Hardest place you've found to fly fish

Letort fish really aren't that selective in my experience.

The stream itself is what is difficult - swampy, tall grass, unwadeable weeds and muck. It can be very hard to just get into a position to cast, much less see a fish. It's really bad in summer.

This aspect can really drain a new Letort angler's enthusiasm fast. Add on top of this the fact that they may not have seen any fish...will result in many visitors packing up to go over to Breeches earlier than later.

It's been said countless times before, but bears repeating: Letort really takes some time to learn and understand. Pay carefull attention to little things and have a willingness to stay in one spot and observe rather than moving to the next meadow or splashing down to the next weed channel. For someone like me who likes to move a lot and is impatient, Letort requires some mental discipline. This makes it hard.
 
I've fished Valley Creek for probably 20 years now. You'll be hard-pressed to find many who know the last 3 miles as well as I do. The larger fish haven't grown any less spooky in that time. While it's true that during certain periods (BWOs, caddis, craneflies) the fish are almost stupid at times, once that water gets low and clear and the fish get caught up from their winter fast, that stream gets to be a serious challenge for those looking to catch a 15" fish. There are plenty of them in there--they just don't see a lot of dry air unless they get caught with a streamer in high water. The fact that they are preyed upon by some of the biggest and best-fed herons and ospreys in SE PA is probably the reason. By the time they get big, they are smart and cautious enough to run from every shadow or vibration.
 
Slab Cabin has some short sections that are indeed challenging, but overall I'd rate it as far easier than Valley. I caught more quality fish over 12" there than on Spring Creek. Not sure how true that is currently since pressure has gone way up the past few years. I don't think it's anywhere near the CV streams or Logan.

One place I always struggled was the Frankstown Branch.

Overall I'm not sure I'd put many trout streams on the list. Trout are fairly predictable compared to other species. I'm with DaveW - anywhere with muskies - and Fred - anywhere with snakeheads.

And any sort of DIY saltwater fly fishing in a new location is freaking tough.
 
I find the most challenging is the Salmon River.....Current is quite strong, rocks are slippery and the fish are stong. And that keeps drawing me back up there to test my PA indoctrinated skills.
 

If you want to get humbled fishing creek narrows is a great place to get your *** handed to you.
 
The Narrows is difficult, but I could never figure out why.

I have had stellar days, but maybe only 10% of my trips, the rest have been frustrating.

I have also been with guys who catch multiple 20"+ fish in a day.

Also, I have never caught a brookie out of there, but have been with people who have.
 
Most of the trout I've seen caught in there in numbers were small but have seen very big trout caught out of there I do best on small earthy colored streamers. Water is so damn clear you hit that when it's colored up on the rise can fish really well.
 
I’ve had some good days on the Codorus but I’m never surprised when I take a whuppn there.
 
I've only fished the narrows a few times and never after March but I've always done well. I've done well whether it was off color or low and clear. I caught all of my fish on either streamers or dry flies. Either tiny bwos and midges or muddlers . I caught a big brook trout there on a muddler.
 
The narrows is my fished stretch, and I still have awful days. I've also had a trip where I caught 3 fish in 2 hours and the smallest was 18". Most of my trips however end in a few fish,or more often a skunk.
 
I’ve kept very detailed records for the last 10 years. I averaged 12 trout caught per day for the last 3 years just to provide some context. So just in terms of fish caught per day these three stick out in my data as being tough for a fly fisherman.

East Hickory Creek (Forest Co) 72% of the time I caught 0 or 1
Tionesta Creek (Forest Co) 68% of the time I caught 0 or 1
South Branch of Tionesta (Warren Co) 67% of the time I caught 0 or 1

I’ve fished these streams a combined 46 times in the last 10 years and I really enjoy fishing them so I continue to return. I just find it difficult to catch fish. I’ve had double digit days on very rare occasion.

Many people have mentioned Slate Run. I’ve been going to Potter Co for 43 years but our crew has stayed in the Kettle Creek Valley. I have a lot of experience in the main stem and many of its tribs. I told myself this past summer that I needed to fish Slate Run since it is famous and I’ve never been there. So on day 3 some overnight rain made Kettle cloudy. I remembered some advice from a friend who suggested Slate fished better when it was cloudy. I parked at the S curve walked over the hill and fished upstream. Got to waters edge and saw many different insects hatching. The same flies I’d seen on Kettle where I had caught 24 and 46 in the previous 2 days. So I tied on the fly that had been working the best and proceeded to fish up stream, hitting all of the best places where trout lay in a stream that size, but I had no takers. I’m baffled, I’ve caught tons of fish in small streams.

