Result of our redd count

Our redd count was an excersize in physical fitness on Nov. 19, our section is from the blue bridge at the "Rock" on Rockroad downstream to the bridge at Benner Springs PF&BC land. Some agency cut a ton of trees on the mountain side along side of the stream bank and let the trees fall as they may, it made it hell to get into the water or get on a higher ground to see and count the redds! We did well other than Ray falling in head first into 40 degree water, he made it thru the entire count but had very red hands. Hext year we are going to bring a machette along just to be able to walk along the fence at the hatchery, this very tough walking but it's the best(after we get on that side) vantage spot to see and count redds. We saw maybe 3 very good sized fish but not many others, it appears the spawn must have occured during the high water before our count. Our total for this year was 133 about 30 down from last year but may be in some areas the fallen trees may have prevented us from seeing some. I'll post the totals as soon as I get them. Another good turn out and all areas were covered and the hot coffee and Wegman's food was great. Come along next year and enjoy the day with us. I have been tying a ton of flies and have noticed that my thread has not retained much wax because it's old like me and that 8/0 Orvis is not waxed, it happens as I am tying peacock quill bodied spinners just as you clinch down for the down wing the dam body an dtail will twist! I have been using UV resin on the bodies and at the figure eight wraps at the wings but have still had some problems, I wonder if the black hooks might have something to do with it. I guess I need to wax my thread by had when I'm doing tails and bodies of my spinners. I'm getting a box ready for the Summer very small paralep. soinners tha I seen on Penn's in Coburn and on Fishing Creek, if you don't have them "Go Home" they get really picky. This last June?july "raspberry tiem" the trout were on them big time on Penn's and of course my spinner box was in my back pack in the car, so back up the really tought bank I had to go and get them and without them it would have been really hard to land any fsh at all. Winter tip for now- fish egg patterns!

Come join us

If your free this Sunday Oct. 20th come join us in the annual Spring Creek redd count, we meet at 10:00 Am at the Spring Creek Park in Houserville, PA. We are in need of a few new bodies to help, just show up and ask to work! Hot coffee and food will be available for all of us. You can get a real good look at the amount of brown trout that do in fact spawn in the creek. In some years we might see active redd's and in some not many active redd's but the clear evidence of them. This year we have just had a really good amount of rain last weekend and the fish should be on the spawn. Come out and join us. An update to the Spotted Lantern Fly- they are here in Sunbury! I was sitting on the garage steps with my Lab's and saw a strange insect fly by and land in the flower garden, went looking for it and finaly found it and it was really hard to pick up, it's like they have a brain and know what your trying to do, got it and they have claws that help them crawl on anything and are great for getting out of your grip. They are just beautiful and will present a large meal for our fish population. I really don't see them becoming a factor in our mountain streams but do see them in our urban setting, "The Tree of Heaven" is their prefered host but they also love friut trees and grape vines, any tree that has athin barke is a target. we have killed a ton of them along the edges of the cemetary in Sunbury amd destroyed their egg mass', the eggs look like a smear of mud. Be on the lookout for them next year. Olives are still on the menue!

Coming

If you have been out you know just how low the water is on all our streams, at least 50% of the good gravel bars are covered with leaves! As I have said many times before a flush needs to happen to remove those leaves and cover the really good gravel bars, well it's coming Friday thru Saturday morning- yea! This is welcome news for the natural spawing that occurs in our better streams and gets us some much needed small fry. Our streams have the wood on the margins to keep the little guys salfe after they hatch. As long as the rain stops before the PSU game. Still seeing BWO's on cloudy days and smaller caddis in the later afternoon's, also if you wish any egg patterns is just a killer at this time of year.

Don't use your home as a good judge

We have very few leaves coming down here at home but NOT on Spring and Penn's, the wind blew in Western Union Cty. and in Center Cty. as well. Sometimes it was like rain as the leaves just dropped everywhere but not here plus we had very little wind here. The fishing was OK but it took a bit to line your flies up based on the floating leaves, it was small caddis and #20 BWO's that took fish. You had to just stay in place and let them show where they were and wait till the leaves floated by to cast to the rise. In no way could you even try to fish smaller streamers with that flaoting mess. Maybe today would be better without the wind. Tae some #20 BWO's and a selection of dark caddis in size #16 & 18 and enjoy a good day.

