Do not forget these

If your out and about in this wonderful weather we have been having and happen to be along a trout stream in the afternoon and early evening- do not for get to carry a good selection of flying ants, if you do not have them and the trout begin to feed on them go home because it will be one of the most frustrating time you will every have. Trout become very selective when they are on the ant feed and will reject your offering if it is not the correct color and size, carry the following just to be sure;
#14 thru #20 Black spent winged ants
#14 thru #20 Red spent winged ants
#14-#16 Black front and cinnamon rear end ants these guys make an appearance on occasion. Your pattern has to have "2' body parts and either spent or swept back wings as long as they are there and some hackle, very simple patterns but if you do not have them along and the swarm occurs you are out of luck. This is the time of the year when the ants will swam to develop new colonies and warm sunny afternoon's are the perfect time, sleep in an arrive by noon and you will be fine. The following streams have very strong ant activity, Penn's, Big Fishing Creek, Bald Eagle and Spring Creek BUT this is a very specific area occurrence so you might have to walk and look for them.
  Also carry some Iso's just in case and the Olives should be along any day if the weather turns shitty, oh and a few smaller streamers would help, light & dark to cover the light condition.
Good Luck

At Last!

At last the Trico's were out in numbers and there were rising fish but had to wait till 10:30 AM for it to warm up. Fished Spring Creek early with a #16 red floating, under trees and in the shade, the browns like to eat the little guy, nice slow confident risers! Took off to look below the Milesburg bridge and what do you know they were up and in good rhythm, had to pick your fish because there are just too many of those smaller rainbows around but they are really fat and fight well. Took "2" really good browns in the shade and was on the move for a third one till the GD ducks decided that a fight was in order and raised hell on the water, count that good fish down! A #24 black spent wing Trico did the trick on 6.5x Head Hunter tippet and a WF #2 SA line just nice slow fishing with really good rising fish that were not in a hurry, this action lasted till 12:15 and then it was over! Asked a few guys at Fisherman's Paradise and they said the Trico's were there but that no steady rising fish showed, again that is why you have to look around till you find the fish that want to eat. All in all a very nice day, have to get them in before my new puppy gets here, fishing and dog training really do not go that well together but this guy will fish with me, look for us after the end of Sept.

There are none !

OK I have been checking Turkey Hill, Valerio and Panera for signs of the "White Fly" and there have not been any, I see some other smaller light yellow duns and spinners and a few Iso's but no white guys. What the heck happened, I will not accept the suggestion that is has been to hot, heck about every year we have low water and high water temp's but this years no flies, how can a population just not appear for a year, yes it has been true that the volume in the past few years has not been what it was at one time and we do expect that any population will have swings in density but to have them just disappear is just a puzzle. Might there be a correlation between the black fly spraying and the demise of the white flies? Why the heck does the State of PA waste money spraying for the black flies when it is a species that does not bite, oh yea it does bother the big guys while they golf at the country club- might that be the reason they keep spraying, oh no! Why take that amount of biomass and kill it rather that have it be food for our fish population, the logic is puzzling of course any thing the State does makes little or no sense. It would do no good to call the PA Fish Comm. because they are more concerned with their own agenda and would not want to bother with a trivial thing like the loss of a population if insects, just another bug lost oh well no big deal, remember the passenger pigeon! Anyone have any ideas?