I’ve found the greatest place on earth… Pennsylvania. I know, hard to believe, but I went there on Saturday to go to a flyfishing show in Boiling Springs at the Allenberry Resort, home of the PA Fly fishing museum. Although I didn’t make it to the museum as I was too anxious to get on the water, I will definitely go back to the resort soon. The Yellow Breeches Creek ran adjacent to the property.
I went to the Yellow Breeches Outfitters to get some flies and hopefully a book on PA flyfishing. I was very happy to see that the shop was very nice sized and had some friendly people working in it. I was told that the Yellow Breeches Creek ran right outside the shop. The trout are all stocked right now so any kind of terrestrial would work. I picked up some Shenk Crickets, various ants and my favorite standby, the Wooly Bugger. There is a one mile section of the creek that is catch and release only that runs right out of a stocked pond. I was told that it will be pretty crowded so I was expecting to see some folks there.
What I didn’t expect to find was people every 10 feet.
I hiked past the cnr section and found a little secluded section of the stream where a fork of it combines into one. I fished for about 2 hrs there but only got one strike. I have a hard time casting with my little 6’5″ 3 wt rod. I got caught up often in the trees on the bank. Although I didn’t catch anything there, it was a great experience. After some of the folks left, I went back upstream to where there were tons of people. I found a small section that I could “claim”. I caught a trout there, but lost it when I was getting ready to pick it up. There was also one that was rising below a branch that just wouldn’t go after any fly I tried. I’m sure I spooked it. I saw some folks catching some of the nice stockers so they were definitely in the creek.
The thing that I really liked was the tradition and focus on FLY FISHING. Everyone was curteous and I didn’t have to worry about beer sloggin cheese fishing people messing up the experience. There was even an ancient old guy there on the banks that had a cane and he was fishing as well as he could. It was obvious he had been doing it for years and a creaky old body wasn’t going to stop him.
I’m so excited to find this area. There are a ton of creeks and rivers there that I can try out including the famed Letort. Can’t wait to go again!!
