Got Wood?

Fished this weekend and after the high water we have experienced over the past few months I was really anxious to see the end results of the flooding. Some sections seem to have had the muck and mud washed out of the main stream bed, there is more gravel and sand in these areas and the large gravel areas look as if they have been washed and cleaned resulting in a much better spawing substrate for the trout to take advantage of. The one result of the high water is the fact that wood is everwhere along the shores, this is one of the single greatest factors of juvenile trout recrutment over the winter, according to the studies by The Henry's Fork Foundation, wood along the shores of a stream offers the best possible safe haven for just hatched fry. The wood was everywhere and some of the old wood was still in the normal places, the adult trout are using the new wood for cover and feeding opportunities.
  The best combo was a size #18 tan caddis emerger and a copper john two rig nymph sets up. During the afternoon the trout looked up and stayed up all afernoon, a great approach and a good drift resulted in many landed fish, ants were the order of the day. Most all the fish were eating midges but at this time of year they seem to eat an ant if it comes by, never had to put a midge on. All morning the midges and caddis were everywhere but we watied till afternoon the look for rising fish. Left very happy because caught some nice fish and there was no one around!

Will it ever stop raining?

OMG it just keeps coming down! When we catch a break from the rain, the water is either coming up or just starting to fall making for very diffuclt fishing conditions. I'm not opposed to using very large streamers at this time of year but it would be nice to be able to cross the creek, not something I would advise. If you want to fish ,Spring Creek would be my choice but what the hell are you going to do with all the othet guys who have the same idea? In a normal year we would be seeing Olives and flying ants at this time, if the levels return and the sun comes out- look for the ants, it is time for them to swarm and it normaly happens on the first or second day after a period of stormy weather. The only problem with the ants is that you never know wich one will fly around, Black (size 14 thru 18) Red (size 18 thru 22) or the Black front & Dark Tan rear (size 16) you need to have them all in a special box- remember they need spinner wings. If you forget the box and the fall occurs, you will spend a few hours just watching trout gorge themselfs and have no way to fool them, they are very selective during this occurance.
  I don't wnat to sould like an old fart but I can not remember a year like this, high water in the spring then very low water and finaly flood conditions, who woudl ever expect that we would be 25" above normal rain fall? Now we need to have the leaves change and fall then a shot of high water to flush the stream and signal the trout that the conditons are perfect for spawing. Every year the trout seem to hold off (not all but most) till we get that shot of high water to flush the leaves from the streams. Check it out, it is the time of year when I check the realitive health of our trout populations and the average size of the active spawners, just walk a stream and watch and you'll be suprised at what you see. Check Penns, Spring and Fishing Creek for active redds and some of the browns that are found there, no time fram but the end of Nov and the first two weeks of Dec. Be carefult the redds are in areas you normaly wade in, stay back and keep hidden.