When did PA turn into Wyoming?

5footfenwick said:
I like a small net. Even the smallest nets made can handle a 24” browns head if it has to. I was always taught bring the fish to the net, don’t bring the net to the fish.

~5footfenwick
Click to expand...
Same here. I bought this at ****'s (sporting goods store that shares a name with a slang word for the male anatomy) probably 15 years ago. Perfect size for trout. I have a big mouth frabill for steelhead.
20250308_204522.jpg
 
jifigz said:
It wasn't too bad in Central PA today. I fished for a bit and landed three wild browns. I will take it.

Here is my beef, though. On the one stream I was on, as I was leaving I drove by two fly anglers either getting in or out of their car. They had nets that could have reached the entire way across the stream. Why does everyone need a net with a 3 foot handle on it these days?
Click to expand...
Those long handled nets are probably great on a boat but have to be a real nuisance walking through brush along a stream
 
I like a “competition style” net with an extremely large basket. I can kinda just hold it to my side and let the fish come to me. I also noticed it’s extremely good at keeping the fish 100% submerged under the water while holding the net. More times than not my barbless hook will pop out and I can release the fish without touching it/ having it out of the water at all.
 
I fish small stuff mostly, so I don’t really like nets. They’re rarely needed, and they create more problems hiking in the woods than is justified to carry it for the one or two, handful at most, fish a year where it would have been helpful. On big water, yeah, I like a net, but just have a normal one. Or what I perceive to be a normal one anyway.

Wind. The windy places in PA have always been windy, especially this time of year. The broad valleys (and the ridge tops dividing them) are notably prone to the NW wind that prevails after Winter time cold fronts. Living in the Harrisburg area, Lebanon, and Morgantown areas all support this. They were all bitterly windy for 24 to as many as 72 hours after a Winter cold front. Is it a little worse now, yeah, maybe, don’t wanna get into it. But it was always there.
 
We have absolutely noticed the winds have been way more powerful and sustained for at least the last 3 or 4 months. I’ve been in the same house over 18 years and there have been some days and nights lately that my wife and I can’t believe how windy it’s been, as in we hope the roof stays on! SE PA.
 
Swattie87 said:
I fish small stuff mostly, so I don’t really like nets. They’re rarely needed, and they create more problems hiking in the woods than is justified to carry it for the one or two, handful at most, fish a year where it would have been helpful. On big water, yeah, I like a net, but just have a normal one. Or what I perceive to be a normal one anyway.

Wind. The windy places in PA have always been windy, especially this time of year. The broad valleys (and the ridge tops dividing them) are notably prone to the NW wind that prevails after Winter time cold fronts. Living in the Harrisburg area, Lebanon, and Morgantown areas all support this. They were all bitterly windy for 24 to as many as 72 hours after a Winter cold front. Is it a little worse now, yeah, maybe, don’t wanna get into it. But it was always there.
Click to expand...
Dear Swattie87,

It was almost never windy in the Winter and late Spring when I lived in Binghamton NY. Mostly because the damned sun never came out and the cloud cover never broke.

Come to think of it, it wasn't really very windy in the Spring and Summer for the exact same reasons. 😉

It was the best, worst place I've ever lived! 😉

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂
 
wildtrout2 said:
Apparently, it's the latest craze. I can maybe see a longer handled net on big water being useful, but not otherwise.
Click to expand...
It could double as a wading staff

I don’t really notice it where I am in SWPA, but when I visit my mom in lower Bucks County the wind sure seems heavier than what I remember growing up there.
 
I've posted about this before: The PA-made Handy Pak Net: https://www.handypaknetco.com/

20250309_090548.jpg20250309_090602.jpg

All you need for a blue line and doesn't need to come out for every fish.

I spent some time on a NEPA CL-A Friday. Wind was gusting over 30 MPH but it was still a good day to be on the water. Had to pause a couple of times to let the gust go by but not too bad.

Stuck to heavy stuff mostly - a streamer trailing a midge most of the time. Don't know if I can truly blame the wind for this but but this one didn't quite track the way I wanted it to.

20250307_132840.jpg

I'm usually very good about de-barbing even the smallest of hooks. I missed this one . . .
 
Yeah - the wind this winter has just been really punishing.

Walking my dogs in the evenings lately has required some serious cold weather clothing and plastic bags are hard to control. . . .
 
In regards to wind...

Our local newspaper is a weekly tabloid that publishes an article in each issue titled. "A Glimpse of the Past - The 1905 Diary of Sumneytown's Daniel Royer."

Each week they will publish his diary entries for the same week in 1905 which induces the weather each day.

Trust me, the high winds are nothing new...
 
Last edited:
There is even a saying for the beginning of the month.
 
Tim:

Are you sure it is the wind that is the source of all this motion and it isn't just you that is moving? I only ask because sometimes, for me anyway, it can be hard to tell...
 
It's likely not your imagination that it's actually getting windier. Do a Google search and you'll find a number of articles pointing to such. Many of them seem to point to a natural increase over something man-made, but the data seems to support an increase in surface winds in many regions.

One such article:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-worlds-winds-are-speeding-up/
 
RLeep2 said:
Tim:

Are you sure it is the wind that is the source of all this motion and it isn't just you that is moving? I only ask because sometimes, for me anyway, it can be hard to tell...
Click to expand...
Dear RLeep2,

When full bird feeders are blown nearly parallel to the ground and the seeds split out it's windy. I have had suet feeders blow right off the hooks recently too. Even our poor dog is tired of his ears flapping around like an empty plastic bag or being blown straight back behind his head.

I had hoped to burn some of the dead branches that have fallen in my yard over the Winter this weekend. Even though we got close to an inch of rain mid-week the leaves and ground are once again bone dry and I won't start a fire in this wind.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂
 
jifigz said:
It wasn't too bad in Central PA today. I fished for a bit and landed three wild browns. I will take it.

Here is my beef, though. On the one stream I was on, as I was leaving I drove by two fly anglers either getting in or out of their car. They had nets that could have reached the entire way across the stream. Why does everyone need a net with a 3 foot handle on it these days?
Click to expand...
Was the 3 foot measured by a man or woman? It might have been only 1 foot. Just sayin!
 
jeffroey said:
I've posted about this before: The PA-made Handy Pak Net: https://www.handypaknetco.com/

View attachment 1641240548View attachment 1641240547

All you need for a blue line and doesn't need to come out for every fish.

I spent some time on a NEPA CL-A Friday. Wind was gusting over 30 MPH but it was still a good day to be on the water. Had to pause a couple of times to let the gust go by but not too bad.

Stuck to heavy stuff mostly - a streamer trailing a midge most of the time. Don't know if I can truly blame the wind for this but but this one didn't quite track the way I wanted it to.

View attachment 1641240549

I'm usually very good about de-barbing even the smallest of hooks. I missed this one . . .
Click to expand...
I make house calls. I’ll just put an edge on my Buck Knife and sterilize some nanothread. You won’t miss that finger will you?
 
Years ago fishing with Craig Matthews he told me this one. “Why is Southwest Montana always windy? That’s because Idaho blows and Wyoming sucks.” 😝
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Montana Angler Fly Fishing
Montana Angler Fly Fishing
Harman's North Fork Cottages
Wayward Trading”/> </center> </div> </div> </div> <div class=


Real Time Data From
the USGS Site

Share this page

Back
Top