Trout into your backing?

B

Billr

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Except for the Delaware which I've never fished, are there any streams in PA where you've had a trout take you into your backing?
 
Billr said:
Except for the Delaware which I've never fished, are there any streams in PA where you've had a trout take you into your backing?
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Make a 70-80 foot cast and damn near any decent fish you catch will take you into your backing. Not sure what the significance of it is except to ensure the knot is good.
 
Dear Billr,

I have reels with 50 year old backing that has never seen water unless it was raining or I set the reel in the water. I did have a steelhead on a 5wt rig get out of the flats on Douglaston Salmon Run and into the rapids though. That didn't end well! 😉

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂
 
Marsh Creek north of the chicken hating town of Wellsboro except...

You will probably discover that trout is actually a carp. 🙄

Moral of story, don't worry about how much backing you have on your trout reels.
 
I have been fly fishing for well over 50 years. I have only ever had one fish take me into my backing and that was on a river in Vermont. Growing up in PA and fishing countless PA streams, never had a fish take me into the backing.
 
Nope. Not w/ trout anyway. Carp for sure. And one of those huge stocked bows at Harmans in really high water once. But in all natural and "normal" conditions, never w/ a trout in PA
 
I've had fewer than the fingers on one hand fresh lake run steelhead get me into my backing. They have always happened high water November, running fish, very low in the stream, either at the mouth or just upstream.
I have been fishing over lake run salmon/trout since at least 1975; so that is a few.
 
Realistically, only one PA Trout ever even came close for me. Rainbow (likely from you know where) in the Gorge on the Little J. Flows were high, 450ish, maybe a little more, cold water in March. Hooked it just off a heavy main current tongue in about 3 or 4 feet of water and it shot straight into the heavy current and ran straight downstream of me. I figure it was probably a mid 20’s fish, with its strength and weight multiplied by the current. There was no way I could safely chase after it in those flows so I pinched the line on my rod and let it break off. It was approaching the backing at that point though. No other Trout in PA has come close. Browns don’t really run. They try to bury their nose in the rocks like Smallies do. Brookies…hahaha.
 
Nocktavius said:
Make a 70-80 foot cast and damn near any decent fish you catch will take you into your backing. Not sure what the significance of it is except to ensure the knot is good.
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Yep. In 60 years of fly fishing, I've had trout (other than steelhead on the West Coast) run me into backing twice. In both cases, I was fishing at the top of long, too deep to wade run, making a long cast and feeding line downstream, so that I had at least 75 feet of line outside the rod tip before I hooked the fish. And by "run me onto to backing" I mean that backing was pulled off the reel -- in neither case did the backing make it out of the tip top.
 
On the yough a couple of times, long cast with a dry fly. This one hit my backing in what seemed like two seconds of leaping and head shaking.
 

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Once or twice on Lehigh with large stocked brood fish. As mentioned above, they were in either caught in fast water or fought their way into fast water. In most places on the river you position yourself where you can and play the fish with rod and reel. Pretty tuff to position yourself into an advantageous position routinely.
 
I like fishing for trout. The reason I like fishing for them isn't for their fight, though.

No trout has ever come close to taking me into my backing. If any trout comes close to taking you into your backing without some extreme circumstance like a 90 ft cast or cazy conditions like Swattie describes, then you fight fish like a sissy.

Horse em' on in.

In all seriousness though. Trout fight in a weird way that, when using barbless hooks and in tight quarters/small streams, can make them hard to keep hooked. That plays into the fun. They don't pull like a smallie or a catfish, though. Trout can just be....tricky sometimes.
 
Even when I have been to Erie for Steelhead, I was disappointed in the fight. Now, I have never gotten into them in October or November when water temps are warmer and they may have more spunk, but late season steelies were easy to muscle in on my 6 weight.
 
I’ve been flyfishing for 45 years and have never had a trout take me anywhere remotely close to my backing.
 
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