S6, Ep 129: TCO Fly Shop's George Costa Discusses Prime Fall Fishing Conditions

Hey, folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Flower, back with another Central PA Fishing report with George Costa of TCO Fly Shop in State College. George, how are you?

I'm amazing, as always. Marvin, how are you?

And as always, I'm just trying to stay out of trouble.

And, you know, looked at your weather and your kind of chilly fall in Central PA, and I imagine you might have, you know, in addition to some pretty cool streamer fishing and other stuff, you might have a redds announcement you want to give folks.

Oh, absolutely. We are definitely getting into fall over here. It's getting to be the cusp of November, so the temperatures are starting to drop a little night.

We've definitely had a couple of frosty nights. So fall is here. Leaves are changing. It's quite beautiful. I enjoy it very much. Thank you.

But, yeah, I mean, fishing has been pretty solid the past couple of weeks here, and we're looking, you know, to be typical fall fishing. You know, our conditions are low and clear. We haven't had much rain, but everything's about seasonal right now.

So low, clear, clear, technical conditions on them been pretty bright and sunny, but we're still seeing some. Plenty of top water activity. We've got, you know, Caddis. October's around still. There's been lots of olives. ISOs have pretty much winded down.

There's not a lot of them left, but a couple here and there. But fish are still eating lots of olives on top in the afternoon. It's when it warms up a little bit. The nymphing game has been solid.

Smaller stuff's working well. Anything with a little bit of orange. Because it's fall and fish are colored up, we're definitely starting to spot some reds here and there.

So it is time to start look out, looking out for those clear patches on the gravel. Don't fish to fish on them, don't walk on them. It is fall, so it's that time of year. Streamer bite has been picking up for sure.

Just watch where you throw in those streamers. Low light conditions have been working a little better for the streamers, but fish are definitely getting grabby and are moving for those streamers.

So typical fall fishing for out here in Central pa. It's definitely been some. A good couple of weeks, and I expect the next two weeks until we get right into the middle of the spawn to be pretty good.

And what happens to your fishing karma if you mess with fish on redds or step on a redd?

It's, it's, it's bad. I hear you'll guarantee to break a rod if that happens.

Oh, wow. With no guarantee, right?

It's a guarantee. It's 100% guarantee you will break your.

Rod, but you won't be able to turn it. But. But your rod guarantee doesn't cover that. That's my point.

No. And then it's voided. That voids all warranties on all rods immediately.

Yeah, I think we. I think we've made our point.

And so, you know, we're almost to Halloween, but, you know, on the other side of Halloween means we're getting ready to ramp up for the holidays. You know, I suspect that people are going to start to see really cool stuff for the people that they love in their life that like to fly fish.

But also probably classes and all kinds of good stuff for the winter.

Yeah, for sure. We definitely have. All of our stores have a bunch of good fall classes coming up. We got a lot of tying events and everything.

Check out out our website for all the fall classes and all of our locations sales stuff. We got some good fall sales. Expect to see some stuff going on from a bunch of our vendors for sales for this fall.

A couple of waiters included, lots of clothing, things like that. And yeah, we're, you know, we're. We're almost.

We're almost into the holiday season, so plenty of cool gift ideas and everything like that will be popping up on our website soon.

Yeah, and you know, folks, we love questions on the articulate fly. We didn't get one this time. And as a result, George had to eat an extra pumpkin spice brownie. And he doesn't like to do that.

I love pumpkin spice brownies. I do love to do that. I'll eat the whole tray.

So. So if you.

If we don't want to have to get, like XL king waiters for George for next season, folks, send in some questions so he can leave the brownies alone.

I won't. I'm gonna eat them all.

Yeah, there you go.

Well, listen, folks, you know, I know it's a busy time of year, but you owe it to yourself to get out there and catch a few, because in February, when you're not fishing, you're going to regret not fishing in the next few weeks. Tight lines, everybody. Tight lines. George.

Take it easy, Mark.