2021 Spring Creek Redd Count Final numbers

Received the final numbers for this years redd count and they are impressive, total for this year is 1771 counted. We started in 2015 with a total of 1945 redd's and last year we had a total of 1633, not to bad given the low water we had this year. Our section this year showed an increase to 137 redd's counted and when you conpared it to 2015's number of 126 we can see that our spawing population has remained very stable thru the years. The most impressive section is; from the lower boundry of Fisherman's Paradise (below the private water) to Hartles Bridge (concrete bridge going downstream from Paradise), section 12a had a total of 196 redd's- wow! That section 12a really gets a lot of attention. We need to be careful if you go even if the trout are finised with their love making, don't walk on any light colored gravel- there is still eggs in it. Have been fishing Spring the last few weeks and have seen both Olives and black midges on top and trout feeding on them, Olives are size 20 and the midges are 24-26. Remember that not all sections will have them at the same time, just travel and keep a sharp eye out for the rise. Now is a really great time to clean both your lines and rods and reels. I wash all my lines and dry them off before reapplying lubricant. I disamble my reels and clean them before putting new reel grease on them and giving them a good whirl. All my rods will get a cleaning with windex and a soft cloth, the reel seats will also get a good going over, I do not clean the grips but have seen great results when you you use a Mr. Clean magic eraser! Jan. is also a great time to look over all your tying needs, especialy glue! I have no idea what the heck happens to all my super glue after a few months I can't even get the dam lid of of them and the shit is not cheap. A new Hobby Lobby just opened in Selinsgrove and it has a few items of interest to us tyers, they have stripped goose biots in a few good colors for .99 a bunch. The super glue section has Gorilla Glue in many different types at a fair price, I am trying the wipe on type and will tell you how long I can get the top off. ENjoy the new year.

The Egg is the word

Wass out on Spring Creek the other day and the "egg" did the trick much better than a "Walt's Worm' did. With so many eggs in the stream bottom it was no wonder that the trout keyed in on them. I use a soft egg pattern, Otter's Soft Egg or a yarn ball to get the eggs the correct color and size. Did not see any trout on redd's this time as I said befor the spawn is over except for a few late bloomers you might see, if you do do not fish to them. I did in fact see a small BWO hatch in the very late morning but not many trout rose to them, they may need to be on more before the trout look up. We only have a few weeks before our fish seek out the winter habit and become very hard to catch. If you do go becareful it deer hunting season and our brown wader do not help! Wear something big and orange.

2021 Spring Creek Redd Count

Sunday was the Spring Creek annual redd count, the weather was just great cold to start and sunny, it was almost warm! The event is put on by the Spring Creek Chapter of TU and this year it was just well organized from start to finish. All paper work was ready with clip boards and pens if you needed them, the food after we were done counting was wonderful, Wegman's just has top quality food and HOT coffee, hat's off the Fran and her husband, John Himes was in charge and did a great job. Our section is the same as always, from the Rock Road parking lot (just below the PFC dam) to Shilo Road at Benner Spring fish hatchery, water was up a bit 148 cfs and clear, we counted "186" redds in this section, only saw 3 fish on active redds but some of the redds were just huge. Looks as if when the rain came the other week it brought the fish up and the leaves out and they did their happy dance. I will post the total results as soon was we get the data from the PFC sites. There was a great midge hatch all day from 9:30 AM till we finished at 11:30 AM and I am sure well beyond that. THe only problem we had was that it was a Sunday hunting day with dsmall game and Bear on the target, we wore orange hats and that might have scared off some trout as we came down the stream. All in all a great count.

New fly from Europe

I am watching YouTube every night and have quite a few guys as my favorites, one is from Europe and has a great take on caddis larvae, here goes (I'll be posting tying video's as soon as I set up my Youbesize). Use a good heavy wet fly style hook and a larger standard bead, I have been using colored beads but it you only have black that would be ok, thread is "Glo Brite" any color you want, I use flour. green, flour orange, flur, pink and flour, white as an underbody that is quite bulky to this I add 1/4" x 25 yd. sheer organza ribbon that is cut in half and then cut down to about 1-3 mm in length. Make sure that you remove the horizantal fibers and that you only have vertical fibers left, cut a 3-4 mm close to the main ribbon fibe and tie that in, then wind the ribbon up in a spiral fashon to just behind the bead, finish with a small head of dubbing ( I use darker flashy dubbing). Whith your tying thread make a small band of flour. collar and whip finish, after your one tying a few, pick one up and put a drop of water on it and watch how it glows- a fish magnet. Fish the green one in Fishing Creek and the orage/pink one when the Chimera caddis are about to emerge. A fun quick pattern to tie and use.