I finally get to a big hole with a couple boulders sticking out of the water. It has to be a named hole for those of you that are regulars to Slate. So I’m no rookie and I exit the stream well before the hole, jump into the woods about 20 yards and walk up to the hole. I stand and watch for 5 minutes. Behind the last boulder a big fish rises 4-5 times and between the boulders another fish rises a few times. I survey the situation and decide I need to get behind a large tree (probably a Sycamore) and cast from my knee. I work my way there, he rises again so I know my sneak was successful. It’s going to be a long cast but I get my fly out there. He never even came to examine it. Now remember this is the fly that every fish in the last 2 days has raced to grab before another fish could beat them to it and it’s as if there are no trout in this creek. Five casts later I wonder if my line hitting the water was enough to put him down. I shift my attention to the fish between the boulders but he was equally unimpressed. I move up to the riffle entering the hole. Surely some fish are lying in wait here. My line hitting the water certainly won’t disturb the fish. Again nothing. I saw one fish rise in the riffle, of course only after I had switched to a nymph.

I changed back to my “killer” dry fly and proceeded upstream hitting every good looking pocket with no takers. I finally see a fish rise under a hemlock branch in a little backwater whirlpool. The drift is terrible, this fish picked a good spot. Needless to say the trout won. It started to rain for the third time so I left defeated since my rain gear was in the truck. The thick hemlock stands were now saturated and offered no protection during downpours.

So in my only day on Slate I’d say it has to be one of the toughest in the state.

I’ve thought about that day a lot and for those of you that fish Slate a lot, do you feel that fish density is just lower there? I can understand a large fish in a slow moving pool being tough to catch. I cannot believe that young fish in moving pocket water could resist a dry fly when they have to be keyed in on them. To leave Slate after 2.5 hours without a single take after releasing 70 fish in a day and a half of fishing at the Kettle FFF section is humbling. I was really surprised to only encounter 4 rising fish. Again do you think Slate doesnt have as many fish as a small stream like upper Kettle?
 
Regarding East Hickory Creek (Forest Co), Tionesta Creek (Forest Co), and South Branch of Tionesta (Warren Co).

The problem may not have been that the trout were selective or skittish.

The problem may have been that few trout were present.

 
Prospector wrote:
Again do you think Slate doesnt have as many fish as a small stream like upper Kettle?
Click to expand...

Your experience mirrors mine on Slate Run (much of the time). However, the last time I was there, I got a 10" brook trout - my biggest from SR - on a bushy dry fly. The fish hit it like a half starved bass. Yuh never know.

Anyway, SR regulars believe that the population of fish has declined in recent years. However, over the last few decades SR has been consistently Class A and often well above this with a very strong fish population, including browns in the mid-teens and larger. The fish are there, they just have a mysterious ability to seemingly vanish. Much of the bottom is clear "slate" and where the fish go is a real head-scratcher.

Kettle, by contrast, has mostly stocked fish and the wild STs in the upper sections just behave more like small stream brookies statewide... and are thus much easier to catch.

I love the beauty of SR and will keep going back. It's part of the stream's mystique. After SR cleans your clock, you can always go down to Pine Creek to get your rod bent. It's a similar process down here in the Cumberland Valley: guys visit Letort or Big Spring for the history and mystique - get skunked, then go over to the Breeches to catch fish. I do it too.
 
The more FFers and flies the stream sees, or more precisely, the fish see, the tougher it is.

Check out this list of the best/most popular places to fly-fish in PA > Most Popular PA FFing Destinations

Look familiar, from many of the previous threads.... :lol:
 
Dave_W wrote:
Much of the bottom is clear "slate" and where the fish go is a real head-scratcher.
Click to expand...

It’s amazing where a decent sized Brown Trout can seemingly wedge itself into. Don’t overlook the faults in the slate. I often did until fishing with salmonoid one time and he repeatedly got fish to show themselves in low, clear conditions by working along the cracks. Getting them to strike in those conditions was another matter, but they were in places I wouldn’t have thought they could fit.

They can be ghosts when they want to be, and conditions dictate. I’ve observed the same thing with good sized (mid teens) Browns on Cedar as well. Along with several of Kettle’s tribs and the upper main stem.
 
Hook_Jaw wrote:

If you want to get humbled fishing creek narrows is a great place to get your *** handed to you.
Click to expand...
This is exactly what I’m talking about, I’ve had some of my best days on BFC. Nyphing wise, it fits my style perfectly, and when the hatch is happening it can be just epic. Those fish love the light Cahill and I think I’ve said it on here before, but it has to be one of the most underrated hatches.
 
troutbert wrote:
Regarding East Hickory Creek (Forest Co), Tionesta Creek (Forest Co), and South Branch of Tionesta (Warren Co).

The problem may not have been that the trout were selective or skittish.

The problem may have been that few trout were present.
Click to expand...
Yes, fish numbers could be part of it.

