A very good day

Wed. was a very good day on Fishing Creek, cold and windy was the norm which made it hard  some times to follow your leader/stream junction effectively but hey that is life. Took a lot of fish but most of them on the smaller size on a #16 tung. bead pheasant tail and a B or a BB shot. I have in the past been guilty of not really paying attention to the amount of lead (yes I use lead and like it) I have used and have not been at time down where I need to be, I guess just lazy or looking for the top water action. Saw a few other fellows out but did not bump into anyone else, I chose the right place to fish to avoid anyone else. The sun came out in the afternoon but I only saw a few midges and a couple of small stoneflies about, no olives but did not expect to see them in the sun. I did not see any signs of the annual Grannom migration yet but if the water warms up a bit we should see them in the next few weeks. Grannom emergence in the morning then Hendrickson's in the afternoon followed by Grannom egg laying later with maybe a few Red Quill spinners to end the day!
  Yes the water was high but not blown out and typical wading conditions, slippery and cold! This will be very busy in the next few weeks till the official opening day then the pressure tapers off, you will have to drive up or down the canyon and take the first available parking spot of if you don't it might be gone.

It all metled

Gees our hope for a slow melt and a steady water supply went out the window, it is all gone up here on the hill! Hopefully the rain that we see in the forecast will recharge the water table better than the snow has, we need a good supply for the critical time that in the past years we have not had, the May/early June period is most important to our resource. Let us hope for the best. I have had reports of really good #20/22 black midge surface fishing over the last week on Spring Creek, my gut tells me that some of the same conditions will exist on Big Fishing Creek but it may take some time to find the correct spot, drive up the creek and stop and look for a good while till you see the rise forms. When the fish are taking midges you will need to determine what stage they are eating, subsurface suspended pupa, surface emergers or adults, we do not typically see the large mating balls that they see in the West, they use "buzz balls" for this, we see maybe a pare mating. Any good midge pattern will work well if it is the correct size and it floats right. This is not a perfect pattern fishing adventure, get the color and shape correct BUT make sure it floats like a natural "NO DRAG" at all. If your fishing subsurface a little slight drag may be what is needed for them to strike but most times everything it dead drift.
  If your going to Penns be very careful with any attempt to wade, cold and high water in a toxic mix, you do not last long if you fall in or get swept off your feet, if you make it out it is a long and cold walk to your car or truck in wet cloths. Streamers that get down to the bottom or large weighted nymphs will work but slow and easy is the name of the game.
  Be careful if you go.
Watched a cool Youtube video of some young fellow nymph fishing Big Fishing Creek in early March, wow he did a great job with the browns there, looks as if he took most of his fish on a different looking hare's ear, look very dark with a robust trail on it. He did tie on a streamer and dangled it in a log jam and had a really extra large brown come out a munch it, I know exactly where the log jam is and it would be a bitch to land this guy. I was told about this fish a few years ago when a buddy of mine saw it, maybe I need to go and check it out. We have in the past seen a few New Zealand fish in this stream during the spawn season but they are just so dam tuned into their environment that it is hard to get them to eat most of the time, maybe I need to try some mice late in the evening this summer?

Just what we needed

Wow did we get hit with the white stuff, just what we needed at a critical time. The long range forecast looks as if this will stick around for a while and not melt away fast causing a high water event then back to low water conditions. I see maybe next weekend might be a slight warm up but I think we will be safe in the mountains where the sun and higher temps do not typically warm up as fast. Let's hope this melts slowly and brings a good amount of moisture to the water table and not run off.
  As I said this is the perfect time of the year to tie flies or get your gear out and inspect everything, I clean all my fly rods of junk from the past season using ivory snow and water. I clean every fly line that I have with the same ivory snow & water solution then wiping them dry before putting a line treatment on them and letting it sit for a few hours then wiping it off to a slick finish. You could also use a Rio fly line cleaner that comes in a small wet towel packet, cost .99 each and well worth it but make sure you clean it both ways because if you only clean in one direction you miss quite a bit, clean it going out of the reel and going back in, most time you do not need to put a line treatment on if if your using fairly new lines. This is also a great time to think about changing leader butts and adding new tippets, I for one am guilty on not doing this every years, I just add new tippet- not a good idea. This is also a good time to replenish your tippet selection, especially if you store you gear in a hot car for extended periods or leave it in the sun for long periods of time, I have seen how people just throw their gear in a car and for get it. I also clean my vest out completely and decide if I need the contents this year, I noticed that I was carry a second big bag of shot , no wonder the dam vest was heavy, you find crap that as you look at it now you wonder why you kept it in there?