Black Caddis

The other week on Spring Creek there was and I bet there still is a black caddis hatch that was getting fish up. The caddis are samll #16 black with a sooty black body, they are really hard to see but the trout are on them. Blind casting is the game with them unless you see any of the very sutle rise forms they leave, this is not a big number game but it is a nice slow mid morning to mid afernoon time frame fish. A black bubble back caddis using natural CDC as the bubble will work BUT tie a lot of them because they are hard to dry after each fish. Small streamers is also a good bet if your looking for horney male browns at this time of the year, I have seen males chasing each other but have not seen any females getting ready to spawn. The tem. is getting about right and the water levels are perfect, it will happen soon. Don't step on trout redds! Get ready for the next jucy insect for the trout to key in on, "The Spotted Lanternfly", it's already in the Harrisburg, Hummelstown area and heading north all the time. They are just a mess at the Hershey Medical Center fitness area and the Panera Bread in Hershey. They don't fly well but seem to be able to hop or just run away from you, they act like a stink bug does when you try to step on them. They will offer a trout a nice meal and it is a easy insect to imitate. Look it up and you'll see what they look like. They love grape vines and we all know how many wild grape vines we have on our trout streams.

Should have been there

As I said before the Spring Creek chapter of TU has some really good zoom meetings open to the general public and last Thuersday was a really good one, Musky fishing was the topic. There was just a lot of really good biology and seasonal locations of them that it would be hard not to think where to go in any season. Some of the pictures of them in anglers hands were also impressive. We have some of the best Musky water available to us in a small local area, the river and the mouth of Penn's and up both Penn's and Middle Creek are just wonderful. I know from past experience that all these waters hold very large fish, a 50" came from the mouth of Penn's and we have caught many 30- 40" class fish T/O the rivers and creeks BUT if your fly fishing for them be aware you'll need some very special equipment, a 10-11 weight rod, flies that are 12-15" long and most of all "A BOAT" there is simply no way to cast from shore and get them to follow then do a figure 8 at the shore!! If you have the stuff, go and you'll have a great time. Remember to check the TU web site and learn from them, FFI also has a lot of free zoom items coming up. Friday afternoon the sun cam out and it warmed up a bit and just on que the flying ants apperared- hint if this weather pattern holds and you see a day in the future when the sun comes out make sure your near a trout stream and have a lot of different flying ant patterns because they will feed like hungry dogs. Last week was good fishing with smaller streamers and nymphs but the water was still a bit on the high side, this week will be much better, the trout are thinking of their yearly spawn dance and the male will become very aggressive in the near future. By all means go now before the leaf fall gets to bad.

Wish for water and you get this

Gees Penn's is running well above flood stage and every other stream is also blown out now, had 3.6" here at the house the other day. We can only hope a lot of this soaked in the ground and will be released in the future. Ground water release is the way Spring Creek is fed, Spring Creek Chapter of TU has a great informative booklet that explains the internal working of the watershed, very interesting reading and something that makes you think just how fragile our water systems are. Now is the time to get your 6,7 & 8 weights rods in shape for the Fall streamer season when the water falls but don't wait till it's total back to normal catch in at the cloudy and high level. Start with smaller streamers first them progress to bigger ones, black, olive, brown first in cloudy or dark days and white yellow on bright days and clearer water. A length of 3-4" is fine to start and get bigger very early morning or just before dark to get those really big boys to eat. Make sure you try different presentions not just the downstream and strip back to you, try and get your fly to do some different movements both across and then downstream just vary it and take note if the fish tell you something. Don't just do the same stuff that you always have done in the past, the really good fishermen will try new ideas and thereby push the envelope to catch more and bigger fish.

