Feb
28
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
May
17
Posted by rusty on
May 17, 2009
Now that I have calmed down a little from the fly fishing trip this weekend, I can share some of it with you. My good friend Phil and I decided to try out some West Virginia streams. Since we have never been there fly fishing and only heard other peoples stories, we had to give it a go. The easy access areas were very much your typical stocked trout waters that can fish very well, but with miles and miles of wild trout water in the area had us ready to explore.
Let me first say that if your gonna explore wild trout waters in the mountain, be ready to put on some miles. Even though you have to work hard for these fish, it is well worth the work. The absolute beauty of these fish are indescribable. The main stream that we fished had both 100% wild brooks and rainbows. The colors of a wild brook is amazing, but these rainbows were the prettiest I”d ever seen.
So Phil and I started our Saturday with a strong cup of coffee and a stern breakfast. We needed to have a good reserve of energy because the walking was gonna be killer. The first pool that we actually got our lines wet in was incredible. It had two main currents, one from the head of the pool and one from a small spring feeding the edge. The depth of this pool was about 8 feet deep and full of trout. You may think that’s crazy deep for a mountain stream, and it is very uncharacteristic, but this was an amazing place. This first pool rewarded us both with a few trout to get the day started off positive. In most wild trout streams the fish are very spooky and even though several more fish made this pool a home, they shut down after a little disturbance.
We made our way farther upstream to find nothing but great pockets, pools, and riffles with cooperative trout. We took turns fishing and had a blast doing so. Phil was fishing a gray caddis dry while I was fishing a tan caddis emerger. Several times through the day we caught fish in the same pools on both the dry and the emerger. These fish were really smart and to catch them effectively, you had to be stealthy and present a well placed fly. The neat thing about wild fish is that if you can be undetected, you can bring trout to the net all day. Wild trout aren’t to picky, if you’re careful, if not it’s gonna be a long day.
Well, now we had made it about 300 yards upstream with a dozen under our belts, and it just kept getting better. Have you ever had one of those dreams that when you wake up your upset? Well this was one of those dreams that progressively got better. We found ourselves catching 2 to 3 brook trout at every pool. The farther we got upstream the nicer the fish got and the first wild rainbow was captured by Phil and it was amazing. These rainbows were in such good shape with superior strength for their size. The average size fish was probably 8 inches with a few smaller and a few larger.
Now we are a mile from the truck and we have been fishing for hours, but it was so rewarding to catch these little guys. We knew about some impressive waterfalls upstream, but we fished to slow and never made it that far, next time. The day was starting to come to a close with the satisfaction level super high, when Phil hooks into three more rainbows in one riffle. The rainbows must have liked the dries, because my emerger didn’t get any. Not that I’m complaining about catching all brookies, but it would’ve been nice to land a bow. At days end Phil landed five bows and a bunch of brooks. I landed a bunch of brooks and had a great time doing it.
This was one of the best times I ever spent on the water. I have been to Montana, Wisconsin, and several other places that have trophy trout, but this day of hiking and catching truly wild trout surpassed them all. The number of trout that Phil and I caught this day probably got close to 80 or so, but who’s counting. If you want to find beautiful seclusion and catch a mess of wild trout in the process, give West Virginia’s Back country a try, I know I’ll go back.
And as for now and always “Tight Lines”
Rusty
