Too Much of a Good Thing

Well we must sound like our farmer friends, they never have the perfect conditions and it seems this year neither do we! Yes I was bitching about not enough water and what can happen just after June 15th most years and it might happen again this year but in the mean time we are dealing with very high water conditions, in fact Penns hit 4000 + cfs last week and that is not conducive to good fishing. All we can do is wait till it goes down, with cool cloudy days the water level will not go down that fast, we need bright sunny and windy days to help the water evaporate as will the leaves on the trees help to bring the levels down. All the while our insects are hatching away and the trout are eating them and we are standing on the shore with our sticks in hand.
  If you are a fly tyer and mix your own dubbing or for that matter make dubbing from yarn I saw a great You Tube video this weekend, cut your lengths of yarn or fur into a 1 gallon plastic or glass jar and put the lid on then punch a hole in it, insert a can of compressed air (the kind to clean a computer key board off) or take it somewhere that has a compressed air hose and stick it in the hole and blast away- after a few seconds you have perfectly blended or made dubbing! Saw another video that showed how to make Senyo lazer dubbing with wool yarn and "Angelina" fibers using "2" pet grooming brushes, neat and really easy but if you buy a skein of wool yarn you will have enough for life, better find a buddy or two to share it with!
   Time to clean your rods and reels or tie some more flies, remember the Drakes will come and if the water is high it makes no matter because you can always find fish feeding on the them somewhere. Also remember that just after Drake time it is "Olive" time both the #16 and #20-22 guys. The 16 guys are really the old "Cornuta" now named "Drunella" you can find the in the morning and thru the day emerging but the highlight is the intense spinner fall in early evening BUT remember these guys beat their wings to eject the egg mass therefor stay away from the riffles and concentrate your efforts mid to tails out of the pools. This spinner fall does not happen on every section of Penns and you will need to find them to expect good fishing. I use a Tiemco 101 #16 but tie the body a bit short, using nothing but black or very dark olive turkey quill for the body and the same color around the spent wings- keep the wings sparse- these guys float very low in the surface and your targets know this and will reject you very quickly. Good luck and catch a few for me as I will be in rehab getting full use of my new knee.

It Is Busting At The Seams

Oh my everything seems to be happening all at once, Grey Fox, March Brown, Crane Flies, Tan Caddis, Sulphurs and the stupid green thing. Talk about a complex hatch and stage of emergence and spinner falls to sort out and key in on what that fish you are looking to catch is feeding on? Again the best option is to stop casting and look at the fish the rise form will give you a clue as will putting your nose to the waters surface, but beware sometimes insects seem to prefer a part of the stream you may not be able to see. We found this years ago when we would see spinners on one side that had a good current flow and the other bank had minimal insects floating on the surface or emerging. Good rule of thumb fish Grey Fox and or March Brown emergers or wets during the morning and afternoon if the sun is not bright, followed by Crane flies (or fish a Walt's Worm all day) then Grey Fox spinners or Sulphur emergers, duns and maybe spinners depending where you are on the stream lower will have the hatches more advanced while higher upstream you might only see one or two species emerging at a time now, the cold and cloudy conditions will tend to slow them down and keep them on the water longer. Oh thrown a few splashy caddis rise forms to mess with your heads, use a LaFontain caddis emerger or a new bead head organzia caddis emerger but hold on to your hat the takes are hard and break offs are normal- Go Now!