A Cold One

OK so we were on track to fish yet another Trico spinner fall on Spring Creek last week, it was cold and a bit windy! The water temp was 51.3 and that's about perfect but with the cold and wind not many fish took the sparse Trico spinner fall, lesson to be learned for it, do not go early and do not rig and only carry a 2 wt rod, not a good option if you have to dredge them up on nymphs! Might have been better to sleep in and not begin fishing till 11:00 AM and wait for the spinner fall to occur later but to be fair we just did not see many Trico's at all and with the water temp falling the Fall Olives can't be far off, get there if we have a cloudy shitty day!

Cold Sept. Trip

Fished Wed Sept. 18 and it was cold as heck, air temp was in the low 50's and Penns water temp. was 53.4 , that my friend is great but we could really use some water. The early morning was filled with Iso's emerging and most fish took a floating nymph with gusto, I say most but some gave me a snoot and would not come back for a second look. I had the entire Johnson's pool to myself and fished from the top to the bottom, cold wading in the lower big deep water. Took a break to plant 20 yellow water iris for bank stabilization then had lunch before going back to find that big fish I missed the other week, it's not home? At about 12:30 most of the fish in the top half of the pool began to feed and I mean big time, #18 Yellow/Tan Crane flies, no problem I packed my box with them in it- NO I DID NOT, oh well time to go home! If you go remember to take your crane flies with you I didn't. All in all it was a wonderful Fall day and to be there with no one else around is just special, I did end up with over 15 trout and one really big white fish (Penns Creek tarpon) and I did let it go back without teaching it how to fly.

Hot Trip 9/10/13

Fished again on Tuesday 9/10/13 on Spring Creek for guys eating Trico's and they were not great but enough fish and some tought feeding lanes were enough to make it a good morning. Took quite a few small 6 to 10" Browns and lost a few larger ones, this is techinal casting with long tippets and high hopes of landing the hooked fish after you do hook up, there were fish feeding next to downed trees and you had to float it in to them all the while never seeing your fly then try to get them out of the crap, also you never had a good angle because of the trees above but that's what makes it fun, they are difficult! I did see a fish feed between two small branches from a limb that fell into the water, well I hooked him but he broke off then began to go nuts because the leader was wrapped on one of the branches, ok take the vest off and wade up to my boobs and try to get him off, done and he was free but still had the fly and some tippet trailing. At about noon the weather changed and not for the better, high sun hot and very windy, ok we'r done for the day.
  Check out this site www.flyfishfood.com they have some great tying patterns especialy " The Minners" , I have most of the materials and hooks now and will give them a try- check them out.
  To Josh Miller, I'm sorry that I have not seen your e mail questions and an sorry that I have not answered them, yes I do use a GoPro mine is the older Hero model. I really need to find a better way to flim and need another person along in order for me to get some better shots, how do you use yours. Everyone complains that there is no sound but if I have sound it's not water proof. Please e mail me at jhepner@ptd.net with any questions that you might have or any suggestions you have.
  Hey anyone knows where to get "med. palmer chenille" or what the name brand is?

Zero to Hero in one day

  The weather looked perfect for Thursday, cloudy in the morning and cold, OK olives in Coburn? Arrived by 7:45 AM and had a hard time finding fish eating on top, ok give them a bit longer to get going- not so much. Checked Stan's pool, the Bend Pool and the Bridge Pool few if any were up but some at Stan's looked ok, there was not anything to speak of on the water so I knoted on a Slate Drake emerger and began to spot a few fish that looked nice, everyone of them was a dink! This was not what I was looking for should have gone to Bald Eagle for Trico's but that's what happens when you get greedy, I want that Olive hatch again.
  Got in the car, waders and all and beat it to Johnson's Pool, they were up and eating Slate Drake emergers big time, took quite a few really good browns and missed a 20+ fish TWO times! I just reacted too fast to the big fish taking my fly on a downstream take, believe me the next two fish I almost jerked both of them out of the water on atomic hook sets, I had to sit down and calm down after that. Well everything was going well and I was working my way downstream till the cold front came in, bright sun and wind-DONE.
  I was correct in my time with the clouds but not correct in the location, ok I'll have better judgement next time- no I will not, it's a gussing game and we all try to vary our diet of streams and specific locations that we go to hoping that it's the one that will bring us the most pleasure.

  All my fish came on a #14 Loop Winged floating Stale Drake fished dead drift, hell I tried to get the big guy up on Ants, Beetles and a Crane Fly but he would have nothing to do with them, next time I'll be calmer, bull shit I'll do the same thing again if he gives me one of those slow lazy downstream rise forms the I'll be Zeron again.