Fishing - I really should have stopped fishing for the year....

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I really should have stopped fishing for the year....

......on Friday past at Penn's. As I stated in my other thread, we were
fishing streamers exclusively(Peter, do I have your attention yet?).
Friday afternoon found us down by the trestle bridge below the tunnel in
Coburn. I staggered my way up the road, past a few camp houses to a likely
looking bank-casting spot. The current came in rough, in a V shape, then
smoothed out into a glide with a bit of current and around 4 or 5 feet of
depth. It demanded a cast from the bank, as said bank immediately dropped
off into nearly 4 feet of cold water, with slippery, large rocks. At about
50 feet, it was doable, if clumsy, as performed by your humble scribe.
I was fishing Slaymaker's Little Brown Trout streamers, one I have always
favored in the fall down here in PA. A decent cast to the head of the slick
current brought a splashing attack, but no solid hookup. Damn! A good sized
fish, or so it seemed. I blundered upstream a few yards, pitched the
streamer among the fast water and rocks, and hooked a decent trout, with
beautiful fall colors. I landed and released him and started back to Mike
and Brian downstream. I paused to look at the slick where I had missed the
earlier strike and figured I had a little time for one more try. On the
theory that a change of fly was needed for wise old Penn's trout, I changed
to a design for a baby Brown that Petah and I had tinkered with a few
winters back. It was tied on a smallish(#8 wet) hook, with a long mixture of
crystal flash, fine mylar and bucktail, overall orange/brown with a golden
flash to it. The streamer was a good 3 inches long, but cast pretty well. On
the initial cast, the darned thing landed right where I wanted and was
immediately seized by something substantial. Out in the water, a chunky
body thrashed.....whoa, I thought, a largemouth bass in here, and a really
big one! Then, upon leaping out of the water and shooting upstream, really
fast, it dawned on me that I was attached to the fattest Penn's brown trout
I had even hooked up with. I've fished with my old T and T graphite 5/6
nine-footer for nearly 10 years now. It is pretty stiff, and doesn't bend
deep into the rod length. For this fish, it did. That rod flexed right to
the corks and with 3x tippet and a solid hookup, it was merely a slugfest
among the rocks. I finally subdued a female, in spawning colors. At about 22
inches or a bit more, she wasn't my longest Penn's trout, but she had a
depth, at the belly, of at least 8 inches. The darn thing probably weighed
over 6 pounds, but there was little time for torturing her any further with
scales and such. I released her gently back to Penn's(she shot off, quite
healthy)....and, continued, belatedly my trip down to Mike and
Brian......who thoughtfully met me in the truck. No pictures,no witnesses,
but I couldn't care less. It was my finest Penn's trout to date, and it even
had a touch of ROFF in the story, to boot.

...tying streamers like a madman,
Tom

I really should have stopped fishing for the year....

"Thomas Littleton" wrote in message
news:uhy9f.3067$9d.2270@trnddc05...
.....on Friday past at Penn's. As I stated in my other thread, we were
fishing streamers exclusively(Peter, do I have your attention yet?).
Friday afternoon found us down by the trestle bridge below the tunnel in
Coburn. I staggered my way up the road, past a few camp houses to a likely
looking bank-casting spot. The current came in rough, in a V shape, then
smoothed out into a glide with a bit of current and around 4 or 5 feet of
depth. It demanded a cast from the bank, as said bank immediately dropped
off into nearly 4 feet of cold water, with slippery, large rocks. At about
50 feet, it was doable, if clumsy, as performed by your humble scribe.
I was fishing Slaymaker's Little Brown Trout streamers, one I have always
favored in the fall down here in PA. A decent cast to the head of the
slick
current brought a splashing attack, but no solid hookup. Damn! A good
sized
fish, or so it seemed. I blundered upstream a few yards, pitched the
streamer among the fast water and rocks, and hooked a decent trout, with
beautiful fall colors. I landed and released him and started back to Mike
and Brian downstream. I paused to look at the slick where I had missed the
earlier strike and figured I had a little time for one more try. On the
theory that a change of fly was needed for wise old Penn's trout, I
changed
to a design for a baby Brown that Petah and I had tinkered with a few
winters back. It was tied on a smallish(#8 wet) hook, with a long mixture
of
crystal flash, fine mylar and bucktail, overall orange/brown with a golden
flash to it. The streamer was a good 3 inches long, but cast pretty well.
On
the initial cast, the darned thing landed right where I wanted and was
immediately seized by something substantial. Out in the water, a chunky
body thrashed.....whoa, I thought, a largemouth bass in here, and a really
big one! Then, upon leaping out of the water and shooting upstream, really
fast, it dawned on me that I was attached to the fattest Penn's brown
trout
I had even hooked up with. I've fished with my old T and T graphite 5/6
nine-footer for nearly 10 years now. It is pretty stiff, and doesn't bend
deep into the rod length. For this fish, it did. That rod flexed right to
the corks and with 3x tippet and a solid hookup, it was merely a slugfest
among the rocks. I finally subdued a female, in spawning colors. At about
22
inches or a bit more, she wasn't my longest Penn's trout, but she had a
depth, at the belly, of at least 8 inches. The darn thing probably weighed
over 6 pounds, but there was little time for torturing her any further
with
scales and such. I released her gently back to Penn's(she shot off, quite
healthy)....and, continued, belatedly my trip down to Mike and
Brian......who thoughtfully met me in the truck. No pictures,no witnesses,
but I couldn't care less. It was my finest Penn's trout to date, and it
even
had a touch of ROFF in the story, to boot.

