Just checked the USGS site this morning and Penns is running at 71 cfs at the recording station in Penns Creek! That my friends is just to dam low to do anything but maybe go look, even Spring Creek above Bellefonte is very low, we need a good amount of rain and we need it now. The heat the last few days has been bad and it will not let up till Thursday of this week and we are to get very little rain with the cold front that is on the way. It is even too hot to tie flies at this time. I have looked at the river below the dam in Sunbury and they are doing repairs to both end bags this fall, it is easy to wade out and fish bur you need to do it very early or really late in the evening ( but it is hard to wade back in the dark), the single worse thing about it this year has been that the cormorants are still there and they play havoc with the bait fish and the small fry of our game fish but it is time for the annual walleye night fishing to start and they do eat flies very well, think streamers. I have also seen rising fish at the Marina on the island between Sunbury and Northumberland, just go to the rail that separates the walking path and the river and look, not sure how the conservation officers will react to you wading around, I guess ok if you don't try and go down the concrete wall? Have seen rising fish near the shore on the Isle of Que in Selinsgrove. Penns near New Berlin and Selinsgrove is also a good choice if smallmouth are your game, throw in some big chubs and it would be fun. Hey a nice diversion is- go to Middleburg and fish for the resident carp in the town pond near the potato chip factory BUT watch the ducks and most of all the eagles!! Tie a bread fly and throw some real bread in and hold on but do not let the ducks take it, saw Vince Maranio hook a duck on a Trico years ago and it was funny but would not be funny if it were your rig.
There are options for all of us but we really need to let our trout alone now, this weather and low water conditions really puts a severe stress on them and they are just to valuable to hurt.
Monday, September 25, 2017
Wednesday, September 13, 2017
I should have known
Wanted to fish on Tuesday after a TU board meeting Monday night. I picked Big Fishing Creek because I just could not make up my mind where on Spring to fish, I know a tough problem to have. I drove up the canyon from the Federal Hatchery in Larmar and was surprised to see how low the water was, stopped above SIG Center at the big pull off on the right opposite the big rock slide on the left side of the road and just walked up and down looking after I chased a Great Blue Heron out and moved the ducks away, things began to happen one then two then three and on and on. Walked to the car to get ready and low and behold something landed on me- a #16 Black Flying Ant!!! Got dressed and walked to the bottom of the pool on the road and began to fish upstream, picking one after another till I got to the area near the parking lot, these guys are larger and demand a really good approach, 6.5X Trout Hunter tippet really helped but it did not overcome hitting them on the head. Seems as thought some of the larger guys were moving around to eat the ants, did manage to take a few of them 12-14" colored up and just in great shape. Got to the top of the pool and then zero rising, up the bank and in the car, stopped at the next pull off near the turn and guess what ZERO as was the pool below the top bridge, OK take your stuff off and check Penns below Coburn! Stopped at Burkholder's for a snack and coffee and drove down the creek road from Coburn, saw a ton of small spinners over one riffle, stopped at Stan's bridge and below it on the road side the fish were lined up and eating, could not find any good fish there so I drove to bridge, walked out on the bridge and found trout up everywhere and guess what was on the bridge- #16 Black Flying Ants. I got dressed and walked up stream to get in the water and the next few hours were just magic, when you fish here you need to stay in the water and near the road side because of the nuts that have posted their cabin's land, there are plenty of good trout in this section but they are not easy, fished to the head of the riffle and was pleased with the results, all browns in really great shape. When you run into an flying ant spinner fall the fish seem to really love to eat them and will travel to take one but they will not tolerate bad casting and poor floats. I do not really like to fish upstream but in both streams it is a necessary evil.
If you want to tie these guys, a hint is to make the wings not at a 90 degree angle, make if a 45 degree angle and use a medium gray wing material (zelon works well) Blue Ribbon has a great selection of it. When you want to have spinner wings at a rear facing angle you need to tie it in at 90 degrees and really tighten the tying thread building up a small dam ahead of the wings, as you put on the fur or synthetic material make sure you build it up in the front of the wing thereby pushing it back at an angle, (hint) use the same method to make spent caddis wings. Make sure you use head cement on the wind tie in point, I tie a bunch up then glue them all at once, I never have an open bottle of glue of even my hypotipped glue bottle anywhere near when I am tying.
