Heading into Memorial Day weekend I had my sites set on traveling across the border into Canada to fly fish the Grand River. I had all my planning done and was ready to roll and then Friday afternoon I called Grand River Outfitting & Fly Shop. I found out that water levels on the Grand River had been raised due to high water in the reservoir and in five minutes my weekend plans had to change. Fortunately I had a Plan B ready to put into action. Plan B consisted to heading to New York to fish Ninemile Creek, just east of Syracuse. Ninemile Creek is a 22-mile tailwater that begins at the Otisco Lake and runs east to the Onondaga Lake. Within these 22 miles of water, there are approximately 5 miles of accessible water with Public Fishing Rights (“PFR’s”). The stream intrigued me because it has a wild population of brown and brook trout, but is also heavily stocked by the Carpenter Brook Fish Hatchery. This hatchery puts a lot of fish in the river. I’ve read numbers from 18,000, all the way up to 24,000 annually. I figured if I headed here there was a good chance I could get into some fish.
Read morePine Creek, The Muncy And Talking Barred Owls
Last week two of my fly fishing buddies that live near Williamsport, Pennsylvania confirmed that Pine Creek was finally shaping up for a weekend of good fly fishing. High water from spring rains had kept large numbers of fishermen from catching the trout that were stocked in the water that runs from Slate Run to below Black Walnut Bottom.
Read moreThe Neshannock And Lost Hookups On Buffalo Creek
Would you be surprised if I told you the forecast for most of Pennsylvania this past weekend was rain? I just read a USA Today article that said April 2017 was the wettest April in 60 years in the United States. And yet again, heading towards the end of last week, I started searching for a place other than eastern Pennsylvania to fish on Saturday. From what the forecast said, it looked like the rain was going to miss the northwestern corner of Pennsylvania. Friday evening I was scouring the USGS site looking at water levels and I zeroed in on the Neshannock Creek near Volant, Pennsylvania. The water levels looked great and the Neshannock Creek Fly Shop’s website was saying that the fishing had been good. I decided I’d continue my Keystone Select series and head west!
Read moreSunday Slab On The Tulpehocken Creek
This past weekend the weather was awful. I suppose it could’ve been worse, heavier rain, maybe a snowstorm, but 99% of the streams in the Mid-Atlantic were blown out, again! This has been a wet spring, but this means we will be fishing for trout well into the summer. The only waters not affected by all this wet weather were tailwaters that don’t have many tributaries impacting their flows below their dams. One of these tailwaters just happens to be my home water, the Tulpehocken Creek in Berks County. In the Keystone Select Special Regulation water on the Tulpehocken there are only two small tributaries, Plum Creek at Rebers Bridge and the Cacoosing Creek at the Paper Mill Bridge. It takes an extended rain for these two bodies of water to have a significant impact on the Tulpehocken flows. The dam release out of Blue Marsh Lake has been slowed recently and has been holding around 240CFS.
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