My Dad and I headed, once again, up to South Mountain State Park earlier this week for some fishing. The last time we were up there was a couple days before Christmas and we got really washed out with lots of rain the day before, resulting in a pretty outrageous 400 cfs flow. You can see photos of that HERE!

This time we headed up there DURING the rain on Wednesday. The Jacobs Fork was rising, but it was only a max of about 60 or 70 cfs while we were there (it peaked later at about 250).

Jacob Fork Gauge

Wednesday was cold and rainy. With more rain. And then a little more rain. Then a bit of rain. (Did I mention in rained?) We stayed pretty warm and snug in our gear though..so even a bad day of fishing is OK. We caught zilch. We were fishing basically between the top parking lot to just slightly below the Cicero parking area.

Looking downstream from the bridge at the top lot..


Dad pondering a pool down below the Cicero parking lot…



It looks rainy..





The slippery slabs just below Cicero. I thought there might be some fish in these pools, but they wouldn’t take anything we threw at them. I think I only *saw* two fish the whole day (in the pool just above the bridge/horse crossing upstream of the Cicero parking area)..



So we got skunked on Wednesday, and figured we should just get up early Thursday and take another whack at it. The water levels were dropping and the day promised to be cooler, but clear (the wind never happened!)..

This time we fished below the Cicero parking lot hopping pools down to the HQ building. The sun was beautiful lighting up the creek with the steam coming off of it…



Downstream of Cicero, and before you get to the Ranger’s house, there is a pretty good climb along the bank before it drops back down.



On the other side of the drop are some gorgeous pools though. I was really thinking I’d catch something in these. Every other time I’ve been to South Mountain I’d done pretty good with Y2K type egg patterns, but I wasn’t getting anything this time.





I kept moving downstream and eventually came across this big bend to the left where a large pool had formed. The water was really clearing up and I could see a couple fish down deep. I rigged up an egg with a bead head type dropper about 18 inches below it. I threw it upstream and let it sink down and drift over the sandy bottom and after a few tries I finally got something to take the bead head.





A few casts later I hooked another one, but he gave a flip of his head as I was landing him and threw the hook. A really nice little pool in a scenic area for sure..

Dad and I ate lunch at the car and then headed downstream from a couple hundred meters downstream from the Ranger’s residence. It was very near where the horse trail crosses the road downstream of the residence. The creek splits here into two sections. We bushwhacked back and I started downstream and found a nice long and narrow pool that had been created by either a logjam or a beaver. I saw some fish lounging on the bottom and I quietly backed out and walked upstream, hopped in the water and let my fly drift downstream into the area I knew they were lurking. Sure enough, after a few drifts down I caught another on the lower bead head.





Dad came down and joined me for a while and I caught another one..



A photo looking upstream from the obstruction – logjam or beaver?



As the early afternoon went on we eventually found ourselves at the HQ and we fished the pool behind it. Here is a pic of Dad mid-cast..



There were fish rising in the pool but I couldn’t get them to take a top fly, so I stuck another greenish bead head on and threw it into the current and eventually I got one to take it. This fish was much smaller..



We spoke with the rangers and they acted surprised that we caught anything. I caught five..Dad didn’t do so hot..but he agreed the scenery and fishing was still a great way to spend the day. The rangers said the stream will be stocked in the beginning of March and that a lot of fish had probably washed downstream during the big rains in the previous weeks. Glad we found a few..

Areas we fished (red on first day, blue on second..)..



Great time and had fun fishing with my Dad (as always..)

BeachAV8R

Those are some sweet pictures beach! That is an awesome river/stream. I love ones like that. I am an avid steelheader/trout fishermen. I want to get into fly fishing thou. It looks really fun!

Thanks for sharing

Lovely! I enjoyed the other one, too. I love fishing in the Park. I just don't get to do it more than once every 5 years or so...

Nice! I've just gone on a mini vacation. Thanks Beach