I can now say I fished the world famous Letort. I can also say that it
beat me. Just as most people have noted in eastern fly fishing
literature, its a very difficult river to fish. The water was crystal
clear and with no rocks or bolders to hide behind, I had a real hard
time not spooking them.
I stopped by Cold Springs Angler in Carlisle to pick up some flies and
get advice. I got some terrestrials (ants and letort crickets) and went
on my way. The stream was probably 5 minutes from the shop. When I
pulled into the parking area, a younger guy (can’t believe I said that –
I m getting old) was just leaving. We chatted for a bit. He didn’t
have any luck, said he spooked them all. He also mentioned that he saw
quite a few snakes.
Unfortunately I didn’t have any luck either. I spent about 4 hours there trying to get any of the large (saw some that had to approach 20″) trout to pay attention to my flies. I tried griffiths gnats, scuds, bh nymphs, etc with only one fish showing any interest. Therefore, I didn’t have anything to put into a log book that was kept in a mailbox on the banks. Word of advice, be prepared for some of the mudiest conditions possible. I spent 80% of my time in about 2 feet of mud. It was a weird experience.
I never did see any snakes, but I did see some large and small fish. My casting is probably not good enough to catch anything because you can’t false cast over the water, but I’ll definitely be back to see if I can at least catch one fish. It was still a great experience.