There is nothing like feeling a trout smash a swung fly. You’re usually, pretty focused on the presentation. Swinging at the right speed, making the fly look alive, and swinging it through the fishiest water. I usually get into a grove as I work through a run. Unless you see a fish following the fly, the strike often comes as a jolting surprise.
The last few weeks were pretty rough at school. I’ve had several deadlines that required late nights and early morning s to get it all done. The wife went to Florida for a few days with her mom and my last deadline was met… Without hesitation, I packed the car and headed to central Pennsylvania for some much needed piscatorial therapy.
First view of the mountains
The weekend was great. It was dry with overcast skies, air temps in the low to mid 40s during the day and night time temps around 30. The flow was high, about twice the average flow, but the water was clear. The river was in great shape despite the heavier flow. The water temp was in the high 40s. There were tons of midges swarming on the water, but I didn’t see any fish rising to them. There were a few fish tailing while actively feeding on the midge larva or emergers.
Fat humpback fish
I got in about an hour or two of fishing time the first day and fished from sunrise to sun set on days two and three. The first day, I got skunked. I had one on and off and couldn’t manage to put a fish in the net that day. The next two days I solved the puzzle and caught several nice fish.
On the second day, after mild success fishing tandem nymphs, I decided to change it up. Since the flow was high and the water was clear I thought I should try swinging a streamer. I tied on a white rabbit strip streamer and pounded the banks. In short order I had put a good fish in the bag. The streamer bite was excellent. I caught several large and aggressive browns swinging the same white rabbit fly.
On the third day, the morning was cold so I started fishing a tandem nymph rig with two different midge larva patterns. I put a nice fish in the net on a size 20 zebra midge. As the morning drew on and warmed up, I started swinging the white streamer again and the fish continued to pound it!
I had a ton of fun swinging streamers for these big aggressive browns. It’s hard to beat that kind of thrill, even if nymphing puts greater numbers of fish in the bag. This trip turned out to be a great trip despite the first day’s skunking.
