Is this year going to be another washout?

[psychobeagle12]

Tried going to one of my very favorite spots today, the first place I ever fished a nymph and caught a trout. The water was over the banks of the river. All this early season rain has me concerned that this year is going to turn out like last year. I can count on one hand the number of times I was actually able to fish the local streams thanks to all the rain, and that was pretty much all season. I know it's probably excellent for fish survival rate, but good gravy I wanna fish!!! I will say I have gotten out more on some of the smaller streams this year, but I'm really hoping to fish some bigger water. What do we think it's gonna look like?

 

[franklin]

I remember a couple years in the 60s with similar weather patterns. Seems like the patterns run a few years in a row. Good for the fish. Not so good for fishermen.

 

[Letort]

I have caught some really nice native brookies this spring. I think the prolonged water levels last year reduced the mortality and has produced some great fishing.

Agree that we are in a rainy cycle at the moment and this year seems to be following last year.

 

[Bamboozle]

What is pissing me off is how it coincides with the Sulphur hatch which I wait for every year since it one of the only significant hatches in my neck of the woods.

My local creeks are WAY high and off as is the hatch & fishing. I'm hoping to get out at least a few times before the Sulphurs are done, but the weather doesn't want to cooperate.

 

[psychobeagle12]

Yeah, the sulphur hatch is what has been disappointing me as well. It's been almost three years since I was able to fish it. Later in the summer when the water levels fall at least some I'll be able to do well down at the river, but the sulphurs are the big draw in the spot I was in yesterday. Just kinda stinks.

 

[evw659]

The high and generally not really fishable flows on most of the larger streams and rivers right around peak hatch time just seems like the new normal to me...i just looked at radar and saw a few serious t storms roll right over my favorite rivers watershed, just as it was finally getting back close to decent flows, which will likely add a couple days at least to the time to get back to fishable conditions.
Silver lining is that your favorite brookie streams will likely fish near their peak during this time.

 

[drossi]

Go small. Headwaters and smaller creeks. I feel you on the sulphurs, they are my favorite hatch. Hopefully the next week or so sees the water come down and the hatch ramp up.

 

[riverwhy]

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&id=BDDE1000B836F33F4C5A73119200FE3F45F09ECE&thid=OIP.oXwpUlirXSoe7UIiXCuYNAHaGR&mediaurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.worldatlas.com%2Fwebimage%2Fcountrys%2Fnamerica%2Fusstates%2Fweathermaps%2Fpa.gif&exph=619&expw=731&q=pennsylvania+average+annual+precipitation&selectedindex=4&ajaxhist=0&vt=0&eim=1,2,6
Check out this average annual precipitation map and it confirms our suspicions!

 

[Wild_Trouter]

Just hit some headwater streams yesterday, and they fished quite well. So far, my average fish is larger than last year, so the rains last year look like a great thing. Like everybody else though, I tied a bunch of Sulphurs up over the Winter and have been itching to fish them. Grannoms were a wash for me this year, and only encountered a handful of decent olive hatches. For what it's worth, I'm just hoping the rivers are in decent shape for smallies this Summer. Last year was the first time that I didn't get out for them due to all of the high water.

 

[troutbert]

Wild_Trouter wrote:
Just hit some headwater streams yesterday, and they fished quite well.

I fished a brookie stream today and the conditions and fishing were good.

The water was up, but clear. The fishing was probably better because the water was up then it would have been if flows were average. On small brushy streams you often have to get close to the fish to make a cast. And if the water is low the fish are more easily spooked.

I had tried some brookie fishing earlier this season and didn't do well, probably because the water was still too cold.

But it's game on now. The water temps are getting into the right range now, in the afternoon.

 

[outsider]

I try not to complain about the excess rain. I think it was 2016 when we had severe drought in Berks County. That really took it's toll.

 

[outsider]

Berks County really got pounded tonight. There goes the Tully for a while.

 

[Bamboozle]

I get the "fish the headwaters thing" but sometimes I just want to fish a place where I can trot out the 8'-9' rods, not worry about my backcast, be able to use a leader longer than 7 foot, match a hatch and cast further than 20 feet to a sipping trout that is longer than 8".

Last year I spent so much time hemmed in on small creeks because of water levels that I felt like a sewer worker. ;-)

 

[Wild_Trouter]

Bamboozle-

There are plenty of "headwater" places where you can use an 8' 4wt rod and lay out some line to fish longer than 8". I don't know where you are located, so I can't make a recommendation?

 

[PALongbow]

March Browns just started to come off the water on Saturday....then we get hit with more rain and cold water.

Ron

 

[bradtheflyfisherman]

Had a superb weekend fishing both in the Lehigh Valley and in the Poconos. Fished a half dozen different streams from large to small. None were too high to be fishing. Saw my first sporadic sulphurs as well. Wild fish are very healthy with beautiful colors, and rainbow stockies are looking pretty good too. Looking forward to this next weekend as long as the weather behaves!

 

[sarce]

Drier times ahead if you put any stock into long range weather predictions. Seeing calls for periods of above normal heat (obviously summer is hot, but hotter than usual) and slightly below average rainfall likely this summer. Take with grain of salt...

 

[beeber2]

Good times in the Poconos this weekend. The sz 16 sulphurs were pouring off the water all afternoon and the fish were looking up. Caught fish until I was tired, which isn't long enough any more.

 

[krayfish2]

The high water has definitely sucked for fishing the larger streams. The upside is that any of the fish I've caught or seen caught were fat, healthy and feisty. It does seem that the persistent high water has the hatches a little funky this year and water temps have been a little lower for now. I'm thinking summer may get us pretty good this year.

It's not so much the frequency of the rain but the intensity. I remember when it would rain 0.10" for 4-5 days in a row. Didn't really impact things. Getting 2" - 3.5" rains every other day gets old quick. Lots of sediment getting moved / deposited and widening of streams due to repeated flooding. The bass spawn is probably a bust again this year.

 

[Kevin82]

According to this precipitation should be close to normal, but lately the weather people cant predict what its gonna do this afternoon. so....
https://www.almanac.com/weather/longrange/zipcode/17814