Glad I had them!!

Well I was at Penns on Wednesday and boy was I glad that I had my small box of ants in the back pack that I carry for extra cloths! When I first arrived the fish were taking some Iso. emergers and duns but stopped for a time. As I stood on the bank and the wind blew I could see a lot of fish up and taking something off the top. Out I waded to have a look and guess what- flying ants- #16/18 all black! Even all the chubs were up and feeding so it became a challenge to pick out the trout to cast to. I made quite a few wrong decisions and found myself landing more than a few quite large chubs, oh well they do pull. It was like a typical olive hatch in that the ants would come in spurts which was nice because it gave me time to wade to another section and get in range to cast to what I believed were trout. By 4 PM all was over and the stream became silent and nothing was rising, time for dinner on a rock and just take in the entire experience, low and behold a immature bald eagle flew up stream all the while a wood pecker blasted a tree downstream, makes you happy to be alive.
  Had an experience at the cabin as I was getting ready Doc came down and we talked about Mike M and others that we know, some thing just made him open his SUV up and he found his dog on the floor gasping for air, he had been in the car for over an hour with all the windows up and in direct sun, got him on the ground and I said get some water on him from the hose, Doc began to spray Cinco with the cool water, slowly he began to respond but not after some tense moments. A good lesson for us all to remember, check to see if everyone has gotten out of your car before you leave it.
  We are going to have a good cold front come thru today and turn things much colder then have some rain Sunday maybe a good week ahead to get into some prespawn browns on a few new streamers. Oh buy the way check out "Tie TV"on line to see Daniel Berman tie s new streamer using "ripple ice fibers" he takes some fibers out of the bag and tears them in half then rolls it in his hand and places it over the eye of the hook and moves it to the tie in point thereby making a really nice body that is light and appears full, a very new technique, these guys from Europe have some really good ideas. Check out the eyes he is using also. Tie TV can be found on You Tube, check it out.

Ants & more ants

Ant alert, now is the time when we see ant swarms around, most likely times tend to be a cloudy rainy day followed by a nice sunny day. Ant swarms are the result of overpopulation in a colony, the winged little or large ants need to find a new location for another colony and can not tell if it is water or land! Believe me trout know what an ant is and will eat the little guys with reckless abandon, your pattern need not be great just the size has to be right on. Two little fur balls (the rear ball just a bit larger and longer than the front) there needs to be a well defined space,  a bit of hackle ( 1 turn) and a sparse down wing of poly or organza. BUT the size and color has to be perfect, the trout will give you the finger over and over if it is not spot on. We have seen the following sizes and colors;
#16 thru #22 Black
#16 thru #22 Red (a good dark cinnamon)
#14 thru #18 Red butt (light cinnamon) with a Black front (this one is a must)
#14 thru #16 Black rear & front (tie these with a bit more of a body) this is the large wood ants
  Not a big deal to tie them but if the ant fall happens and your box is at home, have a good time watching because they are a bitch to even get a few to make a mistake. Now is the time to watch for them, mostly in the afternoon and early evenings. A good key is if you see some swarms around your home you know it is a good time to go. Oh by the way do not feel this is little guy size fishing because it is not, all trout LOVE ants and eat them very well- just go.

