Fishing prompt: Is the Letort as difficult to fish as it's reputed to be? What makes it so hard?

[Misha Gill]

Someone posted this question to the r/flyfishing subreddit the other day and I responded. Thought you guys might be interested in what I had to say. 


My response:
"Well first it's like fishing in an aquarium because the water is so clear, so you have to be very stealthy. Second, the stream bottom is a layer of fine silt in which you will sink to your knees if you try to wade. Like in any stream, the best fish lie in inaccessible spots, and on the Letort you have a much tougher time adjusting your position to make a cast. Third, the abundance of hatches has dropped off dramatically in the past fifty years. The only hatches are midges, BWOs, and sulphurs. The sulphurs are strange though bc the hatch will be happening, and adults will be drifting along on the surface, but the fish won't eat them. There is so much food in the stream anyways though that it doesn't matter, the fish get big eating cress bugs and shrimp.

Your best chance for catching a fish on top is with terrestrial, which stay around until the first hard freeze. When I went recently I had luck with an unweighted no indicator dual nymph rig. Make your top nymph a visible attractor pattern and your bottom nymph more realistic, like a sparse pheasant tail. Track your flies by keeping an eye on the visible attractor nymph. Use a long fine leader."

The attached picture is a little guy I caught on a recent trip up to the Letort with Kyle. Fun day, tough fishing. Caught a few more this size and smaller on my sexy hare's ear. 

[Brendan]

And on the off chance you get lucky enough to hook one of the big ones that love the the #22 midges, it's nearly impossible to land an 18" wild fish on 6x with all the grass beds and brush piles in the stream. 

[arthur noglak]

I fished the Letort for the first time last year. The water was off color from recent rains. I got 2 small ones on streamers but my buddy who has been fishing the stream for years go 3 fish all over 18 inches one fish was a solid 20. Those fish were all taken on 6 inch streamer patterns. The second time I fished it was more of the same. I waited for some heavy rains then went and slammed streamers. I got a bunch of grabs on that day but no fish to hand. Hard stream to fish when the water is perfect but pretty straight forward when its off color.

[Misha Gill]

Biggest fish I ever got out of the Letort (23") came during a driving rain, right when the water had started to rise and turn off color. You do need a pretty hard rain to make the stream rise - it's surprising how much is needed to turn it off color. 

[arthur noglak]

I have only fished it 4 times. Twice with dries and Twice with Steamers in high water. I have only caught 6 fish on 4 trips. 18 inches is my best fish taken on a cricket. My buddy Tom Baltz who guides up that way says any fish on the Letort is a trophy ha ha Tough stream. Its amazing how big some of those fish can get in such a little stream. Have you ever fished it in the fall or winter?

[arthur noglak]

The stream near Hagerstown (dont want to "hot spot" and get someones panties in a bunch) reminds me alot of the letort.

[Carl Z.]

The Letort is especially tough because you can see the fish in 8' of water (and they can see you)  These are smart fish and spooky.  Unlike a freestone stream, every shadow and splash can be seen or sensed by the fish.  It means that you, as a fisherman, have to be in control all the time.

It's not a stream for the impatient.  At least not up in the meadow.

On Thu, Oct 22, 2015 at 4:04 PM, arthur noglak <arthur...@gmail.com> wrote:

The stream near Hagerstown (dont want to "hot spot" and get someones panties in a bunch) reminds me alot of the letort.

--
http://www.tpfr.org
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tidal-potomac-fly-...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to tidal-potoma...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tidal-potomac-fly-rodders/4d5530b5-48a9-4afa-9fb0-ad1474da585d%40googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[namfos]

For those of you phobic about naming names, there's also a wicked tough "technical" stream in the vicinity of Chambersburg. ;-)

Mark

[Carl Z.]

For those that want try the LeTort for a brief spell, The Yellow Breeches is nearby in Boiling Springs.  It's a much easier stream and then you can pop over to the LeTort and the "meadow" to see what it is like.  It's a nice 2hr drive from DC.   

--

http://www.tpfr.org
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tidal-potomac-fly-...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to tidal-potoma...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tidal-potomac-fly-rodders/8977c2c8-0a2e-4ac1-9055-b80c904389ab%40googlegroups.com.