Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all

Time to go back in time

I like everyone else read a ton and watch as much You tube as I can get, sprinkle in Catch on line Magazine and we are all under siege with the latest nymph patterns and techniques, we run out and buy all the material and imitate the new methods of fishing them. During the last few weeks I have been trying them out with limited success, some of the new jig style patterns have shown promise, they seem not to get hung on the bottom as much, just need more time with them. Some of the newer patterns with hot spots seem to work well below Bellefonte in Spring Creek I think because of the high rainbow population but other spots not so much. Conclusion is don't get caught up with all the new stuff and forget your old stand buys, I went back to my old #16 scud pattern using carpet fibers that I blended and 5x mono ribbing over a shell back of 3 mm. plastic bag cut in strips on 5.5x with a BB shot about 6-8" above it, it still gets eaten fast.
  The only new thing that I have had a hard time getting used to is indicator's (bobbers if you will) I have tried them all and just hate the "Thingabobber" casting is a bitch and I really believe the fish are on to them with the splash they make, I have used dry droppers with good success but again casting them is a bitch, wait till you get one of those tangles that takes a new leader rebuild- not fun and your casting stroke just has to be very slow. The best thing I have found is the New Zealand wool indicator, it casts well does not make any noise upon entry and floats well BUT I find it is useful in only certain types of water, mid to tail outs of pools seem to be best for them, heavy riffs are a problem- if this is where you like to fish just use the old fashioned method of high stick folloing a colored leader section and watch the leader/water point for any movement- this is still the best way to fish nymphs on Penns- not pretty and not called anything sexy but dam effective.
  Don't give up on the new material, patterns and new methods of fishing them, most of all don't give up on what works for you.

Something to think about

OK you guys get sick of me talking about Spring Creek but if you have been there in the last few years and see just how much the stream is changing you to would be hard pressed to find another stream to compare the transformation it has undergone, witness the new wall in Bellefonte between The Veteran's and Lamb's Street bridges, stunning is the best words I can find. This area was nothing but abandoned industrial buildings with a mismatch of stream bank walls and with the hotel that burned a few years ago it looked bad, the trout were there big time due to the available feeding just above The Veteran's bridge by all the people in town, big trout! The PA Fish Comm. opened up this area a few years ago against some of us not wanting them to do it but it has drawn a ton of guys there and with the new construction this area is a show piece, ok what the heck does this have to do with anything, well once again The Spring Creek Chapter of TU was involved as an advisory body in choosing the wall design and the new walking path along the stream. Let me ask you who was involved in the design of Bull Run in Lewisburg near the new Giant, no one and I bet Dave Pearson is having a fit about that, at one point this stream had trout in it but do to poor management they are gone but could come back if a local organization would just give a shit and step up to the plate rather than planning the next stocking of White Deer, for heavens sake get involved and make some waves!

I'll fish when you guys hunt

Have not been fishing much during PA deer season because I just don't have a lot or orange to wear in order to alert those nuts who can not see the difference between a guy in waders and a deer! I did get out to Spring Creek a few times (this is a good bet because some locations are not in the line of fire like Penns would be)and guess what is going on - Olives, yes Olives, size 18 & 20's and the fish are on them big time. As I said many times this is not a stream wide event, you need to either know where they are from year to year or a good idea or go looking for them, it's not hard to do just drive and check the water to see if you spot any rising fish but remember Olives at this time of year tend to come in waves strong for a time then weak for a time (have no idea why this happens) when I say strong not like a Sulphur hatch but a good amount of the duns to get the fish up and at this time of year after spawning the fish eat well. All you need is a good pheasant tail nymph, olive emerger or a dark floating dun imitation to fool them BUT your presentation and float have to be spot on if not they will not even give you a second look, think down and across not up and over them, the water is low and the currents are tricky so be a sneaky bugger about your float, if they are in a good rhythm don't give them a long lead because they are high in the water and a long float will not help much and get the fly off the water when your past your target and back on the water- you can not catch fish by letting your float drift over nothing. This time of year does not tend to bring the big boys up but any time you can get 7" to 14" fish in the winter is a Christmas present- so bag the deer hunting and buy a cow to eat but do go fishing, if your on Penns or Big Fishing Creek wear a heck of a lot of orange!
  Have not seen any midge yet but may not have been in the proper locations!

