Conestoga 4/29/2012

I went out on the Conestoga River to do some more exploring and try to find some more water I can take my son to fish safely. A friend was showing me some good spots. It was a clear blue sky and outside temps were just great for fishing. We riffle hopped trying to find some cooperative fish. I only found one that was willing to cooperate. The water temps were still really cool. It only reached mid 50's. I think it was just a bit cool for them to be too active yep. And it seems like it is pre spawn yet here even though we have had such warm weather and low water conditions.

I guess I should have had a different fly box with me. This is a warm water stream but we were seeing some large cahills. They looked like size 14 or even size 12. To my surprise the bass were taking them off the top! I guess I should put a few cahills in my warm water box for next time!

I only got one bass, but it did come on one of my new streamers. It was the darter pattern I posted recently. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera available but it was a nice healthy 10+ incher.

4/15/2012 fishing report.

I decided to head out to the Conestoga River for the last couple hours of daylight last night. The section I was fishing is more like an average size stream. The water level for this time of year is extremely low. We haven't had a sizable rainfall in a while. I believe we are about two inches of rainfall behind our normal amount. The Conestoga is currently at 200 CFS and is usually about 500 CFS this time of year. We need rain badly here in PA. 

I went to do some exploring. I looked on the map and found some spots I wanted to fish. Well unfortunately, when I got to these spots I found out that they were posted. What a bummer, cause the water looked promising.

I finally got to a spot that wasn't posted. I was fishing with my new crayfish pattern. I have to say, this new pattern didn't disappoint me. It did well and the fish I did catch, hammered the pattern. There were no subtle takes! Look for this pattern on MyFlies.com as soon as i can get photos of it. It is called the "Stoned Claw Crazy".

The only thing that did disappoint me was the fishing location. There was a LOT of dead water, water with no holding spots or it was covered from bank to bank with green moss. I covered a ton of ground between fishable spots. I guess that is one of the things with exploring, you can get find places you will go back again and others that you won't waste your time on again. Each time you go out exploring you hope you hit the jackpot on an excellent fishing spot. Sometimes you win and sometimes you don't.