It has been a weird spring up in NC Pennsylvania. With the exception of a few days, most of May has been wet and cool. Good conditions if you want to fish streamers and nymphs. But not so great for the hatches normally associated with mid spring.
Then June rolls around and we've moved straight into summer. Figuring that the warmer temps would get the fish looking up, the "Trout Whisperer" and I headed to explore another of Bob's favorite spots. For the last 5 years Bob has been introducing me to the streams of Potter County. And, with his relocation to Florida looming, I could pass up the chance for him to show me the First Fork of the Sinnemahoning
Formed by the confluence of the Borie Branch and Prouty Run, just north of the town of Costello, the First Fork begins as a wild Brown and native Brookie stream, and as it moves south and widens becomes more stocked water. Several years ago I had caught my first 20-inch Brown on the First Fork in Costello (it's in the blog!). This time Bob took me to fish the northern reaches, hoping that the wild Browns and natives would be looking up.
We got to a pulloff by the stream around 6:00 PM and rigged up. I decided to wet wade, and while Bob was gearing up dropped down to fish under a bridge. The water was low, but still cold, and there were plenty of fishy-looking lies. Third cast just above the bridge in one of those fishy-looking lies resulted in a vicious strike on my size 10 Stimulator, which I missed. Several more casts to the area with no response convinced me that I'd missed my first wild fish for the day.
Bob finally joined me and we made our way up the stream, switching off casting to fishy spots. The stream epitomizes a PA wild trout stream; skinny water and lots of overhanging brush. No 40 foot casts here. But if you could roll cast 15-20 feet, then you could put your fly in play. And you get one shot with these fish. You either hook up or move to the next spot.
We each missed a couple more fish as we moved upstream. Finally I managed a hookup on a fish, which immediately tore upstream, tried to wrap me around a rock, then rocketed downstream and went under a sunken log right at my feet. I was able to gently tug the leader and moved the fish out long enough to bring it to my hand; a nice 10-inch Rainbow, which looked to be wild. (The Prouty is one of the few streams in PA that supports a wild Rainbow population).
So the skunk was off. As we continued upstream we came upon the spot of the night; a nice hole, with plenty of room to actually make a back cast.
We spent the next 45 minutes switching off, missing and catching Rainbows (again, looked wild) and Browns, most of which were between 6-10 inches. But all slamming our dries.
Enjoying the first real dry fly action of the year, we landed around seven fish between us. We even managed to lure a big fish out from its lair under a bank. But it my Stimulator a glance and moved back to the dark water.
We kept fishing upstream, picking up a wild Brown here and there, until 7:30 or so, when we decided to head back to the honey hole to wrap up the evening. The trout seemed to have forgotten the pasting we put on them earlier, and we each picked up more fish. The Trout Whisperer snapped his fly off on a fish, so I jumped the line while he retied, and scored the fish of the outing. The big trout that we had seen earlier came out and inhaled my Stimulator, then immediately tore back to the rooted undercut bank. Fortunately, even though I was fishing my 3 wt rod, I had 4X leader, and was able to keep the fish out of the root ball that would have resulted in a breakoff. The trout made several attempts to get back home, but I was able to move him back, and Bob successfully netted a Rainbow that easily went 18 inches. (the poor quality of the pic due to the fish thrashing about and our desire to let it go quickly)
A good sign to call it a day. We landed a total of 11 fish in about two hours of fishing. Maybe not astounding numbers, but given the conditions one of the best days I've had in awhile.
And a big shout out to the "Trout Whisperer." Still time to hit some more streams!
Tight Lines,
Mikey D Fishing
Now that is a day of fishing!
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