Letort spots

[Wildfish]

Hey guys,

Spending a lot of time near Letort into the fall. I usually fish it near the mouth. Haven't had much luck further upstream along the Letort Spring path (TU property, right?). Tons of mosquitoes up there make me fish it too quickly. Any spots I should check out in between?

Generally I pick up a couple small fish on top in slow water and a few larger fish underneath in faster water. No luck getting larger fish on the surface yet.

 

[Fishidiot]

Wildfish wrote:
Any spots I should check out in between?

Yes - all of it (Most folks avoid the town but there are spots there too)....but don't expect to find the best "spot" where there are always rising fish or some other unrealistic expectation. Don't expect to master Letort with a handful of trips. I've been hitting it for 30 years, and many folks around here for many more years than that......and it still has me scratching my head and discovering new angles and characteristics of this amazing stream.

Pay your dues, keep exploring, and forget about "spots" or shortcuts.

Remember......it's Letort.

 

[Wildfish]

Yeah, I'm not expecting miracles. Just not sure about access. The TU property (or whoever owns the area along and after the path) is clearly fishable, but I haven't had much luck there. Shallow water, weeds, no fish rising--basic Letort stuff. Then there is moving water right before the mouth. Seems like a lot of backyards and town property in between. Are there other well known fishable areas that one would/should check out? Not secret spots, just the basic "this is the Letort" sections? Don't want to knock on doors to ask for access.

 

[Squaretail]

Precious little of the Letort is posted, and that has never once been an issue in my fishing there.
One year I do best in a section, the next I do best in a different section.
The backyard section you refer to towards the mouth near the sports complex is fine. Just stay towards the creek. Very nice folks if they happen to be out.

 

[klingy]

What they said. Just pick a spot that looks good on google maps and try it out. Any landowner that I have encountered along the stream has been very nice and pretty much expects to see anglers on the stream. Hey, it's the letort.

 

[Wildfish]

Perfect. Thanks. Will just poke around for a while.

 

[Gorosaurus]

I've only fished it once, and that was in the same area (Sports Emporium). Was very happy to have caught a few browns on my first foray there!

I hope to get back there soon, but not sure where I should hit. Guess I'll hit google maps as well

 

[Night_Stalker]

As said above...invest the time. I continue to explore weekly. There are several areas that are posted and certainly not easy to access. Some ares are just plain dangerous to consider walking/wading do to quicksand and possible sink hole collapse.

I fish the lower sections year round. I try to stay in tune to the migration of the fish throughout the many varied sections.

Currently, there are large schools of 6-10"ers moving towards the mouth and out into the Conodoguinet. The Muskie love this behavior, btw.

Many of the areas hold all sizes of browns. Don't be shocked when you realize there is a large fish right beside you. If you avoid spooking a big one...consider yourself very lucky!

Oh...you get used to having skin chemical burns from the heavy coatings of deet.

 

[Chaz]

Try it after a rain.

 

[tomitrout]

No luck getting larger fish on the surface yet.

yeah, depending on what your consider 'larger', consider anything over 14" a trophy if you entice it to rise....the risers seem to top out at around 16" even during good hatches, then they're old and whiley and prefer to feed subsurface...of course there are always exceptions.

regarding access....park at Bonnybrook, walk down the path and hop thru any rabbit holes you think look promising to reach the stream. But be prepared to bushwack and get tangled in the knee deep swampiness with cattails a foot or two overhead, sometimes it's worth it, sometimes it's not...that stream, she's always a changin'.

And careful with the DEET, that #censor#'ll eat up your fly lines, rod finish, waders....nasty stuff.

 

[jdaddy]

tomitrout wrote:

And careful with the DEET, that #censor#'ll eat up your fly lines, rod finish, waders....nasty stuff.

Here is one I never thought about. Using a 100% Deet product, I decided to save my skin and spray it on shirt and hat. Later in the day, completely not thinking, I put my sunglasses up on top of my hat. It completely ruined the optics of a new pair of Kaenon glasses. Did not notice it at first but kept having focus problems and then noted that the lens are just covered in fine waves.

Also, it stains shirts pretty bad too.

 

[tomitrout]

yep, it ate into and dissolved a spot of varnish on one of my cane rods...laid it across my just sprayed arm while changing flies one night. I've found the picardian (??) based stuff works well enough and doesn't destroy your gear.

 

[LetortAngler]

Not only a ton of Mosquitos, but also snakes... However, the lower letort is far more better these days being that there is more fish but I seldomly fish the lower and am always up at Bonnybrook. Even though I only catch a couple at Bonnybrook, it's worth it. Your skills have to be that of a master and nothing less to hook into a Bonnybrook brown. The sports emporium is terrestrial heaven, cause every time I'm there, risers see always at the bends in the stream. Just last week I hooked into a 17" brown on a Crowe beetle. My largest letort brown on a DRy Fly. Shady Lane is another fantastic location. If you look upstream from the bridge with your Polaroids glasses, il bet you'll see a 16+inch fish for there's always a monster in that pool. I hooked into that fish with a cress bug of my design a few days ago, but he shook off quickly.

 

[greenghost]

LetortAngler wrote:
Your skills have to be that of a master and nothing less to hook into a Bonnybrook brown.

With all due respect, that's nonsense. As long as you can accurately cast 40 feet and up, move stealthy and deliberately without tromping around on the spongy ground, you can catch a brownie or two.