Potter County Fishing Report, 28-29 April

The Mikey D Fishing team joined up for a weekend of trout fishing on a variety of local streams. Friday afternoon Captain DiPaola rolled in, After settling in Joe geared up and we meandered down behind the cabin to hit a few spots on the west branch.  The usual honey hole failed to produce, so we moved down to a second spot that normally holds fish.  With the trees leafing out, the stream level was already beginning to drop, requiring a bit of stealth approaching the bank.  A couple of casts of Joe's wooly bugger across a sunken log, though, produced a nice 8 in Brookie, enough to set the tone for the rest of the weekend.

For some folks an alarm clock is just an alarm clock.  It buzzes, beeps, or turns to your local radio station.  In Potter County, the alarm is nature.  Saturday marked the opener for spring gobbler.  Now, I haven't seen a turkey in the field since last fall.  But the gobbling alarm sounded around 0645, and we looked out into the field to spot two Toms, looking for some action,  Unfortunately, the  gobblers heard the call of love, and darted off into the woods and up the other side of the mountain before we could get the Phantom 3 airborne.

After a great breakfast of Belgian waffles it was time to hit the water.  We decided to fish Wykoff Run, a small freestone stream about an hour south of the cabin.  Weather was cloudy with occasional showers, but he temps held in the low 60s so it wasn't uncomfortable.  We spent the morning stripping wooly buggers against the current, with Joe managing a Brookie, and a small native for me caught in a small tributary to the stream.

 Around noon we decided to pack up and drive up to fish the delayed harvest section of the First Fork of the Sinnemahoning, just south of Costello.  Quite a few fly anglers taking advantage of the recently stocked and no harvest section of the stream.  But we managed to find some decent spots, fishing one of the tribs, which produced 3 Rainbows for Joe, and the first fork itself, which produced one solid hit from a big fish that summarily spit out my bugger. On our way back to the cabin we stopped to fish behind the Westgate Motel on Route 6 in Coudersport.  The stretch of the Allegheny normally gets hammered by the bait fishermen during opening day weekend, but we managed to spy a few trout who survived the onslaught, probably because they were holding in nearly un-castable lies.

Then back to the cabin for steaks, followed by a healthy dose of Blanton's, Perdomo Robustos, and a great Penguin victory.  Tough to beat that kind of a weekend in "God's Country," but the spring is young, and the hatches are yet to start in full force.

Tight Lines,
Mikey D Fishing