Fishing big foam terrestrials is the best part of summer. When hoppers and other terrestrials are out in full force, big trout look up for an easy meal. The dry fly takes can be some of the most aggressive and consistent of the season, and you don’t have to stare at a size 18 dry fly on the water. For many, terrestrial fishing has become synonymous with Western fishing, where hoppers are abundant and fish readily gorge themselves when conditions are right. But before terrestrials made their way West, these land-based insects rose to fame on Pennsylvania’s limestone spring creeks.
Early History of Terrestrial Fishing
Modern terrestrial fishing, as we know it today, gained notoriety thanks to the technical spring creeks of Pennsylvania. The limestone streams in this area weave through pastures, fields, and thickets. Along the banks, vegetation sprawls to the water’s edge where trout and unwitting terrestrials meet. It is along the banks of rivers like Letort Spring Run, Big Spring Creek, the Yellow Breeches, and the Little Lehigh that modern terrestrial fishing arose out of necessity.
Legendary anglers and authors, Vincent Marinaro, Charles Fox, and Ed Shenk, began fishing these spring-fed streams in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. What they saw were technical, close-quarters streams with few hatches (often sulphurs and blue-winged olives). With keen eyes, these legendary anglers observed the streams, noticing large trout rising to terrestrials. In 1950, Marinaro released A Modern Dry Fly Code, where he first mentions terrestrial fishing on these spring creeks. In the coming decades, the revolution began, and anglers quickly started to adopt terrestrial fishing, eventually turning it into the terrestrial fishing known today.
Notable Early Terrestrial Patterns
During this renaissance period in fly fishing, several legendary fly patterns were developed specifically for terrestrial fishing. While many have come and gone, several patterns were so effective that they are still tied and used today.
The first pattern, mentioned in A Modern Dry Fly Code, is the Jassid Fly. This little pattern is tied with a hackle body and jungle cock (JC) wing—essentially a Griffith’s gnat with a JC wing. This small terrestrial pattern is meant to mimic leafhoppers, a small bug that feeds on sap from grass, trees, and other vegetation. On a windy summer day, these little terrestrials are blown into the river where trout wait eagerly.
During this same time period, Ed Shenk began developing his own patterns on Letort Spring Run. These include the Letort Cricket and Letort Hopper, two patterns that are still sold and used today. The Letort Hopper is perhaps the most famous of the two. It features a pale yellow dubbing abdomen, turkey wing, and deer hair head. Shenk’s Letort Cricket is a sized-down version of his hopper, in black, with no turkey underwing. Both patterns are extremely effective at fooling wary spring creek trout. Today, many modern terrestrial patterns borrow features from Shenk’s work.
How Northeast Terrestrial Fishing Paved the Way for Western Anglers
While Pennsylvania’s technical and legendary spring creeks paved the way for terrestrial fishing, the technique quickly spread across the country. The teachings and patterns applied to large western rivers with grassy banks and abundant terrestrials. Flies like the Madam X, tied by Doug Swisher in the 1980s, imitate hoppers and big stoneflies. As modern materials like foam became popular in the 90s, the Chubby Chernobyl dominated the terrestrial fishing scene. Today, countless terrestrial patterns are available on the market meant to imitate hoppers, crickets, beetles, and ants.
While fishing foam flies for hungry summer trout sits in the back of every trout fisherman’s mind, we owe its popularity to the limestone creeks of central Pennsylvania. This pivotal period in fly fishing history gave rise to modern terrestrial techniques and fly patterns. If it weren’t for these technical streams, who knows where terrestrial fishing might be?
