Pocono Fly Fishing: December 2014

I haven't posted to my blog for over a year but I have been still fly fishing every opportunity I have. I averaged around 75-100 outings in 2014. Some were full days and some only about 20 minutes in duration. One of the biggest differences in 2014 (not sure if positive or negative) is that I don't think I nymphed one time. I caught fish on dries or streamers every month in 2014. I'll admit that I'm not a great nymph fisherman primarily due to the fact that it bores me but it could also be that because I've not put my time/effort into learning the technique. I'm a visual fly fisherman and enjoy watching a trout eat a dun from the surface and I love seeing a big brown trout flash at a streamer a few feet below the surface. For streamers, the tug is the drug.

I explored a lot of new waters in 2014 as well. I found a very small wild brown trout stream about 2 miles from my house that I previously always dismissed. This stream generally only fishes well after a decent rain because it's shallow and the fish are very skittish even though they see little if any pressure.

My fishing journey's took me to:

1) Pennsylvania's famous Letort Spring Run in January. Surprisingly, I caught a small BWO hatch and even fooled one of those allusive browns with a streamer in 35 degree outside temperature.

2) March brought bonefishing in Hawaii. I caught one small bone off Hickam flats which is the entrance of Pearl Harbor. This was my first saltwater experience with a fly rod. I can’t say I enjoyed it much. I prefer running water and dense vegetation much more.

3) Oklahoma's Lower Mountain Fork River in April. Who would have thought there were wild trout in Oklahoma? My job brought me to OKC but the closest wild fishery was all the way to southeast OK near Broken Bow (4-5 hour drive each way). I fished the Lower Mountain Fork River below Broken Bow Dam. It is a wild brown and rainbow trout fishery along with stocking. The wild bows/browns I caught were small/feisty but colorful and the stocked bows were large and sluggish. I enjoyed the fishing but the weekend crowds were not for me. By the afternoon, it was difficult to find an open stretch of water to fish alone even if I walked far away from the parking lots.

4) Nebraska's east branch of the Verdigre Creek. Wild trout in the cornhusker state. I traveled to Omaha Nebraska but I fished the east branch of the Verdigre Creek over the weekend in northeast Nebraska. It’s a spring creek in corn country and holds wilds browns and stocked bows. Beautiful stream with lots of scuds. The browns offer technical fishing while the bows were pretty simple. I've fished this creek before with my brother in law. This year the dry fly action was slow but I still found some easy stocked rainbows and 1-2 wild browns.

5) Black Hills of South Dakota. I love fishing the Black Hills because it’s where I cut my FF teeth. This trip I fished Rapid Creek and Castle Creek. Both are Black Hills tailwater streams and have good populations of wild browns/brooks and supplemented stocked bows. My time on Rapid Creek was only the 1/2 hour of daylight and I got skunked. I fished Castle Creek below Deerfield Lake and caught 1 brown on a dry fly. Included picture is of Castle Creek as I didn’t take a picture of Rapid Creek. Both are beautiful streams with the smell of pine throughout the air. The Black Hills remind me of the Pocono’s except with coniferous trees. I also did some river fishing on the Missouri River and kept most of the fish for an evening fish fry.

6) Colorado's South Platte River. I fished around Decker's again this year in July and caught a few smaller trout but the fish I'll remember is the big one that got away and broke my knot. It was only on for a few seconds but it looked like a bow or cutbow when it raised for my emerger and based on the drag, I'd say it was around the 20" mark. The thing that made this fish so memorable is that I had to cross the stream to be able to fish over the many different currents in order to get a good drift. I was the only FF'er that did this and caught a lot more fish than the others as well.

I also fished Cache La Poudre River west of Ft Collins in October. I fished the main river on Monday late afternoon (20th) and the North Fork all day on Sunday (26th). I missed 3 strikes on Monday which ended up me getting skunked but Sunday I caught several trout on the North Fork below Seaman Reservoir. The browns were small and the rainbows were fat, spunky, and around 15". About 50% of the trout were caught with small dries (BWO and attractors) while the other half were caught with streamers. I've always heard that you have to "nymph" to catch trout in Colorado but this is the 4th time I've fished CO and I haven't resorted to nymphing one time.

7) Alaska for grayling and red salmon. I honestly don't know how many times I've been fortunate enough to fish Alaska but I'd guess around 12 so far in my 32 years of life. This year I fished the Delta Clearwater again for grayling and the Gulkana River for red's. Each year I catch more and more fish at these locations and this year was no exception. The grayling again started taking light duns at around 1 pm every day and I successfully timed the run of reds again. It was another great week in AK!

9) Pocono area streams. I didn't fish the WB of the D this year nor did I finally make it out to central PA. This was mainly due to the fact that the Pocono's have so many quality streams and I don't bore with any of them yet. Local government organizations continue to purchase land along the upper Brodhead and Paradise Creeks which opens up a lot of new opportunities not to mention all of the unlisted tributaries that have wild trout. One new thing for this year is that my first 20" + trout was a wild trout and not a stocker. I fished the Lehigh a few times this year but didn't get into any numbers/size/hatches. Hopefully when we move to Blakeslee, I'll be able to fish the Lehigh more and learn the potential I know it has. I didn't fish the McMichael's this year much either mainly because I feel it lacks good trout structure on the sections that are open to the public. I did kayak it from Hickory Park to the Pocono confluence in August and saw lots of trout. I still haven't caught a wild trout in McMichael's but I'm sure they are there. Thanks to a hint from a local conservationist, I found a much easier spot to access the Brodhead Gorge this year. It had some amazing BWO hatches in October and not surprisingly; no other fisherman. For as densely populated the Pocono's are, I seldom every compete for water in on ATW's when I fish for stockers.

2015 will likely bring a lot of the same events that took place in 2014. Hopefully, I can venture out of the Pocono's on a camping trip sometime in the spring and I want to kayak more. I'm pretty sure switch rod is in my future for 2015 as well. My last desire for 2015 is to update my blog more as I do enjoy writing about my experiences. This blog has primarily been used as a platform to journal my fishing experiences along with pictures but I'd like to start writing more of my experiences in creative detail from the drive to the stream to the sound of the water....We'll see!