Having Trouble on Limestone Creeks

[Rainier42]

Try to get out FFing 2-3 each week. My usual stomping grounds are up on the Poconos and out to the Tully in the Reading area. Also keep a diary of where I went, the date, what I used, what worked and what didn't. An issue I am having is on limestone creeks ... it is very rare that I catch anything. Was on one a few days ago and there were lots of trout with some rising. Hardly had any hits. Now one thing I probably should do better is be more stealthy. Another suggestions you might have would be most appreciated.

Oh and I mostly nymph using a dual rig ... use everything from a squirmy wormy down to small zebra midges.

 

[lycoflyfisher]

Sow bug and scud flies and zebra midges are all good limestone patterns. Always present in strong numbers so trout are used to eating these year round

 

[Bamboozle]

The Tully is a limestoner, how do you do there?

If the answer is OK, are the other limestoners stocked?

 

[jifigz]

Do you mean limestone influenced creeks or the straight up classic CV limestoners?

 

[Rainier42]

Isn't the Tully a tailwater? Certainly a couple of creeks coming into it are limestoners. I do fairly well on the Tully, and will be hitting it this week.

 

[LetortAngler]

This may sounds trivial, but if you are using bead-headed flies, try losing the beads completely by using standard nymphs like Pheasant Tails, Dark Hares Ears, Scuds with no beads. You still need the weight, so be sure to have enough split shot that you tick the bottom every few casts. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve switched from using beaded nymph rigs to un-beaded on limestone waters and my catch rate increased dramatically.

 

[Rainier42]

I would heavily influenced and the classic limestoner.

 

[Dave_W]

Tough to say. . .

When folks visit the Cumberland Valley they often gripe about how they never see any fish or see few or no rises, or no hatches, etc.

In your case, you're seeing the fish and the surface activity but struggling to seal the deal. You're right about not wading (where possible) but I'm inclined to think that you may need to double down on fundamentals. The limestone and limestone influenced streams in central PA are pounded by anglers and the fish are more sensitive to drag, presentation, etc. Try smaller flies, longer leaders, a downstream presentation, and fishing under rainy or dark days and low-light conditions.

 

[Jaybird]

Know your bugs

 

[moon1284]

Throw away the nymphs. Size 14 or 16 comparadun. Nice presentation and drift. I like downstream drifts so the fly passes over the fish first. Blind cast enough in likely areas and you will catch fish.

 

[Bamboozle]

The Saucon, Little Lehigh, Monocasy & Penns Creek are limestoners too if you aren't a hair splitter.

Not every limestone creek in PA is in the Cumberland Valley. Charlie Fox & Vince Marinaro waxed poetically about “the valley of the Tulpelhocken” before they built Blue Marsh and I defer to their definitions of what is or isn’t a “limestoner” above all others.

That being said, the common denominator may be stockers versus wild fish. The majority of the destination streams in the Poconos are stocked, as is the Tully. If you are being skunked at Cumberland Valley limestoners, welcome to the club.

If the Lehigh Valley limestoners are your nemesis, just persevere. I have been fishing limestone streams almost exclusively my entire life from Carlisle to the Lehigh Valley.

Presentation trumps everything and eventually, the same stupid flies that work for me on the Brodhead worked for me on Big Springs. I just have to take less for granted there versus some stocked freestoner.

Regardless, I have caught plenty of trout in the Cumberland Valley on beadheads and foam...

Good luck!

 

[dryflyguy]

Were you catching stocked fish in the usual haunts?

Limestone streams generally have wild trout in them. And receive more fishing pressure too.
Making for tougher fishing.

Most of the people I've taught to fly fish do quite well on freestone streams that get stocked. In fact I like to make of point of starting them out at those places
But find things a lot harder when they get to the limestone streams.

I like Moons suggestion, and would recommend that too.
If there are no bugs hatching, or fish rising when you're there, try ants or beetles. We're at the time of year now where they should start taking them.

 

[maxima12]

O k, bad day, every day has been bad in May! No top water, little down water. Cold, Clammy, and downright nasty! I noticed the shad bush, getting flowers. Time is near for your success! don't stop trying. Give it a go again.

I am going again, just like last week and the week before and the week before! Even though, not much stream success, i have had success with fellow fishermen!

