The Week in Review: From Stockies to Stripers and Back Again

The week brought opportunities to hook into both fresh and saltwater species.  Last weekend I attended a TU regional meeting at the Allenberry Resort in Boiling Springs, PA.  About 100 TU chapter and state council leaders from as far north as Maine showed up for wide ranging seminars on all things TU.  Of course, there was also some fishing to be had.  Friday's itinerary was just that.  Members of the Cumberland Valley Chapter of TU volunteered as host guides and took folks out to various streams in the area.  I opted instead to fish the Yellow Breeches on the Allenberry property.  Fished from about 10:30 AM to noon, took a break for lunch, and was joined by Capt. DiPaola for a few hours in the afternoon.

Fishing conditions were pretty good, given the rain that doesn't seem to want to stop.  The Breeches was running about a foot higher than normal, with flows also above normal.  But not too difficult to wade, with the water a bit stained but clearing.  Stayed right in the section between the spillway and the Meadow Pavilion, about a 150 yard stretch of the creek.

No surface bug activity, so I went with a hopper/dropper rig, with an 18 black bead head zebra midge as the dropper.  Picked up 8 fish below the spillway, all Browns, with one going around 14 inches.  When Joe showed up for the afternoon session, we fished in the slow water above the spillway.  This time I opted to go straight to a chamois worm, and picked up another 4 trout, this time all Rainbows.

On Sunday I headed back to the West Branch Tavern, did some laundry, took care of the cats, and on Monday morning headed to Bethany Beach, Delaware, to spend a few days with Charlie, Lindsay, and the grand kids before Charlie's deployment to Afghanistan later this month.  Capt. DiPaola most graciously offered the use of his beach house, and although not a beach guy myself, enjoyed hanging out at several of the local watering holes.

And we also got a chance to wet a line at the nearby Coast Guard station at the Indian River inlet.  It's been a frustrating early season on the Chesapeake.  The influx of fresh water from the Susquehanna has reduced the salt content in the bay, which has spread out the Stripers .  Our usual early spring tactic of bottom fishing cut Alewife has brought nothing but big catfish, which have moved into the bay in large numbers.

So the opportunity to tie into some Rockfish could not be passed up.  On two nights we set up around 7:30 in the evening, with incoming tides.  By 8 or so the fish turned on, and by 8:20 the action was nonstop.  Over the two evenings we (Capt. Dipaola showed up for Wednesday night's fishing) landed well over 30 fish; Stripers, Blues, Joe even landed a Shad.  All fish were taken on white soft plastics; twister tails and paddle tales, jigged sideways rather than up and down.  Charlie took several Stripers that went at least 20 inches, unfortunately 8 inches shy of Delaware regs.  Even his son Eliot (call sign "Bearclaw") got into the act.

Returned to Potter County Thursday afternoon to surprisingly sunny skies and spring-like temperatures.  It had obviously rained a good bit early in the week.  The West Branch was high, but in great color.  A good hatch of Sulfurs, Yellow Sallies, and even a few Green Drakes that evening from about 8:00 pm til dark,  Didn't have the rod at the time, but did manage to head down last evening, and brought two Rainbows to the net, on on a Chamois Worm, and the other actually taking a foam hopper pattern.  This morning about 7:30 I walked back down to the same spot and picked up another two stockie Rainbows on a purple San Juan Worm, both going around 10-12 inches.

The down side of all this rain is that it can mess up the streams for days.  The upside, though, is that for those few days when it's not raining and the water levels get back to normal, the fish are eating.  With few anglers on the water, the streams have good numbers of trout, and the cool evenings are bringing on the hatches that should last for a good few weeks at least.

Tight Lines,
Mikey D Fishing