Any Big Ones?

[krayfish2]

Met a guy once (this time of year) that was having a beer, scrolling through his phone and showing pics of walleye he'd caught under the 81 bridge on the Susky. I saw the picture and asked him to go back. 27.5" brown caught on a minnow / spinner rig while targeting walleye. Of course he harvested the fish and told me that you get a strange fish like that every once in a while. 🤯

I've also had the almost exact opposite happen where a guy flagged me down to ask me about this monster trout he had caught at the mouth of Clarks. He was asking what the state record was and when he pulled the stringer up it was a walleye 🤣.

 

[krayfish2]

Anyone remember when this one was caught on big spring?

 

[Kgregor12]

Met a guy once (this time of year) that was having a beer, scrolling through his phone and showing pics of walleye he'd caught under the 81 bridge on the Susky. I saw the picture and asked him to go back. 27.5" brown caught on a minnow / spinner rig while targeting walleye. Of course he harvested the fish and told me that you get a strange fish like that every once in a while. 🤯

I've also had the almost exact opposite happen where a guy flagged me down to ask me about this monster trout he had caught at the mouth of Clarks. He was asking what the state record was and when he pulled the stringer up it was a walleye 🤣.

They did shock a 27.5 “ brown at the mouth of a susky trib near harrisburg a few years ago. Doesn’t surprise me

 

[Kgregor12]

Anyone remember when this one was caught on big spring?

View attachment 1641238933

Is that the famed “wash tub trout”?

 

[Broodstock]

Yeah. I assumed that was a goof up too.

If it wasn’t, that would be really outside of the box and I’d tip my cap.

For anyone who is still following this thread and trying to learn…No one is gonna give you much specifics as to where these fish are being found. Part of the fun (most of the fun?) is figuring it out on your own and starting to connect the dots. But I think we’d all be comfortable in saying you can rule out anything in the extreme SW corner of the state. Say making a corner from Pittsburgh due west and due south. And that’s legit, and not stinkbait. Happy to help.

When my wife asked why I have to drive so much, I tried to explain. Then I got an idea. I showed her the Landis book, and then flipped to the SWPA section, which is at the end. The section is so thin, it might as well be an index. I said, this part of the book is the rest of PA, and this thin section is SWPA. After that, she understood what I was up against.

 

[Prospector]

It’s not impossible. They’re out there.

I’m far from an expert in this area (Brown71 and a few other guys on here legitimately are…pay attention to the finer details when they post, you can learn a lot) but the one piece of the puzzle I’ve figured out (and am willing to share) is the really big ones are not usually in places where there are lots of other Trout. If you’re catching lots of normal sized wild Browns, or even catching good numbers of mid teens fish, you’re generally not in the right kind of place for the the 20”+ fish. In my experience. They’re in places where the ONLY Trout you catch are that size. Ok, maybe not the only ones, but you gotta put in your time. Lots of striking out and casts with nothing on the end of your line. Think like Musky fishing. I just don’t have the patience for it to do it regularly. I give a lot of credit to the guys who do.

And I agree with Brown71, this type of fishing is more effective with spinning gear IMO. Can cover water more quickly.

Great advice!!

 

[Mikey2006]

Yea that doesn’t surprise me about holtwood every stream south of rt 30 in york county has reproduction. It’s totally a needle in a haystack i was thinking more bass tournament guys actually more so than anyone targeting them. In summer those limestone areas adjacent to larger waterways are money, they stack up in feeders or focal springs in larger waterways. Yea Connie has some famous spots for the big ones. I have fished it a few times but never put in my time there to fully investigate those specific spots.

Does anyone here know if the Connie is considered navigable? Like would I be able to get in at a public access point and then wade in the stream as far up or downstream as I want to? There’s a few spots I’ve been looking at on google maps that I’ve been meaning to try, but with most of them the creek appears to be flowing through what looks like obviously private land

 

[Prospector]

Isn't that top picture a brown71 pic? I can make some pretty good educated guesses as to where that fish came from.

