Stream Report

July 29th 2008

WRITING FOR LACK OF ANYTHING BETTER TO DO

It is high summer here in Western PA now, which is quite evident to anyone spending a day on the river. It was as if someone hung out the open sign this week for rafting and canoing, and all of a sudden, it was raftapalooza—a rubber hatch so dense, rafters so profuse, that the only other event in the flyfishing world equal in size and scale that I can think to compare it to is perhaps the recent cicada emergence, or the white fly on the Susquehanna.

We added a new requirement for the Yough river grand slam (normally a brown, rainbow, brook—a rare fish on this river—and a bass) this week. Several anglers came close, but one, an angler from Cleveland who prefers to remain anonymous (no doubt to avoid the media frenzy that would—inevitably—ensue), reached that pinnacle of piscatorial pursuits just yesterday. No need to re-read that sentence; it did indeed state that someone caught all four varieties of fish and a human in one day. The human was pulled from the tail out of a rapid: a female (I believe) that we estimated to be around one hundred and thirty pounds. She was a fighter.

This angler, perhaps the best ever to whip a fly pole, then pulled off a feat more miraculous than the previous: he caught the brown, brook, and the rainbow portion of the slam on one cast and one fly—no dropper fly was involved. Figure that out. We'll come back to it.

THE FISHING

The fishing has been tough this past week. Low water early in the week and high temps and bright sun later in the week made for some pretty tough fishing. The top part of the river is fishing well, but further down towards Ohiopyle, the fishing slows down mid-day and and then turns back on in the evening as the hills shelter the river from the sun.

There has been some morning dry-fly fishing: sporadic hatches of tan caddis in sizes 16-18 have had some fish up on top, and an x-caddis to match has been working well. There have also been some yellow drakes hatching on and off, and a sparsely dressed pattern to match will take rising fish as well. Do not overlook terrestrials right now, and don't go to the river without a few flying ant patterns in 18-20.

In the afternoons BWOs make a daily appearance, though one can never tell if they will be heavy enough to bring fish up to the surface; however, nymphs to match in 18-20 have been taking a fair number of fish—some big fish as well. Slate Drakes nymphs have been taking fish in the afternoons, and the standard fare (stones, princes, pheasant tails and all the usuals) have been catching fish underneath.

The bass fishing has been quite good on this part of the river—better than it has been in recent years, and sculpin patterns, clouser minnows, and just about anything that looks like a baitfish, crustacean, or small trout will take a fair number of fish.

THE SLAM

So here it is. A small rainbow (about three inches) takes a nymph and the angler sets the hook, at which point the rainbow (now a projectile) flies over the boat and lands in the middle of the river. Upon hitting the water a large shadow emerged and proceeded to eat the rainbow. Minutes later I slid the net under a Tiger trout (a brook and brown hybrid). There you have it. One for the annals.

July 11th 2008

The lack of reports over the past few weeks comes as a result of my spending two and a half weeks on the east coast: one on Martha's Vineyard catching stripers up to twenty pounds (poor me), and another at the garden spot of the world, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware (poor me for real this time).   

Since then, however, I have returned to my favorite PA river and the fishing has been, as it will be, up and down.  On good days, the streamer fishing has been very productive, and we have been catching nice size bass and trout on a variety of patterns.  My go to patterns have been bunny streamers in natural and white and olive and natural, and sculpin patterns between one and one half to three inches in length.   

Slate drakes make a daily appearance on the river now, along with olives, and nymphs to match these summer mayflies will do the trick.  Sadly though, we can't report any significant dryfly fishing as of yet; all we have seen so far is the occasional small pod of fish working bugs on top in whatever quiet water they can find and an occasional nose along the bank.   

We had a the inventor of the Clouser minnow on the river just yesterday, and he and his fishing companions all caught fish in the morning.  It was another streamer day, that is until the army corps decided to turn flows down again.  The result, as it always is when they do this, was a river full of fish with lockjaw.  But, they are likely acclimated to the new flows by now, and the river should fish well throughout the remainder of the week.   

All the same, it was a pleasure to meet a man who has done so much for our sport, and to show him our river.  He is a great guy, and a great fisherman as well.  On a more serious note, he told Jim and I about all of the bad things that have been and still are occurring on his river, and that it just keeps getting worse.  It was a reminder to be watchful, and to act when and if we see something going on that shouldn't be on this great river.      

Have fun out there,  
Jim and Ernie

June 17th 2008

Well well well, we finally have a fishable river—only a month later than normal! The flows have finally leveled out and the fishing has picked up. That's the good news. Want some more? The fish are hitting streamers very well (and—of course—they're hitting spinners well also), and that means big fish. Between Thursday and Sunday we had two fish over twenty inches, a handful of eighteen-inchers, and plenty of fourteen to sixteen inch fish in the boats—many more came unbuttoned.

The nymph fishing was fair as well, with black stones, soft hackle pheasant tails, and slate drakes taking equal numbers of fish. The problem was getting the nymphs down in some of the heavier runs. Sink tips and streamers did the trick where nymphs and lead shot didn't.

As for rising fish, below Ramcat Run there weren't any. But never fear, that will come soon enough. The flows are slated to drop to 500 cfs from the dam later this week. If that happens the dryfly fishing will pick up. For now just enjoy those great streamer grabs and the prospect of big fish.

Have fun out there:
Ernie and Jim

Early June 2008

Hello all you fellow whippy-stickers. It seems an apology is in order, an apology that . . .well . . . apologizes for the paucity of up-to-date river reports last season. The era of blatant disregard on the part of the guys at Laurel Highlands Guide Services with respect to updating the stream reports section of our website—you know how it is with fisherman types—has come to an end. Instead, we are entering into a veritable golden age of stream reports, indeed one in which stream reports will be so profuse, prolific, and other words that start with “p” and mean many, that we'll post them even when there is nothing to report: as is the case at the moment.

Oh, we did get out this weekend last, along with quite a few other anglers as well, but, the river was still quite high below the confluence with the Casselman, and the fishing was tough. We were carried along by the high flows in our drift boat at break-neck speeds, casting frenetically as likely bank-side pockets flew by. We stubbornly stuck with big streamers and were rewarded with a few nice smallmouth and one solid hookup on a big fish, but we never saw it.

We did nymph a few nice runs and caught fish on size 8 brown stones and tan caddis pupas and emergers to match the nice caddis hatch coming off; however, despite the number of bugs, we only saw one fish working them on top—to high for that.

But that window is over, and for now, as we have for weeks now, we wait. The river is up again, 4.5 right now at Confluence. The Army Corps will begin tapering flows down over the next few days so perhaps it will fish on Saturday or Sunday—we'll keep you posted.

Good luck out there,
The guys at Laurel Highlands Guide Services