About perfect

Gees after the rain we have been having our streams are about perfect, we had 7.6" the other week here at the house and last Monday Spring was just a tad high but really great looking. Still using beetles along the banks and if I see something flash at it I switch to a Black or cinn. ant and they eat it! No many guys at all around that day and I'm sure that tomorrow will be the same, maybe time to try that Euro nymphing game again, I see that I might need to have a bit heavier bead haed on just to be able to follow it well. It might also be agood time to throw some smaller streamers around. Last week I stopped to check out Bald Eagle and there was no way in heck I was going to set foot in it, high and very fast. By the way check out Spring Creek TU web sire there will be "2" really good Zoom sessions coming up and I'll post more info, one is one Musky on the Fly, we have some great locations to give it a try. Tying Musky flies involves using a ton of materials but the 5/0 -6/0 hooks are not hard to come by. If I had a boat I'd be down at the mouth of Penn's and the Susquehanna River and upstream in Penn's for a full day of hunting, not catching for that takes a long time to hook one.

Beetle time with a side of ants

Tried to find a good fall of Trico's the other day and did see some really good fish up below the bridge in Milesburg but they went down FAST, I drove around the block and poof they were gone and there was not a fish to be seen below that. I guess it must have happened very early to be that dead by 8:30 AM! So when in Rome throw a beetle after moving to a meadow/wooded section of Spring Creek, I had some of the trout come at least 12" all the while making a "V" wake just to eat the beetle BUT the strange realty was they were only interested in eating the beetle on one side of the stream. The good side is a grass bank and the other side is a wooded overhang one, so I fished up with the beetle on the grass and changed to a #16 black floating ant and fished downstream on the wooded bank- they ate it! This section is about 150' yards long and it takes a good 1.5 hours to fish it, not bad for a morning at all. Moved again and fished #18 scuds with good success, all in all a very good morning. Strange to see there were not many guys aroung except in the Paradise section but most of them were at the tables holding court enjoying each others company! Lesson for today was feed them what they tell you they want! I did not see any tan caddis at all on any of the sections I fished, maybe the change in the weather might have put the Trico's and Caddis off for the day?

You think it's not happening?

If you think the world is not changing think again, in my back yard gold fish pond we always have a number of male woodland toads sing all nite long calling for a female to join one of them, this happens most years about late March thru April a bit earlier than on our trout streams. After they became quiet (they make noise all day & all nite) I looked for eggs and after a two week period looked again for the small tadpoles- NONE. The absensce of them was a wonder but I let it pass till I looked for them in April/May on Penn's and did not see any of them. Well fast forward to a few weeks ago, two males began to sing all nite and it lasted for at least 2 weeks, well low and behold I have been seeing very small toads on my deck and the surrounding areas, they only measure about 1/16" long and will not make it thru the winter. By this time the toads that were born in the April/May period should be about 1-2" in length and only a few will be found. None of these new group will make it thru the winter, I hope this is not a telling thing if it is we as a nation better wake up and change our ways. Do your self and the world a favor, go out and plant some trees, cover that open area with something green and let out planet breath better- PLEASE! AS an update the beetle fishing has been superb! Spring and Bald Eagle are on fire. Big Fishing Creek is doing very well with #16/18 Tan Bubble back caddis in the late evening.

It's raspberry picking time and that means "Trico's"

Yes the Trico's are on and not really heavy yet but they are building up steam. Spring and Bald Eagle are up and running. Best days to be on the water is those cloudy shitty days beacuse they tend to last much longer, sunny low humidity days are quick and over fast. Don't forget those #16-18 light tan caddis emergers or bubble back adults when the Trico's are over. It's that first cast that counts the most, if your the old fashion type that casts upstream you better be perfect and not line the target. Over and across is the best aproach, no line overhead to put them down, even a downstream cast will work as long as you don't put if directly over the fish becasue when you pull back for the back cast that fish is on to you. It's not the pattern that much as long as your close in size and color, IT'S the drift- get it right or go home. After the morning is over it's beetle time, a size #12 black foam pattern will work, just make sure you cover the shore well- even in 6" of water plop that thing and watch them come for it.

