Middle Allegheny Report

[Pescatore]

Made a short trip to the Middle Allegheny on 7-17 and 7-18 with the kids. Launched in Emlenton headed north and camped a portage spot. I decided to get up and fish at 5:30am and I wish I would have gotten out earlier. The river valley was foggy, the moon was up and as soon as I got to my spot I saw a fin. I fished spinners, cranks and rubber with no luck. Then, I switched to top water and had a fish blow up and miss on the third cast. I missed one more fish 20 minutes later then finally netted a scrappy 33" musky at about 6:45am. Everything shut off after 7am.

I decided to walk a small feeder stream with my kids later that day catching salamanders, newts, crayfish and frogs. I brought a rod with a small hook and used some crayfish to catch trout. I was shocked when I ended up catching 2 native brook trout 8" and 12".

At the launch in Emlenton my son caught a fresh water eel. I've never seen a fresh water eel anywhere! Man, we're really lucky to have such an amazing eco-system right here in our backyards.

[evw659]

good report. nice to see somebody getting into the toothy critters. i was at my river camp about 6 miles above emlenton from the 19th to the 24th and couldnt even catch bass! 12" native brookie, wow. thats a really nice one. i think its an a absolute blast fly fishing for brookies in small streams even though most of the fish are no bigger than minnows. surface temp in the allegheny on sunday the 24th was 86.