Slate Run

[TYoung]

Has anyone had any success on Slate Run this Spring. I fished it yesterday and got skunked. The flow was really good and the water was crystal clear. I didn't spot any spooked fish in any of the deeper holes. I'm wondering if last years drought did a number on the fish population. I tried tight line nymphing all the better looking runs and got zero bites. Last year, before the drought kicked in, I caught some brookies up by the Morris Run access.

 

[lycoflyfisher]

It's a notorious tough stream to fish at the conditions you described. It gets a fair amount of pressure especially at the lower access points that are easily accessible. Try fishing it on a cloudy drizzly day or immediately following a rain storm.

 

[ryansheehan]

I fished it around Thanksgiving last year from Pine up. I picked up half a dozen or so wild browns. Nice little stream but definitely tough.

 

[tztrout]

I fished it several weeks ago during really high water conditions and didn't move a fish. I was tightlining as well, but since I'm no heroic wader, it was tough to cover a lot of potentially productive water.

 

[Hook_Jaw]

I hear from friends that fish it that it's tough and quite a few people fish it and gets crowded.

 

[ryansheehan]

If anyone had fished the stream before me I imagine I would have been skunked. All the fisherman were in Pine, didn't see anyone once I worked up from there.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

It's one of those streams that "everyone" fishes because they feel it's the true NCPA wild trout small stream experience. It's too pressured. I have no doubt the fish are there. I haven't fished it in years though, because it seems someone is always on it. There are tons of equally good small streams in that region that don't get the pressure.

 

[salmo]

I have fished Slate for may years, often without success. I have had better luck on the Francis Branch, but in general the fish were smaller.

 

[lycoflyfisher]

It gets a lot of pressure and is very tough to fish unless your doing so in ideal conditions following a thunderstorm. As stated above there are many freestone wild trout streams within a short drive from slate run

 

[Swattie87]

I think pressure may be part of it, but it’s also the nature of the stream. Streams in that area of similar size to Slate (I’ll call them on the bigger end of small) are generally mostly wild Browns, especially in their lower reaches. Freestone wild Brown streams are generally very difficult to fish outside of higher water, or very early in the AM, or late in the evening. I’ve fished many of those streams up there that I’m sure we’re all thinking about that are similarly sized to Slate, and they all tend to fish pretty slow outside of relatively warm weather higher water events. Yeah, I think Slate probably gets fished more than most of them, but on the same given day in the same less than ideal conditions I doubt many of the others would fish much better, pressured or not. If I’m heading up there to fish one of them, I try to time it after a Summer’s rain, for the best fishing. Sometimes I just want to fish/hike/camp and I don't care, but if I want to catch fish...conditions trump all.

Once you get further upstream on these types of streams where you tend to begin to run into more of a 50/50 mix of Browns with Brookies, the fishing generally begins to improve when talking about less than ideal conditions…you start to catch the Brookies at least. Survey data on Slate, and many of those other streams confirms there are significant Class A populations of Trout in them…you just don’t always catch them, especially the Browns.

 

[Troy]

I never had much luck there and I fish Slate or Cedar every year. Used to have some luck on Cedar, but not much anymore. I just fished Cedar on Friday. I was 6 miles up from the mouth, road distance. Caught and missed a few Brookies and one other fish. Read on for more about this fish I fished a stretch where once you are in, you are in for a mile or so when you can climb back out. . Guaranteed not much pressure, but still slow fishing.

The beauty of the streams is what brings me back. I fish sections where most others won't go and always have the place to myself. You just have to be a little strategic about it. Don't catch much, but I am in my own little heaven.

I experienced one of the weirdest things fishing Cedar on Friday. Like I said, I was 6 miles up from the mouth of Pine. I got to a hole with a small dead tree lying parallel along the bank. I see this fish darting around. I looked again and it was Palomino. I was shocked. Now here is the kicker. I only saw the fish for a few seconds and didn't know where it currently was. I casted in the hole and finally had caught a fish that day. It was the Palomino. First fish after a few hours on Cedar was a Palomino.

I tried to take a picture and it flopped out of my hand. I know, that really makes my story more believable. Another weird thing is it was only about 9 inches. Usually the Palominos stocked are bigger you would think.