Tried new euro. nymphing

Tried the new Euro. nymphing line and the tech. of it, the results we NOT good. hard to get in the habit of keeping the line hand elevated and in turn keeping the line tight. The Euro line is like a running line with a light orange tip and a grey running section that coupled with a lime green tapered leader gave me good sight but still I had a heck of a time trying to cast it and get it where I wanted it to go. I used an older Sage 8'9" med slow rod and that waas a good choice, soft but still able to detect takes. Overall just not my cup of tea yet, I'll use the old high stick method I learned 45 years ago. I have been watching YouTube and a few videos from Old Dominion Trout Bum popped up. this dude can fish but his method is really hard to do, keep the line in your left hand and elevated at the same time taking line in as the fly drifts, he does really well BUT what an ego this dud has. His tying videos are even worse than his fishing ones, he will show you the correct way to tie a fly, all the while dropping names of famous tyers but his fly is better? When he smokes the cigars while he talks about how good he is it makes you want to turn the sound off, yuppie in full bloom! I hear the if you see a fly fisherman wearing a vest you know it's an old guy well that's ok with me, keep the dam tattoed and piecered idiots off the water with their C&F hanging boxes or those stupid waste bags that look like a sissy purse. The same guys who never have any manners or who never seem to take the time to look aroung and see the Orieol in the tree. I'll take Davie McFail or Geo. Daniel tying flies any day along with their words of advice it is nice to see true professionals at work, oh Brian Wise is a good one to watch.

Penn's is in transition

Penn's is in transion at this time, Olives, ISO's and var. Cahill's will be on the menue this weekend and beyond. Fishing was tought yesterday but took a few on emergers and Olive spinners BUT it would be wise to carry some VERY Large Dry Stoneflies along just in case you see those vicious rises that occured Wed. afternoon. The othere week I used my 9'6" #6 Winston BII2X pared with a S.A. Sharkskin line and did not remember just how much it just does not work well, I use it once every year and end up just discused with the combo. The set up just seems to have a mid of it's own and can not extend a cast greater than about 30', that does not work very well for an old guy that can not wade that well any more. I'm sure we all have these combos that just do not work well and if your like me you forget and have to go thru the same frustration. I am going to take it along and try another line on it maybe a S.A. Mastery. I used a 8'6" Winston BII2X yesterday with a WF3f S.A. Mastery line and the result was pure pleasure! I have noticed that the older I get the less time I have, years ago I would be able to do 10 things in a day but now it seems that i run out of daylight in no time? Have you also noticed how small some streams have gotten since you struggled to cast far years ago. I guess it must be the lines or our depth perception. I tell you we all had atime casting under the tree roots midpool at the Hepner hole. We were using Scott G904's or G1004's, hard to believe that our fly lines have gotten that much better. The only thing I wish the fly line companies would do is to bring back the gray color of a few years ago, it helped. Attached is my box for the Drunella Spinners.

Penn's will be fine now

Penn's will be fine now, think Iso's and Olives for the time being. The old Cornuta (now Drunella) will be on for a few weeks, emerging thruout the day and then mating in abslute epic spinner falls in the early evening, it's best if it is not a clear hot dry day. The duns tend to emerge T/O the day and tend to be in the margins of the stream, a slow steady upstream or down wade will reward you with many shots to either bank. The duns have a very bright green body when the first emerge and tend to get much darker as they try to dry their wings before taking flight, body color sometimes can make a difference but I tend to focus on form rather than specific colors, a smaller tied #14 with good wing exposure will do the trick. The spinners are another story, I carry strong #16's and short #14 spinners of various darker colors, black, dark olive and dark brown and use them as just a nightly decision!? The trick is to make sure you are not fishing near the riffles because of the wing beat they make as they fall upon the water to expell their egg mass, if you do you'll be ready to pull your hair out, mid pool to the tail out is where you want to be! Be perpared also for some Iso. spinners to be in the mix as will there be some left ofer Sulphur spinner falls at just about o dark thirty. The key to the spinners is to keep them floating flush in the film not high, keep your wing sparse and do use some foam over the wings to help them float well. Hey it's Cicada time aroung us, Lycoming, Loyalsock and Fishing Creek in Columbia Cty are prime just about now. If the North Branch of the river to lower try around Bloomsburg for the carp that close ot the banks near the Southern end of Bloom. or the lower end of Fishing Creek! Make sure that you A. have lots of flies with you, they tend to get beat up fast and make sure your not setting the hook to fast- give the carp time to get it down!