The Redd Count

On Sunday I took part in the redd count on Spring & Slab Cabin Creek's for a shared project between Spring Creek TU and PA Fish & Boat Comm., I was teamed up with a fellow from Hershey who hailes from Trevorton! Our section was a 1 mile beat from the bridge at Benner Spring's upstream to the bridge at The Rock, walking was easy for the first 1/2 mile as we stayed along the hatchery fence up above the stream for a good vantage point, all the while spotting spawing fish or their redd's that were empty, in the span of 1 mile we noted 126, that is nothing short of great but another two man team doing the canyon area counted 196 redd's that my friend is just great- sure makes you smile when you see numbers like them. The trout in Spring Creek are doing very well.
  My partner has a cabin on Penns near the Boy Scout camp and spends a lot of time in Coburn and was telling me of the wonderful project that the PVA is doing in that area, insect population studies and tem and water testing, I'll try to get some info. and share it, why can't we do the same for the Cherry Run - Weikert area? More later

Results of trout tracking

As I said on the other post a presentation at Spring Creek TU by Dr. Uma Ramakrishnnan Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at Juniata at College on Monitoring Brown Trout Movement Using Radio Trackers: Lessons Learned. I got the results of the 1st stage and they are as follows;
The results so far are very inconclusive, the only verifiable conclusion is that trout will move to try to get away from turbidity. Just as a note I will follow up on this topic from time to time from her web site and e mail to her about any other results they may find. This is a good tip to remember when your faced with a feeder dumping muddy or off colored water into your main stream, trout will hold on that line between the two, makes sense because trout are sight feeders.
  On Nov. 22 I will be helping Spring Creek TU with their redd count on Spring Creek, this is done every few years to help the PA Fish & Boat Comm. determine the relative health of the Brown Trout population and give us a chance to see just how many redds  there are over the entire stream length, I will be able to see the results because we all report back to the event heads and enjoy some food and drink while they tally up the results, this is the kind of activity that is needed on Penns but sadly there is none!

Time to do this

November is the best time of year to hunt some very large trout with streamers but be careful not to target the reeds of spawners! It might be a bit early for a good amount of the brown trout to be in the mating mood but I have seen some evidence of pre spawn behavior in some of the smaller males that are around. It's just unfortunate that we have not had a good water year and that our streams are on the low side of normal and the leaf litter in the water is at times bad, but if you can find some deep dark holes and some deeper water below good gravel bars the fish will at some point in the near future start staging in these areas. For flies I like to use light colors on bright days and darker ones on those dark overcast days (I really like purple and electric blue), I have a bunch of new tandem flies that I am just itching to try out, I hope that I do not see any adverse effect of hooking fish near their eyes or in the gills- if so these flies will be retired fast. I have only thought of using tandem's because sometimes you will suffer short strikes and only have swirls to your credit and no good pulls, if only we had the reflexes to stop the fly when a short strike or swirl occurs because sometimes I think the fish tries to disorient their pry and come back to finish them off but after all those years we strike and  hope for the best.
  One more thing we can all do is when we are on streams that have a lot of feeders take some time and make sure our brown trout have access to the feeder by cleaning our the mouth of any debris or rocks that may block their ascent to their spawning grounds, this is especial true in this low water year. it would be also a good dead if you are walking in the stream to watch where you are stepping, avoid the new reeds because they are our future.
  Last night a Dr. presented a show to the Spring Creek Chapter of TU about radio tagged mature brown trout to learn where they spent their time, I will try and get a copy and post it.
  I have at least 2 lbs. of yellow water Iris seeds that I will be planting this winter and spring in Penns, Big Fishing Creek and Spring Creek, look at my planting at Johnson's on Penns. I also have 5 small Ginko seedlings that will be planted along Penns on a bluff to avoid high water, some where that I can watch their growth- maybe they can take the place of all those Ash trees we have lost- hey feel free to plant a tree, it is heart warming to see something that you planted to mature- I have one in front of Station 22 on Penns that I planted at least 15 years ago and it is doing well, every time I see it I smile because of the memory of my black lab Abby and Warren Fisher  and I working to get the darn thing up the road to plant it (had 2 Ginko's and a second Maple that did not make it) just happy to remember those memories.