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!