Is this one of the best years ever?

[Prospector]

I really didn't mean to give you the wrong impression. Although I do enjoy catching fish I also regularly fish some steams where I average less than 2 fish per trip just because I enjoy the water. One of my goals each year is to fish 12-15 different streams. Just so happens that this year it seemed like everywhere I went I landed far more than my usual amount. One thing that really helped my numbers was the best dry fly fishing I've had in years coupled with some of the best streamer and wet fly fishing. Someone asked about stocked vs wild. I'd estimate I caught 90% stocked / 10% wild. The 14 streams I fished were located in the following counties from west to east : Lawrence, Butler, Venango, Forest, Warren, Elk, Clinton, Potter. I was able to avoid the really bad washout days that others encountered. Only once did I drive to the stream to find it too muddy to fish and checked another stream before calling it quits and driving home.

I'm a little surprised at the wide range personal experiences from great to terrible but I guess timing is everything. The silver lining to these high waters should be a very sizable holdover % that will bode well for fall fishing and next spring.

Thanks for all of the input. I enjoyed everyone's perspective.

 

[troutbert]

wildtrout2 wrote:

McSneek wrote:

Now high water is the problem.

I think this says everything in a nutshell, except I would have to add low water temps to this bad situation.

I have only gotten to the mountains 7 times this year because of some sort of weather anomaly. Yes, now we're getting the rain, but it drops stream temps way down. .

The current conditions, high flows in the summer months, is perfect for mountain stream fishing.

The key in regard to the cool water temps in high flow conditions is to fish in the AFTERNOON, rather than the morning.

In the morning the water is cold and the fishing is often slow.

In the afternoon the water temps rise to around 54-56F, which is when trout get very active.

And you see more bug activity, both aquatic and terrestrial, in the afternoon, which gets the trout looking up.

So the fishing, particularly the dry fly fishing, is usually far better in the afternoon than in the morning.

 

[wildtrout2]

I agree with what you say TB, but I can't drive 4-5 hours just to fish the afternoon because that's when stream temps are up. Also, just fishing the afternoon means there's a good/fair chance that another fisherman has already come through the water you want/wanted to fish, spooking and perhaps catching the trout that you're targeting.

I've been on streams where I can tell for sure that somebody is ahead of me upstream. Few strikes and few fish caught. Unpleasant feeling. Getting stream side early eliminates this scenario.

 

[Millsertime]

Prospector wrote:
The 14 streams I fished were located in the following counties from west to east : Lawrence, Butler, Venango, Forest, Warren, Elk, Clinton, Potter.

After reading this, it got me thinking about how few PA counties I fish since I primarily just fish near home in Monroe County (Poconos). I did fish Northampton, Cumberland, and Franklin Counties this year as well but likely a small list compared to others.

 

[k-bob]

My approach to the fishing in the afternoon issue is to drive 3 hours, fish four hours, and drive home... fishing streams that are so small that I think it's unlikely someone will have fished ahead of me.

Have to either do this on weekends or dodge both rush traffic periods outta philly. this piles of miles on my car but there are certainly a lot of great streams within a three hour drive

 

[tomitrout]

Best year ever? meh, way too early to tell, it's only July, barely half way thru.

 

[RLeep2]

For me, this year has been a reminder of the truth of the old saying: “We Plan, God/Nature/Fate (your choice..) Laughs”.

For my first year back in PA after 15 years in the Upper Midwest, I planned to do a lot more WW (especially moving water smallmouth..) fishing than trout fishing. In fact, the only trout fishing I really planned to do back here was smaller water (say, up to about Cross Fork size streams.) wild trout fishing.
However, due to the almost steady deluge since about Memorial Day, I’ve been on my bass creeks exactly twice. So, I’ve done a fair amount of smaller stream trouting and had some decent fishing. But I’ve done a lot more of this than I ever thought I would be doing..
Probably the best fishing I’ve had this year has been wading local small lakes and reservoirs for SMB, LMB and panfish. I’ve learned a lot. There is a lot of pretty good stillwater smallmouth fishing here in NW Pa. and it isn’t all in PI Bay or the big lake either.

