2018 Steelhead Trip PA

[ejsell]

My 2019 trip is approaching in November and I realized I never posted a trip report from last year. Three of us went in early November, the bigger creeks were blown out the first couple of days so we stuck to the smaller ones and had one of the most productive trips ever.

We did 5 days and each of us got into double digits on several of those days. No new guys on this trip but one of our group had never touched a fly rod. After having a great day with his spin rod he decided to give the fly rod a try and landed several fish that evening and the next day also.

We have been doing the PA trip for several years now, I think this will be our 8th, and we always meet great people on the river. Lots of story telling goes on and everyone gets usually gets along great. We met some great guys from the Carolinas, West Virginia, Michigan and my home state Ohio.

One day I ventured up one of the small creeks and fished up stream of a guy from Michigan. There was a small dog hanging out and everytime I hooked into a fish he dove in trying to retrieve it. The guy from Michigan said the dog had been hanging out all day and part of the previous day. He was a nice dog looked well fed and had a collar but no tags. A little while later a couple more guys came up and commented they had seen the dog hanging out for the last several days. They also noticed a treble hook stuck inside the dogs lip. The guy from Michigan said he is a veterinarian and if we held the dog he would remove it. So 3 of us ended up holding the dog and the vet from Michigan did a quick creek side surgery. That dog hung out with us for the remainder of the day and almost went home with one of my buddies. If he had still been there in the morning he would definitely have gotten adopted.

Last story. The year before we ran into several Russian fellas, nice guys but seemed to be taking multiple limits each day. Someone at Poor Richards made a comment about that being a lot of fish for one guy in one day when we stopped one night at the same time they were getting fish cleaned. Last year we saw the exact same guys first at FishUSA and then the first couple of days on a small creek. Seeing a lot of the same guys on the creeks day after day we were hearing a lot of chatter about multiple limits. On one of the mornings we were asked if we had seen them, which we had not and were told DNR officers were looking for them. Later that night we stopped in at Poor Richards and ran into one of the DNR guys. He told us he had caught up with them, confiscated a bunch or equipment and handed out a large fine.

A couple pics of the dog and a few of the steelhead I caught. Nothing spectacular but we had a blast.

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[axelscholli777]

Nice shots!

 

[ejsell]

Leaving Sunday morning for this years trip. Someone just posted a pic of my favorite hole on a popular facebook. It's a tiny spot and you would normaly walk right by it without realizing it's loaded with fish. The pic posted showed a pretty distinct landmark. The funny thing was the poster was complaining about what someone in the pic was doing while giving up a great spot to the world. The creek it's on is pretty well known but there are a couple of very specific spots that almost guarentee fish.

Last year I got to it with just one other guy there but he was unknowingly standing right where the fish stage and feed. With the layout of the creek bed you would have no idea unless you accidentally stumbled on it or saw someone else catching fish in it. The other bank actually looks more fishy. He had been there a couple of hours without success throwing to the wrong bank. I caught fish at is feet on my first 2 casts and told him to come join me. And for the record we accidentally found the spot a few years ago. I walked almost through it and my father-in-law put a cast into it and immediately straightened out a hook.

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[Ard]

Hope you have a good time Jeff,

The dog story was the best of the bunch Here I rely on people walking right past the best spots, that's how I end up alone. In the boat during the Silver salmon run I fish one place I call The Drive-by because every boat that travels the river just runs that half mile at full throttle on the way to somewhere good....... A few years back I put a camp near the drive by and although it was a poor run the 2 guys fishing caught 127 salmon by fishing a place where there are no fish

When I used to fish the creek named after the large member of the deer family, there's even a county named the same.......... you know the one, I managed to find some Walk-By spots. Stretches it seemed everyone raced past to get upstream to a really good spot. Same kind of thing, that was where I fished a lot.