We have caught some tanks of browns out of the Juniata while fishing for coldwater smallies.

Swattie has the technical know-how to track that photo back to the rock where the photo was taken.

 

[troutbert]

Has the dam in Newville been breached or flood gate permanently opened?

That old mill dam is probably still impassable. Yet historically some very large browns have been caught between the dam and the Big Spring.

Since the dam is impassable those big trout were not "river runners", they were resident fish.

The Letort also has a long of history of people catching very large trout. I don't think there are any impassable dams between there and the river. So, what percentage of the really large trout caught in the Letort over the years were river runners vs resident Letort trout?

 

[Kgregor12]

That old mill dam is probably still impassable. Yet historically some very large browns have been caught between the dam and the Big Spring.

Since the dam is impassable those big trout were not "river runners", they were resident fish.

The Letort also has a long of history of people catching very large trout. I don't think there are any impassable dams between there and the river. So, what percentage of the really large trout caught in the Letort over the years were river runners vs resident Letort trout?

Yea sadly people love to throw brown trout over that dam into upper big spring.

 

[caddisflyer]

That old mill dam is probably still impassable. Yet historically some very large browns have been caught between the dam and the Big Spring.

Since the dam is impassable those big trout were not "river runners", they were resident fish.

The Letort also has a long of history of people catching very large trout. I don't think there are any impassable dams between there and the river. So, what percentage of the really large trout caught in the Letort over the years were river runners vs resident Letort trout?

My guess is larger Letort fish are resident. That would be quite a distance to travel up Conodoguinet from Susquehanna and then into Letort. I am no expert but most of the river runner fish I know of keep to the lower end of the tributaries of the river. Also some real big ones have come out of Letort in summer which also suggests resident fish. River runners in my experience are around in winter and leave in summer Would like to hear what others think.

 

[Swattie87]

I think in tb’s example he was referring to the Connie itself as the “river”. Meaning fish were running from the Connie into/out of the Letort, but not necessarily from the Susky, through the Connie, and into the Letort. At least that’s how I read it.

I’ve caught plenty of those sparsely, mostly black, spotted fish that are common in the Letort in the Connie proper near Letort’s mouth, but there wasn’t any size pick up in them. Just standard 8-11” range wild Browns.

 

[Swattie87]

Swattie has the technical know-how to track that photo back to the rock where the photo was taken.

Yeah, not gonna be able to place that one.

I have a pretty good idea of the general part of the state, but there’s not enough there for me to sleuth that one.

 

[troutbert]

I think in tb’s example he was referring to the Connie itself as the “river”. Meaning fish were running from the Connie into/out of the Letort, but not necessarily from the Susky, through the Connie, and into the Letort. At least that’s how I read it.

I’ve caught plenty of those sparsely, most black, spotted fish that are common in the Letort in the Connie proper near Letort’s mouth, but there wasn’t any size pick up in them. Just standard 8-11” range wild Browns.

No, I was talking about the Susquehanna River.

 

[Swattie87]

No, I was talking about the Susquehanna River.

My bad.

Though I’d personally consider a fish migrating from a large creek/small river like the Connie, into a small stream like the Letort for certain parts of the year, a river running fish.

 

[jifigz]

My bad.

Though I’d personally consider a fish migrating from a large creek/small river like the Connie, into a small stream like the Letort for certain parts of the year, a river running fish.

Fo' sho'. I am right there with you in that belief, Swatzilla Manilla.

 

[Kgregor12]

Spring creeks get more packed than a chic fillet drive through in summer in my experience . The number of fish definitely increases. All one needs to do is walk the stream with a flashlight after dark to see all the trout out of their hiding places in march then again in July. Alot of the nice fish I catch on sulfurs in late may in the big big water are outside the mouth of the spring creek and their gone a month later.