish right off the bat. The underneath action didn't last long because the Grannom's started swarming and fish starting eating! We all tied on Grannom imitations and the five of us each brought 8-10 fish to hand.

 

  

Master Mike Getting Rewarded With His Nymph's

 

Thanks Donnie!

In the afternoon things died down on top but nymphing still brought fish to the net. An assortment of nymph's worked underneath, most fish in this section of stream were very meaty which was an added bonus. Overall we caught around 50 fish, you can't beat that for an 8 hour day on the water!






This Section Produces Great Fish!



Pappa Grobe Doing It The Old School Way

Hot Flies:

 

#14-#16 Soft Hackle's

#14 Grannom Nymph

#14 Grannom

#10 Burke Buster

 



Grannom's In The House : Pictures

Just wanted to add some pictures to Matt's post. 

Close-up of a Fishing Creek Brown

Hard to beat the color on a Wild Brown

One of the most scenic streams in PA

This guy was having a feast! Choking down a Sculpin while eating a Sucker Spawn. 

Great day to be on the stream.

Grannom's In The House

   A crew of us went up to Central PA for the day in hopes of catching a few mid April hatches and rising fish. We arrived at the Narrows section of Fishing Creek around 8:30am. The weather was in the mid 60's with overcast skies and rain showers. Perfect day for a hatch! The water was flowing a bit high for our liking so we all decided to rig up nymph's until fish started rising.

   Well the nymphing was tough, not unexpected for us at Fishing Creek when the water isn't perfect. We did manage to fool a few trout, mostly on Sucker Spawn's but we did get a few on Grannom Nymph's as well. Mike had numerous fish chasing streamers throughout the day also. We did see bugs and plenty of them, the Grannom was in full force but no fish seemed interested in these guys even underneath with wet fly patterns. The Hendrickson also showed an appearance in decent numbers along with some Blue Quill's.

   After Fishing Creek kicked our butt for 7 hours we decided to hit up Spring Creek on the way home. The water was slightly off color but had great flow to it. There were still some BWO'S coming off at 5pm but we had limited surface activity. We each picked up a few on nymph's but the fishing was pretty slow. Overall it was a below average day on all streams but it was nice to get out and enjoy the day with family and friends on the water!

 

 

Hot Flies Fishing Creek:

 

#14-#12 Sucker Spawn

#14 Grannom Nymph

 

Hot Flies Spring Creek:

#16 Mike Midge

#18 Pheasant Tail

#12 Sucker Spawn



Youghiogheny Fishing Report: 4-8-13

 

     I had planned on fishing Laurel Hill Creek today but some rain last night squashed that idea as I woke up to find it flowing at 800+ cfs. So I decided to give the Yough a try below the dam. This is one of my least favorite sections to fish, mostly because of all the bait dunkers that call this stretch home.

     The river was flowing at 760 cfs and the water was a chilly 39 degrees. I got on the water around 9:30am and immediately noticed a bunch of midges on the water. I worked a few sections of riffles with a nymph tandem but I did not get any hits.

     I walked up to one of the more productive riffles in this section and started to get into fish. This stretch was recently stocked and it seemed like the fish were still in pods. I ended up landing 15 in one short stretch of water and 2 more down river. Overall it was a nice day and catching a few stockies in this stretch was really fun, it helped that I had the river all to myself.

 

HOT FLIES:

 

#14-#16  Mike's Midge

#14-#16 Grobe's Grub

Floating The "J"

   I was lucky enough to float the Little J on Friday. My buddy Pat (www.troutslayer.blogspot.com) has a 2 man pontoon boat and the flows were ideal for a trip down the J from Spruce Creek to Barree. We got on the water early morning and threw some meat at the fish while the sun was hiding behind the mountains. Pat had a few chase but we didn't manage getting any in the boat.

     After a short 30 minutes and knowing the streamer bite wasn't there, we decided to switch to nymphs. For the rest of the trip the bite was consistent underneath. We caught fish from the boat and also at each location we stopped to wade fish. Pat knows the stream well and put me in great locations to hook up. There were bugs on the water, BWO's, Little Black Stoneflies and an assortment of midges. We only saw 1 pod of fish rising around Barree, I think the flows were still a bit high at 2.9 feet to get fish looking up.

    
     It was a perfect day to be on the water, after a long winter the 50 degree temperatures and sun felt wonderful. I would say in 7 days the Grannoms will start hatching and the start to dry-fly season will be upon us! Let's hope the water levels stay good through May.

Hot Flies:

 

#10 Burke Buster

#16 Bead Head Grobe's Grub

#8 Black Hare's Ear

#12 Sucker Spawn

Never Ending Winter

Hoping this Hendrickson will be used in a few weeks

I've found myself skiing more then I have been fishing in the past two weeks. This Winter has been a long one, for skiing the Month of March has been fantastic, we are currently getting crushed up in the Laurel Highlands with a snowstorm, 11 inches of fresh snow has fallen over night. Last year at this time I was gearing up for the Hendrickson Hatch on Penn's Creek. I think this year hatches will be more normal or even a bit late.

Having said that I have been at the vice tying a few flies. It has been long overdue to try and help brother Bill stock up the Grobe Fly Arsenal for this upcoming season. Let's hope Old Man Winter doesn't stay along too much longer.....I'm itching to try out these flies!

Standard In The Nymph Box 

Spring is near: Penn's Creek Report 3-8-13

Hungry For The Walt's Worm

     Andy, Billy, Ben O and I decided to take a stab at Penn's Creek today. We started fishing in the Catch and Release area around 10 am. The water was flowing very low for this time of year, 350 cfs. We had a brutal wind to deal with throughout the entire day but the weather wasn't bad, partly cloudy and 35 degrees. Even better we had the entire river to ourselves. We hiked back to the Claybanks, each with a different nymph tandem on ready to try and fool the weary Penn's Creek Browns.

He needs to keep eating to fill that body in! 

     Well as luck would have it, I hooked into a nice brown on the first few casts. Then a few minutes later I brought in my best brown of the year. A skinny looking 19 incher that will need to start feeding hard if he wants to fill out his body before spring. My Walt's Worm treated me to 10 more browns throughout the day putting it atop the list of nymphs for this trip. In all we landed over 25 fish between the 4 of us. Not too shabby for early March even though the fishing died down for us after 1 pm.

Can't Get Enough Of These Browns!

Hot Flies:

#12 Walt's Worm

#8 PA Montana

#12 Sucker Spawn

# 14 Black Hare's Ear

#14 Blue Copper John