It's getting that time

Little by little it's getting to be that time of year when the Brook Trout begin to become very active and begin to spawn, that tells us it's almost time for the Brown's to do the same. Normal time for the Brown's is about the begining of Nov. but if the weather is colder and we get that good flush of rain to wash the mounds of dead leaves away they will spawn, not everyone at once but a big majority will. Before the spawn it's a good time to use smaller streamers to get the jacked up males to chase and eat. The bigger females seem to not want to chase anything but will still take nymphs before they begin to build their redd's. It is also the best time to think of Olives, any time the weather becomes crappy or overcast it's game on for them to begin to hatch, remember not all sections of a stream hold them and they emerge in spurts. I will always use a floating nymph or emerger to fool them, size range at tiem of year is #18-22. If your so inclined a great nymph to use is a pheasant tail with or without a bead. If your on Penn's look for October Caddis to be on the menue. Spring Creek Chapter of Trout Unlimited is looking for help for th annual Redd Count, it is to be held Nov. 19th at 9:00 AM, meeting at Spring Creek Park in Houserville, come if you can- just tag along with a team and get to see some really fine examples of the numbers and quailty of fish that reside there. Also at this time of year, wear soemthing bright- we all look like a game animal with our brown waders on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bass fishing time

Fellows it is bass fishing time in our valley, the Susquehanna is in prime shape both above and below the dam in Sunbury, I have not seen any evidence of the "white flies" in the Sunbury area but they may be in the Lewisburg area. I check the gas stations and the Turkey Hills for their persence but have only seen a ton of light yellow #14 & 16 spinners on the windows in the mornings. I see a few rising fish below the dam and have seen the tell tail "V" wakes of the catfish crusing around feeding off the top. If you can find a farm pond to fish the largemouth bass or panfish will be more than willing to eat a popper or the bream small spider patterns. Any of our local lakes need to be fished using a boat, it's just not that handy to fish from shore. If you go below the dam in Sunbury it's a very easy wade to get out to the large gravel bars that have emerged then fish back towards the Sunbury bank. Be careful when you start wading, go well below the boat ramp because it does drop off from the ramp upstream on the Sunbury side. Early morning or late evening are the best times and it is a good choice to start with a Clouser minnow! Hold on because soemtime the "Striped Bass" come in and wreck havoic on your tackle as do the catfish. I for one wear waders but it's a good bet that wet wading would be fine, REMEMBER TO LOCK YOUR CAR/TRUCK- there has been some break ins happening. Go fish.

Raspberries and Caddis/Trico's

First the current crop of raspberries is a bust this year with no moisture available the berries are super small and are not jucy at all most are just drying up as is Penns and Fishing Creek. DO NOT FISH PENNS OR FISHING CREEK both are just too low and Penns is getting to the danger zone as far as the temp is concerned. Spring Creek is holding up very well both in volume and temp. because it gets most of it's water from the ground. The Trico fishing has been wonderful if not for a few days when they were missing, you will have to plan on a cloudy day because in the hot dry conditions they drop fast and if your there late (9:00 AM) they be gone! Beetle, Ants and small Hoppers are doing really well, just look for shallow riffles or very long pools that have both shallow and deep banks. A side not, I have been after this really big boy for the past few years and still have not gotten him, everytime I fish Trico's or Beatles in his pool I see him take something off the top with a good "v" wake and swirl BUT he will not even look at a Beatle or Trico- next tiem I will carry another rod rigged with a large foam cricket or atomic ant! The tan caddis action has been just great after the Trico's are finished for the day, fish of every size just crush them. Go

Post Drake madness

So I'm a bit late but fishing has been really good in the post Drake era! Drunella (Cornutta to us old guys) are on big time and they hatch all day and night long. The spinner fall usually starts around 6:30 PM and goes till dark or until you just can't see to tie one on! You need to find the areas where they are fist and then place yourself near the mid section or the tail out of a good pool that has a large riffle feeding it. The other day after the rain Spring was a bit high and off color, Big Fishing Creek was really "low and clear" I walked up slowly to a pool and saw fish scattering everywhere- stay away till dusk and at that good luch if you try to wade, your wake will put them down. Penn's was fine and the Paralep. spinners were out in force below Coburn, a size 18 very dark red or olive black spinner will do the trick, this goes on till about 1:00 PM then done. The raspberries are about a week to 10 days from eating time and that means #16-18 light tan caddis time on all our streams. I just tied 36 new tan caddis patterns, Davey McFail "baloon caddis", it uses foam as the main part of the fly and some fur and deer hair, it floats like a cork! I have been working on 8 really good fish below Coburn and just have not been able to hook more than 2 of them. The other week I used my Simms Vibram wading shoe with star cleats and could not walk any more than 2 steps without almost falling, I wanted to wade up the middle and cast back to the bank to try and get them- well that did not work. I have been trying to cast to them from the bank and have to get on my knees to not spook them and hope the wind does not blow my fly into a bad drift. This past week I was ready to do just that with my felts on BUT the boys were not up! It will be Trico time and beetle time in about 10 days, just check the area at the bottom of Fisherman's Paradise section to see the large cloud of spinners, if they are there then get ready if not wait a bit and fish beetle. Big Fishing Creek is also a very good beetle and ant stream but you need to be careful if you wade and if your on the bank- be very careful beacusr last week we had "2" copperheads dead just on the edge of the raod near the turn before the top concrete brige below Tylersville. If your doing Penns hoppers, crickets and ants are a good choice as are the Parelep. spinners but watch the temp's there. More to follow.

