2018 season thus far

[Acristickid]

I understand that I have been fortunate to get out many days this season ; however , it’s been a disappointment thus far. Now I’ve had a few good days ( if you count hoovering up stockies on mop flies as well) but for the effort, not so good.

Have caught fish on sulphers and drakes but the majority of trips have resulted in sputtering hatches that have been considerably less than heavy.

After 6-8 trips to Spring Creek, 1-2 to Spruce , 1 day at BFC, 3-4 days at Little Juniata along with several other lesser streams.

Most of the time I had be reticent to nymph as it’s “prime time”.

I tried to pick decent days to go as well- cloudy days, falling waters.

Penns has been a write off at a 3 hour drive for high dicey water.

Hopefully conditions stabilize and can last another few weeks.

In the plus column, I have scouted out a few new streams.

Hope your season is going better than mine. First world problems

 

[afishinado]

^ Agree that this spring has been mostly a disappointment because of conditions. March-April the water remained very cold so the season and hatches were off to a late start.

In early May the streams started to round into shape until the monsoons hit. Penns has been up and is just now coming down to decent fishing levels. The Upper D River is finally coming down to a decent wadeable level for the first time this season.

Hopefully the really hot weather holds off and the flows stay at fishable levels for some decent trout fishing.

 

[tomitrout]

I can't complain...total number of outings isn't anything to get excited about (just 10 so far), but the quality has been pretty darn good. Couple days of decent brookie fishing down in Virginia and some fun times with some decent off the beaten path wild browns here around the Cumberland Valley. Haven't hit any serious hatches, but have timed it just right when there's enough bugs to have the trouts looking up.

Early spring in VA:

Local brookie water:

Local wild browns, taken on march browns:

Probably a personal best on a dry, 22":

Back in Virginia:

Not all fish are trophies, nor risers trout:

Another nice one, 18" on a sulphur just last night:

So yeah, no much to complain about on my end. :-D

 

[Wild_Trouter]

My season sounds about the same as everyone else's here. I took two trips down to SNP only to find lower flows and subpar fishing compared to previous years. I have about five runs into Western MD and did very well for brookies. I have collectively hit Spring, Penns, BFC, and some smaller waters (combined 30 trips) which have all been hit or miss. Last week, I absolutely slayed them on Spring as it was overcast in the morning and the bugs were flying. Outside of that day, most trips there resulted in six fish or less- not great when you consider time and effort expended. Penns and BFC have been the same experience. Were it not for brookies, this year would be kinda sucky so far. I'm ready to switch gears and hit the warmwater game.

 

[sarce]

I've spent much of the spring trying to explore as many unknown streams as possible in northern MD. My expectations are always low on unknown water (unknown meaning no prior knowledge of wild trout, or at best a 10-20 yr old electrofishing survey), but I'm happy to say that the majority of the streams have been a pleasant surprise. I've added 4 new brook trout streams and 9 new brown trout streams to my "rotation". 90% of my wild trout this spring have been caught on a small streamer pattern that I came up with this winter, good dry fly conditions have been rare.

So far my best trout are an 11" SNP brookie, a 9.5" MD brookie, and a 15" MD brown. Don't have any pics handy. Since I've been hitting all new water for the most part, I can't really compare to past years, but I'd say overall it has been decent but not particularly great. With all the rain this June should be better than usual though IMO. I'm just satisfied to have committed to finding new streams and having most of them pan out as I hoped.

 

[bradtheflyfisherman]

I'd say the same as everyone else, did well early in the season on Penns, the Lehigh, and a few others - but not on dry flies as hatches hadn't really taken off yet. Spent most of my time the past couple weeks exploring smaller mountain streams with native brookies or browns here in NE PA with great success. Been disappointed by recent trips to more popular streams that usually have good hatches - the recent weather really seems to have really thrown things off. Have done well fishing for stockies though when my favorite places to catch natives haven't been fishable.

 

[FarmerDave]

This is depressing.

I should sell most of my gear.

 

[3oh4]

I sound idiotic to complain with some of the fish I have caught this spring, but is hasn't been a "stereo-typical" spring for bugs and trout.