Other than that, its been a h--- of a year for bluegills and rock bass. Got some dandies.

 

[dano]

2009 was Epic.
So far, 2015 has closely mirrored 2014.
Since early June, it's been a wash out with few opportunities in my neck of the woods. It started out with great caddis and gr.fox hatches.
Enter the monsoon season.
Near the end of May, I did managed to hit some very nice spinner falls but fishing over hatching duns was almost nonexistent as the duns seem to be hatching mostly after dark. Even on the cooler evenings I would see early spinners but rarely see duns hatching before 0’dark thirty. I’m not sure why.
I usually look forward to the Summer caddis hatches on the Allegheny River. This year I’ve been able to fish the Kinzua tailwater a total of 2 times. That’s 2 times more than last year so I probably shouldn’t complain.
Brookie and small stream fishing has gotten old.

 

[Chaz]

Can't say, with work and chores it's been only about 6 times I've been out. A typical year is 70 to 100 times.

 

[Swattie87]

This year has probably fallen into the average range for me thus far. Both in terms of fish caught and number of outings. I’m running a bit better than average in the “big” fish (for me) caught department.

I didn’t fish much until May, but got out a lot in May…a long weekend in NC PA and the Jam. Had one 2 day trip in June, and a few day outings since. I really haven’t had any total bust days…I’ve had a lot of mediocre 5-10 fish outings. A lot of times I caught fish, but thought I should have caught more given the conditions. I had two smash up 40-50ish fish days on small freestoners in June, but have cooled off since.

I tend to fish a lot of smaller freestoners, so I often will catch decent numbers of Trout, but not necessarily a lot of bigger fish. So far this year I’ve tallied wild Browns of 14”, 16”, and 18”. All of 2014 produced only two wild fish 14” or bigger (14” and 16”).

WW fishing. Practically non-existent. Got out once before the daily deluges started. Had a decent outing, but I think the 6wt is gonna collect a lot of dust this year. If the 6wt is collecting dust though, the Brookie rod should be getting a decent workout.

 

[pcray1231]

I haven't been out much due to life. But when I have gotten out it's been very good.

Couldn't ask for much better from the weather. May was dry with lowish flows for the prime of the hatch season - perfect.

Then mid-June came, and we got rain when we needed it, and it's continued to rain through mid July now. The big water may be up, but mid-summer is time to turn away from the big water anyway. Mid summer is small stream time, and I'm confident the small streams have healthy flows, cold temps, and great fishing.

It's why I was rather amused by the "we need rain" thread that was posted in May. No, in May you don't want much rain. In July and August you want rain. And we got it. Although, to be fair, you want that rain anytime except the day before and the day of your outing....

I need to get out.

 

[Reeder]

I do not have enough time to travel anywhere during the week, but live right on Lycoming so I can walk out back and fish for an hour or 2 almost every night. I probably fish it 4-5 times a week, no matter how low or high. This has been a top year for me for several reasons.

1. I have taught my boys how to effectively fish dries and nymphs, and both are now catching fish on their own. I also have been teaching them about hatches and the different life cycles so they can read the stream and know what flies to fish. They are catching on quite well. It has been very frustrating at times to get to this point, but very rewarding watching them finally getting it. Another added bonus is that when they see bugs hatching and fish rising, they grab them and run them right in to me, so I always have a live hatch report.

2. I have landed more 16-21 inch browns this year than I have in the last 5, all on new floating emerger patterns I have been experimenting with since grabbing a floating March Brown nymph and watching it emerge on my finger. The process took 2-3 minutes, which was much longer than I had anticipated, and provided me with all kinds of different ideas for patterns that matched different phases of the emerger. I have changed colors and sizes to match different hatches and have been doing very well.

