Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Pennsylvania Freestone Nymph Fishing.

Got out today to fish my favorite stream. Its a freestone stream in Pennsylvania. Its loaded with wild browns. It has hold overs as well, but not many at all. The water was way up, and this stream is prime for nymphing when it has a flow like this. It runs clear when its high, so the fishing was excellent.

I met up with an old friend, and we fished a section near his house, which is in the head water area. We fished about a 3/4 of mile up, nymphing the whole way. It didn't take long for us to get into the wild browns. In this stretch we did very well, but we have done better through this area. We both got way "more than four". We both were using a big stone and a u.v. flash back scud. I was using my Golden Oldie, and he was using his rubber leg stone.

We stopped around noon, and headed back to his house. I departed for a stretch down stream. The water down that end was ripping big time. I fished a really nice run for a few hours, working it over. I fished the Golden Oldie on the lead, and a U.V. Flashback scud. The first couple of time through the run the flies were very effective. I caught many wild brown, and then it shut down. Figuring I wasn't bouncing bottom. So I added a another dropper. I ran a tungsten peeking caddis off the scud. I will show this pattern in another post. I chose this fly because the stream is very abundant with caddis. Also this pattern has produced well for me on this stream and many freestoners.

The added weight and difference pattern yielded fantastic results. I began to catch consistently again. I was quite happy and smug with all the trout I was catching from this run. I got my self a trout trifecta,(brook, brown, rainbow) The rainbow was a hold over of coarse. With the flies bouncing bottom in the deepest section of the run, I had a take. I set the and the battle began. The battle was against the largest wild brook trout I have ever caught. This little devil was peeling line and would not come up. It was an excellent fight. The brook was over 10", a trophy in any wild brook stream around here.

I released the brook and he moved back into the depths of which he came. I started drifting again. As I figured and found out, the majority of the browns where holding close to the bottom in the heavier current. A leader with heavy flies(Golden Oldie and the peeking caddis), a long 4lb tippet, a long cast, and stacked mending, got me down into the strike zone. Once in the zone the number just started coming. I worked the run up and down at least 8 times by this point. I had already caught a lot of wild browns many averaging 12"-14" with the occasional dink. The golden oldie produced the majority of the trout.

At this point, I had made about 5 drifts with no results. Hmmm no more willing browns?? I wondered to myself. I figured I would put 3 more drifts through the heart of the run. I sent the first on a drift, it bounced along the bottom, attempting to grift another trout. Nope. I sent the second drift along to gift. It landed and I stacked the line, it slowed, the flies where on the bottom. I picked up the slack as it approached beginning of the heart. Line tight, ERRRRRT! The line stopped dead in it tracks, I set the hook... Heavy weight I felt, Hmm maybe a sucker..... I put pressure on and felt the thunder shakes. Just then boom, it took off toward the tail of the pool, I quickly gave slack and tilted the rod to the side, the fish turned back around as it got into the tail of the pool. Relieved it didn't make it into the heavy riffles....I put more pressure on, at this point, I got a glimpse of the fish. I was very excited. It was a trout. A big trout. :D. I battled the trout for approximately 4-5 mins before it tired and I was able to get fish in. Heart pounding I snapped picks and got a measurement, and sent the trout back home. It was an Epic battle, with a beautiful 24" wild brown trout. This trout took the peeking caddis. I bet this trout ate A LOT of caddis in its time. Extremely please, I made my way back to my car and headed home.

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Yummy Golden Oldie. :)

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Golden Oldie strikes again

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This 15" wild put up a great fight. It took the golden oldie.

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Largest wild brook I have ever caught. Beautiful.

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24" wild brown. Took the peeking caddis.

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24" wild brown.

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The peeking caddis in the monsters mouth.


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Beautiful Hen wild brown.

4 comments:

  1. Those are some really nice size fish you caught.

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  2. Nice fish!!!

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  3. Hi Johnny,

    I am a beginning tyer, and a close friend has asked me to try tying a couple of golden oldies for him. (He fishes frequently up in PA; I generally stay local for bass in Southern MD) The only recipes I have found are on Hatchesmagazine.com and flytyingforum.com, and they aren't very clear. Would you please be so kind as to send me a better detailed list of materials and instructions (or at least a sequential list of steps)

    Thank you. (BTW - your site is really outstanding. Keep up the great work!)

    Bob Hendry
    bhendry@cheerful.com

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