Champlain Islander

No fishing for me yet since the lake still has some ice on it. I had a small umbilical hernia fixed on Wed so I am still a little sore. Probably will lay low for a week or so then ...watch out pan fish because here I come.

Chuck7

I had a small umbilical hernia fixed on Wed so I am still a little sore.
C.Islander

Sorry to hear that partner. You know if your ever down here to look me up man..we will have a good time.
C7

Champlain Islander

Right back at ya Chuck. I always have plenty of room and the smalleys are always hungry. I had the hernia fixed betweensafe ice out and turkey/ pan fish season. Pretty good planning huh.
I just love life.

Pygmy

I had a super day on Kettle Creek in PA...

Yeah, lots of guys, and to make things worse, they had dumped HUNDREDS of trout in a few holes close to the road and , of course, the fisherman were concentrated on those holes where the FISH were..

Still, it wasn't so crowded you couldn't get a good spot to fish....

My partner told me he guessed I caught 50 trout...I'm thinking he was exaggerating, but I sure did catch a LOT of fish..Probably the most trout I've ever caught in a day...I had a ball...I also released them all... My partner caught his share too, includinga beautiful palimino, about two pounds...

The hot ticket was a # 14 olive bead head hare's ear nymph , fished with a foam strike indicator about 4 feet above the fly....

Chuck7

WOW Dan! We both did real good and we both released all our fish too.
Good deal man.

deerslayer223

I had a good day for my area in somerset county pa on the trout stream . Crowds were fairly slow this year compared to usual arm to arm tangled up messand fishing my favorite hole proved to be no problem. Ended the day out with catching 10 trout keeping a few nice ones for the supper table and releasing the rest. Id love to be able to fish a trout stream where I could catch the trout in the numbers you guys talk about! That totally blows my mind!

Chuck7

I hear ya..LOL Back in my day 10 trout in one outing was a decent day. We could keep 5...and I certainly would. Freshwater trout is about as good as it gets.

Congrats.,
looks like alot of us were out fishing yesterday.

Pygmy

I do like to eat trout, although I think the flavor of WILD trout ( or trout who have been in the stream for a long time) is superior to freshly stocked trout....I have mixed emotions about killing wild fish, since I consider them a relatively rare resource...Usually I only keep the ones that are hooked deeply enough that they may not survive...

Stocked trout are OK to eat and I often keep a few for a meal...However I much prefer bluegills or perch....

As far as catching NUMBERS of trout, I've fished bait and various spinning lures like spinners for years , and caught fish, but not in the numbers that I have caught them since I've become relatively competent with my fly rod...

Yesterday on Kettle there were people fishing all kinds of bait and lures and most were catching some fish, but it seemed like the people using fly tackle and weightednymphs were outfishing most of the rest by 3 or 4 to one...It's an absolutely deadly method once you get the hang of it, and it's not difficult to learn... For me, a critical part is to use some kind of a strike indicator... Strikes on nymphsare often very subtle and hard to detect...

Now if I'm fishing for really BIG trout in a stream, it's hard to beat a nice, juicy live 'crawler, but that's a different story altogether.....

Phil from Maine

Same here, nothing stocked seems to compare with the wild native ones.

I preffer to use streamers and stonefly nymphs early in the season the trout will hit them hard when the start hitting. My favorite spot is in the pools at the bottom of a set of ripps before the suckers start running. It is slow fishing them but well worth the time. lost on of the big-uns last week just before our last snow storm hit us. Rusty on the ole fishing pole right now but, it will improve. We have a lot of rain and snow? coming our way starting tonight. I hope it is more rain than snow as I love fishing the high water for those lunker trout. Good Luck to all!