Some reports on Penn's

OK this is going to be a struggle to admit, Penn's is just too dam crowded! Hell even Coburn is overrun with guides and clients, Cherry Run is nuts. There are few places to find peace and quiet. I took my Lab "Drake" the other day and found open water with no one around and rising fish, who ho! The fish were on Sulphur Spinners and they were eating really well, it was 9:30 AM and no one was there. I see that we have "2" more rental properties above Weikert to content with, one of them is advertising in PA Trout, (TU publication no less), do we have to go to Fishing Creek and put up with the Cabin Association this year, "No Fishing if Cabin is Occupied, No fishing on Sunday's", a big bunch of crap. Spring Creek is getting loved to death now with the Sulphur's on. Penn's will be wild as hell with the "Drake". Maybe we just stay home for a while till the dust settles and the Olives come on! Check out my version of a Cicada

Cicada Mania!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok guys and girls let's make sure we are all on the same page- again the Cicada Brood X is not coming to Penn's, Big Fishing Creek, Spring Creek or Bald Eagle this year, they will come in 2025 ( hope I am able to walk way up the railroad on Bald Eagle to hammer the carp- the heck with the trout! Look at www.cicadamania.com and he will set the record straigh and is tracking the emergence of them. They are to be present in the following counties in our area. Columbia Cty- Fishing Creek Huntington Cty- Little J? Lycoming Cty- Loyalsock and Lycoming Creeks Perry Cty- Juniata River Dauphin Cty- Susquehanna River, Clarks Creek, Manada Creek, Quittapahilla Creek, Spring Creek, Wiconisco Creek Get tying those #2-4 Black & Orange foam bugs with either black rubber legs or black & orange striped legs.

Report on Penn's

First I do not understand why everyone is so focused on the C&R section pf Penn's. the parking lot was full and 1 car at Cherry Run but no cars at Little Mtn, AFREO, or log cabin or for that matter at Herndon Rod & Gun Club? There is lenty of water to fish and with the new regulations you'll have more than eought larger fish to keep you busy below the C&R section. Monday was one of those days when it was better to stay in bed than fight the cold and sun, sparse Gray Fox and March Brown activity was found. The best action was on nymphs and wets, the Europen March Brown wet worked very well. Not much going on in the evening so went home but I would kill to be there today (Thursday), cloudy overcast and a bit of drizzle would make for a great day. Tying a lot of patterns that have weight and partridge hackle at the collar, Guides Choice is what they call it but I don't use peacock instead I prefer to use some of the new syn. paecock blends, they make for a far more durable fly. I did break into some of my older Mustad hooks (9671 & 9672) and I find that the eyes on them seem to be at a odd angle compared to the new hooks, they work well but just seem unhandy. I guess progress makes you find old stand bys somehow different. There is nothing wrong with using older hooks or materials, crap cost a lot now. A BIG NOTE; don't believe the hype about the 17 year cicada's they are not coming to upper Penn's, Big Fishing Creek, Spring Creek or Bald Eagle ti 2025, Grey Hoover confirmed this in s TU zoom meeting this winter. I checked with my Dr. to see when I had finger surgery, during the last cicada emergence I got my finger infected when I cleaned my gold fish pond out with an open cut on my finger, it hurt like hell but I still went to catch all those CARP, hell we gave up on the trout so we could land all the really larger carp. If your looking for cicada fishing look South or maybe a little East of here, remember the ground has to warm up before they emerge. I have seen a ton of cicada patterns on YouTube this past few months, easy ties just foam and dubbing with poly wings, think about making your flies do the plop and give them a little movement but wait till the fish get them in the mouths, if your too quick on the set you'll not hook up.

Grey Fox and March Brown's are on the stream

If your not looking , a little heads up, the Grey Fox and March Brown annual emergence has begun. This is a wonderful time of the year, still dealing with cold water and it takes a bit of time for the larger insects to come off the water. Look for both of them to emerge in the softer water below the riffles and on the edges are the favorite areas for the fish to take them. If your seeing splashy rises leave them alone and target the quiet sipper guys instead. Penn's has a great population of both of them so carry pattersn from #10 2x L to 14 2 xL in wets, emergers and dry's. I never get to excited about the spinners because it's like they appear and then dissaper before ever coming down. I have a new March Brown wet the was develpoed in Europe, it has a brass bead just behind the partridge hackle, it should make for a really good pattern. The fishing on Fishing Creek has been wonderful these past few weeks, you have to hunt to find the rising fish but they are there, nymphs work best there BUT you need to get them down fast and keep them down. I am using a new euorpean nymph line that looks like a shooting line of years ago, casts ok but it has no drag on the drif, like you see Joe Humphries using in some of his YouTube videos, catch it quick because he says very little about it. I see more and more guys out there using these types of lines- they are deadly. I was never a fan of weighted flies until the past few years, it helps to get down and keep your flies in front of the trout, I use a lot of flat lead from Europe and it helps build bodies on the flies. I'll post a report on Penn's Tuesday.