...tying streamers like a madman,
Tom

i couldn't snip a word. i saw every moment of your effort, having seen
it, in real life, a couple times in the past. some folks just have the
spark, like you, and willi, and makela, and a few others.

anyway, i appreciate sharing those times, having had my day in the sun.
i just don't have either the patience or the strength to do it anymore.
jeffie is our legacy, mine and jim's.

hell, i can't even entertain a bunch of mormon cheerleaders, stranded
without a man, in the wilds of montana.

however, if i could have merely ....touched... one of them, everything
would have been ....cool.

yfitons
wayno

I really should have stopped fishing for the year....

"Wayne Harrison" wrote in message

a bit maudlin tonight, counselor?? Get on up here next May and we'll
rekindle the spark, or something......g
Tom

I really should have stopped fishing for the year....

On Tue, 01 Nov 2005 00:03:38 GMT, "Thomas Littleton"
wrote:

...tying streamers like a madman,
Tom

"TICK"

Another convert! :)

Those V currents are probably my favourite targets as I've taken more
browns out of them on streamers than probably any other type of
feature.

Betchya you're not stopping now . . .

Peter

turn mailhot into hotmail to reply

I really should have stopped fishing for the year....

Arrived in Coburn 6am Thursday at Stans pool still dark so decided to
go to camper get settled in and return at dawn......Got to camper
turned on furnace nothing flutch with it for awhile still nothing ****
dead furnance........Opened fridge no light **** dead fridge checked
light o.k. checked outlet o.k.checked breakers o.k.damn dead fridge
reset breakers again fridge on still dead furnance had to go to State
College for heaters got back turned them on climbed into sleeping bag
Tom woke Brian and myself up around 2 fished Stans caught 1 lost a few
due to rusty reaction time all on STREAMERS Petah........Went to
Inglebie Friday with more fish caught and lost....... Saturday found us
at Cherry Run we decided to fish the fast water just above the cabin
run started catching fish right off went down to the braids caught a
couple decided i would go out to the road and walk back to the parking
area but there was this nice little area by a rock that just called me
so I had tied on a wooly bugger that Wally had givin me cast it into
the fast water let it drift strip it back second time missed a strip
bugger drifted behind the rock strip bang fish on pulled out a nice
rainbow about 18inches and 3+ lbs and beautifully
colored............Sorry the year at Penns is over was a season of
different and often difficult fishing but as in any indevor one must
adjust tactics and push forward ......... April is 5 months away
grannons will be hatching we will be catch the wily Penns browns
again............

I really should have stopped fishing for the year....

Incidentally, I'm working on a streamer design intended to foil short
strikers. Lost two steelhead on Saturday that short struck a long fly
with a short hook. That design seems to work OK for head hunting
browns and smallies that engulf their prey but it's crap when dealing
with tail pullers. My "take to solid hookup" ratio with this fly is
probably less than 50% when dealing with Grand River steelhead.

Soon as I've hooked up a few fish and get an idea if they work as
intended, I can post up a few pics.

I really should have stopped fishing for the year....

I'm working on using Waddington shanks connected to the hook by a loop
of 20# Fireline rather than a direct connection. This tail hook is
the only hook as I don't think I'll need another. We're talking
steelhead that go from 24" up so a 4" fly is easily inhaled. They seem
to take on a downstream turn -- I usually find them hooked on the
opposite side of the mouth indicating they were facing downstream when
hooked. It's this characteristic that leads to the short takes plus
the reason why I think that only the tail hook is needed.