goin' down to paintnertown: spring break part II

This here story ain't about no warm water fishes. Hell no. It's about Panthertown, where Brook Trout, the mighty char, rule the roost (and bears shit fifteen feet from your head while you sleep).

So Daniel and I hiked down into Panthertown and stayed in the shelter at the base of Big Green. Pretty nice accommodations. Open on all sides, just a metal roof over a wood floor, but nice compared to a tent. Except when it's pouring rain all night long and you notice the large, oval indentations in the leaves under the eaves that look about bear size. And Daniel left two days ago. It's just you and any bear that needs shelter from the storm. What was that? Was that a bear? It's hard to hear with the rain on the roof.

But when light returns to Panthertown it's one of my favorite places on this whole earth.

Complete with new bridges! These are a huge improvement over the old ones, although I'd very much prefer to not have any at all. That sure would slow down the traffic through the valley.



So Daniel and I didn't have much luck the next day. We each caught a tiny little Brookie out of Panthertown Creek above Granny Burrell Falls, but then he hiked out and the fishing started to pick up that evening. I caught a couple nicer fish, 5-7" out of the Talking Tomorrow Hole, one of my favorites in the valley. It's little, but there is a bit of a rock wall on each side and it sounds like a dinner party is happening somewhere nearby.



Daniel at the bottom of Granny Burrell. Click for bigger.



Daniel looking in the spooky pine woods on the way to the sandbar pool with the cliffs on Blackrock in the background. Click for all the glory.





Daniel with his women's energy bar.



I also caught a couple nice fish out of the apparently very deep hole right at the bottom of Granny Burrell falls. There is a big log in that hole and I'd throw my orange stimulator right next to it and the fish would come up almost vertically from the deep dark depths to devour it.

Click for bigger.







The next day I hiked up over Little Green Mountain and down to my very favorite hole in Panthertown. I pulled two very nice Brookies from it and about a dozen more decent sized ones.

This is at the bottom of Granny Burrell. Click for bigger.




A healthy spec from the pool below Granny Burrell.



A wee bit of snow clinging for its life on the back side of Big Green Mountain.



On the top of Little Green.



A long brookie from my favorite pool.



Uh oh.



Two big buddies from my favorite hole. Click both for bigger.







The shelter.



It rained hard all Thursday night and the river was way up and kind of muddy. So I decided to head out on Friday, a day early. I drove up to Deep Creek to try my hand with big streamers in the muddy water to no avail. But there was a guy there spin fishing with a big frog lure who hooked nice 18" Brown trout.

A waterfall less than a mile up the Deep Creek Trail.



I took a shower at Sean's and met up with him and Mark at the Tea House where much debaucherization ensued. Part three soon.