The flush is here but a bit early

OK I know we needed a bit of moisture but gees, I measured 3.2" in my back yard rain gauge this morning and Penns is running 4600 cfs at the recording station in Penns Creek. We all know that our brown and brook trout need a flush to remove leaves and debries that have collected on or near good spawning gravel but not quite this much. The weather is to turn colder and that will bring down the water temps to a more desirable level to get the fish going. Our annual trout red survey on Spring Creek is Nove 12 and in past years this has been a good time to observe them and get a good count on the number of redds but it also gives us an idea if they are still on the redds or if they are over when we are there. Last year we saw a lot of empty redds but a good number of them, we are very careful to not spook them and try to stay out of the water as much as we can. In Penns it is pretty hard to get a good count of the number of redds but if you take a walk below Coburn and really get up on high ground you'll be able to spot a few and get a sense of just how big some of these guys are. Big Fishing Creek is another ideal stream to spot spawning fish BUT these guys are really spooky! I have seen some really big fish here, some that are New Zealand size. As with any of these guys please don't fish for them because we need every one of their offspring to grow up and become and adult for us to enjoy. Years ago we did fish for some of them and found that normally you can catch the males that hang around the edges of the redds but not the main pair, you will be amazed at how big some of the females are.
  As a side note it is a great time if you can to remove some debris or stone that might be blocking streams like Cherry Run or Panther Run in order for the fish to ascend them to spawn.

Water is up a little

OK was out on Thursday and did see a small increase in the flow on Penns but "0" on Fishing Creek! Wanted to see if the olives would make an appearance but decided to fish a tandem nymph  rig. My set up was a large Oct. caddis pupa (orange body with a black & purple collar and a rather large black tung. bead with a size #18 bead head PT about 8" above (just in case the olives were moving), did ok but not the best- all smaller fish. Went back to the car and took out the 7 weight switch rod and set it up with a large black tandem streamer, fished this for about 45 min's and got a few follows but no takes, I downsized to a smaller bright single hook streamer and began to take some fish, they took hard and no short strikes like before, no idea why other than they seem not to be in the prespawn mood yet. The section of Penns just below Coburn has plenty of wood in the stream and I found them to be near or tight against it. The entire day I only saw but a few rises and no Oct. caddis fluttering around like you normally see in late fall but to be fair the weather was not great, caddis like sun and olives love crap- but no olives either. I used a varation of a steelhead spey single streamer fly tied on a 25 mm. shank with plenty of flash (gold and copper), the main hook is a Gama. hook and they are really sharp.
  Just got word on some really neat hooks priced a $10.00 per a box of 50 from; www.fiireholeoutdoors.com they are called "Firesticks" some really neat types and really sharp and barbless, give them a try. Tried a few and wow "sharp"
  We just might be in the midst of a weather change and may get some rain at regular intervals, if so I would expect to see some real good prespawn activity in the browns in the next few weeks. Spring Creek TU has their annual redd counting event on Nov 12, meeting at Spring Creek Park in Houserville between 9 and 10:00 AM hot food and coffee will be available to warm you up before and after the event, we can always use help!

A Must Read

If you get "The Drake" via mail or by the internet you might have already read this short article by Monte Burke titled Junior's Water, if not go to www.drakemag.com and read it. I tend not to be political here and in real life not really radical in my views, except for the environmental issues. This outlines the total hypocrisy of our new president and the views of his son, I do give Jr. some credit, he fishes in public water and stays in his own cabin and not private clubs. Make no mistake our environmental protections are under attack but the result will not be any more business or jobs, and in the end Donald will say "hey I gave you everything you wanted and you failed, all the while our rivers and streams will be filled with crap like they were years ago, thank heavens we have lived in the time frame we have, maybe not the best but at least we have had good water and good land management to be proud of. Makes me want George Bush back again, at least he made sense.
  Now I love the PA Boat and Fish Commission's latest temper tantrum, if you don't give us a raise in license fees we will close hatcheries and decrease stocking, this is just an attempt to make the neck snappers call their local rep's and complain that they will have no trout to catch, why not make some really tough decisions to shrink the offices and not the people who do the work. Maybe selling the hatcheries and buying the trout from them would lower the costs by a huge number. They would pay for fish and not the employees health and retirement costs. I heard this from Sherwin and that boy makes perfect sense when it comes to money. Our State Fish and Game departments care about keeping their jobs and not that much about the resource, hell maybe they will sell a special permit to catch carp or shoot sparrows.
  In any rate just go fishing and listen to the birds, who cares if you catch anything just enjoy being out doors, it may all be gone before you know it, If you doubt me just look around and count the number of dead or dying trees and the absence of honeybees, just saying!

Check it out

I was at the Dam below Sunbury just above the PA Fish Comm's boat launch taking my lab for a walk and low and behold I found "carp" digging in the bottom looking for food! The dam is undergoing a full bag replacement on the Sunbury side and they have it removed and have a wall build above it and the #2 bag is also inflated so there is no water coming down the East side near the bank, very slack water is there and if the wind is not blowing you can see the carp just looking for food, a good target for a nymph or a crayfish pattern, go now and check it out before the water gets too cold for them to fool around.
  We went back Saturday to pick up some drift wood and found them again but the wind was really blowing and there were a lot of guys with spinning tackle trying to catch bass and walleyes, so I just looked at the carp and did not want to attract attention to them. Best time would be thru the week so the pressure is less.
  A good carp pattern that looks like a crayfish with dumbbell eyes is just the ticket BUT remember there are snags here so take it a little bit light with your tippet in order to break it off if your stuck on the bottom.