An excellent article about a legendary fly fisherman in Central PA. I haven't read anything by Vincent Marinaro or even anything about him, but the article peaked my interest. I'm going to see if I can find some of his books on Amazon or eBay.

Central PA Magazine - WITF's Monthly Magazine

I've found the greatest place on earth... Pennsylvania. I know, hard to believe, but I went there on Saturday to go to a flyfishing show in Boiling Springs at the Allenberry Resort, home of the PA Fly fishing museum. Although I didn't make it to the museum as I was too anxious to get on the water, I will definitely go back to the resort soon. The Yellow Breeches Creek ran adjacent to the property.

I went to the Yellow Breeches Outfitters to get some flies and hopefully a book on PA flyfishing. I was very happy to see that the shop was very nice sized and had some friendly people working in it. I was told that the Yellow Breeches Creek ran right outside the shop. The trout are all stocked right now so any kind of terrestrial would work. I picked up some Shenk Crickets, various ants and my favorite standby, the Wooly Bugger. There is a one mile section of the creek that is catch and release only that runs right out of a stocked pond. I was told that it will be pretty crowded so I was expecting to see some folks there.

What I didn't expect to find was people every 10 feet.



I hiked past the cnr section and found a little secluded section of the stream where a fork of it combines into one. I fished for about 2 hrs there but only got one strike. I have a hard time casting with my little 6'5" 3 wt rod. I got caught up often in the trees on the bank. Although I didn't catch anything there, it was a great experience. After some of the folks left, I went back upstream to where there were tons of people. I found a small section that I could "claim". I caught a trout there, but lost it when I was getting ready to pick it up. There was also one that was rising below a branch that just wouldn't go after any fly I tried. I'm sure I spooked it. I saw some folks catching some of the nice stockers so they were definitely in the creek.

The thing that I really liked was the tradition and focus on FLY FISHING. Everyone was curteous and I didn't have to worry about beer sloggin cheese fishing people messing up the experience. There was even an ancient old guy there on the banks that had a cane and he was fishing as well as he could. It was obvious he had been doing it for years and a creaky old body wasn't going to stop him.

I'm so excited to find this area. There are a ton of creeks and rivers there that I can try out including the famed Letort. Can't wait to go again!!

Went to Franklin on Sunday... used my father's day fish card. It was extremely sunny, but very nice outside. I had a dismal day fishing though with 2 fish caught in 2 hours. I would call it a complete waste of time except for the 2 lb small mouth I caught near the end on a Clouser. Unfortunately, I ended up knocking the eyes off of it somehow (great casting skills obviously) and the fly just didn't work well when it didn't sink. I did see some of the large catfish I mentioned in an earlier post. They were trolling around on the surface. I would have mistaken them for carp except for the coloration.

I think I'm going to invest in a nice 7 wt rod soon and lots of clousers. I haven't caught a harder fighting fish than that smallie.

Stories

Here in Purcellville VA, we have a nice little Park called Franklin
Park. It's where all the ball games get played around here. Well, it
also has a little stocked pond. I've caught a few Bluegills in it and
the occasional bass, but nothing really worth blogging about.

I keep getting reports from people saying there are in fact large fish
in there. I have heard of chain pickeral, channel cats in the 10 lb
range and lunker bass. It's hard to believe especially if you see it.
I think I need to invest in a sinking tip line or leader. I've been
told the secret is get the fly deep. Sounds like it may be worth
trying.