South Branch of Towanda Creek, PA

[jjsjigs]

I hit the South Branch on the advice of fellow flyfishing dirtbagger "TCarr" who stated he saw a few wayward trout in some likely spots.

The flows were very low and crystal clear throughout the main branch and tribs with temp's in the low 40's.

I sat under the bridge for a few minutes and finished my coffee looking for any activity. My thoughts went to "hucking streamers" but I actually wanted to catch fish today instead of "making a stand" and fishing "my way". I first put on a Hare's Ear thinking that a GP nymph might be the ticket.

As I moved downstream and started paying attention to my surroundings I realized that the Eastern Cased Caddis seemed to be the prominent food source in this creek.

Cased Caddis littered almost every available rock, nook & cranny, and stick left in or around the water. Hmmm... I'm no rocket scientist but perhaps a cased caddis pattern would work?

But I didn't have any cased caddis with me, so a longer Godfather Emerger had to do in a pinch!

This spot got me my only hookup of the morning. I had a rainbow on for about 15 seconds but my fly line got wrapped around a rock as the 'bow fought me with spinning jumps. (which was pretty cool!) It was lying just slightly downstream from the exposed rock in the upper right of the pic. It hammered my fly. No subtle take with this fish!

I fished a 1 mile stretch from the downstream Kellogg Road bridge to the bridge above the Monroeton Rod & Gun Club both on the Eastern and western banksides. When one gets out of the "usual stocking points" on this creek you find a wonderous mountain creek with pocket water, rolling runs, and little troughs throughout where it looked "nice and fishy". I walked up the Kent Run trib for about a 1/4 mile just to see if any fish were migrating up this trib. I also walked up Satterlee Run along Ridge Runner Road to look for any redds. I didn't see any but as I've found in the past this trib does support natural reproduction.

I left the stream around 1100 when a small storm squall moved in and started to spit snow. (I got really cold and forget my mittens). I would like to revisit this stream soon! There is a lot of fishy spots that did not garner my full attention. I think if I come back with a few cased caddis patterns my hook up rate would improve!

This is the pattern I think will work: Fox's Poopah

 

[Ron Don]

Beautiful stream JJ, I love seeing pics like this. Nothing but cypress trees and stained water down here!

 

[ScottV]

That's some beautiful water. Thanks for sharing.

 

[JUNGLEJIM1]

Great pics and scenery. I hope you nick a few next trip.

 

[jjsjigs]

Deer season opens up this Monday in Pee-Aye. No one will be on the streams... I'm gonna fish it again, but wear a little bit of Orange so I don't get shot.

 

[jjsjigs]

Yep. Hit the South Branch tonight. The creek was in perfect shape to swing streamers. Got a few hits... but its been so long since I've felt a fish on my line I kept missing the hits and wouldn't set the hook in time.

Still a great night to be fishing! God love the PFBC. I like the sign... but it's like putting a pork chop in a lion's den. This sign just tells all the stringer crowd: "We stocked right here!"



Went downstream... way past the "normal spots". This is what I call the South Branch Canyon. In the summertime it's still nice and dark in there. Perfect pocket water to drift a large bushy dry fly.





Stopped along the "usual" stocking points to see if I could pick up a wayward stockie that the meat crowd left... Snapped this pic right at the end of his cast. It's pretty cool.. good cast... you can see the last few inches of his leader turning over the heavy streamer fly.

 

[jjsjigs]

High hopes as we jetted down U.S. 220 towards our favorite local trout stream: The South Branch!

As we walked up to our "Stevenson Pool" we saw rises! Yep. Tiny ones... as some minnows? Chubs? or little trout? were splashing in an eddy. Todd and I both put on tiny dries... but the drift had to go through a myriad of currents and a decent drift was extremely hard. Way too much drag on the flies. I had one hit (probably from a tiny minnow) on my #20 parachute BWO emerger.

Todd was throwing an Adams, then he switched up to a beaded PT nymph and got deep. He had a hit in the deep slot channel. I put on a #14 minnow imitation and got a hit in the current seam of that eddy. The sun was going down and we had to make a decision. Hike downstream into the South Branch Canyon or hit the "Ridge Runner" Pool. Todd chose the Ridge Runner pool. Like a mystic seer he chose the right area. As we got to the pool, I opted to bomb the downstream run rip rap with a cone headed bugger and offered the head of the pool to Todd. He was fishing a black ice chenilled wobbler akin to Ward Bean's Red faced Wobbler. After about 20 minutes he hooked up and landed this:


I really nice 12-14" brownie. For this sized stream this fish is a MONSTER! Note the faded parr marks on the tail end of this fish. I bet this fish OWNED this run. Since we didn't see any other fish or minnows in this run.

A closer pic of his fish:

Held next to his rod to give an approximate measurement of length. His cork grip is 7 inches and the mouth of the fish sticks over it an inch? So 8 inches there... plus the tail section sticks out over his rod butt (which is 4") about 2 inches. So we are "guessimating" this brownie is at least 12" but could be 14". This fish had markings and non-clipped adipose fin... its other fins didn't seem worn down from being in a hatchery raceway. Possibly a wild brownie opposed to stocked? What say you? If it's a wild "heavy stream-bred" brownie... that truly is an epic fish for this stream!!!

What say you?

As tradition with the Dirtbag Flyfishing Posse. Todd left the plastic on his cork grip until he could rub some trouty mojo slime on the cork. Last night was the time to officially unwrap the grip!!







Congrats Todd! His L.L. Bean flyrod named: "Zelda 2.0" is now naked! We also imbibed on another Dirtbag Flyfishing Posse tradition and had a belt of premium bourbon from my flask to celebrate!

After that lovely trout... well... we called it quits! Anything else caught would have been disappointing!! So Todd and I left the creek on a high note. Spirits were soaring. We look forward to Sunday's outing on the Lycoming Creek and Grey's Run. Hopefully we can add a few notches of caught trout to our 2011 tally. It seems that now the creek flows have stabilized the trouty goodness is upon us, as well as decent mayfly hatches! Yee-Haw!!!

 

[jjsjigs]

I watched the weather radar today. I had a gap of 3 hours between rainstorms.. I figured "what the hell", I don't have anything pressing to do. I hit the South Branch since I had to drop off some bass flies to a customer in New Albany, PA. The South Branch was on the way...

Flows are still a touch on the high side but very fishable. A little stain in the center of the currents but the edges are clear.



Mayflies were hatching. Swallows were divebombing the water for lunchtime morsels. I didn't see any risers. Then again, I forgot my 5 weight rod... all I had on me was my 8 wgt and sinking line. So... huckin' streamers was the game. I did remember to bring a new fly with me to test out. It's a creek chub imitation:





Saterlee Run: Home of native brookies. I didn't feel like hiking today, seeing that the rains were coming soon.


I started fishing the edges of the clear water just twitching my fly every 10 seconds or so. Here's what the chub fly looks wet:



It's a good pattern! I got a solid hit and finally... Yes FINALLY landed my first trout of 2011!!


A little 'bow but I was very excited to wipe the skunk off... So excited I had to take 2 pics.



Then the rains came... I excused myself from getting soaked. A T-shirt is not condusive to cold rain.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Great pics of some beautiful water. Congrats on a nice healthy 1st bow.