Pine Creek, Autumn Nymph Patterns

[JakesLeakyWaders]

Looking for some ideas for my Pine Creek Gorge trip in next week. I say nymphs because I am ok at tying nymphs.

I don't have any dumbell bead eyes but I think I saw a broken fan pull chain laying around.

 

[flytyingfred]

jlw sandfly would be your go to guy on this subject

 

[sandfly]

anything with a tinge of orange will work. brown/orange wolly worm, hares ear with orange, black/orange stones, caddis larva cream/orange mix

 

[JakesLeakyWaders]

Thanks,

I've got some orange hare dubbing and orange antron. Got some yellow deer hair too, that helps a lot.

 

[JakesLeakyWaders]

Here is something I tied up late last night. I just got the tying stuff out of storage and couldn't wait to get creative.

I think I used a size 6 hook. Position bead and clamp down hook.
Tie in liberal amounts of olive marabou at the back of the hook. Moving a forward, tie in a few stands of peacock hearl. Then some more marabou. Next tie in some red deer hair for gills, and in front of that some darker deer hair. Near the front tie in a few more strands of peacock and the last section at the front gets a bunch hare dubbing straight off the Hare's mask. Whip it good.

Streamer is about 4 inches long.

 

[sandfly]

make sure you stop by and say hello !!
here is what I use this time of year.

 

[ryguyfi]

I love that top pattern. I use it in green and white and it works great. I tie mine with sparkle yarn though. The real stuff used for the ESP. Just divide the strands and use it kind of like a dubbing loop. Makes a good looking fly.

 

[jdaddy]

Our presenter at the Tully TU meeting last night did a thing on Pine Creek. Some good looking water in between really long slick pools (based on his photos). He stated that the water gets really warm there in the Summer and that it is pretty much dependent upon stocking. Could anyone from the area elaborate on those two things?

 

[WildTigerTrout]

The water in Big Pine gets to warm in the summer and alot of trout die. The only thing that saves some of them are the tribs (Slate Run, Cedar Run etc.)that flow into Big Pine. They either go up the tribs or gather at their mouths for the cooler temps.If they survive the summer they are stressed at least until cooler temps prevail. We have caught wild browns early in the season on Big Pine but most came down to the main stream from the tribs. When the water gets warm they are back up the tribs. It is beautiful there. Someplaces you would swear you were out west somewhere!

 

[snuffysmith]

BULL---trout die offs. I have lived here for over 30 years and have never seen trout die. they are here just have to do your research to find them. maybe below the gorge near slate there are some , but not above. most fish dead are a result of fishing for them at the trib mouths which should be out lawed.

 

[wsender]

snuffysmith wrote:
most fish dead are a result of fishing for them at the trib mouths which should be out lawed.

Im just curious, why is fishing the tributary mouthes a bad thing?

 

[jayL]

Because the fish stack up there for thermal refuge in the summer.

As far as I'm concerned, there are certainly issues with trout not surviving the summer. Otherwise, they wouldn't have to stock the stream. I fished it in the first week of june, and it was running around 70 in the upper gorge. Saying that some of the trout find places to survive doesn't make it "BULL" that trout are dying.

 

[Slate_Drake_9]

There are trout kills on upper pine, below the water heater, um, I mean dam in town the whole ways down to the mouth. Some of the fish (usually the wild ones) find thermal refuge, but many, many of them don't. I've witnessed dead trout in the water during hot spells too many times. When we have summers like we had this year and some of the tribs reach 70+ degrees, things aren't too good in the big creek for trout.

If the state would open their eyes and remove the dam in Galeton, there would be a great chance for year around survival for many trout, but as it stands there are many days when the water is in the 60's where the west branch and main branch flow in and upper 70's to 80's below the spill way.

 

[JakesLeakyWaders]

Are you talking about the lake in Galeton? Is the lake in Galeton ?

I was there one year they had the lake emptied to dredge it on the 4th of July holiday. The money they spend to dredge that crappy little lake, they could turn it into a nice park and plant some trees. Heck I bet it would boost the local economy if it were reverted back to a stream.

Didn't they already empty Lyman Lake up there just to put another dam up or fix the existing one when it could have been eliminated altogether?

 

[WildTigerTrout]

No most of the trout that die do so because the water gets to warm for them to survive! IMO Big Pine is a much better Smallmouth fishery.

 

[sandfly]

I find trout all year on pine, yeah it gets warm, but have never seen a fish kill. as for the dam in galeton there is a cold channel running through it, the shallow area gets warm during the summer. I had guys catching trout on drys there until middle of july. remember creeks run under ground and will surface in a larger stream some where near the mouth.
Lyman was a waste of 16 mil. $$ they put in a bottom release, but don't use it till after the forth of july. I took a temp below the dam in june and it was 75 deg. what a waste of $$$.

 

[Tups]

There was a thriving native brook trout popn in the Pine Creek when the white man arrived, but there were no smallmouths. The late nineteenth century lumber boom had a major impact on the stream and essentially wiped out the brook trout. However, today the Pine Creek watershed resembles more its pre-boom state than at any other time over the past hundred years. I'm wondering why if the watershed could support a trout popn in the old days, then why not today?

 

[sandfly]

Pine back in the day was smaller width wise and deeper, it was also canopied with hemlock. the natives called it black water since the sun rarely penetrated the canopy. the water ran cold all the time.

 

[Slate_Drake_9]

To the best of my recollection, it was known as the black forest, not black water, due to the fact that the overstory was so thick that light didn't get to the ground, nor did much heat by many accounts of snow/ice on the ground almost into August many years before the logging destroyed it.

There are some theories out there that this created the black version of the grey squirrels.

 

[sandfly]

both are wrong according to Wiki;

Pine Creek is named for the many pine trees that lined (and now again line) much of its banks.[1] The Iroquois called Pine Creek “Tiadaghton”, which according to Owlett, either meant “The River of Pines” or “The Lost or Bewildered River.” Pine Creek is the largest “creek” in the United States.[2]

also found this in my files from Joyce Tice on the history of tioga;

We are forced to the conclusion, therefore, that an Indian bearing this euphonious title dwelt at the mouth of Babb's creek, and his name was associated with Pine creek by the whites in order to designate his place of residence, and in course of time the stream came to be known by that title. Among the Indians this great stream seems to have been known as the "River of the Pines," because it flowed from a land where this timber abounded in the greatest luxuriance. On the open space, of meadow, at the mouth of Babb's creek, corn was very likly cultivated by the Indians, as the soil was composed of a rich alluvial deposit and was well adapted to the production of that cereal. The fishing being good at this point, offered another inducement for Tiadaghton to establish his wigwam and build up a village around him. Shad ascended Pine creek as far as the mouth of Marsh creek, there being no obstructions in the river in those days to keep them back. The mountain surroundings in this deep and gloomy gorge were sufficiently wild to suit the taste of the most thorough Indian, and if old Tiadaghton had any romantic inclination in his untutored mind, he could here enjoy them in the gloomy grandeur of the mountain solitude which is still without a rival in northern Pennsylvania.

Shad I wish they came this far, 8' 4wt. would be awsome.