Trout, Beer and Good Times

Posted by rusty on February 28, 2010

     Wow, where should I begin telling the tale of Potter County trout fishing?  First off, let me say that it’s one of the best places for a weekend outing with a few friends or a week getaway with the family. 

     I’ve been going to Potter county fly fishing for about 10 years now.  In this period of time my buddy Philip and myself had a lot of great trips.  The fishing is usually spectacular, but sometimes you hit that weekend that things just don’t click.  When one of these weekends hit, you can either fish til your arm falls off with little success or sit around your campfire telling stories about the great weekends in the past. 

     My last trip to our northern county was a great time.  Philip couldn’t make this trip, he was swamped at work, but my buddy John and I loaded his camper and set out for a weekend of trout, beer and of course “good times.”  We arrived at our destination ready to set up camp and hit the stream.  Our anticipation of the catch had us excited and ready.  After the camper was set up we headed out on our first evening.  Not much fishing was done that first evening, but some slight exploring showed us that we were gonna have some company on the stream the following morning.

     Now, back at the camp, we found some supper to cook on the fire and a few cans of that golden nectar.  The next several hours went by with many stories of past trips and just being in the wilderness by a warm fire, cold beer in hand.  John and myself were soon going to bed so that the trout wouldn’t have a chance the next morning.  Boy were we wrong.

     The morning proved to be super tough fishing with crowds of people in all the easily accessible areas.  We hiked up the stream a good piece and found some open water, but soon realized why it was open water.  Not a lot of activity in the catching department, although John did catch 2 really nice brookies.  A little more exploring and fishing and we called it a morning.  We arrived back at camp and had a much needed lunch and some more of Johns fresh ground coffee.  I’m telling you what, I’ve had some good coffee before, but my god was this coffee good.  Couldn’t wait til the next morning to have some more.

     That evening was pretty much the same as the morning, but our expectations were still high.  The next morning we went over the mountain to a camp owned by John’s relatives.  We hung around camp for a while shooting the breeze before we hit the water.  This was some really nice water we were fishing, with some unusually low numbers of fish brought to the net.  We tried everything, fished deep, fished on top, and fished hard with just a couple trout to show for it.  Decided to call it a day and head back to camp for a few coldies and some supper.  Log after log the night grew late telling stories and having a few beers.  Off to bed, had to try again in the morning.  You didn’t think a few slow days would make us quit did you?

     The next couple days passed with the same results.  We fished hard and only caught a handful of trout in our 4 day outing.  That doesn’t mean we didn’t have a blast.  This was a great trip, just goes to show you that fisherman don’t have to catch a bunch of fish to have a good time, although it helps.  We had a great 4 days, couldn’t have asked for much more.

     Trout- beautiful fish that call Pennsylvania home and have been fooling anglers for years.

     Beer- the drink most outdoorsman and women, enjoy by the fire after a tough day in the wilderness.

     Good Times- See text above and pictures below!!!

     And as for now and always, Tight Lines!

     Rusty