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3. Letort this morning

Aren't you supposed to be out looking for mosquitos?
I am very jealous right now.

Is that a large redd near the opposite bank?

Nice photo! I see you are getting the fog we've had here for a few days.

It has been so warm here that the other night I went on an owl prowl in a local state park and all we needed were jackets for the hike...No owls found but the attendance was great and the kids had a chance for smores around the campfire...:)

I have wanted to fish the Letort for a very long time. Its one of those places where I'm almost afraid to go there because it may not live up the image Mr Marinaro (et al) has placed in my mind.

Spence

Oh, it will. Fussy, snooty, skittish, educated...
Small compared to what you have fished for years, but conflicting currents that will drive you nuts.

Tony, I hope you will excuse me, and I certainly mean no disrespect to any of the PA contingency, but are you talking about the Letort fish or the people who fish it?

Yes

Hahahahahahahahaha! I could tell you stories...about the fish and those who ply those waters.

"Storied Waters" are called such for a reason. :)

Tony...I have a bad obsessive gene and the challenging fish I love beyond words but have also had them hand me my you-know-what from time-to-time! There have been some fish I'll never forget, some of which were never hooked by the end of it...As you know, there are some fish you end up having conversations with...sometimes all the way back to the car...;)

I think this may explain my haunting the Au Sable for so long when there are other wonderful places in this state to fish...Its a long term relationship...A marriage, and I'm always learning something there and as much as she's taught me, I can still be amazed...I imagine the Letort is such a fickle mistress.

I have read about the currents and the plant growth in the Letort...From the pictures I've see it can look impossible to fish...There are only a couple places that have a similar nature on the Au Sable...One is right outside the Lodge and I've discussed here before the hogs the DNR have shocked from this run...One side, up against the bank, is piled with shrubs and undercut to China...Once summer progresses you can see the plant growth and there's only a few inches between the two...Hooking one of these beasts is tough enough here, but actually landing it...Good luck!

Spence

Spence

Really nice photo.

Well Spence the thing about the Letort is that you have to want to fish the letort, not have to fish the Letort because evrything else is either blown out or too cold. The weed growth in the stream and undercut banks provide lies for fish that are extremely difficult to fish. If you get the chance come and give it a go. I really like February, March and April, those months offer the longest window of opportunity for dry fly fishing. the olives are pretty consistant then. Sulphurs in the summer are a late in the evening thing with a very small time window but if you hit it right...

Here is a news article about the fish kill:



It is definitely not the same stream Vince and Charlie Fox wrote about these days, I was fortunate enough to fish it prior to the fish kill although just a youngster, but those fish were at times very willing to eat a well drifted streamer through channels through the weedbeds.I'll never forget my first Letort fish, a fine brown that ate a black cricket drifted under an over hanging bush. I never saw the fish, I was just fishing a likely piece of water, I was 11 yrs old. That fish will stay with me a long time.

It seems as though there have been a few good year classes of fish and there are a number of fish in varying sizes up to some > 20". And the fishing is what I would consider to be getting better each year.So in March when you are still piled up with snow in Michigan head this direction I'd love to show you around.

Great photo. What a beautiful place.

Crep, that is one awesome pic. I'd like to have that one framed for the tying room.

Thank you gentlemen. If you haven't already figured it out, I like that place...I'm very fortunate that it's only a couple minutes from my front door.

Eric

Yes, yes you are. Enjoy!

"I'm almost afraid to go there because it may not live up the image Mr Marinaro (et al) has placed in my mind.

Spence"

I have never caught a trout in those hallowed waters. IMO it surely is not as productive, or as pristine, as it was when Mssrs Fox & Marinaro cast their flies.

Matt
You have fished the Catskills for weeks upon weeks for 50 years.
You have fished the Montana spring creeks and Missouri River for weeks upon weeks for 40 years.
Bashing a stream/creek that you have admittedly only fished a handful of times really isn't fair, is it?
You know every rock and eddy with in ten miles of your cabin. And where every pod of fish rise during each hatch. I know that. I've witnessed your mastery of the WBranch. It is awesome to see you predict where a fish will rise, and then watch it happen.
If I was up there alone for the first time or the fifth time, I would have missed a lot of it, but I would have never said that the West Branch is overrated.
Those that fish Big Spring and the Letort a lot, know as much about those flows that you know about your favorite waters.

Well said.

Tony,

I wrote;

"I have never caught a trout in those hallowed waters. IMO it surely is not as productive, or as pristine, as it was when Mssrs Fox & Marinaro cast their flies."

You wrote;

"Bashing a stream/creek that you have admittedly only fished a handful of times really isn't fair, is it?"

Where in my comment do I say specifically that I'm "Bashing" the Letort? I'm basically saying it's not been productive for me and I'd bet it is not nearly as productive as it was in it's heyday before the Walmart, strip malls, and the onslaught of the New Age of fly fishers that began in the late 1970's. I thought my comment was pretty damn polite.

Jmd wrote;

"Tony seems to be in a testy mood lately."

Well maybe he has just had a difficult week at the hospital.

Well no, the Letort is not what it used to be. as I pointed out in my post above in this thread. But what is? But does that make it a less-special piece of water? In my opinion, no. I would hate to see anyone who loves to fly fish not walk its banks and make at least a few casts on the Letort. It can be an extremely difficult piece of water to be successful on, if you measure success by numbers and sizes of fish, but if you measure success by being able to experience special things and special places, it is not hard to have a good day on the Letort. (even if civilization is on its banks). It is still an important piece of American fly fishing history, and one that, while not as it used to be, still is a viable wild brown trout fishery, unique in it's history and current status. Any fish brought to hand from its waters is a special fish weather it be 9 or 19 inches.