Yough River

Ohiopyle Reunion

in

We had a family reunion in Ohiopyle, which was a wonderful get together and long weekend retreat in the Laurel Highlands mountains.  The last day we made our way down to the river and let the kids get into the Yough.  Great memories with a wonderful family.

Jack the wise

Y River Fix

in

I've been chomping at the bit to get on the Yough, but been just a little busy with the new baby.  With some reinforcements at the home front, I was finally able to get a float under my belt with my father-in-law and Cooper.  We landed a few trout, but this was mostly just a cruise down the scenic river gorge.  We hit the Memorial Day weekend rubber hatch, so we had a few rafts bumping us on the way down, but that is just part of the drill at this point.  Probably best to avoid these high traffic days if you can.

Lunch break!

Yough Tailrace float

in ,

Spence, Cooper and I hit an afternoon float on the upper tailrace section of the Yough.  We had been hit by some heavy rains and I knew even if the CFS was good, the middle would be chocolate milk.  I was excited to see the dam release at 1200 CFS when I checked in the morning, but they abruptly turned it down to 600 CFS and every wade fisherman in the tri-county area was there.  Needless to say we avoided the main runs and hit some new ones.  The fishing was pretty slow, but we managed to boat some cookie cutter  12" bows.  No middle Yough fatties, but a good option to fish when everything else wasn't fishing.

Cooper staying cool with some water retrieves

Clear Yough water meets the muddy Cassleman below Confluence while a train rolls on

Browns on the Yough

in ,

Spencer's sister, Meg, was in town and we decided to do a Yough River float while Grandma watched the twins for the day.  Meg had fished with us before in Montana,...but was she ready for the Madison of the East ...the famed Yough??

Meg on a foggy Yough morning

We put in at the dam and the release was at 600 CFS and 750 CFS at Confluence which = low and skinny and going to be a bumpy ride.  We didn't spend too much time up top and made our way into the long middle Yough float on this 85 degree day in June.   Most of the day was spent just cruising and enjoying the sun.  Somehow these girls possess the innate ability to sit back, relax and not be casting and fishing the entire length of the float.  I cant comprehend it, but I can appreciate it. 

I have yet to see a prettier river

Picking a line

With summer flows, the fishing seemed to be better early in the day and later in the evenings.  There weren't many bugs out today and nymphing was the ticket.  This time last year, the dry fly fishing was just nuts on this river and this year, its been rather slow comparatively.  Of course you'll see the killer whales rising to no-see-ums in a Henry's Fork style flat pool, but those fish are TOUGH!  I want the trout that explodes for an Elk Hair Caddis or sucks down a big Slate Drake just for the hell of it.  Where are those dumb Yough trout??

Watch that spikey dorsal fin!

I will say, these southern gals can fish!  Everyone caught fish on this trip ... everyone, but me.  haha.  Granted, I did the rowing, but I did fish a few runs when we anchored up and I still threw a goose egg.  But I was so super stoked that both Meg and Spence caught fish, that I didn't even care.  Meg even caught Mr. Bronzeback which left her with a puncture in her hand from his spikey top fin.  Hey, at least it wasn't a hook in her head this time (still sorry bout that one.)

We finished out the day with a couple cold beers after the trip (and out of the park.)   We could have used a bit more turkey on the lunch sandwiches, but we survived.  It was a great day and super fun float.

Yough Baptism for the Twins

in ,

Cooper thinking we're completely crazy

Spencer and I took the twins out for their first fly fishing adventure / baptism on the Yough.  Now, I know what you might be thinking,...that I've lost my mind taking a couple 8 month olds and my dog out on the river fly fishing, but all I can say is my wife thought it was a good idea at the time too (and one of the many reasons why I love her!)

Clara quickly grabbed an oar....future river rat!

  I cant claim it went exactly as I envisioned it, but I'm glad we gave it a whirl.  The trout were rising as they always do and Spencer was doing her best to occupy both babies.  But there is just something not very relaxing about casting to rising trout when twin babies are having mini meltdowns in the middle of a river. 

Clara famously waving in all of her pics! 

