I fished at a few of the holes in the Delayed Harvest section of Pine Creek from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm with my brother Jim. We hooked or landed four trout including a large Golden Trout that looked and fought like a Steelhead. But overall, the fishing was very slow. We didn’t have a bite for the first four hours until the trout “turned on’ at 2:00 pm when we hooked all four fish on large Prince Nymphs. The water temperature was 52° F. The other anglers we saw told us they weren’t having much luck either. The fishing was slow, but the water conditions were high, fast and muddy. The USGS gage was at 5.53 feet at 10:00 am.
This is what the Sycamore Tree Hole looked like with the gage at 5.53 feet. I ruined a 9 ft. leader there when it got hung up in the big tree branch hanging out over the water at the top-left. It was a two-fly rig with four # 4 split shot to get the flies down ticking along the bottom. We gave it a good try but didn’t have any luck so we waded downstream to try the Rock Wall Hole.
We have been fishing at Pine Creek together for a long time, and it’s our routine for me to start fishing at the head of the Rock Wall pool while Jim starts at the tail of the pool. Then we sometimes irritate each other each other by getting too close at mid-pool. The Rock Wall is a good place to try when the water level is high because the water is shallow enough to wade along the near bank, if you’re careful. The deeper water is along the far bank on the railroad track side.
This picture shows the head of the pool with the shallow water on the right and deeper water on the railroad track side. I usually do pretty well there even in faster water, but after another ruined leader and no hits I started to wade downstream a bit.
I was getting pretty close to mid-pool when I saw Jim set the hook near the bottom of the hole. The fish took a #12 Prince Nymph. That changed everything. We stayed in place for at least another hour fishing big Prince Nymphs. The only drawback was getting snagged on the bottom…a lot.
This picture shows the middle of the Rock Wall and the bottom of the pool starting at the tree on the far right.
It’s a short walk down a streamside path to the Honey Hole which is another good place to fish when the water is high. You have to be careful though because there is some deeper water there, especially near the bottom of the hole. An angler told us he caught a nice Trout there on a San Juan Worm. By 3:00 pm the fish had turned off again so we decided to call it a day.
The map below shows names our club members have given to the fishing holes in the Delayed Harvest section of Pine Creek. The names are nothing official, but you’ll hear them a lot at club meetings and when you’re talking to other anglers fishing there.
Pine Creek Delayed Harvest Fishing Holes
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