Oct. weather is perfect

  Arrive at Bald Eagle Monday about 1:00 PM and the fish were up big time, it was sunny with no wind, temp at 65. Are we sure it will be Nov. in a few short days? The fish were taking Midges both on and just below the surface, so a #26 black down winged pattern was the choice, a good float and a near perfect wade was the order of the day, I stopped at 4:00 PM and was just thrilled with the results and the fact that there was no one else around. Tuesday I was on the stream by 8:45 AM, it was cold and foggy but perfect, wanted to try and find some of the bigger guys with nymphs, Sherwin and I found a perfect hole for a big fish, deep and with a large tangle of tree roots for a hiding spot, I was armed with a #16 beadhead PT as the lead fly and a #18 rainbow head red body with silver rib Zebra midge trailer. Took a few little guys in the riffles until I got to the deep hole. Well our idea was right, there was a big guy living under the roots, a fat 18" male brown that took the midge pupa and gave me a great fight, no GoPro because I was carrying too much.  fished the riffle at Fishers and took more rainbows and browns then switched to another rod! I'm determined to learn how to spey cast, I had an 11" switch T&T rod with a Rio spey chucker line. What a btich to get used to but can you throw a ton of line, easy reaching across Bald Eagle with no problem but no one was home or bothered to look at any streamers that I was throwing, OK take a break and have lunch. Arrived back at 12:45 PM below the bridge at Milesburg to find every fish for 100 yards up and eating, again stealth and good floats were needed but oh what good time, browns and rainbows from 7 to 12" all afternoon, all on a 26 down winged midge or a #24 BWO emerger, NO one around!

  Wed morning I was to help the Spring Creek Chaper of TU with a stream side planting at the Commerce St. bridge in Milesburg and another site just above the old West Penn Power Compant site on Spring Creek. In less than 3 hours we planted and tubed/staked 310 native shrubs and trees. I was impressed with the turn out and the ease that the members both welcomed me and how they interacted, I'll be helping them with more projects in the future. Next summer they have improvements planned for Fisherman's Paradise and more bank planting. Coffee and snacks along with lunch was offered to everyone that helped and their banner was displayed during the time we were there, they are a model for other chapters to follow. Check out their web site and get involved in their work, heck they are making a difference.

Marabou

 Long time ago I used to tie a ton of marabou streamers and buggers and was happy with the quality that I had, weel in the years since my supply has dimished and I bought some at two well repected fly shops. I decided to use black and white so I found the packs but when I opened them up- junk to say the least all strung blood marabou that did not have many usable long patches, dam junk, looked around at the local shops (including State College) still the same crap. Well if you want good material look to the West Coast because of the Steelheaders, look at www.naturesspritflytying.com , I just received 12 packs of beautiful long dyed marabou, no more junk. When you check out their web site there is a dealer locator, give Worley Bugger Fly Co. a try, great service most time 2 to 3 day delivery is offered and they have a wide range of supplies for your tying needs.
  Off to Spring Creek or Bald Eagle for the late day Olives or BIG tandem streamer bite.

A Perfect Day?

  Fished Penns again looking for that big fish because the weather was perfect for Olives, cloudy with drizzle all day, well not so much. Took a couple of fish on small PT's but the water is very low and I'm not good at low water nymphing so time to have coffee and watch. It did not take long for the fish to rise but no rythm so that means midges ( it usually is better in the sun), they would rise and look and look at a size #22 midge before refusing it or slowly taking it. Found out that if you hit them on the head after they rose they would come back and take the fly, no idea why? Well only a few would show at a time and it was hard getting the correct position of them but it was a good day to just be outside. Long story short a perfect day for Olives but they forgot to show up???
  I'll be on Spring and Bald Eagle next Monday, Tuesday and Wed ( helping the Spring Creek Chapter of TU plant bank side cover near Milesburg) then just have to fish the Olives on Spring or throw big streamers in Bald Eagle, someone has to do it so I guess it's me.
  It did seem some of the resident fish have moved to pre spawn areas but I do not think they could get up Cherry Run yet, hell there is no water to be had anywhere. A good bet is below the Hepner pool in the gravel tail out?

