FIN-ITE 34
Well-known member
Any suggestions for favorite patterns and sizes for fishing the Bushkill this time of year?
Give us a try!
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Bushkill (Easton)
- Thread starter FIN-ITE 34
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Lonewolve
New member
Fin
this is the stream I learned to trout fish on. It was a great stream at one time. At this time of year you will see Baetis and midges primarily for surface action. The Baetis are anywhere from 22-26 in size. Midges are 20-28 . Underneath its all going to be very small Scuds ,small mayfly nymphs #18 or lessCaddis larva fee living and net spinner. Really depends where you fish the stream too. Below Tatamy through Palmer Twnsp on to thru Easton to the Delaware , its Limestone influenced. Above that its freestone . Underneath upstream i would use small stones size 12-16 and stay small with nymphs. best time of day to fish will be from 11:00 at the earliest till about 3:00 this will stay this way until April.
NJPat,
The bushkill is in bad shape, all the over developement from Palmer all the way into Bushkill and Planfield twnsps has really been detrimental from developers running storm runoff right into the creeks to all the sedimentation smothering the gravel an rocks.its a shadow of its former self, not to mention two or three 100 year events and a 500 year event in the last 15 years. It needs alot of riparian buffer work as well as better instream devices . eroision hasnt been kind in places either.Used to have a really great Sulpher hatch thats a pittance to what it once was.The Trico hatch has suffered alot to from the storms . the fish numbers are really down also.
this is the stream I learned to trout fish on. It was a great stream at one time. At this time of year you will see Baetis and midges primarily for surface action. The Baetis are anywhere from 22-26 in size. Midges are 20-28 . Underneath its all going to be very small Scuds ,small mayfly nymphs #18 or lessCaddis larva fee living and net spinner. Really depends where you fish the stream too. Below Tatamy through Palmer Twnsp on to thru Easton to the Delaware , its Limestone influenced. Above that its freestone . Underneath upstream i would use small stones size 12-16 and stay small with nymphs. best time of day to fish will be from 11:00 at the earliest till about 3:00 this will stay this way until April.
NJPat,
The bushkill is in bad shape, all the over developement from Palmer all the way into Bushkill and Planfield twnsps has really been detrimental from developers running storm runoff right into the creeks to all the sedimentation smothering the gravel an rocks.its a shadow of its former self, not to mention two or three 100 year events and a 500 year event in the last 15 years. It needs alot of riparian buffer work as well as better instream devices . eroision hasnt been kind in places either.Used to have a really great Sulpher hatch thats a pittance to what it once was.The Trico hatch has suffered alot to from the storms . the fish numbers are really down also.
flyI4
Fishizzle, I use worms but I'm looking to upgrade!
agreed that the stream has really suffered I havent even fished it in 3 years, and started seeing serious decline around 5 years ago, which is sad considering 10 or so years ago it was not uncommon to take 18-20 inch wild browns out of the stream on top during the sulpher hatch. If you decide to fish it, I would fish right by the apartments there in the special regs section and fish it with small nymphs in the 18-22 range. Try zebra/blood midges, small pheasant tails, little black stones, and small caddis larve and you'll be covered. Switch out flashy nymphs with natural colors to see if the fish are prefering one over the other. The Apartment parking lot is a good place to start all the way down to the watefall....then maybe try down on 13th street and work up from there, always use to take a couple fish in there when I fished the stream more often. Good luck
Philthy Phil
more fish than posts
Lonewolve
New member
It wont get any better till theres alot of riparian work as well as instream work an alot of sand wand usage, I lived less than a 1/4 mile away an grew up fishing this from both branches all the way to easton as a kid. Was a great stream. Overdevelopemnt and greed really hurt it along with most of the Limestoners in the Lehigh Valley.
Lonewolve
New member
Is this a larva pattern? what is your recipe?
MACFLY
Too many streams too little time
Latest biology report confirms the decline. One small piece of good was is the uptick in one of the year class. Hopefully they can rebound.
http://fishandboat.com/images/reports/2012bio/5x10_31bushkill.pdf
http://fishandboat.com/images/reports/2012bio/5x10_31bushkill.pdf
lightenup
A fan of Boobery
FIN-ITE 34
Well-known member
Barleywine
Member
Triple Threat - January 2013 - TPO Fly Of The Month - YouTube
Just tyed 3 of these last night but didn't use them fishing today.
