October on Penns

October is one of the best times to fish Penns if your into midges, for some reason the stream clears and does not have that limestone tint to it, the wading becomes easy at this time of year and the trout key on midges during warm sunny afternoons. This is not easy fishing but can be very rewarding for you if you have the skill set, very small patterns and accurate casting are the norm. Your pattern should be a grey or black midge in size #22 thru 26 even Grif's Gnats work well if you can tie them correctly so they do not twist your 6-7x tippets (my casting stroke gets me in trouble here). You need to look in mid to the tails outs of the pools, careful and pick your fish carefully and make sure you use a side slip strike on the hook set because if you have no control the fish will put the others down fast, side pressure is the key. Not all sections will have this activity you will need to search the pools out but the big pool below Rainbow Riffle is a good one if your up for a good walk, Stan's pool is also a great choice. Be sure to pack some Oct caddis patterns because you will see some awesome takes on the naturals and they will take a good imitation quickly. Be aware if it's a cloudy day "think Olives".

You know your old

Fished an old favorite 1  mile section of Spring Creek before the rain came, this is a very challenging section to fish when your alone, it is best fished having someone with you because of spotting and tight casting areas plus getting one another out of trouble. I had no problem with the section that runs along the Houserville Road as it turns away from the road the trouble begins getting over a small but high stone dam, ok got over it then a nice pool that has in the past held some nice fish in good cover, using beetles and hoppers brought them to my hand, then the next section was before me up the bank and get over "2" fallen trees ( last year I got stuck here when I fell thru with one leg and had a hell of a time getting out) this year no problem till I saw what was ahead! The next pool holds a lot of fish and some good ones at that,well now it has a "Big" tree over the entire stream- no room under it and I sure as hell can not get over it- ok just climb up the bank and go around it- no way in hell can I get up either bank, they are just too steep, now what the heck do I do go back to those "2" downed trees and try to bush whack my way around this tree, well that is what I did and it was not easy, shit growing up everywhere and most above my shoulders- just to old for this crap. Then as I did manage to get around this dam tree I could not get down the bank with out killing my self, I looked like an old river otter sliding down a bank. Just sad to see this really good hole is now off limits till very high water takes that tree out, at least the trout will have some time to them self's to eat and grow with out being disturbed other than an old fart falling around them. As I slipped it the water I began to work my way up stream casting the #12 black foam beetle in all the right places and the trout ate it big time, took a good 15" brown from a small run where a few years ago I had a similar fish take the same set up, it was not the same fish but shows that if good lies are the same you can expect the same results if your presentation is good. The rest of the water is as it has been, very productive and challenging but oh how nice it would be to share it with someone else, at this age you just might need help to be able to get out or in to a trout stream. When I speak of fishing with someone I don't mean go with someone and split up, I mean fish with someone, so both of you help each other and become much better doing what we love to do, number's do not count when your doing this it is the experience that counts and it will be some thing that you will remember, both of you will grow in your ability to problem solve. I remember a good friend of mine and I working for a good half an hour on an impossible fish in a very difficult position only to finally catch him and find that he was a 9" fish, it was good for the problem solving lesson of the day.