The decisions were difficult. Mow the grass, or go fishing. Stain the deck, or go fishing. Do laundry, or go fishing. It was such a beautiful weekend that it would be a crime to do anything else except go fishing. So I went fishing with Jin. I always blame him for dragging me away from other stuff to go fishing, but my wife is catching on to that excuse. Anyway, the temperature was in the low 80's and humidity was not an issue so on Jin's suggestion we took a drive into Pennsylvania to fish Codorus Creek.
Codorus Creek is a small tailwater trout stream located in York County, Pennsylvania. It used to be put and take fishing but a wild brown trout population established themselves and the stream was reclassified as a Class A wild trout stream, with a good part of it placed on the state's trophy trout program.
After driving along narrow, scenic country roads, we arrived at a tiny parking area, wadered up, and took a short hike along a cornfield. We hacked out way through some tough bramble but eventually reached the creek.
The water is very narrow and overgrown on both sides. There are lots of thorn bushes and poison ivy and the bank in most areas are a vertical drop to the water. The footing in the creek ranges from smooth, pebbly gravel to a diarrhea-like, sticky, muck that will suck your boots off. One certain way to find a safe spot to enter the creek is to carefully look for worn trails that lead to small holes in the cover.
We picked up (or at least Jin did) a good number of fish in the morning on dry flies. Size 16 or 18 was the key. It really didn't matter what you used, they were hitting anything that floated as long as it was within that size range. I muffed five fish in a row on my first seven casts. I sucked. Jin was working the creek about 50 yards downstream from me and I arrived at his spot just in time to see him land a 12-inch brown. We caught a fish or two more but the surface bite stopped just after noon so we broke for lunch before resuming fishing in the afternoon.
Jin switched to nymphing some of the deeper runs while I stuck to dry flies. Jin killed them on the nymph while I picked up one or two on the dry. After I switched to nymphing my numbers went up.
We fished several spots along the Codorus, looking for little parking areas, entering the water to quickly fish before moving on. In all it was a good day to fish and we probably caught 20-plus trout, with Jin accounting for most of the catch.
EQUIPMENT: Short 3 or 4 weight rods with floating lines. You don't need any rod over eight feet long for this creek. The water is very cold but mostly shallow so you might want wear heavy socks under your waders.
DIRECTIONS: I-95 towards Baltimore then 795 Towson to Exit 9B Hanover Pike (30) into Pennsylvania. The road becomes Baltimore Pike (94). Exit at Grandview Road, turn right on Blooming Grove Road (216) and make a left on Hoff Road. Codorus State Park and Lake Marburg will be on your right as you travel down Hoff Road. Codorus Creek runs along a CSX rail line and parts of Park Road, Porters Road, Hayrick Road and Thomas Drive. Look for the small yellow signs that indicate fishing areas and parking. Please respect all property owners and don't trash the stream.