Aside from that, I think what makes fish hard to catch is:

Tionesta — the stream is so wide and in most places fast and deep. In my favorite stretch I like to swing nymphs/wets or run a streamer. I do that to cover a wide area. The downside is I can’t get real deep. The fish need to be willing to move up in the water column to take my fly. It’s mostly impossible to work the best lies on a short line with weighted flies and additional sinkers to put your presentation eye level to the trout. I’d be in over my waders or washed downstream by the heavy current.

East Hickory Creek —- this is a mystery to many. An acquaintance of mine is a stream biologist and I’ve said when I win the lottery I’m going to hire him for a week to study E. Hickory and figure out if the fish are leaving the stream or if they are just hiding from us. I’d like to have an underway camera to figure it out. There are many log jams and undercut banks. A friend of mine once looked through a muskrat hole that opened up into the undercut bank between tree roots. Several feet from the creek bank were 15-20 trout huddled up far from where any fly could penetrate. There are suspicions of poaching in the delayed harvest section due to all of the streamside tent campers. I don’t know if it’s herons, log jams, cold water temps that keep fish sluggish, undercut banks, poachers or improper PH. It is a pretty stream with nice holes and runs. It just doesn’t give up many fish to me.

South Branch of Tionesta — I do believe this stream could handle more fish. But one day I walked into my favorite stretch and decided to fish a nymph with a dropper. I was methodical and worked every inch of the decent size hole and had no strikes. I was very disgusted and thought there must not be any fish here and was ready to relocate. My father had fished through with no strikes also but now he had worked far downstream so I decided to retool. I cutoff my 2 fly combo and put on a streamer. I started at the top of the same hole and fish came out of the woodwork. I had a strike on every 3rd or 4th cast. Ended landing several including an 18 incher. So maybe my bad days are just poor fly choices.
 

[/quote]

It’s amazing where a decent sized Brown Trout can seemingly wedge itself into. Don’t overlook the faults in the slate. I often did until fishing with salmonoid one time and he repeatedly got fish to show themselves in low, clear conditions by working along the cracks. Getting them to strike in those conditions was another matter, but they were in places I wouldn’t have thought they could fit.

They can be ghosts when they want to be, and conditions dictate. I’ve observed the same thing with good sized (mid teens) Browns on Cedar as well. Along with several of Kettle’s tribs and the upper main stem.[/quote]
To your point, 2 summers ago I was fishing a dry fly in the delayed harvest section on First Fork of Sinnemahoning. I hooked one of the big fish and landed the 19” rainbow. This occurred in low water on a warm day around June 10th. Needless to say the fish wasn’t in the greatest of shape when I released it. I reached to help revive it but it lunged away downstream but started to turn on its side. I quickly moved after it but it got under a large rock 3-4 yds below me. I tried to reach under and pull it out but I couldn’t. The rock was too big and the water was too deep.

So I wasn’t happy about what just happened to the fish and my vest was soaked. Despite that there was nothing more I could do. So I moved back upstream a few yards not really expecting the fish to make it. I kept looking down for signs of the fish.

In about 5 minutes out from under that rock came the 19” fish I caught plus a 17”, 15” and 12” fish. I had stood there for 45 minutes casting to the far back and standing knee deep with no fish in sight.

Little did I know that 3 nice fish were laying under that big rock below me. I didn’t believe there was any way for a trout to get underneath it.
 
The hardest place to fly fish is private property. I have this spot I like on a certain creek for bass. A small cottage sits along the bank and it's not quite a pool and not quite a run or riffle, I guess its kinda like this special spot that is like a tail of a pool. It's the tail of a quarter mile long very slow moving pool. The water here moves a bit faster but still very smoothly and slow. There are no surface interruptions, just gentle swirls, and the water is just deep enough and murky enough flowing over an assortment of craggy rocks, holes, boulders and ocassional debris to give a mysterious "whats going on down there" feel to it. It's a good 60 yard stretch, and below it are riffles and faster water, and above it is a wider and slower stretch.

But that one spot is magical. It's just that access is tough. I had gained permission to fish it, and the old man had told me all he asks is that I park where he asks me to and the next time he's there even though I throw them back, if I catch a nice bass, he just wants one nice bass to keep. Well it's been a few years since I've fished that spot. So the trouble is, it's a vacation home and I'm not so sure if he would remember who I am, so it's kinda like I feel I would have to drive past and catch them when they're there, and strike up a conversation and see if the old man remembers our bass conversation. It's the polite thing to do. I don't really like bothering people or knocking on doors. I just happen to luck out and the guy was in the front yard one day, and I happened to live nearby at the time. So it was a good spot for a short period of time

Those are the toughest places for me. Because most of the time you can only fish them in your head.
 
My yard on friday
 

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