Nice brownie FIN-ITE.
harveyrude
New member
Spent 3 hours on this stream today from the dam to behind the crayola building. Took 2 browns and 1 rainbow and a sucker. The 1st brown was 16'' and bright, just a pretty fish. lost one other fish. all fish were on sz 20 FB pheasant tail or olive wd40 sz20. water was 48 and clear.
When I was a kid I fished the Bushkill with my uncle quite often. Both in Tatamy (?) and along the Henry gun works property. I remember catchin a hell of a lot of suckers above the dam.
Both my Grandfathers had places on the Henry property and love catching the browns in that section. I went back a couple of years ago and found the bridge washout and I was told that there was no plans to replace it.
Both my Grandfathers had places on the Henry property and love catching the browns in that section. I went back a couple of years ago and found the bridge washout and I was told that there was no plans to replace it.
Lonewolve
New member
Narco, Henry gun works and alot of the upper Bushkill went through the Henry's land. Place you speak of is call Boulton was part of Henry's Woods Natural Area and is today called Jacobsburg State Park. The floods have really damaged most of the fishing through the state park as well as Boulton. The village of Belfast is right there too. Tatamy is farther down stream.
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That is correct. My Grandfather had a 99 year lease from Dr. Stites and had a cabin on the property for forty years. He was able to keep the cabin after the State took over the property, until his death in '81. I spent nearly every week end there until I was 15 when we moved. After I graduated from HS I would go back to Belfast and I worked at Speck Plastic's during the summer while I was going to college.
My father told me about finding old gun parts in the ruins when he was a kid. Including some barrels which no one at that time paid any attention to. I have an original negative of the gun works before it collapsed.
Oh, my mothers brother worked at the Trumbauer company and when he got off work he would go to the hotel in Tatamy for some adult beverages.
My Grandfathers brother was one of the folks that started the old mill cement company and Trumbauer company.
My other Grandfather rented a barn and pasture below the DiGerlando property where he kept his draft horses the he used to pull a wagon for hayrides.
I remember the huge stone fire places at the old Boy Scout Camp, when the State took the place over they pulled them down. I shot my first rabbit in the tail race for the gun works, I was eight years old.
When my parents were married and I was born we lived in the little house which sits right on the road as you are headed to the crick. I do the the area.
Lonewolve
New member
Narco,
No disrespect towards you at all, I was just glad to finally meet someone that actually knows what the heck they are talking about when they fish my home creek. My grandfather knew the Henry's growing up and he and a buddy used to do stream work in a few places along the stream. I have pictures of my grandmother ,him,and his buddy and buddie's wife picnicking along Henry's Woods streamside. I caught my first trout when i was five in Henry's Woods in a run above what the other kids called the falls it was above Boulton. There was a fireplace still standing and in use by picnickers at the time. I grew up 1/4 mile away from the Bushkill Creek {Northampton Co.} . I used to skip school and go fish alot . I also used to hunt behind the Palmer Park Mall. Those were the days. The State park is a nice place, but in the 70's and early 80's it was a lot nicer before the stooge Park Ranger decided to put trails all over the darn place. Place was great for rabbits and Pheasants { wild and stocked} , grey squirrells,and deer.
When the Mountain Biking craze hit it runied the woods with even more single track trails and noise that did the hunting in,also more land was posted off limits to hunting.The Bushkill is a mere shadow of what it once was. I clearly remember in the 90's having great hatches,and this was all along the entire stream. I also had a few older gentleman that were fishing buddies who would share their old pictures from the 30's ,40's,50's,60's,70's ,80's of the fishing . They told stories of alot of the Lehigh Valley limestoners having a Drake Hatch and would produce pics of the bugs and the stream when they were hatching. Also the fact that alot of the springs were running so well there was wtiss good water cress where they dumped in or were located.
Not to stomp on anyones parade , but catching three, or four trout was nothing in a half hour. The whole stream has been affected by overdevelopement. The floods that happen now have scoured and also filled alot of great water with silt. Used to be able to catch trout till you got bored. Also I have snorkled the stream and have seen some truly large brown trout under huge boulders and in some of the pools back then {80's}. When they tore out that dam at the Bushkill Park they ruined alot of great water below the dam.Also the hatches there are terrible if they happen at all. The quarry always gettin new permits to go deeper has also affected this stream as well as the sinkholes that appeared rt at where Rt 33 croses,hell it even caused the bridge failure there.When the Quarry has a pump failure or an electrical outage the stream actually dries up from there to Upstream Farms area { the old flyfishing section}. I think between the overdevelopment{storm drain runoff}, flooding and the quarry as well as the widening caused by it an loss of the riparian buffer plus the after effect of the silt have really hurt the fishing. Its still a special place for me where I caught my first trout with my dad, and also where my grandfather fished too.
