We made our 20th annual trip to the Pa Grand Canyon. 23 family members enjoyed outdoor activities – Kayaking, Horseback riding, biking, and yes fly fishing.

Stained and high water on the Pine forced us to fish smaller streams when we first arrived so Ron Hill and I fished Slider Run and the headwaters of Kettle Creek for the first time and caught lots of nice brookies. We also had a great day on Cedar Run.

As stream conditions improved, we fished Pine, Kettle and the Allegheny river above
Coudersport. We had good success as fish were active throughout the 10 day trip. Flies of choice were Slate Drakes, Sulphurs, BWOs, Adams, Gray hackles and Cracklebacks.

If you’re interested in catching native brook trout on mountain streams, the Shenandoah mountains are hard to beat. (and don’t mind hiking to get to them)

Tim Brookens and I stayed on Skyline Drive and fished the “Hughes”, the “Rose” and “White Oak”. Each stream required a 1 1/2 to 2 mile walk down the mountain. Worth it when you get there…

but a little tiring hiking back out at the end of the day.
We averaged 20 – 30 brookies a day and had the “rivers” all to ourselves.

Thanks to Harry Murray of Murrays fly shop (www.murraysflyshop.com) for his book, maps and his recommended fly – Mr. Rapidan.

Spent a week fly fishing in Jackson Hole. Fortunately, I was able to get some intel from Steve Harry of ‘Wildtrout’ Guiding Service who guided in Jackson Hole for 3 years. Steve also set me up to fish with Jim Dubisz who lives in Alpine, Wy.

So, I fished the Flat River, Little Greys, Steer Creek,  Hoback River, Granite Creek and Cottonwood Creek. I caught lots of Cutthroat up to 14″. My goal was to land a 20″ Cutthroat – lost 1 and broke off on one on the Flat – so I never sealed the deal.

Except for the Flat, which is located on the Elk Refuge in Jackson, I had the creeks and rivers all to myself. I had the most success on Little Greys but was most intrigued by the Flat – a spring creek which holds large Cutthroat sipping on midges and Olives and very particular.

I just scratched the surface on the fishing opportunities in Jackson Hole. Need more time and money.

Tim Brookens and I made our annual trip to the Savage River. We arrived around noon which gave us time to set up camp and fish the afternoon. We had the campground to ourselves.

After a day and half of fishing, we landed 10 decent fish – all Browns ( 2 – 14″ beauties) except for one nice Brookie. We caught (& lost ) fish on the Crackleback, #16 Caddis, beetles and a #26 gray hackle.

The weather and flow were perfect and we left there worn out as usual.

Had a good morning on Bear Valley Run.  Still running a bit high and fast with all the rain lately, but fishable.

The water temperature was 59 degrees (low for this time of year). The brookies were coming up  to a # 14 tan caddis tied with olive dubbing and some turkey wing on the shank.

Local streams like the Yellow Breeches are still running too high so this little gem made a good option.

Sherman Creek is a 53 mile tributary of the Susquehanna River. I got a tip from a fellow fly fisherman last year about the small mouth fishing. Tim Brookens and I decided to give it a try.

We fished the section off of Haas Road. Both of us used yellow poppers and slaughtered the fish. We figured our count could’ve been 40 with some blue gills mixed in….a hand full of nice sized “smallies”.

I used an 8 1/2 ft. 7 wt. rod and Tim used a 9 ft. 8 wt. which we need for longer casts and heavier flies than we are used to.

Smallmouth fishing is a good option when water temps on the trout streams are 70 degrees and higher.

 

The “Gunpowder” is a tailwater fishery beginning at Pretty Boy Dam. The flow and water temp (50 degrees today) was perfect.

I fished 2 sections – the access point at Masemore road (am) and Falls Road (pm). The Masemore section is relatively flat. Up river at Falls Road there is more plunge pools around boulders.

The am was successful dredging the wild brownies up on a #18 caddis.

Sulphurs hatched in the afternoon at Falls Road and I dis well on a #18 Sulphur. I was also surprised with a nice rainbow which is rare on the Gunpowder.

My brother-in law, Doug Gardner, had a great morning on Big Hunting earlier this week.  Doug is an avid outdoorsman and a photographer for “Wired Outdoors”.  “Living to Fish TV” is a new segment for Wired Outdoors.  I would encourage you to check out the videos.

We switched rolls on this trip as Doug fished and I was the photographer (with some coaching). Doug hooked up with at least a dozen fish on an attractor fly – all wild browns with a couple rainbows mixed in.

Big Hunting is catch and release fly fishing only.  It is a classic freestone stream with rocks, boulders. riffles and runs into pockets and pools.  The tree canopy helps keep the water cool during the summer.  If you like “pocket water” fishing , this is a great place to fish.

We spent another 10 days during the first 2 weeks of June at the Rough Cut Lodge in Gaines PA. The weather was great. We caught lots of fish ( a few big ones) and watched our younger family members enjoy the outdoors and go fly fishing.

We missed the Green Drakes but had plenty of surface activity using #18 gray hackle flies, small sulfurs, slate drakes and dredged a few using parachute Adams and the Crackleback.

My brother-in-law caught 2 woppers on the Allegheny River (above Coudersport) and the First Fork of the Sinnemahoning. Pine Creek was very productive and we also fished Kettle Creek and Slate Run.

We always look forward to this outing in early June and will do it again next year.