 

[bigjohn58]

Much agreed! I haven't fished my normal streams nearly as much this spring due to the high waters. I however refused to let the high waters stop me from fishing and have done a lot more exploring of class A small streams. I've been pleasantly surprised by what I've found! No monsters but very very beautiful fish and more than I ever expected!

 

[PAgeologist]

This year has been awful. Lots of rain in Bedford and Cambria Counties. Between the weather, a trip to Disney, one daughter's softball games(I help coach), and my others surgery (not complaining about this-she had the surgery), it just hasn't been good.

It's almost June and I haven't caught a fish on a dry fly yet this year. The next week doesn't look good either with rain Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

 

[rrt]

Well, Dave, if you're selling and have a 5-wt, 8 1/2-foot Sage XP, I'd take a crack at buying it.

 

[outsider]

The weather has been most uncooperative for me, and has affected the hatches. But I have been catching fish in SEPA. The most memorable day was this past Saturday. I caught and released a 27-28" brown trout, and 20 minutes or so later caught a 24-25" rainbow. Without hesitation, I and others believe the brown had to be 7 lbs., maybe more. And they were mad fighters, extremely healthy. My small arthritic hands ached for hours after that. 5X tippet.

 

[Sylvaneous]

The number of trout I have caught on dry flies over the past 2 years is pitifully low. Part of the reason for this is that i got a new springer spaniel last spring and so am not free to just bolt out to wherever when ever. But still, I think on Oil Creek, the source of most of my dry fly numbers, I think I caught a couple on a sulfur spinner late in the season. So far, I haven't seen enough surface activity to get me to tie on a dry. All other aspects of fly fishing basically follow this.

Syl

 

[moon1284]

I must be in the minority but I've done well all year long on dries. You can still catch fish on dry flies when fish arent rising. You just need a combination of hard headedness and knowing what you're doing.

 

[dryflyguy]

I've had some good days - and some bad days.
Seems like I spent more time scrambling around to find fishable water, than actually fishing this spring.

The good news - the streams are finally coming down to nice levels now.
And the heavy rains predicted - for the pittsburgh area anyway - have been toned down quite a bit now

 

[PAgeologist]

I made it out tonight, albeit late due to a scheduling mix-up on my daughter's softball team.

Green drakes along with an assortment of other flies were hatching, but very little surface activity. Which was good, cause I left my drake ties at home. Oops.

Got a few on a wolly bugger and pheasant tail soft hackle.

 

[SurfCowboyXX]

I've only been out three times this year, due to high water as well as personal and professional commitments. I haven't caught 10 fish yet this season, but I haven't exactly been skunked, either.

First day out was on the Lehigh on April 14. Very windy. Only made a half-dozen casts all day. Within sight of the takeout I saw a fish rising. The wind let up, and I threw a QG about 12" above the last rise and caught a beautiful wild 18" brown. Only fish of the day.

Second day out was on May 17 on the West Branch, where I caught one fish around 18" on a tan caddis and another around 12" on a Hendrickson.

This past Wednesday I was out on the Lackawanna and caught two fish, one at 16" and another at 18", both on nymphs.

So I've been able to actively fish around 15-18 hours this season and have landed 5 fish with a roughly 16+" average size. Crazy season for me.

 

[Fredrick]

That pretty much somes up my year so far, I fish with the mentality that no matter what the coditions are i'm going to turn lemons into lemonade and catch fish. I havent chased hatches for a few years now so I dont find myself tying on a dry unless there are some consistant risers . I find myself more skipping all the good holes and graviating toward the holes that most people walk by for one reason or another. With all that being said I have had a really good year catching trout,snakeheads and bowfin and even had a pretty sucessful outting for stripers on the kayak as well.

 

[acesedgley]

No stream fishing for me as yet. Only 3 trips to local lake in my Kayak, but those have been real nice with bass, bluegills, pickerel and perch caught with various methods. The last trip on Memorial Day was especially good with two 2 1/2 - 3 # largemouths caught using a slider tossed right close to the bank. What was even nicer was that that shoreline had been hit at least 2-3 times by spin guys before I gave it a try.
Hoping to hit my local stream this week for some sulphur action.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

I've been killing trout in spring creeks in SC and SEPA with high water and big streamers.

Once again when I can go, my SM bass fishing has been washed out for the most part.