Or should I say that water is at a premium these days? I can't believe how dry it's been for this entire summer. Since the end of June it's been miserable with few exceptions. Drought status has been declared in a lot of the state in the last few weeks. It's well beyond the point of no return. That means that there almost no amount of thunderstorm rain that can make any impact at all. It could rain 7" tomorrow and streams would be low again in a day. The only thing that can save the fall fishing season is a tropical system and the odds of that any year are extremely thin. I spend pretty much every day hoping but apparently I dont hold a lot of weight with mother nature.

My options for trout fishing locally have long since dropped to zero but I do know of some continued options remotely and I traveled to one in recent days. I'm pretty familiar with these creeks so I knew water levels were looking good and i was excited to finally do a little trout catching again.

I arrived early to beat any other possible early bird anglers and ditched my bike way upstream. It was still pretty dark in the deeply shaded ravine and I had to wait 15 min before I could effectively start casting my white bladed spinner. The water looked good though and I figured I'd at least get into some fish.

View attachment 283467

On my first cast I caught a nice brown. That's the good news. The bad news is that I caught a fish on my first cast so the rest of the day was going to be a grind. Just how it seems to work out.

View attachment 283468

That was fine as the fishing of late has been tricky and I was just happy to be fishing decent water.

View attachment 283469

I was a little disappointed that I was hitting a lot of great looking spots that weren't giving up fish. I'd fish 2-3 great holding locations and catch a nice brown on the 4th.

Occasionally a brook would come to hand as well.

View attachment 283470

After 3 hours on the water I had 54 trout to show for it. Off to stream #2.

This creek is much larger but was also flowing great. I normally start in the same certainly area but today i decided to ride my bike downstream a ways to see what a different section looked like. I'm glad I did because the habitat and action were very good and I caught 13 trout from the first long swift run, including 2 trout over 16".

View attachment 283473

View attachment 283471

Unfortunately as I worked my way upstream toward the truck the fishing got progressively slower until it slowed to a crawl near the large parking lot access. Fish where still coming to hand but not as fast as the starting spot.

View attachment 283474

The next time I fish here I will start considerably further downstream and expect to catch quite a few fish for doing that. Maybe in the next month I'll find out.

For the outing I fished for 7 hours and caught 76 trout with 4 of them being over 16" in length.

View attachment 283475

View attachment 283476
Keep praying for rain. Whether you're a regular trout fisherman, steelhead guy or a salmon guy, we could all use a better weather pattern for sure.

That's an excellent outing, especially considering the low water! 76 trout is good enough, but to also get 4 big trout is great!

You're right about the rain. We need a tropical storm or at least steady rain for a prolonged period.

I have only fished once this month, partially because of the poor conditions. I'm planning on fishing tomorrow in a large stream I rarely fish. My expectations are low.

 

I drove across the West Branch at Karthus today. I don’t think I ever saw the river this low.

 

Actually there's potentially some proof to that statement. While I don't think it's historically low most creeks in the state are lower than they were at the November time frame last year when we were stuck in that incredible drought. If this keeps going for the next two months we're going to see things we haven't seen in the last decade in regards to low water. At least speaking for my area.

 

Thanks for sharing!!!

 

Hats off to you continuing to travel (and find) fishable water. For September - in drought times at that - I consider that a productive day on the water.

I still have a bunch of PTO days to use in 2025 and now I'm kicking myself I didn't put those days to use in the Spring when the stream levels were favorable.

 

Likewise on the PTO. I should have just taken May off haha.

Heard and interesting stat. Most of the state is experience dryness that its hasn't experienced in 50 years. For instance. The Altoona AP is on the 7th longest streak in history of getting .1" of rain or less. Its at 33 consecutive days. The record is 47 in 1964. Looking at the 10 days its going to at least getting into the top 3. Things are bleak and we may get into historic turf in 2 weeks.