I headed to the upper Yough. Here I would find it more conducive
to wading well where I waded. At 1200 cf/s and at a gauge height of 2.20 it was
moving, but at least for me very wadable.
I began to work the waters downstream of a fellow bug
rodder. He was I am guessing Czech nymphing.
The stream held inky green color in any water deeper than 30”
and did not have as many leaves up here.
Those leaves when they drop in the middle and lower section
will be of biblical proportions.
This section of the river had a much different river bottom
composition. The river here was made of pea gravel, small cobbles, river stone,
and had a few weeds here and there.
I do regret now not having my smaller trout streamer box. I
will never know if it would have made a difference or not.
The one hungry brown that I hooked up with was enough to get
me over the regret.
What I have always found most fun is the planning of a trip.
It does not matter if it’s for hiking, fishing, or camping. I get more
satisfaction doing all the research and putting the plan into action.
I found my self flip flopping between the Yough “Youghiogheny”
River that runs through Ohiopyle State Park or fishing the Clarion River in
Pennsylvania.
I kept watching the flow gauges and with information from a
friend I had chosen the Yough.
Most of the tributaries that dump into the Great Lakes are
very low and that’s not my vibe at all. The bluebird skies they were calling for
on Saturday did not sit well with me. At least I had fog for a bit down in the
gorge.
I also want to mention that the information that I am going
to share in this blog entry is nothing new and has been available on the
internet for decades.
The Yough is extremely rugged and unforgiving in the two out
of the three sections of river that I saw. To the point that if one does get
injured you will most likely have to self-rescue. The Gorge walls are 600 feet high GPS, and a
cell phone will not work well if at all!
In the middle section of the river is lettered with huge
rocks and most of the pools I fished I could not even begin to guess how deep they
were.
I am extremely comfortable with fishing in big water. This would
be my first time here and would challenge me right off the bat.I walked up the boulder strewn bank that
changed to sand and river rock beaches.
I didn’t see other human footprints but did see other animal
prints. I walked up to my first perch after passing other sexy stretches of
water.
I knew bringing a bug rod down to the gorge would prove to
be challenging. By this I mean the volume of water that this river had 1200 cfs
and the shear depth of the holes, chutes, and not to mention the wicked river
currents.
The switch rod I would use today would have an Airflo sinking
leader at a rate of 2”/sec. I should have swapped that out for 5”/sec and even
that I don’t think would have mad a difference when looking back. I used my 2 ½”
bucktail streamer on a size #6 hook.
I also brought my eggbeater as well. The main line is 30#
test power pro and with a 10-foot leader made of 8# test fluorocarbon.
I brought with me the West Virginia state bait aka power
bait lol.The Gulp Swimming Mullet in
Dazzleberry Chrome 3” had been successful in other bodies of water.
I used to use the 3” Gulp power grub in shad color but they don’t
make them anymore! What a shame because that bait hammered fish.
The heaviest jig I had this day was ¼ oz.
I began with the switch rod and after cast after cast and
made every attempt to cover the water the best way I knew how nothing came to
hand.
I put down the switch rod and walked back to my pack and
picked up the spinning rod.
After the third cast in the same general area, but this time
it ended up in a slick. A slick to me is where two or more currents in a river
or stream create a flat current atop of the river or creek. This has always held
a fish for me throughout the years.
Then it happened halfway through the jig swinging through
the current whammo!
The feisty rainbow did not like getting stuck in the roof of
the mouth with the Aberdeen hook.
After a brief battle I brough her to the net. She was maybe
15” long and so clean.
This is another prime example of why, like on these outings,
I bring both types of rods. I will not limit myself on how I fish to give me the
best chance of hooking a fish.
I kept fishing the same water well, kind of that I did with
the bug rod and with the same result minus the nice bow from earlier.
I loaded up with the micro tackle shop and rods and headed
out of this section of the gorge.
The rocks and boulders in the boulder field are as smooth as
glass and if they are wet well you will have to take extreme care in walking on
them.
I got back to Bess “my Subaru Outback” and found the parking
lot full to the brim!
Pay close attention to where you park because you could get
blocked in by others. I nearly had a stroke when I realized that someone could
have blocked me in. They park front to back “one in front of the other” when
floating down the river.
They park in front of the other person when they know them
since they float in pairs.
My next stop was to visit the Cumberland Falls area. This is
where I would get my first taste of how busy it could be. I am also sure this
was not as bad as it gets during other peak seasonal times.
The Cumberland Falls parking lot is small, I mean small!
This area does have a trail you can follow but the cleaning
up from all the fallen trees does make this trail hard to follow. I bailed on the
trail as soon as I got close to the water. I was carrying too much equipment to
bushwack on purpose for who knows how long.
I arrived at the water’s edge and before I could I needed to
walk on 100’s of lienal feet of wood debris. When I finally reached the near
tail out of the pool, I realized this pool was exceptionally deep! I had
decided to call this the “Canyon Hole”.
I was thinking about the rods and reels I had brought with
me. I was wondering if I could have done this differently. Up top this point I
had zero room for a back cast. This would extremely limit others from fishing this
river from the bank.
The whitewater craft I would see here, and down river would
also tell me why I had not seen any fishing guide boats.
I strapped on the fasting sinking leader. The Airflo leader
I had chosen was 5”/second. I really needed a full sinking line here. I could
not use with without being on a river craft.
I used the same streamer on the bug rod. I also did not
change the lure on the eggbeater.
I was used to seeing boat traffic since I also fished the
Cheat River in West Virginia.
This was in colder weather and remarked to myself “I could
not imagine how busy it would be in the warmer months!”.
When fishing these big rivers and depending on your gear, you’re
at the mercy of the currents of the river. I knew a flyrod with any time of floating
line would be worthless at the water depths. Sure, I had a sinking leader on
that was 10 feet long and with 3 feet of tippet. This would get me down 13 feet,
but I guess that the depths I was fishing for would be 30 feet!
Heck the eggbeater would only produce a fish close to the
BFR’s that adorned the riverbanks. I feel fortunate to have hooked that fish.
The flows look like they will be easier to fly fish. I will be taking a single hander and a switch rod.
I will have plenty of content to wade through when I get back.
I have never been to the area before.
stay tuned and be well,
update Saturday morning
Well the CFS has been 1000 over the past few days now its 1230. The river came up up below Ohio Pyle .20 feet. I am still going, but this maybe a short day ..lol...Also the ACE dam up at the lake increased the flow I hope it is just to flush debris and it does not go higher!
Great trip by my standards! I need to sleep but here is a highlight.
As the National Park here buzzes with ppl I found the river
to be void of people. With the fall colors around here being peak it is busting with peepers!
We are fortunate to have this in our backyards. I had chosen
two sections of the hoga to swing flies today.
With the overnight lows being in the 30’s I saw zero reason
to be there at the crack of dawn.
This marks the second year they have stocked the river and
next year will be the first return of the adults!
I am looking for to seeing more fish in the river, but not
more people if I am being honest.
The river was low but had more water in it than most.
I used a simple 2” long bucktail streamer pattern today.
