Taking a Chance!

Talked to a few fellow guides and the general theme was how stupid it is to have some local shops provide guides that do not have a Pennsylvania Fishing Guide Permit, mine is #207, that means they are not legal. Any time money changes hands from a customer to a client in PA you need a permit to guide, with the permit you also need to prove that you have completed a CPR course and have liability insurance, these guys do not and they could loose everything if they have an accident! Oh boo ho it costs a bit, if that's the case don't put your client in harms way, stop guiding. If you only guide a few times a year don't take the chance. I was told by a well know guide that he takes money for fly casting instructions not guiding, really a stupid thing to do, I'm sure a clients lawyer would shoot holes in that, sad but true you need to protect both you and your clients. No I do not and will not take clients to the FFF section of Penns, purely out of respect for the resource and the land owners, all of the other fellow guides that work with me also share my respect for this section of Penns. Want to find out if a guide has a permit, check out the Fish Comm. web site.

Sure Sign of Spring

  Little Black Stoneflies are all over the Susquehanna River, the sea gulls are here in force, Spring is here. The Little Blacks are also coming off Penns but there have not been any rising fish to them, to be fair most guys really never see them taken off the top, it is a very small rise form and barley makes a surface disturbance, look hard for them This hatch is best fished with a dry dropper rig, the dry can be any black caddis imitation in a size #14 (just to keep the nymph up) and a dropper of a black pheasant tail nymph Tiemco #16 T200 with a 5/64 Black Nickel tung bead, a deadly combination. Pheasant tail dyed black is easy to get and the style really lends itself to the stonefly nymph. Tie up a few and try them out. Also heard reports of a large #12/14 very dark mayfly hatching near the shore but nothing taking them, I'll check them out on Wed!
  Get out there before the crowds are here, Spring is out of the question till Trout season opens up, to dam many spin and bait guys trying to get rid of their rust for me to bump into.

Best answer to mystery

Fished Spring Creek this week and found the water to be just a bit high but still caught fish on scuds. If your not bouncing off the bottom you will not be in the zone. I was thinking about fishing Paradise and wanted to check out the outflow pipe, found an employee and we had a long discussion of where all the fish have gone from the outflow, he told me that the new scrubber (the one they wasted money on) is doing a great job and that no midge pupa or other food particles are getting dumped in to the outflow, this coupled with the fact that no fish are lost has had an effect on the population below, gone are the large school of fish that were present and gave us so much fun. We used to have a great time casting #26/28 midge pupa to these guys and spending an entire afternoon catching them but they have moved on in order to find food. This is about the same thing that has happened to the "Sipping Pool" on Fishing Creek but the water quality has not improved to the extent that Spring Creek has. I have seen great midge and BWO hatches in Fishing Creek but no fish, maybe the escape accounted for the hight population, just do not know that for a fact. The fish at Paradise were very large guys and we believe they grew that way from the constant food but Fishing Creek is still a mystery.

Jan. 2013 Browns & Rainbows

Fished Spring Creek last Tuesday ,the flow was about perfect at 100 cfs. (before the rain). Fished a few good runs at the old West Penn power plant in Milesburg and took browns, using scuds and new pink scuds, no rainbows here or I just did not hit them. Pretty tough wading conditions because of the new gradient after they removed the old power dam. Did not want to wade up and fish the flat water so I decided to move to the Shit plant in Bellefonte, a good walk and wade to get there after parking in the snow but worth the trip. At this spot you have to be ver mindful of where and how far downstream you wade because it will get very deep and you will have to wade upstream in heavy water- not an easy time. Started to take rainbows of all sizes on the new tungsten bead head pink scud #16 2487 Tiemco after 6 fish I set the hook on a fish and it took off down stream then up and out of the water, I could not believe the size of this bow- 20+ and heavy. She slugged it out downstream and just pounded and shook till the 5x parted- dam! Took more bows on the shit plant side in the soft seams and got to the point of no return and made it to the bank. All for today.

   Wed found me below the old pink trailer location above the 550 bridge fishing for browns using a brown/olive #18 scud and they were there, all in the soft seams and dead water off the flow, even took some in the tail outs, this is a nice easy section to fish. Decided to fish below Bellefont angain and picked the old McCoy's Dam site, rigged up for rainbows and they were there big time. If you have ever tried this section you know how hard it is to wade and even walk. Hit a nice bow and saw that my line needed to be retied but did not take the time to do it, a big mistake, I hooked another very large bow and after 3 out of the water jumps the 4x parted, I guess I did not save any time not retying my leader. Here are two videos of the days action.