Tying Game Changers & Spring 2021

Have been tying game changers for a few days and to say they are easy is a plus BUT it's the darn material that is very hard to first understand then find a place that has it all. You will need the following to start: Thread- Black or White Danville's 140 denier flymaster plus+ Body- Fish Skull Articulated Fish Spines in the following 1-FS-AS-FSTS Tail Shank 1-FS-AS-FS 10 mm Spine 1-FS-AS-FS 15 mm Spine 1-FS-AS-FS 20 mm Spine The above is for normal trout size you could add a 25 mm Spine for a larger size to use in the fall Tail is a combo of marabou and any flash material, and body wrap Body wrap- Just Add Water Streamer Brush in 1/2", 3/4" and 1", this is from Just Add Water H2O, S. Africa. The Caddis Fly Shop in OR has all you will need. OR any good old hen saddle will make great bodies, just keep the feathers getting larger as you tie up the larger shanks. Hooks- Gamakatsu B10S #4 or #2 for the larger ones Eyes to get down - brass or lead double puple eyes tied on the botton of the B10S Head- Senyo's Laser Dub to match body or add a contrast. The tying is pretty easy just watch a video to understand how to insert the tail shank to get started, you will go thru material so make sure you get enough. Fish Skull offers a starter kit (of shanks and tail section only) and I suggest that's what you start with till you decide that you want to really get creative. Make sure you have a good bobbin that does not fray the thread as one of my new ones did! I bought a few new bobbins to load thread for larger flies so I didn't have to change thread often, well both of the new ones are sharp on the tips thereby rendering them crap. Becareful when wraping the brush material on, keep it at a 90 degree angle to the hook and you'll get a full look if not you'll end up with a section that is not full and the proper size. These are to get lager in size as you work your way up the shanks. Well for a time it looked as if we would get a low or normal water year this spring till Saturday and Sunday as we had 1" each day/night and Penn's is now over 2k cfs! It was a nice Spring with Grannoms and a few Hendirckson just coming off on Fishing Creek, Grannom's were also on Spring Creek as Penn's was getting into it as well. Well you'll just have to wait a bit longer to get back to it.

A Passing to Remember

Sad news hit me last night as I learned of the passing of Russ Bowersox, gone is a friend that I have known for well over 50 years, we spent time in physics class at Sunbury High School then went our seperate ways with our lives but fly fishing brought us together again. We spent many hours fishing Penn's 40 years ago, both of us loved "Briar Patch" hole, him so much he named one of his dogs "Briar". Russ loved to hop in his old willys and go to different streams to explore, Fishing Creek in Clinton Cty. was always a good landing spot. Fot some reaon he call me "Pie" and my daughter "little pie"? In his later years he stopped fishing and just did garden and cooking at his cabin at Cherry Run, his failing health kept him for his love of fly fishing. He will be missed by many, hopefully the pain of not being able to breath is gone and he is standing knee deep in a trout stream now and forever.

Just a bit high!

Given the very nice temps we have been feeling this past couple of days it's no wonder all our streams are running high. Penn's leads the pack with 1100 plus cfs and Spring Creek at 120 plus cfs, Fishing Creek is about the only option for us now, given that it is in that deep valley the sun really does not hit it that well but you can be sure the water temp. is really down there, fish slow and DEEP! We have been seeing Olives and a good amount of Midges on Spring for the past few weeks but again not on all the sections, you have to drive and look before you comit to a section. Olives have been 18-20 with emergers being the best pattern, get your fly in the film! Midge have been 26 Black down winged along with Grif's Gnats that are not over hackled. Years ago I had a habit of over hackling my Grif's and had a heck of a time with leader twist along with my habit of using very light tippet. Now days I keep my hackle length to just a bit above the bottom of the bend and have been using 6x Trout Hunter for my tippet and have had not leader twisting at all. If you want to see a great deal of midge eating take a look under the "new" concrete bridge downstream from Paradise, what the British call smutten rises, I often hang a #26 pupa under my floating midge pattern and just watch to see if my leader moves, it is great fun and will fill you afternoon with a warm feeling. If Penn's was down the trun below Stan's bridge would be loaded with midge eaters. There have been a ton of black stones aroung and a small black PT nymph will do the trick. Still tying and cleaning out fly boxes and getting everywith in order for the spring hatches, winter fishing does not have you carry a ton of patterns, easy choice.