If you want to tie these guys, a hint is to make the wings not at a 90 degree angle, make if a 45 degree angle and use a medium gray wing material (zelon works well) Blue Ribbon has a great selection of it. When you want to have spinner wings at a rear facing angle you need to tie it in at 90 degrees and really tighten the tying thread building up a small dam ahead of the wings, as you put on the fur or synthetic material make sure you build it up in the front of the wing thereby pushing it back at an angle, (hint) use the same method to make spent caddis wings. Make sure you use head cement on the wind tie in point, I tie a bunch up then glue them all at once, I never have an open bottle of glue of even my hypotipped glue bottle anywhere near when I am tying.
Monday, September 11, 2017
You have to wonder
For quite a while now I have been questioning the value of national and now international conservation organizations, FFF just became IFF. It seems as if TU has it's hands out every week either by letter or e mail and it gets old fast. IFF used to be a nice conservation group that had really nice gatherings and at them you could exchange ideas and flies or fishing techniques but they have gone off on a disturbing trend, now every body has to certified as an expert, what does that tell new members who just might want some information and a group to belong to, maybe get some help, you need to be an expert-not! I loved their news letters and magazines because they were filled with good information about flies and techniques but to get the magazine you have to pay extra! I am just not sure I need to belong to them any more, what do I get for my money- a nice window sticker.
Now to TU, if there were no local chapters this would also be a waste of money, at least your local chapter if it is active offers a meeting and gatherings to help you move forward in fly fishing. The national and state councils are rife with politics and infighting, not what you need to help our natural resources. I remember a few years ago when National would not take a stand on angler access in Montana, that told me a lot about their politics, let's not piss some very rich person off and just forget about it. They took a stand on global warming but not access to streams, not really logical. I wonder what they think about the outright war going on in Utah over stream access or are they just going to stand around and put their head in the sand? Have you ever seen how may people TU employs, well it a good number and no wonder their total focus is raising money. I know that some of the local chapters really do good things for their area, look at Spring Creek Chapter- they take great care of the entire Spring Creek water shed. In the end I must confess TU is worth the money if you have a strong local chapter that is active and you ignore the snail mail and the e mails.
The very best conservation organization that I belong to is The Henry's Fork Foundation, this group is focused on one of the best rivers in the West. In the Fork's hay day the fishing was just wonderful but then it crashed, local framers and ranches dewatered in during the summer and over the winter there was little water coming from the reservoir. All that changed because a group of people knew it could be better and they slowly and gentlemanly worked with local groups and formed a great plan to keep the gates open during the winter to assure that junival trout had the necessary water flow for them to over winter. The also worked with all the local water conservation groups on the river to work out a plan to keep enough flow in the river to keep the rainbows healthy and happy. They work to keep the fences up to keep cattle out of the river, open or provide fish passage to spawning rainbow in the tributaries. If you every fish there or want to this is a really fine group to belong to, I know it is not local but they do great work and deserve all of our financial help.
I feel the tug to hunting big fish-streamers!!
Now to TU, if there were no local chapters this would also be a waste of money, at least your local chapter if it is active offers a meeting and gatherings to help you move forward in fly fishing. The national and state councils are rife with politics and infighting, not what you need to help our natural resources. I remember a few years ago when National would not take a stand on angler access in Montana, that told me a lot about their politics, let's not piss some very rich person off and just forget about it. They took a stand on global warming but not access to streams, not really logical. I wonder what they think about the outright war going on in Utah over stream access or are they just going to stand around and put their head in the sand? Have you ever seen how may people TU employs, well it a good number and no wonder their total focus is raising money. I know that some of the local chapters really do good things for their area, look at Spring Creek Chapter- they take great care of the entire Spring Creek water shed. In the end I must confess TU is worth the money if you have a strong local chapter that is active and you ignore the snail mail and the e mails.
The very best conservation organization that I belong to is The Henry's Fork Foundation, this group is focused on one of the best rivers in the West. In the Fork's hay day the fishing was just wonderful but then it crashed, local framers and ranches dewatered in during the summer and over the winter there was little water coming from the reservoir. All that changed because a group of people knew it could be better and they slowly and gentlemanly worked with local groups and formed a great plan to keep the gates open during the winter to assure that junival trout had the necessary water flow for them to over winter. The also worked with all the local water conservation groups on the river to work out a plan to keep enough flow in the river to keep the rainbows healthy and happy. They work to keep the fences up to keep cattle out of the river, open or provide fish passage to spawning rainbow in the tributaries. If you every fish there or want to this is a really fine group to belong to, I know it is not local but they do great work and deserve all of our financial help.
I feel the tug to hunting big fish-streamers!!
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