Tionesta Creek Gold
6/05/25
I got out early and took the drive way down Tionesta Creek where I haven’t fished for some time. I quickly fished a couple of holes with a Woolly Bugger I know that usually holds trout before heading up creek further. I hooked 3 times in the first hole but only landed one.
The second area I missed a strike but hooked and netted 2 trout. One fought like it was in a backroom brawl! After that I went up creek a ways and figured I’d fish my way back down to my truck.
I waded out in around waist high water about mid-creek. I started with a bugger and hooked a trout on occasion.
Down creek I saw a splash out of the corner of my eye. It looked as though a golden trout was feeding on the surface. He was way too far to reach. I wasn’t sure what he was feeding on but he was continually rising. I slowly started to wade towards him within casting distance. Within distance I knotted on an elk hair caddis with a dark body. I made a cast in front of him and let the caddis drift into his feeding zone. A trout rose and grabbed the caddis in a splashing gulp. I reared back the long length of line and it tightened with an angry trout. He went under and pulled line off the spool and quickly through the rod eyes. I didn’t see a golden flash rising to my caddis so I figured it wasn’t the golden rainbow. The trout I did hook up fought pretty aggressively all the way to the net. He had my caddis hooked into his tongue. Instead of trying to get it out with possibly a long surgical procedure I just nipped the tippet and let him go. 
After I let him go I knotted on another caddis and casted it in the same area. I was able to see the golden trout just holding minding his own business and never moved to any caddis I was offering. It was as if he was intentionally ignoring my caddis as if snubbing any dry fly that headed in his direction. After a bit I knotted on a Woolly Bugger and casted it across creek and let it swing. My cast was not in the direction of the Golden but I was hoping he would see it on the swing by. The water was clear enough that trout should be able to see my Woolly Bugger for some distance. As I watched my floating weight forward fly line swing down creek I saw the Golden trout swim quickly as if chasing something. All of a sudden I felt the bump and reared the rod back. The Golden trout twisted, shook, turned and tugged the tight line flexing the 4 weight Douglas rod. He took off down and away. The spool spun as line shot through the guides. I let the line slip through my fingers and kept the rod up trying to cut down the surface tension on the long length of line. When the trout rose my fly line was not in the shortest distance to him but was still tight. The sun reflected his body like a yellow beach ball popping up off the ocean surface. His light red stripe wasn’t hard to miss against his golden body. He plopped in the water and we had a long tough battle. Every time I got him near me he had enough strength to force himself away. It took a while playing him to finally get him in the net. What a relief. The bugger was tightly in his jaw. He laid in the net almost begging me to get the picture over with and release him.
There were still trout rising here and there. After I knotted on a caddis I reached in my vest pocket and pulled out a fresh robusto Vintage Cameroon. I lit it up, took a breath of fresh air, and continued on.
The water was getting pretty deep midstream so I started wading toward the near bank. I got into thigh high water and started casting the caddis out. I missed one but caught another frisky rainbow on the caddis.
When I couldn’t get any more on the caddis I started casting the bugger again. At the end of the swing I caught a couple more rainbows.
As I was wading slowly down creek I spotted two Golden Rainbows. I’m sure one was the one I caught on the Woolly Bugger earlier. There was a trout rising just beyond the one Golden trout that couldn’t of been more than 30 feet down stream and across from me. The trout behind wouldn’t take the caddis but still rose every once in a while. I couldn’t see anything drifting his way. I decided to encourage him with a March Brown para-dun. After knotting it on I made a quick false cast to get line out. I casted the March Brown across and up creek from the Golden trout and was watching waiting for it to drift beyond the Golden. The March Brown was drifting down about a few feet from the Golden between me and him. All of a sudden the Golden turned with a tail swat and rose to my March Brown. With a splash he gulped at the March Brown. I immediately lifted the rod up with my right hand and holding the fly line tight with my left hand. The line tightened and the Golden tried to shake the dry loose with angry head shaking tugs.
Now that Golden trout knew I was there. He’d swim towards me time and again as if he was seeing if I was still here. He’d swim around every once in a while but always returned in the same place. Earlier, when I caught one of the rainbows, he moved away because of the commotion caused by the struggle. It surprised me that he took my dry fly just about right under my nose!
The Golden took off in a hurry pulling line. I kept good tension on the fly line but let him take line when he was too forceful. He kept his distance fighting and tugging at the line. It was interesting, because of his bright color, watching how a trout struggles underneath trying to get unattached. Slowly, when the trout gave me the ability, I’d reel in fly line keeping the line tight. The rod arced pointing towards the Golden but he was easy to see under the sunlight within the deepened part of the creek. He struggled and tugged swimming all over the area like he was looking to crawl under a boulder. Twice I had him near me rising but when he saw the net he dove deep and pulled away. I had him circling around and drawing near again. I raised the 4 weight and he rose with it. When I got him to the surface he struggled but I scooped, just about sliding, him in the net. I was sure glad I had gotten a bigger wider net. He was a handful rattling the net like a wild rabbit in a burlap sack. He wore a bright vermillion stripe down his golden sides and fins as if it was branded in his pigmentation by a blazing sunset.
I clipped the MB off and retied the bugger on. I only casted out a couple of times before calling it quits. I looked at my phone and it was only 1:30ish. The sun was high above but it looked as though gray clouds were moving in.
They were calling for rain and a storm later on in the afternoon. I wasn’t willing to wait until it all of a sudden down poured on me. I knew it could appear anytime over the mountainous area I was in and I wasn’t too close to my truck.
Hey, I had fun. Caught some trout and yielded a couple of Goldens from Tionesta Creek!
~doubletaper
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