First dry fly action of the year

[HopBack]

I got a much needed day off of work today and decided to soak up some sun and solitude on some York county freestone streams. I’ve been tossing streamers all winter long with some really great results but I was hoping for some dry fly action.

I did not see any prolific hatches as is the case most of the time on forested freestoners but there was good mix of stonesflies, little black caddis, and random mayflies. It was enough to get the trout looking Up and I had a blast landing around two dozen wild browns on a simple foam caddis pattern.


Tumbling runs

First dry fly of the year

Waterfalls

Healthy

Crystal clear

Double trouble

Beauty brown
[imgwidth=300]http://u.cubeupload.com/Bmleszkowicz/7A6EF373D94943A094FD.jpeg[/img]

Some more great runs

 

[huntfish]

Great pictures!

 

[jifigz]

Awesome stuff, Brian.

 

[Swattie87]

Nice goin! Unless it's a "use it or lose it" comp day I have to take, I'm always hesitant to burn a fishing PTO day until May or so. Seems like every time I have before that, on relatively nice days even, the fishing is still slow and I end up regretting not saving the day for better conditions later. Seems like it worked out well for you here. Congrats.

I got a couple stockies on the FFO on Kettle on dries last week (also on a Caddis), but I'm not going to count those as my first fish on a dry this year yet.

 

[HopBack]

I got a couple stockies on the FFO on Kettle on dries last week (also on a Caddis), but I'm not going to count those as my first fish on a dry this year yet.

I wouldn't normally count using attractor dries as good dry fly fishing (unless your out west of course) but I did successfully target and catch rising fish so I'm going to go ahead and put it on the board for 2019

 

[Swattie87]

HopBack wrote:
I wouldn't normally count using attractor dries as good dry fly fishing (unless your out west of course) but I did successfully target and catch rising fish so I'm going to go ahead and put it on the board for 2019

Oh, yours count for sure. That's my favorite kind of dry fly fishing...When they'll take any bushy looking thing that floats. When the weather's warm, you can almost always count on Brookies on small freestoners to do this. But some of my favorite days FFing are when wild Browns on small freestoners will do this too, which isn't always a sure thing.

I was only saying I wasn't counting mine because they were fresh dumb stockies that probably would have eaten my granola bar wrapper if I attached it to a hook.

 

[sarce]

Great photos - that stream looks amazing! Was the double on a double-dry rig or a dry-dropper?

I haven't switched out of streamer mode yet. Been meaning to, but streamers have just been working so well I haven't pulled the trigger.

 

[HopBack]

Great photos - that stream looks amazing! Was the double on a double-dry rig or a dry-dropper?

I was using a dry dropper. The dry was a # 14 tan caddis with foam body and deer hair wing and the dropper was a # 14 hairs ear. Very simple but effective!

Oh and I should have mentioned there are 3 different streams in the photos.

 

[Wild_Trouter]

I never realized that York County had such pretty areas before seeing this post. Makes me wish I would've explored there more when I lived closer. What's not to like about forested freestoners with wild browns? Had you not told us this was York County, I would've guessed that this was along the Appalachians or in the Poconos.

 

[krs]

Looks like a great day on a couple beautiful streams. I always enjoy it when the top water action starts.

 

[AnW]

Looks like an awesome day! Used to live in Lancaster and fish a couple of gems in York County like this.

 

[laurelrun]

Managed a nice 12” brown at Fisherman’s paradise today. He took my size 12 caddis instead of the Baetis nymph it was floating. He was apparently mad though as he would not pose for a photo. Still nice to catch one looking up. Lots of bWos midges and caddis coming off but few risers in the high swift water.