Trico fishing

No it's not Trico fishing it's my Lab Trico and I fishing Penns and what happens when he sees that you have a fish on, it's his! We fished Penns and there are no Trico's on it, just that darn #14 hard wet ant, they eat it really good till your dog swims thru the pool! We had a wonderful time with the entire creek to ourselves. Saw a good amount of fish in the shady skinny water rising to ants and other bugs that happen to drop off the trees.
  Saw the signs for the Mountain 101, One Hundred and One miles on a mountain bike on gravel roads, road rash to the tenth degree! They took off from Milheim at 7:00 AM and the front runners will make it back by 12:30/1:00, that's flying. It is just wonderful to see that our area is alive with outdoor adventure, something to be very proud of where we live.
  Get to the Fibre Dam in Sunbury if you can, the "White" fly is on big time! Don't worry about the middle of the river stay close to the shores, not more than 30/40 yards is fine- enjoy just fish a #14 white spent winged spinner and have a blast with the smallmouths.

Here is a video of Sat.

Epic morning for Trico's

What a great day for Trico's, arrived at 8:00 AM and only a few fish were working but they were like little pigs, come up and move either left or right all the while moving upstream then down and do it again, the trick is to guess which way they are going to go left or right and line it up- no refusals today! I used a dun but I just have no confidence in them and really never let it on very long. I used grey, olive and all black #24 spinners and they took them all. The pattern is simply 2 mirco fibbet tails split, thread body coated with head cement, clear Zelon spent wings (sparse is the key)beaver or mole fur around the wings, I like fur because it has short fibers). I had 4 fish landed over 17" and lost 5 really big fish from break offs bad leader knots or just too big to hold, most of these guys have been hooked before and know what to do and where to run to- brush. There was no less that 30 fish up in a 50 yard section more than enough to keep you busy. I even got a few 6" rainbows, we have no idea where they come from, natural reproduction? All this in Milesburg, PA on Bald Eagle! This will happen every day and the big guys will get really hard to hook, hell even some of the small guys near the road are dam hard now! As time passed more and more fish rose till about 11:00 AM then all I saw was a good amount of tan caddis and few fish up but this is not a good caddis area just too smooth of a surface to fish emergers, next time I'll go lower on the stream.

No Beetles for Penns

Just finished fishing Penns and the Beetle action was "zero", the section that I fished had great cover on both banks and the North bank had just over hanging brush with a good amount of shade, just went plopping along and a big fat zero. now Penns has never been a good beetle stream for me just never had much success, maybe they just don't see them enough to key in on them like they do on Spring, Big Fishing Creek and Bald Eagle, heck just plop one in Clark's Creek and hold on they come 3' for them! The #14 black wet ant did the trick, I fish it under a #14 Hair Wing Royal Coachman and have not had any fish hit the Coachman but they eat the ant, I use 12-18" of 5X for my dropper. I don't use the ant below a caddis because if you see and good caddis rise most time if you hit them on their head they will take it fast and with a dropper attached that's not really pretty casting! I use a tan Iris caddis if they are into them and they were a bit this morning, did see quite a few of the #14 Yellow Cahill's emerging but the fish were not on them.
  Penns is in great shape, Spring is a bit high and off color, Bald Eagle is slightly high and off color making it a tough one to wade, you have to see the ledges to avoid them. Logan Branch is that green milky color and that puts the fish off, period! Some Trico have been seen, if it's hot hit them early 7:30/8:00 AM but if it's in the 50's hit them about 9:00/10:00 AM. Some fish are rising in Bald Eagle but not a good amount to get excited about and Spring has some but you have to find them first!

A bit hot but time to go

It has been hot and humid not really the kind of weather we like to have for the good of our trout, Penns is holding up well with the little rain that we get and maybe the cool nights that are on the way. Now is the time to consider morning fishing with Tan Caddis, a perfect time for them to emerge, their egg laying does not usually occur till the afternoon or evening. You can use a bubble back emerger,Iris or a new double back CDC adult ahead of a bead head emerger or a tan & partridge wet during the morning period. I like to scout a few spots and see if the caddis are on or if not I'll pick a good bit of water that has trees and brush along the banks to do a bit of beetle plops or a nice #14 black ant fished wet under a dry (not a caddis), you will be surprised how many fish will come to the ant. The ant that I'm fishing is made (not tied) out of two balls of  UV Clear Cure Goo with a black thread underbody and just a bit of black hackle in the middle, they eat it well. I have also been using Chernoble ants with limited success, sometimes I think they scare the fish because of their size or it maybe that I just don't let the sit still long enough. You'll have explosive rises or the slow quite kind but both of these come quickly but not so with my experience using a Chernoble ant, this year I'm going to use some Blingnoble ants as tied by the guys at Fly Fish Food, who knows?
  It's about Trico time and you need to be there very early when the heat is on, most days the spinner fall will be over by 9/10:00 AM but if the weather turns cooler maybe a bit later will be normal. I never fish duns but in fact only fish spinners and sometimes a #24 Pheasant tail under it at about 3" a lot of the times I'll see the trout take the PT. I'm also going to try and fish some drowned spinners but the leader needs to be greased well in order to see the take. It does not take the fish long to get wise to guys waving sticks before they get really picky especially in Bald Eagle and even in Spring Creek it takes a really good cast and float to get them to take. The pattern that I use is a #24 or #26 spent winged black, olive or grey Trico spinner - 2 long tails, thread body, Zelon wings and beaver dubbing around the wings a very simple but effective pattern. If you float it over a fish and he does not even look at it get it back and check the tails, sometimes the get tangled up in the hook bend and it really puts the fish off fast, I have tried about everything to prevent this but it still happens, just be ready to make and adjustment. Have fun because you'll be done by lunch time and ready for an afternoon nap.

