S7, Ep 24: Spring Awakening in Central PA: Fishing Tips with George Costa

Marvin Cash00:00:00

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?

George Costa00:00:14

I am amazing as always, Marvin. Just suffering with that post vacation depression.

Marvin Cash00:00:18

I was going to say you sound slightly unusually chipper, but I only know that because we've been doing this for about five years.

George Costa00:00:25

Well, you know, it's a nice day out here today. That's not too bad. Nothing to complain about. No physical pain today, Marvin, so everything's great. Mental anguish always through the roof.

Marvin Cash00:00:33

Yeah, there you go. So why don't you tell folks, it sounds like, you know, you had a really good trip to the tropics.

George Costa00:00:40

That's right. We had a great trip. We just got back from our hosted trip to Belize to Blue Horizon. Fantastic trip, super fun time, really good fishing.Gang had a great time. So if anybody's ever looking to do any travel trips or anything like that, they can reach out to me here at the shop.We do hosted trips and can get anybody set up. So, um, it's a great time of year to get away down there. It's just such a wonderful place. If you ever get a chance.Blue Horizon is just probably the best permit lodge there is.

Marvin Cash00:01:07

Yeah. And you had a beginner who crushed it, right?

George Costa00:01:10

Absolutely. It's always the beginner that gets the slam. You got a great permit. Tarpon, snook, bonefish, Just really great. Great week of fishing.

Marvin Cash00:01:21

Yeah. So you get home, temperatures are 40 degrees cooler. What are you seeing on the water?

George Costa00:01:27

The water's been actually pretty good this week. We've had some good olives going off all. I think that the granums are probably right around the corner. So temps are, you know, kind of chilly.Pretty typical for this time of year. Maybe a little touch on the chilly side.We are supposed to get a little bit of rain throughout the week, but the stream levels are all pretty good right now just about at seasonal averages. Pens remains a little high. It's borderline 1,000 cfs, which is fishable. You just got to kind of stick to the edges.But spring and the little J are in really good shape. Color's good. And they were shaping up to have a nice spring here. Levels kind of bumped up with the last rainstorm.

Marvin Cash00:02:06

Got it. And I know you're kind of your. Probably your. I don't know, you may still. You're.I can't remember when you were going to have your cicada class, but I imagine since you're warming up. You're probably moving from like fly tying classes to skills classes, right?

George Costa00:02:20

Indeed. Yeah. We've got a lot of beginners classes on the books. A lot of them are sold out already.The cicada class on the 30th for tying with Caleb, we still have some spots left for that. So those bugs are coming. We do expect to see them.You know, our best guess is going to be probably early to mid June is when they should really start picking up. So that's going to come in right after most of our bigger hatches on the mayfly front are done.So that class will be great if anybody wants to get some skills on tying those big ugly bugs.

Marvin Cash00:02:50

Yeah.And then if I remember correctly, you got a bunch of like, you know, beginning fly fishing classes and all kinds of stuff like that kind of peppered throughout the spring, right?

George Costa00:02:57

Yeah, for sure. All of our stores have a lot of classes, so you can check out the website and sign up for any of our classes that we have.You know, a lot of specialty classes, Euro nymph, streamers, dry flies. All of our locations do a bunch of classes. So always a great time of year to brush up on those skills.

Marvin Cash00:03:11

Yeah. And you know, we're getting close to Easter. Any kind of sales or specials in the shop so people can put fly fishing stuff in their Easter basket.

George Costa00:03:20

We're definitely going to have some sales stuff coming up. Most of our spring apparel and all our spring stuff is coming in for spring and summertime.So look for most of whatever we have left in the winter, winter stock to kind of get put on sale in the next couple weeks. I'm sure we'll have a little turnover in that.

Marvin Cash00:03:38

Well, there you go.Well, listen, folks, you know, we, we didn't get a question this time and you know, if George hadn't gone on vacation, he would have been a whole lot sadder than he normally is. Right, George?

George Costa00:03:46

I would probably be a little happier because you know that the postpartum vacation depression thing always kind of sets in this time of year.

Marvin Cash00:03:54

There you go. So, but you know, you can always email us DM me on social media, whatever's easiest for you.And if we use your question, I will send you some articulate fly swag and you're drawing for something cool from the shop at the end of the season. And George, before I let you go, you want to let folks know shop hours and all that kind of good stuff.

George Costa00:04:13

Absolutely. Up here at State College, we're open 9 to 6 Monday through Saturday, 9 to 3 on Sunday. All of our other shops have similar hours.And check us out on the web@tcoquishing.com.

Marvin Cash00:04:23

Yeah, there you go. And you know, folks, we're. We're starting to thaw out. And, you know, spring is right around the corner.You owe it to yourself to get out there and catch a few. Tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, George.

George Costa00:04:33

Take it easy, Mark.