Soap Box, Fishing Creek "The Narrows"

Just had a story relayed about Fishing Creek (Clinton County), as we all know or I hope you know, the Narrow's Section is closed to Sunday fishing but have you read the additional note on the posters. Closed to Sunday fising or if cabin is occupied, the PA Fish Commission was called and asked for an explanation on this point and confirmed that they agreeed with this request! By the Fish Commission agreeing with this they are in fact rendering sections of this stream closed off to you and I thereby making it private water, if a cabin would rent out for a long term rental it would in fact become private water, interesting isn't it. I ask you how in the heck can you know that the cabins are occupied until you either walk up or down to them and see in fact there is someone there. I'm having a hard time with the total lack of coperation the Fish Commission has given us about the lack of fish below the Tylersville Hatchery and the water conditions comming from the hatchery. The pool below the hatchery has always been called the "Sippin Pool" and it did contain about 150-200 trout at all times of the year, not any more you'll be lucky to find more than 20 and the water condition has become so terrable no one ever wants to wade across and step into the black line on the bottom, how can they continue to operate this way. The Federal Hatchery in Lamar does not have the same foul discharge or the rocks and bottom covered with the slime that the State Hatchery has. I wonder how well the Commission would take to someone else posting their land and in effect converting a stream to private water, don't give Donnie Beaver any ideas but it looks as if the PFBC signs on to it. We are loosing the battle every day. Any comments?

Olives over and over again but not the Big One

The Olives are still getting started (they have been on for months), we have not seen the main blanked hatch but with Spring Creek at 51 degrees and the air temp matching it, not long to wait. I'll bet it will be on Saturday Feb 26th, it's to snow,rain and generally be a bad day, just perfect. They were going strong at 11:30 and lasted till 2:30 PM on Thursday Feb. 23 some flashy takes and some good head and tail risers the kind of hatch that makes you really appreciate your day. Again only needed "1" fly, just had to line it up and float it over them till they wither took or I missed. Attached it a short video showing the perfect Olive water, enjoy it. This has been going on for months but not stream wide, it has been on very specific areas and you'll have to look for them and not expect that the hatch will occur where your at.

Penns & Stoneflies as usual Feb 18,2012

Fished Penns below Coburn on Saturday Feb 18,2012, water and air temps were at 40 and they were not going up all day log. Fished a tandem nymph set up #12 Yellow Perla Stonefly with a #14 Copper John trailer. The only hitch is we were using Thingambobbers, what a pain in the ass they are, difficult to cast and you will have a least one very bad encounter with a total leader mess. Not that I don't like them it's just they have a place, that is 100% upstream or total down and away seems to be the best for them. Trying to target pocket water from the slightly upstream and side will give poor results in hookups, the fly gets to the bottom quickly and the strike will not be detected as it should, yea you catch fish and you loose quite a few, if your getting fish to come up when you feel or see the strike indicator move and you loose them as they turn you simply did not have a good set and that is a result of not knowing that you did in fact have a strike. Call it what you may but all the hype about European nymphing is not new nor is the 10' rod fad, it's nothing more than high stick nymphing! We tried the 10' rods years ago and came to the conclusion that you could not land a fish if your by yourself, unless you carry a long handled net, that's too much shit to carry. The best method to catch fish on nymphs on Penns is target the pocket water, wade slow and quiet, get close and roll the nymphs in and get the rod high to either feel or detect the take. As far back as 30 years ago we used Doug Swished flor. green/yellow flat butt leaders, tied a short 4 or 5x tippet section with a shot or two above the knot and caught a ton of fish, not a pretty method but very effective. As we grew older we stopped wading these areas but below Coburn there are areas that are not that tough to wade. I looked and Doug Swisher does not carry the leaders but you can get them from http://www.flyriteinc.com/ a Michigan company that has been supplying materials and leaders for many years. I caution you this was the leader that we used for all our fishing per Barry Beck but some time ago they changed the butt section and made them just a bit to soft to effectively turn over a dry fly (especial the new Shark Skin lines) but for this kind a non casting they work well and are easy to see with out using any indicator (read bobber).
   The trout did cooperate but as I said the good fish were not effectively hooked and that was a disappointment, two of them were in the 16" class but all the fish taken were in great shape, no skinny fish here. I did try to upload a short video on one nice fish but the thing stalled out and I lost the entire post last night! Next time I'll take some pictures and try them.
Jim

