Your favorite set up

Welcome to the sport, it's one of constant learning for sure. I did not read the other posts so I hope that I am not repeating. From early season to late season flies to fish change. I will assume that you are looking forward to the first day of trout season and freshly stocked trout. Freshly stocked trout take some time to be conditioned to natural insects, even if they are stocked in-season when the heavier hatches are underway. However these fish will turn to feeding on naturals much more quickly. The flies that I would recommend for the early part of trout season for stocked trout.
Dusty's pink worm or a worm pattern
Sucker Spawn Creme is a good choice
Green Weenie
Woolley Buggers with long marabou tails
Streamers especially work well for brook trout such as a gray ghost and wooly bugger. Water is cold fish low and slow. That doesn't work try to entice some action with the streamers stripping or ripping whatever gets'em stirred up.
These are my favorite early flies for fresh stocked trout, alot of fisherman use egg patterns as well.
Hope this helps start you initially. Things change quickly when the hatches get going and the fish become conditioned. I'm sure that you will get plenty of good info here.
For casting I've read that the FFF booth at the Lancaster show March 2 and 3rd will have instruction. Good Luck and happy fishing.


 
With Eggs (sucker spawns) I've found that the only thing that matters is giving the fish something they haven't seen color wise. If you start fishing delayed harvest and ffo's now you will have a good idea of how to fish for the first day. What are some of the streams you normally fish?
 
hof52 wrote:
Can you explain "drag free" drift
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Here is a video from the Orvis blog that helps show you what drag looks like. This video talks about mending your line. The explanations described above are very good. This video shows you what everyone is talkng about.

http://howtoflyfish.orvis.com/307-mending-line
 
thank you everybody for the info im learning a lot this is great marvin i fish pine creek a lot due to its convenience also been to montour run and a stream close to the neshannok sorry for spelling but thats about it i get up to out camp in cameron county and fish some streams there
 
Ok well I'll Deer creek tomorrow morning if youre free, I think I can pull a few holdovers out
 
i think gfen covered the basics very well. The only suggestion/edit i have to his post is the leader length. May be easier for a newbie to start with a 7 1/2' leader.
 
There are plenty of videos out there that will help you get familiar with flyfishing nicely. I'm a big Orvis fan and I believe they make some of the easiest understanding videos and flyfishing shows available. Just type in Flyfishing and hit videos and it will bring you into that world if you have not already done so.
GFens advice is great as well. I like to practice casting in the front yard this time of the year. I get lots of laughs, however it keeps me well acquainted with my rod and line.
 
Really? Please let me no how you do i kinda wrote the local streams off for the winter
 
never do that, I was there today and saw at least a handful of fish in one hole, not to mention whacking a few fish this week at another dalo til my eyelets froze. once you get the hang of it you'll be able to fish quite a bit of the year
 
hof52 wrote:
Really? Please let me no how you do i kinda wrote the local streams off for the winter
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Limestoners will be mostly ice-free year round. Freestoners may ice over, but if there is open water, you should be able to move fish with something. They're usually sluggish, being cold-blooded and all, but I've got 16 freestone wild browns to my name for January and February, so far. Favorite winter setup - wooly bugger.

I'm beginning to really enjoy winter freestone wild brown fishing, because, quite frankly, its quite a bit more challenging than spring or fall fishing, and that makes each fish it a bit more rewarding.

Best advice spread throughout the thread - don't overcomplicate things. A few flies will do. Learn the technique and don't worry so much about what's on the end of the line. Just like we eat hamburgers, some that look more like burgers, and others that look more like mystery meat, so too do trout consume bugs, some that are real bugs, some that look like real bugs, and some that are poor imitations for bugs.
 
winter fishing is not hard but it does take experience. the fish are much more lethargic and you need to put the fly right on them. they will most likely be in a deeper hole so you are gonna need some weight to get you down. the way that I look at winter fly fishing is a game where you get real close to the fish in a deep pool and do short drifts.
I find that in most cases when I find a pool with fish in it I try to stay as far away. but im usually within 10 feet of them. I use a 9 foot leader with a tandem rig. I usually have no more then 5 feet of fly line out. I put as much weight as I can. when you start bumping the bottom is when I stop. just take a split shot off if you start snagging.
you can catch a lot of fish in the winter. zebra midge is my go to for streams with stocked fish. I also use wooly buggers and eggs but I get most of my fish on zebras.

once the water starts to warm in spring and summer it gets easier and harder. by this I mean stocked fish will hit buggers and streamers and fishing is easy but give them two weeks and they will turn to whats in the streams. BWO's, caddis, middges and other bugs.
summer is when most bugs stop hatching on a regular basis so thing like ants and beetles will work but nymphing is still the best way to fish. the way I describe summer fly fishing to someone who spin fished their who life is fish where you would never go with bait or a lure like a rooster tail. by this I mean fast moving water, shallow or deep. trout need a lot of O2 to live in a stream so them will move to stretches of the river that have a lot of turbulent water when it warms up. I have caught fish in a riffle that is about 2 feet deep to about 5 inches. even if you don't see fish it dosent mean that they aren't there. summer time I like to use pheasant tails hears ears caddis larva.

marc
 
Well I got skunked today couldn't believe it, there looked to be a decent amount of midges and what looked to be BWO prob size 18 or 20. First time I ever fished it, I was impressed with some sections and some other sections turned me off, with foul odor needless to say I'll be heading back just for a couple of the holes.
 
I love Gfen's post! I think that's perfect. I'm relatively new to fly fishing also - been at it for 8 months or so. My first 3 months involved me using only size 14 adams dry flies in my local stream. I didn't even try nymphing until a few months ago - mostly because this little stream has lots of dumb little browns that will consistently take an adams. Definitely keep it simple and work on the technique! Fancy patterns and alternative setups are fun to mess around with once you have a basic understanding of the sport.

One small thing I'd add to gfen's post - if you can find them, use beadhead nymphs - they're already weighted, so you don't have to mess around with splitshot.
 
of course,as all are saying,listen to gfen's post.

as someone else said,also maybe a shorter leader.

i might add,find someone more experienced(which should be easy in the burgh)and learn from them.

and drag is not always bad.
 

Everyone who said "use a 7.5' leader" was more right than I was.

Same with beadheads. Its my personal preference to not use them, but that does you a disservice. You'll decide on your own if you want them or not.



 
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