S8, Ep 17: Spring Awakening: George Costa on Central PA Fishing and Upcoming Hatches

Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly, we're back with another

central PA fishing report with the man himself, George Costa of TCO Fly Shop in State College.

George, how are you?

I am amazing as always, Marvin, how are you?

And as always, I'm just trying to stay out of trouble and you're eagerly awaiting a trip

to the islands.

I am.

I am.

I will be on a plane in a couple days, down to Andros with a group of clients to catch

some bonefish.

It should be the most excellent time.

Yeah, it should be good, right?

Because you're not, you know, it shouldn't be super windy yet, because that's going to

happen in what about a month?

It's always windy down there.

I mean, I don't really, you know, pay much attention to the winds.

I just assume it's going to be windy.

You know, you just hope the guide puts your back cast on that way and you make two.

Yeah.

Yeah, I was just thinking about like the shoulder seasons where it's like, let's just say

windy squared.

Yeah, that's usually right around now.

That's, I always, I always get ready for the wind down there and just deal with it.

You got to just deal with it.

Fair enough.

And for all the folks that are, you're going to leave behind in state college, you know,

you got in some rain.

And I think you're kind of on the same kind of warming trend we are.

Maybe a little bit later.

But so what we're seeing down here in the mid-Atlantic.

Yeah, we've definitely got a bunch of rain the next couple days we're supposed to get, you

know, maybe close to an inch of rain in the next couple of days here.

It's been raining for the past two days.

The creeks are on the low side, but definitely coming up spring creek had a little bit of

color today.

And I'm assuming everything else has got a little color and is on the rise.

If we do get, you know, today they're forecasting possibly three quarters of an inch.

They're definitely going to get bumped up and off color.

But you know, we'll take it now.

It's not a bad time of year to get that that bump of water.

We do have some warming weather coming up.

Looks like it's supposed to start getting warm.

Couple days in the high sixties forecast for next week.

And we have definitely been seeing some olives cranking.

There's been a bunch.

They are going off fish are starting to eat on top.

We've got some little black stone flies here and there as well.

So bug activity is just getting underway here in the fish are definitely going to start

responding after a long cold winter.

So keep your drives handy.

Those small olives, 18s through 22s.

Some smaller little black stone flies and like 14 or 16, they're going to get fish on

top.

Nymphs are going to start really moving around.

So the nymph game is going to be good for the next couple of months for sure.

And guys, we're doing pretty good streamers the other day with the water being up and

off color.

If you want to look for some bigger fish, throw streamer rounds, especially in those

cloudier days.

So fishing is picking up.

We're looking good.

And do you guys get kind of the something akin to the mother's day cat is hatched like

what we get down here on the Wattaga?

That is going to be more of the ground and hatch.

I think is what we're going to associate that with and that's going to be probably about

a month away.

And the March early April is when we're going to start seeing those heavy cat as hatches

and grounds should, you know, traditionally, I would say last week of March, first week

of April is when they're going to start, depending on the water temps, air temps.

So we're still a few weeks away from that.

I would say good two and a half to three weeks out till we start seeing them, but they're

right around the corner got it.

And what you got going on in the shop, you should let folks know about just a usual shenanigans

of all the new spring stuff, sitting all the stores here, we've got a couple of sales

going on.

We've got a lot of good stuff on our used gear program right now.

Can you check that out on our website, tons of rods, tons of reels, you know, some really

good prices on some used and demo gear right now, other than that, just the latest and

the greatest, all the good stuff rolling in for spring, you know, some new fly patterns,

you know, some new odds and ends, so getting ready to gear up and have another busy year

here.

Yeah.

And what about on the class front?

Class front here, we do have a couple still kind of coming up.

Our classes are kind of starting to wind down for the year now as we roll into our busy

season, but we still have some stuff here in state college, most of our state college

ones, I think are pretty much so loud.

We've got a couple more time classes.

We might have one or two spots left.

I've got my beginner's class all year long.

There's some spots left, I think, for maybe the main June slots are available, but those

are pretty much full.

The other stores have a bunch of other classes going on too, but definitely getting out

of class season and more into fish and season.

Gotcha.

And, you know, folks, we love questions.

You should send us questions because it makes a George happy and we want to keep George

happy, right?

Yes.

Yeah.

And if you send it to me, DM me on Instagram or shoot me an email and if we use your question,

I will send you some articulate fly stickers when you're drawing for something cool from

the shop.

And before I let you pack your bags for the Caribbean, you want to let folks know shop

hours and all that kind of good stuff.

Absolutely.

Here in State College, we are open Monday through Saturday, 9 to 6 Sundays, 9 to 3.

All of our other stores are open similar hours.

You can catch us on the web at tcoflyfishing.com.

Well, there you go.

And I know you won't be there, but a lot of the TCO crew will be in Lancaster next weekend,

right?

Oh, my yes indeed.

We'll be there in force.

We'll listen folks.

If it's warm enough to get out and catch a few otherwise tight flies, tight lines everybody,

tight lines George.

Take it easy, Mark.