No disrespect towards you at all, I was just glad to finally meet someone that actually knows what the heck they are talking about when they fish my home creek. My grandfather knew the Henry's growing up and he and a buddy used to do stream work in a few places along the stream. I have pictures of my grandmother ,him,and his buddy and buddie's wife picnicking along Henry's Woods streamside. I caught my first trout when i was five in Henry's Woods in a run above what the other kids called the falls it was above Boulton. There was a fireplace still standing and in use by picnickers at the time. I grew up 1/4 mile away from the Bushkill Creek {Northampton Co.} . I used to skip school and go fish alot . I also used to hunt behind the Palmer Park Mall. Those were the days. The State park is a nice place, but in the 70's and early 80's it was a lot nicer before the stooge Park Ranger decided to put trails all over the darn place. Place was great for rabbits and Pheasants { wild and stocked} , grey squirrells,and deer.
When the Mountain Biking craze hit it runied the woods with even more single track trails and noise that did the hunting in,also more land was posted off limits to hunting.The Bushkill is a mere shadow of what it once was. I clearly remember in the 90's having great hatches,and this was all along the entire stream. I also had a few older gentleman that were fishing buddies who would share their old pictures from the 30's ,40's,50's,60's,70's ,80's of the fishing . They told stories of alot of the Lehigh Valley limestoners having a Drake Hatch and would produce pics of the bugs and the stream when they were hatching. Also the fact that alot of the springs were running so well there was wtiss good water cress where they dumped in or were located.
Not to stomp on anyones parade , but catching three, or four trout was nothing in a half hour. The whole stream has been affected by overdevelopement. The floods that happen now have scoured and also filled alot of great water with silt. Used to be able to catch trout till you got bored. Also I have snorkled the stream and have seen some truly large brown trout under huge boulders and in some of the pools back then {80's}. When they tore out that dam at the Bushkill Park they ruined alot of great water below the dam.Also the hatches there are terrible if they happen at all. The quarry always gettin new permits to go deeper has also affected this stream as well as the sinkholes that appeared rt at where Rt 33 croses,hell it even caused the bridge failure there.When the Quarry has a pump failure or an electrical outage the stream actually dries up from there to Upstream Farms area { the old flyfishing section}. I think between the overdevelopment{storm drain runoff}, flooding and the quarry as well as the widening caused by it an loss of the riparian buffer plus the after effect of the silt have really hurt the fishing. Its still a special place for me where I caught my first trout with my dad, and also where my grandfather fished too.
Oliver10
Profishional Cupcake
I went to Lafayette college in Easton and fished in Jacobsburg and the consevation area in town. I used to see huge fish in the deep pool above the waterfall but I could never even entice a bite. I also used to venture out the the Monocacy lots of fish but hard to catch.
When i was a kid we my buddy and I would have our parents drive us to the Monocacy back then the fishing was good. We would also ride our bikes to some of the ponds that the cement factory's had. The bass fishing was out standing. I remember one afternoon we were coming home just at shift change. I had three large bass hanging from my handle bars. The others also had big fish the workers just stopped and gawked at us as we road by. When I say big they were in 5 plus pound range.
Fortunately, the section of the Bushkill Creek, which had fallen below minimum standards in the recent survey, will not lose its class A designation any time soon. According to fish commission official, a stream must fall below minimum standards in two consecutive assessments to lose the class A designation. In the previous survey, the Bushkill was well above the minimum standard.
Clearly, the Bushkill has fallen on hard times. It could use some restoration work, and TLC. The Bushkill creek has friends and stewards in the form of the Forks of the Delaware chapter of TU and the Bushkill conservancy. Hopefully, with continued monitoring and restoration efforts, the Bushkill Creek will make a strong comeback. Within the PA fish commission report, there are some words of optimism expressed in the numbers of juvenile trout.
Johnny Utah
You're no daisy
I sure hope the bushy makes a comeback. It had some killer hatches with plenty of wilds to be taken. I fished it a couple of times last year and it certainly isnt the same. But I have faith that with the help of stewards and friends, the bushy will make a comeback.
tomfly
The only thing left should be foot prints.
Yea yea yea bla bla bla
This will be my resopnce to you until you join the Fly of the month group
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