Tight Lined Tales of a Fly Fisherman: Yellow Breeches Creek...an Opinon

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Yellow Breeches Creek...an Opinon

If you read the "About Me" section, you saw that I spent 4 years at Messiah College. The main campus and sports complex are divided by the Yellow Breeches Creek, a beautiful limestone spring creek. Up at school we called it "The Breeches" which makes it a lot easier to refer to from a writing standpoint as well. I spent about 90% of the time I was in my waders at school fishing the Breeches and I wanted to focus this post on passing along some of the knowledge I acquired of this beautiful creek while up in Grantham, PA. When I fished it was usually alone, it really gave me time to think, loosen up from any stress or anxiety and really enjoy my surroundings. If you've never been to the Breeches before, it's a must-do. It is one of the most popular streams in the state due to its amazing stocking program which in turn accounts for the high yield of fish per outing...(usually). Info on their stocking program can be found here... http://ybac.homestead.com/ The stockings cover almost the entire length of the stream and feature a good range of sizes and species. Most fish are in the 11" range but there are a few trophy fish mixed in. The majority of the fish stocked are Browns but there are also a good number of 'Bows (with the occasional Golden Rainbow aka Palomino) and Brookies. The Brooke trout don't seem to get too big but they are absolutely beautiful. The best place to float a fly, in my opinion, is known as "The Run" in Boiling Springs. The Run comes straight out of the lake in Boiling Springs and is full of fish, smart and dumb, large and small. I've had some of my best fish pulled out of the Run. I'll post some pics at the end of the post. Below the Run is another great stretch of creek that goes all the way down to my second favorite section of the Breeches, the Allenberry Dam. A huge portion of the stocking is done into the Boiling Springs lake which enables a good number of the fish to travel down stream, eventually to Allenberry. This stretch of creek (from Boiling Springs to Allenberry) is a perfect example of the Breeches diversity stuck in a 1-2 mile section. It holds a lot of fish that rise to dries, chase wets, sit in runs, sit in pocket waters, and occasionally (during a nice caddis hatch) will show off amazing acrobatics by leaping from an inch to almost a foot out of the water to pick off a bug. A wide range of flies can be used here which can all be purchased at Yellow Breeches Outfitters, a small fly shop on the end banks of the Boiling Springs lake. They always have a wide variety of hand-tied flies and a vast knowledge of the current hatch and stream conditions. Their link is on the bottom of my page. Another great place for a YBC hatch chart is http://www.flyfishingconnection.com/yellowbreechescreek.html I'm sure in the future I will come back to the Breeches in my posts, especially as I get better at posting on here. I'll try to add some videos and pictures in the near future of favorite flies and techniques. I hope this has been helpful or at least given you a good idea of the Breeches, more info will follow in future posts.