I think we could have handled just one meltdown, but not two.  I did get enough casts off to realize that the fish were not taking the big obvious yellow sz 14 cahills, but I didn't stick around too much longer.  There were a couple guys fishing below us and I felt terrible about the screaming babies.  Its one thing to have to accept screaming babies on an airplane, ....but on a river, you should NOT have to listen to other people's screaming babies. 

So we paddled upstream as we sang, "Row, Row, Row your boat"  and I just put the rod down and floated merrily, merrily back down the river. 

Dad with the best catch of the evening....a 22" wild Clara!

The nice thing was the twins aren't moving yet, so when that day comes (which will be soon,) we wont be able to take them out in the boat until they're a little older.  So I am so glad we got this float in now.

But it wont be long until ol Jack is rowing his old man down the river and I cant wait for the day!

Jack told me the fish were midging, but I didn't listen to him and kept casting that cahill dry fly.

Memorial Weekend Yough Float

 
 
With Grandma holding down the fort and watching the twins for the day, I was finally able to get Spencer onto the Yough for a float over Memorial Weekend.  It was exactly one year ago she was out on the Delaware in the boat and its been a long and wonderful year since then.  This was the first time she was away from the twins for any period of time longer than a grocery trip and I was glad she was really excited to go out. 

 










Dave, Spence and myself hit the water around 8 ish and had a wonderful day on the water.  It was a little chilly to start but a bluebird sunny day that hit the mid-60’s, with the only knock being the ridiculous wind.  Dave had been seeing good numbers of March Browns, but the wind really hampered the hatch and the dry fly fishing.  We did pretty well on nymphs anchored with a big thingamabobber and heavy stoneflies and were able to boat some nice Yough bows.  We didn’t catch one single brownie.  Full moon and a blue bird sky - I wasn't too surprised...but still a little crazy.  And no matter how many times I go out,  I'm still amazed how hard a 16” Yough trout can jump and fight.  These fish are all muscle.  No squishy stocked trout here.
 
 


Half way through the float, we were able to find a couple rising trout lazily sipping march browns and caddis along the bank that seemed completely unaware of any wind.  The highlight of my day was watching Spencer make a nice quartering downstream cast and feeding this nice Yough 'bow a March Brown dun.  The fish ate and left her with about 40 feet of slack line as it ran right towards the boat!  She got tight and landed him like a pro.  She may not have fished for a year, but it was like riding a bike for her. 

 
The water was around 1000 cfs and it felt great to get behind the oars again on the river.  I’m really looking forward to many more floats this summer.






Yough Float



Love this river!
  
David and I hit the Yough for our first 'full' float of the year on the middle Yough. I wanted to do most of the oar work and get another run with the hard boat under my belt, so we took the RO.  We saw there was a chance of rain, but decided the risk was worth the potential reward of catching an epic Hendrickson hatch that neither of us have ever seen on the Yough.  Well, we gambled and lost.  haha.  It rained all damn day and then the wind started.  Felt like the West Branch all over.  My rain jacket apparently didnt work too well either.  Soaked and cold, but rowing and fishing and having fun. 


 








David started it out good with a couple fish on a new streamer he tied up the night before including a palomino that proceeded 'lay' eggs all over the boat after this pic was snapped. Sweet. 










We tried nymphing, but apparently didnt bring our A-game cause we couldnt move a fish.  We chalked it up to a slow nymph bite, which sounded great in theory until later that day we talked to anther boat who was cleaning house on nymphs.  damnit.  The good news was the streamer bite was great for us so we rolled with it all day.  The fish were nailing the streamer, at times taking 3-4 strikes before connecting on the surface and some right next to the boat.  I was rowing and having just as much fun watching.  It was nuts.  And they were all rainbows with the odd goldie and an even more rare 10" brook trout that ate that streamer!  But on a cloudy overcast, miserable day, we never did catch a brownie.  So weird. 





 






















Anyways, I felt much better behind the oars on this run, but it helped having those extra few hundred CFS.  We saw a few BWOs, caddis and even a couple Hendricksons, but the rain downed the hatches for sure.  No worries...the Yough is just heating up and the fish are looking fat and healthy.

     


Steelhead???....Nope just a Yough fatty that ate some meat