Time to take a look at Penns

It is about the time we should be looking at Penns, cooler nights and some rain will keep her temp's cooler than the last few years. Fish either Iso. nymphs or if you see a good amount of spinners in the air an Iso' spinner will do the trick, they are big #12 -14 dark red brown bodied that float flush in the surface film. I have seen spinners falls in August and early Sept. in the late afternoon/evening time frame. The best way to fish Iso's is a nymph, a very dark brown or black slim bodied fly with a white stripe on the back will do the trick, the newer jig hooks and a tungsten bead will get it down and prevent it from getting hooked on the bottom at least a little! Iso. nymphs can swim so a little tight line nymphing will work even if you have a bit of drag on it. Fish these guys in the riffles and even at the very top of the run before the water breaks into choppy water but keep a low profile.
  Another option is ants and beetles fished in shallow water early or late in the day, present an ant softly and a beetle not soft at all- plop it! Years ago we collected a bunch of hoppers and crickets and tossed them in at Johnson's pool to observe just how the trout ate them, hoppers would be inspected and most time taken downstream but crickets were just eaten when inspected, this is not for the faint of heart, the fish are slow and determined but slow!
  Do not forget about the #16-18 tan caddis at this time of year, an Iris caddis imitation will do the trick on emergers as will a good soft hackle wet (simple body and hackle) but I love to cast a CDC loop winged adult imitation at the trout but tie a load of them because the CDC gets soaked fast. Yes I know you can use dry fly beads but it just does not bring them back well enough- tie a lot of them up.
  It will be soon time for the browns to start to feel their oats, prespawn time is streamer time. I have been watching the European guys and their new tying materials and techniques for hints of how to tie more effective patterns, one thing for sure they do not use a ton of material on their flies but they have the apperaence of a full bodied fly, check out "Tie TV" on You Tube, some of the patterns taka long time to tie because of the instructions and the guys can be a little hard to understand but the video is just great. Another good one on You Tube is "Hackles & Wings" and Michael Jensen- give the a look and you might get hooked on them.

Below the dam "0"

Have been taking drives down to below the Fibradam in Sunbury to check the top water activity since the water has returned to normal August levels and have found a big "0" for top feeding fish. Have seen a few very small fish close to shore and maybe a catfish or two cruising around on top but no small mouth bass up and feeding, where are they? I have also not seen any white flies near the shore up to 8:30 PM. I am sure if you picked a good cloudy day and began to throw some streamers around on full sinking lines you could expect to pick up some fish but I really like the top water feeding that we saw years ago. It is a good
distance to wade out to the large island but that is the best way to fish it, casting back towards the Sunbury side or the Shamokin Dam side BUT be careful the water gets deep if you venture off the West side of it.
  Go any enjoy a quiet time on the water, maybe try some poppers on top?

Trico time on Spring Creek

As the fish on Bald Eagle become more and more aware of the fly guys floating fake imitations and the trout getting stung from them they get really picky. Took a couple of browns below the Milesburg bridge on Friday but they were really tough to deal with, so ok let's go see where we can find some. Drove up Spring Creek looking for rising fish, well I found them. Just above where Logan Branch comes into Spring there is a very small park on the Bellefonte side of Spring, they were stacked up and rising well, took the rod out of the car and put my chest pack back on and waded in, took one at the tail out on the first cast, they were just rising everywhere on both banks, either caught them or missed them. the fish on the park side are always the good ones and they are in about 10" of water with not much current- tough but fun to try to get them to eat, no hitting them on the head here. Fished all the way up to where the creek takes a turn to the right in the thick cover, some really nice 14" fish but most of them were 6" to 10" guys but the rise rhythm was just to good to pass up, really nice head and tail rises something to remember. I have not fished this one section in a few years and may not for another few years, it has been hit or miss but when it is on it is really good as is the area just below this big pool, it can be a great pool for beetles! Just a wonderful day on the water, can't wait to do it again this Friday but at another location.

Found them

Well I found the "White flies" that have been non existence the past few years ago, I was leaving dog training class two weeks ago at the Marina and on my way out noticed a ton of them on the bank of the North Branch of the river, none of them were out farther than 20 yards from shore. BUT the river was running bank full and "brown" from our recent rains. On my way home there were NOT any on the sides of the bridges, not like years ago. OK fast forward to this week, water level down and clearing, as I was leaving stopped to look at the rivers edge and guess what "Zero" white flies, same location, same time frame- where the hell do they go? Could not even think of fishing below the dam because the water is still too high to wade, and with the large rocks I would have a hell of a time fishing from shore. I may just go down and have a look tonight to see if there are any showing, so far another year with more questions than answers.