Transcript: Central PA Fishing Report with TCO Fly Shop State College
S5, Ep 110: Central Pennsylvania Fishing Report with TCO Fly Shop
2023
http://www.thearticulatefly.com
Transcript
Marvin:
[0:04] Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly.
We're back with another Central PA Fishing Report with George Kostop, TCO Fly Shop and State College. How you doing, George?
George:
[0:14] I'm amazing as always. How are you, Marvin?
Marvin:
[0:17] And as always, I'm just trying to stay out of trouble. And while we're roasting down here in the southeast, it looks like things are cooling off in your neck of the woods.
George:
[0:25] Yeah, it's starting to. We actually got a couple more days of some warm weather here. It's pretty hot and sunny today. We're up in the nineties here tomorrow.
It's starting to cool down. And as we get towards the weekend, the temperatures are starting to drop back down and to the seventies.
Um, as far as the weather goes, we do got some rain slated for tomorrow, Friday, Saturday showers likely, so a little bit more water in those cooler temps are looking good getting into our fall season here.
So, um, temperatures haven't been too much of a concern.
Um, but you know, with this. High water. It's it's making it nice.
As far as what's going on on the rivers out there these days, not a ton of surface activity.
Terrestrials really have been it. Beetles, ants. There have been some caddis around. I did see some olives, a little patch of olives earlier in the week on the water. So there's a handful of bugs on top and a handful of fish rising to them.
Streamers are going to definitely start picking up, especially if we get some high water and some bumps with the flow from the rain, so that could start picking up the dreamer fishing.
Nymphing has been really consistent with the standard fare.
Your smaller mayfly imitation, sow bugs, crest bugs are working really good on spring.
[1:38] And there's definitely some bigger bugs moving around as well.
I like fishing isopatterns this time of year, because our full hatch of them should be kind of starting on some of the bigger streams like the Jay and Penn.
So overall, the fishing's been pretty solid.
Week is shaping up to be pretty good. I think after we see what this rain does this weekend, next week should be getting into some really good fishing with the cooler temps.
Marvin:
[2:00] Got it, and you know are there other hatches that folks should look forward to as we get deeper into the summer and into the early fall.
George:
[2:07] As far as aquatic insects, really, the isos are what we're looking forward to here in another couple of weeks.
Olives pretty much are it, and this is a sporadic caddis here.
October caddis will be in maybe a few more weeks. We do get a nice hatch of them here in central PA, so keep your eyes peeled for them. And then that's pretty much it. Then we're, you know, getting right into the old spawn egg hatch, if you will.
That's the biggest hatch coming up here probably mid to end of October is when our fish start building those reds.
Marvin:
[2:39] Yeah, got it. And got a question for you from Brenner and he wanted to get your thoughts on kind of your approach to streamer fishing and how you kind of decide, you know, when to adjust sizes and really I think what he's trying to do is kind of feel out that myth, right, that you have to throw big flies to catch big fish. Gotcha.
George:
[2:56] That's not true at all. I think that, you know, bigger fish are going to move to bigger, bigger streamers, but oftentimes they're not going to grab them or what I'll see more than anything is I'm fishing a pattern that's too big and there's a lot of little fish chasing it and grabbing it, but the pattern is too big to actually get them hooked.
So you'll get grabs and pulls. And if I'm getting a lot of that, a lot of grabs and a lot of pulls, but not a lot of hookups, that's usually an indication to downsize your fly.
If you're not getting enough followed, if you think you got a spot where there might be a fish holding and you don't see anything flashing or moving, that might be a situation where you want to throw on a bigger pattern just to see if you can get an aggression strike, especially moving in the fall when some of the bigger male fish start getting a little more aggressive.
If you're throwing a small streamer at them and they're not moving and they're not flashing and you're not pissing them off, now it's time to put something a little bigger on and see if you can really get them, get them juiced up and actually get them to grab the fly.
Marvin:
[3:54] Yeah, got it. And I think, you know, too, you mean for you, I know you don't like fishing super big. So for you, big is what, probably four inches, five inches?
George:
[4:02] Yeah, I think that four or five inch flies probably at about as big as I would get here in central PA. Some bigger waters with bigger fish.
If I'm fishing some of the Western rivers or maybe out on the Delaware or somewhere here in Pennsylvania, where there's going to be bigger bait fish and there's going to be bigger fish, that's when I'm going to start fishing those five, six-inch patterns, you know, bigger streamers that are going to really piss off or move those bigger fish.
Marvin:
[4:27] Yeah, when you say smaller, then are you talking about maybe just fishing like a larger woolly booger or something like that.
George:
[4:33] Yeah. I think a lot of times small jig streamers really is all you need here.
A lot of times a pattern that's overall maybe two, three inches long, that'll be more effective often than a bigger pattern. I mean, those fish are eating...
And a lot of times, even the bigger fish, the smaller pattern is an easier meal for it.
So it's going to just move for that. It's going to be looking for those small sculpins moving around. So oftentimes those those little gig streamers or a little sparkle minnow, that's gonna really trigger that, hey, I wanna eat that response out of even a big trout.
So bigger doesn't always equal better.
Marvin:
[5:09] Yeah, there you go. And you know, folks, we love questions at The Articulate Fly. You can email them to us, you can DM us on social media, whatever's easiest for you. And if we use your question, I will send you some Articulate Fly swag.
We are drawing for something cool from the shop at the end of the season.
And George, before I let you go, you wanna let folks know, shop hours, any kind of sales or upcoming classes, any of that kind of cool stuff?
George:
[5:28] Absolutely. So shop hours are, as always, nine to six Monday through Saturday, nine to three on Sundays.
We got a lot of cool stuff happening this fall. We've got some really good classes.
Our own Steelhead Steve is gonna do a great Steelhead class coming up in mid-October.
We've got a great trip planned to the Bahamas. Anybody looking to take a tropical vacation and drink some pina coladas with me can check that stuff out on our website under the Education and Travel tab.
And sales, we're definitely, check out our website, TCOflyfishing.com, because we've got a lot of sales going on right now on some clothing and some gear and some rods and reels and all sorts of good stuff.
So I hope to see you guys in the shop soon.
Marvin:
[6:10] Yeah, well there you go. Well listen folks, you owe it to yourself to get out there and catch a few. Tight lines everybody. Tight lines, George.
George:
[6:16] Take it easy, Mark.