New Product, a winner for the winter

Fished Spring Creek last week, tried a new product, Patagonia R-1 gloves- WOW they work. I saw the wright up in a few mags and decided to get a pair, they arrived in good order, I tried them on, a bit tight, I used a Large size but OK let's try them. I used them all morning and you can feel the rod handle and strip line from the reel, maybe if your using a bit bigger tippet material than 5x you could tie a fly on but the real test was landing and releasing fish, absolutely no cold hands! With this product they got it right, retail is $39.00 @ pair but if you consider all the other gloves you have used and still had cold hands not expensive.
  The fly of the day was a size #16 med brown/olive scud, this is the go to fly in the winter and most any other time of the year, I did use a #14 heavy chez style caddis to get the fly down. All the fish came in dead slack water or the soft seams along the dead water. Nothing big but just a nice day.
  On my way home I stopped at the Sipping Pool and decided to fish it, what a waste of time, first wading across is a great way to get gassed, every time you move the smell is enough to make you go back but I waded on, getting to the North bank I stood and watched for 1 hour, all the while a terrific midge and #24 BWO hatch was taking place- 2 rises that's all, tried to get to them but the bottom is so soft that I was sinking in over my knees to get close to them, had my 8' #2 Winston and the casts are not intended to be long. I just do not see the fish like we used to but the insects are there, I guess the Fish Comm. has a great excuse for it but not sure that I want to hear it, the area below Tylersville is sick and needs to be dealt with. Don't even bother to stop and try it.

Happy New Year

Happy 2013, I trust your celebration was safe and that your looking for a more eventful year as far as trout fishing is concerned, at least when your fishing you don't have to think about the idiots in Washington! Hope that the Winter blues have not hit you yet, with the Holiday season it is hard to break away and fish but that is behind us now, if your still inside looking out the widow try any of these sites to get you moving:
www.headhuntersflyshop.com a wonderful daily dialogue on the Missouri River in Montana, I read it every day and just love their commentary of fishing and life.
http://globalflyfishers.com/video a great collection of videos of fishing and fly tying,good learning site.
www.worleybuggerflyco.com is the parent company of Natures Sprit fly tying material- I saw them in Montana and they have some really nice stuff and are pleasant to do business with.
www.riplipsfishing.com is a wonderful place to purchase all your tungsten beads, at $13.00 @ 100 it is the best deal in town- check them out- their name sucks but what the heck.
  Looking to tie tube flies for Fall stream fishing here in the East and need to learn as much as I can, check out http://oregonflyfishingblog.com "how to tie tube flies", this should get me going. Any of you guys know how to do it, give me a gingle jhepner@ptd.net and tell me what to buy.
Check the following site to get you warm- http://solidadventures.com and find "Jurassic Lake" if that does not get you warm your dead. Going fishing because the sun is out and the scuds will be active when it shines. It is also midge time, look for the soft seams and back water for the small dimples. Penns has a few truly great midge pools and just below Stan's bridge is one of them- not easy at all but has rising fish.

Penns Creek and the Bale Eagle

Fished Penns Creek last week and was treated to a companion who was just watching me, a mature Bald Eagle sat in a stream side tree and observed me all the while bitching at me, only when I moved upstream did it leave. I fished below Coburn, just above Stan's bridge using #12 Chez nymphs and a #18 Pheasant Tail nymph as a trailer, took fish on both and neither seemed to out fish the other. Moved upstream to the next soft riffle and it became apparent that this was sucker heaven. None of the fish were in bad post spawn shape and seemed to be on a moderate feed, more typical of mid December.
  I did forget to mention last week that Spring Creek is filled with wood debris from Sandy which will help the survival of our juvenile trout for the winter. The amount of wood that is held in the stream as been shown to greatly effect small trout over the winter season, this gives them somewhere to hide and feed in peace, not worry about what flies or swims and has them on the menu. Looking at Penns I see the same debris and hope that we do not have a blow out to move this material out, the next time your out take a look at this and observe the amount of small fish using the cover. I need to take a look at Cherry Run but feel this also has received a good amount of storm debris.
  I did notice that most of the Penns browns were in the softer seams and not in the mid riffle lies that we normally find them, this is a normal winter pattern and will become more of a factor as the water cools. For now lets leave them alone and have a good holiday season with our families.