A Wonderful Day

Fished Coburn area Thursday April 26, in a long tail out section of one of the larger holes, the fish were taking Gray Fox/March Brown emergers, no one around for a 100 yards and rising fish everywhere, on the bank and mid stream. Took every fish but 3 that rose, those guys were close to rocks and I think the drift was way off, good ones to mark. Took some very nice fish, they seem to fight really good in this section. The wind came up and I moved upstream to a section that I have looked at but never fished. As soon as I got in the water I saw rising fish everywhere, #16 Tan Caddis were dancing on the water, like shooting ducks in a barrel, just hit them and they took the fly. The fly of choice was a Iris Caddis, I talked to some young guy at the fly shop and he never heard of the fly or for that matter Craig Mattews at Blue Ribbon, don't they require a history course? He questioned that amount of fish that I landed based on the time I was on the water, silly kid! We talked about CDC and he asked where to get it, I said Rene Harrop, again another blank, don't these young guys know anything out of their area? Sad to say we might just have to have them read a certain number of books and take a history lesson if they want to join our club or better yet have them take their I phones on the golf course and stop taking up space on the water.

Rain for the spring

According to my backyard rain gauge we received 1.55" of much needed rain, the wonderful thing is it's cold. With our spring about 3 weeks ahead of time we have been very lucky that our night time temps have been on the cool to cold side which has helped to keep the stream temps well below 53. I was at Penns below Coburn on Saturday on a guiding trip and the Gray Fox/ March Brown emergence was in full swing, never an overwhelming number hatching at one time but more than enough heads to cast to, some very nice heavy fish! I'll check the streams today for any dirty water and report back.

Earth Day 2012

Good morning on the day before Earth Day 2012. We are very lucky to have the amount of great trout water at our door steps that we have. Within 45 mins we can be at any of the limestones and have a wonderful wild trout experience but if you look around some of these areas have become  trash dumps, look at "Rock Road" on Spring Creek  see the amount of litter that has been thrown out of passing cars, it makes you sick to see all of it. We as anglers have been doing a great job of keeping our parking areas clean, it is not us but we need to help clean up. I'm asking that if you see any trash please pick it up and take it home with you, you and the overall experience will benefit from your efforts.
  April 21 is out annual R.B. Winter Trout Unlimited Penns Creek clean up, 9:00 AM in the Union County Sportsman's Club parking lot, please help if you can- then go fishing.

Wow they are all on now!

April 11th found me on Penns again from 1:30 till 5:30 PM, wind, rain, sleet/hail and snow all day long, water temp of 49 , air temp of 49/54 and the fish ate big time. Hendricksons, Gray Fox, March Browns and Yellow Crane Flies take your pick. They ate Hendricksons then Gray Fox but seemed to avoid the March Browns which is typical when they first are on the water, did not see any fish take the Crane Flies. When the wind was blowing is was best to get out and stand on the bank but when it was calm they ate, the wind drove the duns to the shore and the South shore was just full of rising fish. Took 11 good browns, see attached video of the largest. Yes the big guy under the tree was up and I did get 3 good floats over him but no takers. Looks as if the "3" week early is holding. We will see Sulphurs in about 2 weeks then the stupid Drakes (brings too many people) after that the Summer Olives will be on about May 30th boy will that mess with a ton of people. Was going to stay for the spinner fall but the rain and hail just rolled in about every 15 mins.

  Enjoy the video and be safe on the first day on the open water

Rainbows in Penns Creek?

Fished Wed April 4th from 10:00 AM till about 2:00 PM, Grannoms were heavy in the morning, typical of them sporadic rising fish but nothing really to target. Took a few fish by hitting them on the heads just after they took a natural off the surface, most all the fish are really nice size, about 11:00 AM started to see some head and tail rise forms and the Hendrickson were just coming off from mid stream over to the far bank, line the fly up and time it correctly and they ate it. I took 3 really fine fish, 1 brown not far off the bank that was a solid 19", another brown of 17" and a rainbow at 17" all were in great shape with no mouth marks! At about 1:30 the Hendricksons were gone and so were the fish.
  The wife told me to get out of the house on Sat while she prepared Easter dinner so off to Penns, arrived about 10:00 AM the the Grannoms were still in the air and the fish were up, same as Wed. This time I took a few nice browns and 2 more rainbows, I'll attach a video of the larger bow. I barley could get my hand around the fish to hold it a solid 18" heavy fish and that was the second of the day. OK where did all the rainbows come from, I have heard that many more have been caught and they do not appear to be hatchery guys, our best guess is that they came from Dr. Lewis and Russ Bowersox's ponds because of their body weight and great shape. You do not see hatchery trout in that shape with the massive body weight these guys have, well thanks guys for the thrill.

  The Hendrickson are now coming off at about 3:00 PM and the spinner fall occurs about 45 mins before dark, OK Tuesday we shall see how well they are taking them.