More to fishing than catching! If you catch all the time, Big deal! If you enjoy, all the time, then i will follow!

I enjoy all that God offered! Eat today, might be, ramps, fiddleheads and a slice of buttered bread!

Tomorrow, may be a "Perfect Trout Fillet". Boned, stuffed, with a lemon, onion and a cold brew of choice!

Halleuhiuh, well you know the drill! Look up and give a thank you!

Sure wish i knew a spelling teacher that fished. Well, a beautiful, cool teacher, in a black dress and heels! Good enough, we will ruin the shoes, but the memory will last a lifetime!

Maxima12

 

[jifigz]

Bamboozle wrote:
The Saucon, Little Lehigh, Monocasy & Penns Creek are limestoners too if you aren't a hair splitter.

Not every limestone creek in PA is in the Cumberland Valley. Charlie Fox & Vince Marinaro waxed poetically about “the valley of the Tulpelhocken” before they built Blue Marsh and I defer to their definitions of what is or isn’t a “limestoner” above all others.

No one said every limestoner is in the Cumberland Valley. There are plenty of limestoners in other areas of the state. The famous part of Penns, the Little J, Honey, Kish, etc are limestone influenced and are not as tricky as the CV limestoners. Sure, we can call them limestoners, too, but where is the line?

These other streams have big riffles and long slides much different from the super weedy, flat water in the CV. I do pretty decent on Big Spring but haven't fished the other CV limestoners much. I fished Trindle one day and took a skunking.

Big riffles make fish much easier to catch. You can often wade right to the fish and at least get them to eat. In my opinion, fishing Penns and the Little J is nothing like the CV streams, so depending on what this person is on there is definitely needing to be a change in tactics..

 

[LetortAngler]

^^ Agree. My strategy, approach, and fly selection for any stream or river basically boils down to a streams gradient. Low gradient streams like the Letort require a finer presentation as every mistake is often magnified compared to a higher gradient stream like Spring where theres a bit more room for error.

 

[govtmule]

be careful of that damn flying any hatch! it happens like that!

 

[Rainier42]

Thanks all for the suggestions ... lots of good ones and will be giving them a go this week.

 

[wgmiller]

If you're having trouble on limestone creeks then give this book a read. And read it again. This should get you going in the right direction!

 

[Fishingyogi]

I find on the heavily pressured limestoners that low light and broken water are the only way I can catch fish on the fly. But I am a newbie and I am sure there are ways to improve my presentation and fly selection.

 

[RLeep2]

Back 30-plus years ago when I was still batching it and spent most of my free time running all over the state chasing trout, I had 2 rules that seemed to serve me well for fishing limestones and the hybrid or semi-limestones. The first was that I never went to any of them during the prime hatch periods. I neither wanted nor needed that level of obligatory socialization as a part of my fishing experience. As a consequence, I did most of my limestone stream fishing from mid-June until the end of September or so. These times were when I stumbled upon what became rule two for me: searching the edges in slow water with large terrestrials, usually deerhair ants and beetles in size #10, but never smaller than a #12. Longer leaders (for me anyway, sometimes as long as 10 feet), slow, stealthy wading and long and light but not ridiculous tippets, usually 5X but occasionally 6X. I cannot think of a PA limestone where this did not regularly produce at least enough to keep me interested and more often than not, I did pretty well. A decent morning was maybe 12 fish and 20 or more was not unusual. Like I say, it worked almost everywhere I went; Spring, Fishing, Clover, Elk, Honey, Tea and over in the LV on Little Lehigh and Saucon and the Bushkill. It worked less well in the CV, but still well enough to hold my interest on the Letort and Falling Spring. And also on a bunch of smaller limestones all over the place like Potter and Three Springs, Cedar Creek (Allentown) Buffalo Run and even on the Logan Branch (less often than the norm, but still sometimes). I seldom fished Penns or the Kish because I wanted to be alive the next day to fish somewhere else and as my balance has never been good, I was pretty sure Penns or the Kish would drown me.

Over time, I got to the point where I would skip the runs and broken water so I could spend more time prospecting the edges of the slower water and pools. Plop goes the ant. Up comes the decent brown.. It never ceased to amaze me where a limestone brown will lie or hold.

Anyway, that's what worked for me in the summers after everybody else went home or to the beach..