The Other Night

Fishing Creek was the name of the game the other night as Penns was just too high and full of people. FC was on the high side and a bit off color but my main reason for going there was that I had a lot of Yellow Water Iris plants that I harvested from my back yard pond and I knew that with the high water Penns was not going to give me the area to plant. I have tried for years to get a good amount of Iris to grow on FC with very little to show for it. I had over 50 plants to put in to the shore areas and also found that some of the seeds that I put in 2021 have grown and in addition one really good bunch has taken hold and grown! I have planted Iris on Spring Creek, Bald Eagle, Penns and FC, you might ask why well the answer is simple- they look great and hold the banks really well. I fished black jig leaches with good sucess but need to tie some more that have much more weight in the bodies, the ones that I used were just a bit too light to get down fast and be slowly jigged back but they did work. All night I saw March Brown's emerge (not that many) and caddis around but the big attraction was the larger Sulphurs, they were out in force BUT no takers, again remember the water was high and off color. If I was a traveling man I would beat it to FC tonight and relish int ehfact that there will be rising fish to cast to and water Iris to look at.

Penn's On 5/4/2022

Penn's was in really fine shape, down just enough to wade to the spots that I love to hunt the bigger boys. I watched PA. Woods and Water video on YouTube the other night as he fished in the area where the swining bridge at the Herndon Rod & Gun Club was and he noted the amount of Brook Trout he was catching? I spend a good amount of time talking to Dr. Lewis before gearing up and walking down to the stream to see trout up on "tan caddis" well it was time for Dave McPhali's bubble back caddis pattern in a size #16 to a great result, large chubs, smallmouth's and trout of various sizes and of course "Brook Trout" and they looked to be of stocking size and they were all the same, I had a hell of a time trying to handle them, it seemed to me that they were very slippery, more so than the brown trout. As the night moved on I saw some Grey Fox duns appear as I was drinking a shot of hot coffee. OK time to change to a GF emerger but first check that my 5X tippet material was in good order. Just watched to find the better guys and located one near me without a long cast, on the second float he came up and sipped it in, set the hook and a few bulldog tugs and he was gone, oh well. Made sure I dried the fly off and located another and waited till he took a few duns before casting to him, this time it took at least 5 good drifts before he came up and ate BUT the same bulldog head shake and a short run and GONE. This thime I looked at my hook and sure enough it was bent out, the hook gap opened, said some bad words and clipped it off and tied another on. Well the same thing happened again and again on really good fish. My Grey Fox emergers were tie on the STUPID Firehole 315 Competition Numph/Stone/Kink hooks, this is the same manf. that I bitched about before that their hook gaps opened up!!!! No sense in telling them about it because he just made an excuse about the 419's, I have quite a few of their hooks left and will NEVER again use them for anything. To loose good fish for some thing that stupid, inferior temper on a hook is bad business. Yes I had some trouble with Tiemco hooks on the Missouri before but it was my mistake in using a thinner hook with 4x leader because of the power the rainbows have when they take a fly there. The other night has no business happening, of course I only had a few flies on Tiemco hooks and they held on more fish. Lesson learned stay with what works well. I do try every year to tie new and improved patterns using newer materials and better color combo's and that's why I had them tied on what I thougt were good hooks. It was apperent that the evening was not going to developed into a banner hatch and the spinners were really high in the trees so I called it quits at 6:45, had a lot of fun and bitched all the way home about the shitty hooks- stick with Tiemco or Daiichi and be happy.