Feb 15,2012 Olives, Ass Hole & Midges on Spring Creek

Sorry for the title but as the Olives were in full swing (10:00 AM till 3:00 PM) I had a two hole section all to myself and the trout lined up and began to eat Olives not big fish but nice fish 6" to 12" class, very dark brown and healthy. The normal feeding lanes were taken up by these guys and the larger ones were in the back flow areas. I tied on a #20 Half Loop thin body dark olive emerger and took or missed every feeding fish in the first hole. As I took the largest fish from the back flow a guy in a black Ford F-250 drove by and saw me, low and behold he pulled over as I landed the fish and he started to cast in the pool above me, off the bank high above the feeding fish- the result- fish DOWN! He then walked down the bank and spooked the fish that were feeding in my pool, the ones that I was going to cast to, "Catching any?" was his question and it was all I could do to not say "I was ass hole till you put them down when you stepped on em". How the hell can these guys be that stupid, take up golf and get the hell off the water because you have no manners!
  The next Olive hole that he screwed up holds at least 10-12 nice fish but I saw 1 in the far bank back flow that he did not put down, took him and was at least happy about that. No more Olive areas to fish and it was a bit late for them to continue. Time to find a Midge pool, the Swimming Pool Hole was rocking and rolling in the back flows, a #26 black down winged midge was the ticket. If they are on Midges you can expect that if there was no other hatch they will take them in the flows but if the Olives are done expect the better fish to feed on Midges in the back flows, 100% upstream presentation is required and a great float will get you fish. The only problem with this presentation is that you have to wade deep to get to the back flow current seam to get the float that you need, that results in very cold feet and legs. I have seen times when the trout will take a Griff's Gnat but that's usually when they are taking Midges in the current feeding lanes.

  Enjoy the attached video, you'll see the bank he walked on to put the fish down Did talk to Steve from Fly Fishers Paradise and he commented that the trout were very active today, that means he had a very good day also, sometime you need a traslator to understand what has been said.

WInter 2012 @ Fishing Creek

Fished on Saturday Feb 4, 2012 at Fishing Creek, Lamar, PA between the bridges at the Federal Hatchery, a very tought wading adventure! When the wading became difficult it was on to brush busting and briar bending. Given the fact the water was a bit on the high side and Fishing Creek is just plain tough to wade, fishing from 10:00 AM to 2:30 PM was a great work out. Order of the day was tandem nymph rig with a flash back pheasant tail lead and plain PT on the dropper both in size 16, the browns took the top fly about 90% of the time, some very nice 12- 15" guys and a few of the smaller ones tossed in. This is not water for the faint of hearth, tough and fast with only a few defined holes to pick on, have never fished it in the season but could be a really good spot to go back to BUT getting out at night would be a big problem. Came up to the large hole below the top bridge (it has the dam on the bottom of it) and found a few rising to midges but in the bottom half of this pool if you wake em their down- well we waked them. This hole has been a pain in the ass for the past 35 years, have only ever had 3 good rising hatches on it in that time, twice early season olives and one late season olive other than that a big fat zero and it looks soo darn good.
  Did see a ton of little black stoneflies, midges everywhere (size 28's) and a few 18 thin BWO's. After we stopped fishing we drove up the road and checked a few of the popular holes and they all contained rising fish, not a ton but enought to keep you busy. Most of the rising fish were midging but there were some defined olive risers there- if it's nice get there before the word gets out BUT the water is only 40 degrees so if you wade past your knees be prepared to get cold. Get out there.