March Fishing Report:
It seems old man winter has finally showed some chinks in his armor. March quickly separated itself from the long and awful winter that seemed to span 3 full months.
With the exception of a couple decent February days in Tennessee during short warm periods my winter has largely been spent tying flies and spending much needed time with family.
The first few weeks of March have proven to be both great and challenging. We started the month off with snow melt that rose water levels considerably in Pennsylvania, followed by heavy rains that blew out nearly every river in NW PA.
We spent some days chasing brown trout on the Allegheny River during this time because it was our only source of clear water.
As the water levels continued to recede on our river systems that opened the door for some spectacular fishing on the clarion river and our OH/PA steelhead tributaries as well. During recent warm days on the clarion I have seen stoneflies hatching in good numbers as well as some sporadic caddis and blue winged olives. I think in the coming weeks as water temperatures surpass the 50 degree mark the fish will become even more active and we should start to see some great dry fly fishing. I will be in PA until April 3rd and then will move my efforts south to Tennessee for the majority of the Spring Season.
With the accumulation of snow and ice this winter coupled with heavy rainfall our reservoirs our mostly full and I would anticipate that any additional rainfall would see a spike in release. The Allegheny is already releasing a huge flow of 13,000 CFS while the clarion is holding back some water to fill their lake the rest of the way. Most of the water we are getting on the clarion is coming from rainfall and its tributaries.
The Allegheny had a good streamer window early in the month with perfect flows in the 3-6000 range but as they have since been running 12-13000 around the clock it makes it very tough to fish with a fly rod. Even with sinking lines and heavy streamers it becomes a chore to get the fly in the strike zone. I hope they back the flows back off as the month goes on.
If you haven’t had the opportunity to hit the water with me this fall, now would be a great time to get some days on the calendar because these next few weeks will be great!
The Clarion is running at a perfect 400 cfs as of today (March 23rd). This is a wonderful flow to float any stretch of the river and have good success with streamers of nymphs. There is some stonefly action happening and if you move slowly through the flats with your eyes peeled you may just find a couple sippers. I’d look for the bug activity to continually get better as long as the weather stays fair throughout the month.
I’ve had my best success nymphing the deep wintering holes and streamer fishing the transitional water between holes. This leaves no stones unturned and helps me familiarize myself with their migratory behavior as the days go on.
Flies:
-Streamers in Olive/white/brown trout configurations
-Walt’s worm
-Rubber legs
-Pheasant tail
-Stonefly dries
Steelhead alley:
Spring steelhead season has kicked off. There are a good mix of winter drop backs and fresh spring runners in the system.
Ohio tribs are in good shape and we’ve had the raft in the water finding some nice steelhead. This is a wonderful time of the year to enjoy Great Lakes steelhead. Good water temps mean you can nymph, swing, or catch them on the stripped streamer.
Flies:
-Eggs
-Buggers/zonkers
-Stoneflies
-Egg sucking leech
-Intruders
South Holston:
The Soho fished great for me in late February before I headed north. Reports I’ve been getting have been consistently good across the board.
Soho is going to be sluicing most of the spring as they do work on the turbine.
This will offer amazing spring fishing and prolonged dry fly activity. I would forecast with consistent water like this we will see the best spring fishing we have seen on the soho in years.
This will be a spring you absolutely will not want to miss.