The 6th of July

Decided to go fish on Sunday evening, hoping that the hoards might have all gone home from the holiday, they did! There are just too many really nice fish in Penns not to go there. Arrived and no one in sight, the fish just below the soft riffle were feeding and this small spot holds at least 4 to 5 very good fish but they are not stupid. Well the first fish came up for a #18 BWO spinner and I had the rod in a position in front of me and off to the left, well try to set the hook when the rod hits your hat brim, no fish, OK try the others, they all gave me "1" look and not another till I change flies to a #18 BWO emerger then they ate it. I have not seen the very large fish that I stalked last year in this location but will keep and eye out for her. Took quite a few fish and at least 5 chubs that I gave flying lessons to but sadly they all failed their flight test and crashed into the bank above the water line- so sad. I looked down and saw the large fish in the slower section of the pool begin to rise and that's were I like to fish, the were all taking late season light Cahill type emergers and duns, some were easy to time but others were a bitch and some were in the most difficult currents in the pool, just watch your fly do things that it's not to do. Well the video that is attached is of one of the four good fish that I took aside from the others that I screwed up, some I just was late and others I'm sure were those last second refusals that we suffer. One fish in particular was rising in a good rhythm and I lined my emerger up and just really never set the hook, don't know why just froze up, well that was all for her!

  I left at 7:45 because I was satisfied and I really had enough, I never saw any Iso's to amount to a hatch but did see some spent nymph shucks floating in the water and to me they all seemed a bit on the small side maybe I'm fishing Iso's that are to large. There is a very good article in the new edition of Fly Fisherman Mag and we all were under the impression that the Fall Iso's were a different species well it turns out it's the 2nd. gen of our Summer Iso's! Seems that there are still some Drunella spinners falling later as I saw a bunch of them as I was leaving, I took one more look for that big brown in front of Doc's and saw them on the water as the fish began to feed on them.
  There was also a great article last week on Gink and Gasoline, "Fishing Buddy" and "Fly Fishing with Stealth" give them a read and it will help with your enjoyment of our sport.

Black Raspberries & Tan Caddis

I have been watching the new crop of black raspberries every day as I walk my dogs with anticipation of both eating them and what they bring to a trout stream, when they are in full ripe stage the tan caddis is also in full bloom. Off to Penns Creek to check the berry and caddis, not ripe just yet, maybe another week to be able to eat a few good handfuls during or after fishing, tried the junction pool in Coburn first, berries not ripe just yet and no caddis but a few very good fish rising on the Pine Creek side of the stream, in the shade and under the overhanging vegetation, just wonderful fun to get a cast under them and not miss a fish or get hung up, took 7 very nice 9" - 14" really colored trout before a "cloud" of spinners fell on the stream, not sure but I think they were Para Lep's mollis but not sure, these are very strong of Big Fishing Creek but we have never seen them fall there, I opted to move down stream to get a better position for a spinner fall if it came. At the car I opened the back up and started to put my gear away and could not find the car key, hell it was just in my hand, maybe down my waders, maybe on the ground, it was at least 10 mins. of pure worry, it was in my plastic tote that I carry my wading shoes and waders, no idea why but there it was, now after all that worrying I have to dump which I hate to do in the forest!
  I moved to the pool above the walk over bridge below the old RR tunnel, the entire pool was alive with rising fish but not all of them were taking spinners or maybe they did not like my fly but they did eat! I used either a #18 short body black spinner or a #18 med dark olive emerger. All the fish were in great shape and a few were really nice, a couple of them were in the 16+ range but the really bigger ones were hard to even get close to, wave the rod they were gone. I have noticed that in the last month the really good fish on Penns seem to feed just under the surface and their tails wave at you after they rise, makes it easy to spot the good ones but not so much for the bank guys. Even two very good fish in the tail out rose head and tail (with a tail wave), not sure if they are feeding on subsurface nymphs or drowned spinners but they will eat an emerger or a spinner if you time if correctly. I love this kind of fishing because it's all about timing and if you get it right you can see everything happen, not a fast rise from the bottom just a nice slow take and head shake after the hook set, then off to the races for some of them. If your up for it try mid pool to the tail out, don't even look at the riffles go straight to the mid section and pick out your first target and do not cast till you see the rhythm the trout is on and the pattern he is feeding in, some of them travel upstream then go back and start all over again (these are usually the biggest fish) others hold in a spot and rise in a rhythm, give it a try. If you see the summer Para Lep's in mass your lucky and be sure to take advantage of it because there was simply to many for the trout to not eat them. Oh by the way no Tan Caddis and no ripe berries.