Fishing Creek

At Fishing Creek the other day and not too many others around? Got geared up and walked to the first pool, did the line and leader streatch and put on a #18 very slim BWO emerger and waited to see the rise forms. There was a really good fish in the tail out just eating like a little piggy BUT low and behold just to my side there was a looped stick just above the waters surface, no room to get a cast in below or above but he just kept on eating, tried a cast and got a good float till the leader hit the stick and pulled the fly downstream and into the stick- lost one fly and the fish never came back up. Yes there were others rishing and eating but this guy was a good one. Worked up to the head of the pool and decided to walk up to the next pool. Fish rising to the BOW's and again another good fish deep under the trees and at least a good chance to get a drift over it. Worked into position and made the cast and he took and bolted out of there upstream into a pile of drift wood all at supersonic speed, well not a good fish for the day. It was a very good day with the smaller guys eating the BWO's and not having company. There were Grannom's and a very small amount of Hendrickson's but they were on the BWO's. Penn's seems to be coming into it's own now and with the March Brown's and Grey Fox's it is a wonderful time to get out there and start at the tail end of a pool and work your way upstream casting to both sides as you move upstream, emergers is the name of the game now. Spring Creek has Sulphur's and a fisherman's hatch- that means it crowded, gt there early and get a position and stay late!

Water water go away

Another Spring season with too much water, the Grannom's and Hendrickson's are going strong on Fishing Creek and the Grannom's are on big time thru Spring Creek and Penn's has a ton of insects at this time. The water may be on the high side but if your careful and watch you'll see some really good activety. If your on Fishing Creek remember it's Grannom's hatching in the morning then Hendrickson's about noon then Grannom spent egg laying in the early evening followed by Hendrickson spinners, yes some fish key in on the yellow egg mass' on the female spinners. Spring will have Grannom's hatching in the morning followed by BWO's in the mid-morning to afternoon thn you'll see Grannom spinners followed by BWO spinners BUT a well placed cress or sow bug nymph will still take a lot of fish. Penn's persents the most puzzling agenda what, are they keying on now, well just take your time to watch and determine that. Remember as a general rule the splashy rises usualy mean caddis ( Grannom's or little black's) and the quiet rise forms are normaly may flies. May fly's now are BWO's, Hendrickson's, Quill Gordon's and the spinners of all of them. If you go to Penn's becareful because the water is up and it presents a challenge to wade in the normal areas, just take a bit to watch before you go gang busters. I for one would fish a Hendrickson emerger with a Grannom emerger dropped with at least 12" below the Hendrickson. Have your spinner box filled with both male and female Hendrickson's. I for one have not seen much acitivety on the Quill Gordon's but that may be the cast of not being in the right palce at the righ time. Saturday is the Spring Creek annual clean up, check out Spring Creek TU web site to find the time and place to be. Snow snow go away and let the water go back down to a normal flow!!

Spring Creek is full!!!!!!!!!!

Gees it looks as if no one looks at Fishing Creek these days and only hones in on Spring Creek, I am in agreement with Gary those dam GoPros do not help with keeping the crowds down. I have seen the spinner and minnow guys out on Spring and they are doing very will, can't say that about the trout. Hard to release fish after getting hooked with a treble hook and fighting like heck to get loose, I just have to walk away from them, good on boys neck snappers as my old friend would call them- I call them ass holes. Fishing Creek is just waking up and we have seen some BWO's and a few little black caddis (Chimera), it's time for a small PT and a bold orange rear caddis pupa or emerger, get them deep. You'll find some peace and quiet there if you look carefuly and avoid the normal pull offs. Becareful to not go into the regular water, stay in the special reg's area, all trout water is off limits till April 2nd (I think). Hard not to mention Penn's but it is running high and it's not really great to wade at this time, most of the pools have been bombed by now and the upper parking area looks like a war zone! Don't think about brook trout now, they are closed and gees give them a break. Have seen that Able is brining out a new nipper that costs aprox. $200.00- really their first ones were not great and I for one would not spend that kind of money when there are plenty of others well below the $75.00 range and one could go to CVS and spend under $20.00 for a great pair of nippers (nail clippers). Will have a good report this week for both Spring and Fishing Creek.