"0" for Four

  Fished Penns last Thursday at Johnson's Pool with the hope that my elusive big guy would be up, well he was and I got him to look at an olive emerger three times, good looks but no takes- dam. Took two good sized rainbows that really did not fight very well but all my attention was on the guy I just can't seem to fool! When I arrived most of the fish in the pool were up and taking something in the flim but I could not see anything. At this time of the year sun is ok if you want to fish midges but if it's olives you want hope for a really bad cold drizzle or snow showers to get the little green guys going, well it was sunny but no looks on a #20 Gri's Gnat? For most of the day the fish rose in a fair rythm but we could not see anything on the surface and a few times we did see the white of their mouths show, I did not take my crane flies so what the heck time to go home. No I did not want to fish nymphs so I didn't!
  I'm going again and will take my 11' switch rod and try some new really wild streamers for the aggresive guys but it is not time for the spawn needs a 3 or 4 week time frame for them. They seems to spawn after we have a good flush of the fallen leaves and good cold weather most time mid to late Nov. is the magic time. We naever have taken a female off a redd only males that hang on the sides in hopes to mate if the dominate male lets his guard down.
  Solved the puzzle for the UV cure, take them out in the sun and bingo they are cured tack free- who knew that!

Last Week

  Fished Penns last week and noticed as soon as I arrived it was clear as it gets, perfect for fall Midges in Johnson's pool but I was up stream. With the low clear conditions stalking each fish was the order of the day
and long accurate cast's had to be done! It was one of those days when the fish took about everything but keyed on nothing but Midges, a small Dun Caddis, Oct. Caddis, or Iso's were taken but the Midge feast was on. A size #20 Grif's Gnat did the trick but you had to have a great float or they would not even look at it.
  A word about fishing with someone, why fish with another guy if all they do is go far away and their is no conversation, only a recap after it's over. I'm not saying that every time you need to be close, stay away if the fish are in a fedding frenzy, but if it's tough it really helps to fish leap frog style. If you fish leap frog you get to learn and compare casting and float tech's, it also helps with spotting fish, I know that it has helped me over the years to become a much better caster and a far better angler than I could have become on my own. Leap frog goes like this, two guys take 2 or 3 rods rigged with different choices, they take turns either catching a fish or missing one, you learn much more this way, yea you still catch a lot of fish but your experience is much better, try it and you'll see it works. If their is a full blow hatch and fish are going nuts, OK go your ways and compare notes, I can tell you when you fish close to someone all day you become someone who does not tell number stories or over estimate the lenght of the fish.
  Update of some items;
Loon Lotcha float, does not seem to make much difference with CDC or anything else for that matter- back to Aquel
UV thick and thin finish from Loon, got the new bottle and it still comes out tacky! Tried some Clear Cure Goo Hydro and guess what, that shit came out tacky, WTF? I'm using a new UC light with new batteries, any suggestions?

Tacky or Not

Fished on Thursday and it was very tough catching, you needed a lot of luck and time to find one that was feeding then float it over them to get them to take, looks as if the Trico's are done for the year. We need a rainy shitty day for the Olives to come off.
  Tried a new streamer tied with Senyo's Lazer Dub, nice effect in the water but try stripping using a Shark Skin WF6F line, after 45 min's my finger was bleeding and not pleasant! I have been putting really big eyes on these new streamers (I talked about them before, Fly Fish Food) but have had issues with the UV finish!
I used Loon (www.loonoutdoors.com) UV Clear Fly Finish Thin & Thick , they seemed to work well and using the UV power light seemed to dry fast- well not so fast they felt tacky? I tried everything to get them tack free but nothing worked, then someone suggested that I wipe them with alchol or let them in the brigh sun light, not so much. I e mailed Loon and they are sending me another bottle because they say that sometimes happens. I suggest that you try (I have some on the way) Clear Cure Goo "Hydro Tack Free" from www.clearcuregoo.com it is tack free and dries fast, should have used it from the start! Now I see why all the guys on line are using it, from Clear Cure Goo a bottle is $20.00 and from TCO it's $26.00 plus tax not much to think about. I'm waiting for my bottle to get here in order for me to fix all my flies that I tied and a few that the eyes were lost in the water. Give the new style of tying a try but get the proper product before you start.