5-27-23 PA Road Trip

Took a quick road trip to Pittsburgh for a friend’s 40th birthday party and decided to make a pitstop and do some fishing along the way.  The water was low and clear for this time of year, but bugs were heavy.  Even saw some green drakes, which I’ve never seen before on this particular stream.  I was on the water at 6am and started nymphing as the stream was void of any surface feeding.  I like to fish small flies without much weight in low and clear water conditions.  This way the flies keep drifting and don’t just hit the bottom and stop, or move very slow.  My main flies were perdigons and frenchies ranging in size from 16 to 20. 

I worked my way upstream, working any cuts or buckets that looked fishy.  I picked up a few fish in each of the runs and kept working new water. I make sure to put a few casts in areas that may look a little too shallow.  I’ve learned the hard way that crystal clear water can be a lot deeper than it looks and that sometimes big trout can be in some surprising places.  I did manage to land a decent brown in what looked to be 12 inches of water, it took the fly almost instantly and fortunately I had done a good job of managing the slack through the cast. 

I fished until 9:30 and was able to get 29 trout in the net, a pretty good morning.  A lot of trout were very active in the faster currents and seams.  One thing I focus on a lot is being more efficient in my drifts.  Meaning that I’m in contact as soon as possible so that I can detect those early strikes.  I still struggle with this at times in faster currents, had a few fish that morning that took the fly almost instantly and I had no idea until I got in contact.  At that point, I felt the fish and it was too late.