Still tying and watching YouTube

Now on to "game changers" doing both streamer brush and feather changers, it's a bit of a struggle to start till you get the proper materials that you feel comfortable with. Hen back is the best for feather changers and I have found that Renzitti's "streamer brush" in 1/2" or the 1" will get you where you want for brush changers for trout. If your looking for much larger changers then look for Blain Choccletts (sp.) changer body material but be aware that you'll be tying on much longer spines. If your not sure you'll like to do many of them then opt for a starter pack from Flymen Fishing Co., it has just enough to get started and I'll bet that you have some hen backs just waiting to be used. Another super guy on YouTube is Hopper Juan Ramerze, he ties some of the best and simple small Baetis nymphs that I have seen, easy and very simple materials used. Give him a try and I think you'll like his style. On another note I am still seeing a lot of younger guys that are hell bent on making fly fishing harder than it has to be, do this and do that with crap that is nothing but a 45 year old "high stick" nymphing technique. I do like the new idea of putting the weight on the bottom of the rig with the two flies up from it, that way you should ony loose the weight!? And keep in mind only some guys that fish Penn's use the commercial rig using "3" nymphs there by foul hooking most of their fish! We are seeing robins in the back yard and some flowers pushing up thru the snow, so think better weather to fish midges or olives- soon.

Watch this!

I have always loved to watch guide Mike Kirkpatrick's films from NZ on YouTube and he has another great one "Fly Fishing Freedon (Large Browns in NZ) just released. The film is just over an hour and shows him and Hans catching browns from 7 to 10 lbs in a majestic valley, just to watch them cast 12 to 18' leaders with accuracy and then fight those fish is just magic. Watch how they control the fish with the angle of their rods in respect to the fish and where they want them to go, remember where the head goes so does the body. Now I'm not suggesting that we have fish that large here but it sure helps learning how to control fish even in our part of the contry. The line he says in the film really hits home, "fight them hard to release them hard" is well said. A great tip of the hat to the Spring Creek Chapter of TU for making their monthly meeting virual and available to everyone, good content and informative subjects. Also noted is IFF for making all their content on line available to even nonmembers, their last session on Iceland was just wonderful, give them both a try and you'll be kept up to date. Loon also has some really good videos available as does Simms. Patagonia has a ton but most are not related to fly fishing but still better than cable TV. Still tying a ton of flies and looking where to give them away, any ideas where we can help out those in need would be welcomed.

New items of interest

A few years ago I got an item from Patagonia that was designed for kyak people, it was a heavy fleece top that had midweight fleece below the waste and a heavy fleece on the top with midweight sleeves, it was really easy to tuck it into your waders and not look like you were a fat shit. Patagonia only had it for one season and gone, my buddy wanted me to sell it to him but no thanks was my answer, I use it all winter and in the cold fall days. Well Simms now has something close " Simms Exstream Bicomp Hoddy" not quite the same as Patagonia but looks as if it will work just fine, not cheap at $200.00 but it will keep you warm without looking like the Michilan man! Another great find is "Anadromous Fly Company".com these guys have a great selection of scissors and bobbins for fly tying at great prices, I got a bunch and am happy with the quality, not thant you might find a few slight flaws in the finish but the overall quailty to good. Scissors work just fina as do their glass insert bobbins. The ony problem so far has bee the stinking USPS delevery time sucks but ti does with everyone else but Amazon. Go fish soon!

Did you ever understand?

The other day I was at Spring Creek getting ready to fish when some idiot walked up and started to talk about how cold it is, gees as if I didn't know. He said that he just could not take the cold anymore, he was out most of the morning. His car was parked near mine and he started to get his gear off and when he took his waders off he started to complain about being cold, well the wonder of it all the dumb ass had blue jeans on under his waders. Anyone who ventures out in the colder months of the year has to understand that you never wear any thing cotton under your waders, they hold in moisture and make you colder with it near your skin. You need to wear a layer or two of good quality long underwear, Patagonia or Simms has them in lightweight, midweight or heavyweight, I use two layers one of lightweight and one of heavyweight under my waders and the same with my socks, I also go up one shoe size to give my feet some room to develope heat. I see this behavior time and time again. This dude had some nice equipment and a good rod and reel so why the dumb idea not to be smart about what to wear. The fishing was slow and deep, scuds and very small PT's were the order of the day, no midges or olives made the present felt!