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.