3. The high cold water has been great for Lycoming Creek. It has been close to 10 years since I can remember the water being this high and cold in mid July. The stocked trout held over very well that year, and the fishing was excellent right into the fall. It is looking like another one of those years. There are a lot of large, healthy trout in Lycoming right now. The stocked trout have been on a steady natural diet and their colors are improving, and they are becoming much more selective. I have seen more than one experienced FFer skunked in front of a pool of 10-15 rising, educated, stocked trout. It almost happened to me last night. I looked out the window and saw a ton of large cahills hatching, and the trout were slamming the surface. I haven't seen as many hard strikes since the March Browns in May. I threw every dun and emerger I had and watched them come up, look at my fly, and turn away. I got lucky and nailed a nice looking rainbow on a cahill then called it quits an hour before dark, which I never do, because I was frustrated I wasn't able to capitalize on the perfect conditions and the feeding frenzy before my eyes. I am looking forward to giving it another shot tonight, and I am glad to have these excellent fishing conditions this far into summer. Bring on the rain.

 

[wildtrout2]

pcray1231 wrote:
May was dry with lowish flows...

It's why I was rather amused by the "we need rain" thread that was posted in May. No, in May you don't want much rain.

I need to get out.

Well, when you have streams drying up, not just "lowish" as a result of no "April showers", in May you sure do want rain. Hence the amusing "we need rain" thread in May.

 

[Sylvaneous]

Atrocious. It depends on where you are. Up here in the North West part of the Commonwealth, we have had too much rain since Memorial Day. Shortly into June, Center County streams were hit with the same thing, blowing out streams for a huge part of June and now, through the 1st 1/2 of July.

The river has provided only one day of fishing and it was poor with only 6 fish caught and only 2 of those of significant size. The large mouth fishing in lakes has been poor to very poor, as of yesterday. I couldn't get a bluegill to give so much as a strike on my foam slider.


Oil Creek is FINALLY fishable today. Smaller and medium streams are high for 3,4,5 days after these rains. The fish are hard to get to, they are so tightly tucked up under cover and on the bottom.

On top of that, days were gray and ****** and just not inspiring to head into the great outdoors. Nothing like a pleasant day in the pleasant seasons of the year. Yesterday we had the truly 1st NICE day, or one of very few in 6 weeks. That puts a damper on my fishing attitude.

. This year sucked. Last year sucked. The year before THAT sucked. The predicted climate change from global warming forecast that the west would sear under droughts (happening) and the north east would get more rain (happening) with more storminess. The jet stream would weaken as the gradient between the disproportionately warming poles and the temperate zones would flatten (happening). Maybe too warm streams like Oil Creek will transform into trout fisheries on the few days between deluges that they can be fished.

yeah, happy day.

 

[streamerguy]

Overall this has been a really good year for me.

Slow and rough start with lots of ice in March, but I was able to get out a few times and caught some fish.

April was good. Did a lot of steelhead fishing which was great, and hit a few regular trout streams and the fishing was solid the times I've been out. I always like to fish the grannom hatch but because of high water and simply not being able to get on the water I missed them this year. Same situation with the brown drakes in early June.

May was pretty good. Low water was definitely an issue at times, and the water was getting borderline too warm on some of the marginal waters but overall May was very good to me.

Early June was nice with good flows and decent topwater action. Other than a couple outings when the water was low enough to fish dries, the rest of the month was primarily streamers on smaller streams with the high flows. I certainly have no problem with that!!!! Some good fishin. Some streams have been better than others though with the higher water and colder than normal water temps on some streams as wildtrout2 pointed out.

More of the same in early July.

As for the warmwater fishin, it's been very slow for me. The smallmouth fishing on the rivers has been nonexistent. Had one good day of white bass fishing, and I got out a few times to local lakes and ponds for largemouths, crappie, and 'gills. Fishing was ok for them. Recently I got into a handful of bowfin which was fun. 2 bonus walleye this year too.

 

[WildTigerTrout]

NO! Too much rain!