S6, Ep 138: Central PA Fishing Report with George Costa

Hey, folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly. We're 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?

I can hear it in your voice. You are adequately caffeinated this morning.

I have a good cup of coffee flowing through the veins right now.

Any espresso? Anything kind of super exotic?

No, no, nothing fancy. Just a good old cup of joe.

And I know you're not a pumpkin spice latte man, but I was thinking of you looking at your weather and I was like, I bet he's got a bottle of BlackBerry brandy under the counter in the shot.

It is almost that time of year for a little sip of the BlackBerry brandy. We are right around the corner.

Yeah. So, you know, looked at your weather, you're super seasonable for this time of year. And so what are you seeing on the water?

Well, we are still struggling with some pretty low water right now. We're pretty much, you know, a little below average of what we like to see this year. It's been pretty dry.

We did get a little bit of rain a few days ago, which kind of leveled things off a tiny bit, but didn't really add too much to the system. We hopefully got a little more rain tonight, but not a lot of rain in the foreseeable forecast, and we could definitely use a little more.

So the water remains low and clear as far as bugs are going. There's olives and midges around. Pretty much everything else is kind of wrapped up on the dry fly. Fun for the rest of the year.

Nymphing has been good. Fish have been a little cagey. We are right in prime spawning right now. So there are a lot of fish spawning a lot of redds.

You know, you just got to really watch out for where you're fishing, where you walk in and what fish you're targeting. You know, the temptation to fish to that big fish on the redd is always there, but just leave them alone.

You know, try not to streamer fish near the reds too, because fish will move off of them to chase. And, you know, we want to leave those fish alone this time of year, make sure they get to do what they're doing.

So the fishing has been pretty steady. Deeper runs and pools tend to be starting to see more fish in there than in the riffles.

Fish are moving to the riffles if it's a warmer day and we see some olives coming off. But, you know, nymphing's been Good streamers have been good. Dry flies definitely slowing down.

You know, egg patterns are working well, so you can definitely get some fish. But just pay attention to where you're actually fishing.

Got it. And got a question for you from someone who's optimistic for rain.

I guess Brenner wants to know the impact of, you know, overcast and rainy days on nymphing techniques and fly selection.

That's a good question. Overcast always tends to fish a little better for me for the most part.

During the colder months, I think funnier days, Nymph fishing, you know, really, I think depends on water temp more than anything. As far as nymph selection goes, I kind of like brighter, more shiny flies on brighter days.

I know it seems counterintuitive, but that tends to work a little better in my experience. Cloudier, drearier days. I like a duller fly. I just think that fish are not going to see something as sparkly on a duller day.

They're less put off by it. So stick with brighter, sparklier, maybe silver bead nymphs on bright days.

On those days when it's a little darker and overcast, I tend to use things that are a little more natural or drab colored. That always tends to work a little better for me.

Got it.

And I guess too, if we weren't at the kind of the end of the season and, you know, where cloudy weather was going to trigger hatches, you know, we could talk about maybe, you know, fishing some nymphs a little bit higher in the water column as things get ready to kind of kick off. Right?

For sure. For sure.

I mean, if it's a cloudier day and then there's more fish actively feeding on top or if there's bugs coming off, then you want to definitely raise your nymphs up in the water column depending on their feeding. It really, you know, depends on what they're feeding on and where they are in the water column.

Yeah, got it. And you know, folks, we love questions on the articulate fly. You can email me or DM me on social media, whatever is easiest for you.

If we use your question, I will send you some articulate fly swag and you're, you know, drawing for some cool stuff from the shop at the end of the season, which is getting here pretty soon.

And George, we were playing with the calendar and realized that in two weeks it's Thanksgiving, so we won't have a report for folks, but wanted to kind of, you know, talk about, you know, I imagine there's a little bit of Black Friday stuff going on. I know you're still pushing classes. It's kind of moving into the winter season. What you got going on in the shop?

We got a bunch of classes going on in all of our shops right now. A lot of tying classes set up for pretty much all of our locations. We definitely have a bunch of good stuff on sale right now.

There's a bunch of real lines on sale. And look out for our holiday gift guide, which should be out pretty soon.

If you're listening and thinking about buying a gift for somebody, you know that's fly fishing or want to kind of put something on your Santa's list, there's going to be a great guide by TCO coming out with some really good gift ideas and our sale pages all up to date with all our year end sales.

Yeah, and probably some opportunities to go hang out with George in the Caribbean and chase bonefish.

Oh, maybe, maybe that ship. Maybe next year, the year after that. We're cool for now, but that's always a possibility. I like pina coladas. I'll invite anyone along.

Here you go.

Well, folks, as I always say, you know, when it's dreary in February, if you're not musky fishing or chasing steelhead, you're going to wish you were out. And so yo it to yourself to get out there and catch a few. Happy Thanksgiving and tight lines, everybody. Happy Thanksgiving and tight lines, George.

Same to you, Marvin. Happy Thanksgiving. We'll see out on the water soon.