It's in bloom now

Witch Hazel is in bloom and the gulls are on the river eating "little black stoneflies" it's almost Spring, not so much today but it's close. Watch for the Olives and Midges to bust out now any time the weather warms a bit and we have some cloud cover, get ready. It apperas that we might just have higher than normal water for this year but again Mother nature sure throws curves all the time! Remember to clean those lines and apply lube to your reals along with cleaning all your rods while you give them a look over. It's also a great time to attach new leader for 2022, your old stuff is just that old and it gets brittle especialy if you keep you gear in the trunk or in any sunshine. It's also a good time to maybe buy some new tippet material, I know it's like buying gold but it's what is between you and your catch- so get the good stuff. I love Trout Hunter but there are some really good one's out there, Si Angler, Rio, Fulling Mill and Orvis. Keep tying and building up your inventory because it doesn't take long to loose a few. Oh by the way "fly vs. Jerks 13 is OK but still does not show that much fly action. Try another YouTube channel "Fly TV" it has Nick Bauer fishing and tying really new flies, check it out.

What to do now

It's time to think about getting out when our high water goes down, we should not have the thermal shock that we get from a day or two of melting snow and the water temp's diving thereby putting our trout off the feed for a few days. We have had that very heavy rain the other day and night and most of our snow cover will be gone for our late winter fishing streams but there just might be some feeders that have that shot of very cold water coming down them, just look at where your going and determine if your day will be effected by that very cold water. In the coming weeks you will have a ton of Zoom presentations to watch, FFI has the following for us; 2/22 at 8 PM, 2/28 at 8 PM, 3/2 at 6PM, 3/8 at 5 PM, 3/10 at 8 PM, 3/14 at 8 PM 3/15 at 8 PM just check out Fly Fishers International web site and get on board. Spring Creek TU has a free Zoom 3/3 at 7 PM featuring Ben Hayes from Bucknell, check out their web site to get on board, FFI also has a Zoom on the same date at 5 PM - take your pick from any of these and you'll find a wealth on information to enjoy. Still tying and watching a ton of YouTube at night featuring George Daniel, Davey McFail and others that truly give you update and cutting edge info. and many exciting patterns. I just saw that "Fly vs. Jerks" season 13 is on again, it still only has one fly team but just watch how they cast and play big fish is an eduction in itself plus the overall quality of the video production is just wionderful. I think that this Wed or Thursday just might be a good time frame to get out and hunt for a few fish.

Might just be too cold to fish

Gees it just might be a bit too cold to fish, the roads we travel might be ice covered and just walking to the stream may involve two wading sticks to help balance us. Yes fishing in the winter can be a great joy but it's getting there that's the tough part not to mention shelf ice. I remember a few years ago on Fishing Creek in Lamar Paul and I had to get down on our butts and slide over the shelf ice just to get in the stream where we started, yes we did catch fish but at what cost if either one of us had fallen in the water. If you choose to go please remember to have plenty of dry cloths along. Finding trout at this time is not a big issue, target the deeper pools just below the riffles as the water slows a bit and the deeper part of the pool, a slow steady approach is the best action to take, a very slow steady strip in the deeper spots may reward you in the end as will a "dead" drift small nymph. In the limestones it's also the time for a good midge hatch to occure at any time, I carry down winged patterns in size 22 thru 26 in Black, Grey and Cream ( you never know what they will want) but Black is best. Also be on the lookout for BWO's at any time not a blizzard emergence but a slow and steady one. Years ago we used small midge pupa just under the surface with a greased leader and just watched for the leader to move and had great success doing it but it requires just the right set up on one of those dark cloudy days that allow you to see the waters surface very well- give it a try. A good pattern is a few strands of pheasant tail ribbed with tying thread and a bit of poly wing for the breather tubes and a dark fur head, keep it simple. Another great patterns if you can get some really small copper wire is a "Brassie", they sink well and the greased leader will keep it just below the surface. When your doing this kind of fishing try and use a slow action rod to keep the casting simple and slow plus the gentle presentaion will help to not put the trout down. I just love to fish below "Stan's Bridge" below Coburn but the road never gets any sun and can be a real nail bitter to drive on another great one is on Fishing Creek in the narrows- the very long pool just below the rock slide parking area BUT it requires you to get in the water and it's really cold. Just go!

Check it out

CHeck out the new USGS water board, the map of the US it comes up and all you have to do is zoom in on the state your looking for and click on the dot and BAM! This is just so nice to be able to zoom in and get a fast reading of just the location that your looking for. While your in the mood for a good uplifting story Google or Youtube the video "Mend" by Orvis, it's about a 16 year old that was in an accident and had a very long road to recovery, then he found fly fishing and fly tying! It is truly a tear inducing moment, just might make you think about why you fish- it's not the catching at all.