A Sad Story

This past weekend I fished Friday (on Penns) Saturday with my grand daughter in State College and attended the Spring Creek Chapter of Trout Unlimited Banquet and Fund Raiser then fished Penns again Sunday, the Grannonm's were on in Coburn and it was not hard to find rising fish but you had to float it over them multiple times before they would take it but I did manage to take quite a few really nice browns on both dark and light #16 bubble back caddis. My granddaughter caught 9 fish before lunch at Mickey D's, then we fed the monster fish below the falls in Bellefonte before we finished the day at Sweet Frog for a treat, a day I think she will remember.
  While I was at the banquet I saw Greg Hoover who I have know and consider a good friend for over 38 years, we talked at length about Penns and Big Fishing Creek, I asked him what were his thoughts on the condition of BFC and he told me that in the past few years he has seen a steady decline in the water quality there. Greg told me that he has put in new substrate panels to access the insect populations and in past years they would be soon covered with caddis and mayfly nymphs but sad to say about all he gets on them now is midge larva and that in a red flag indicator of poor water quality along with a lot more sediment, he said it is a direct result of "the plain folks" farming practices! Ouch that really hurts especially because there is zero we can do to stop it, the use of chemicals is also playing a role in the water quality and insect populations, we need an orgization to step up and form a plan to help stop this from getting worse.
  Back to the fishing on Penns, did not see but a very few Hendrickson's all caddis and typicaly over by 1:30 - 2:00 PM. Did see a map of the deeded parcels below Coburn and low and behold none of the cabin owners above the bridge own any land from the edge of the road to the stream- amazing! All the no trespassing signs on the stream bank are a bluff, sad to see them but I guess it is a sign of the times. I need to fish below Cherry Run to see the full force of the Hendrickson's and a good spinner fall before the Grey Fox and March Brown start their march upstream but we need rain badly.

Go now young man or woman!

If you ever wanted to be in the thick of a Blue Quill, Quill Gordon (this is a once in 5 year affair) or a Hendrickson emergence, go this week and Monday would be the best day possible, cold damp weather helps to slow down the post emergence flight of the adults- easy picking for the trout. I have been told there are some little black stones around but have not seen many of them myself. I have not seen any spinners but that may be a case of not being in the right place at the right time. If you can make it, Penns and Big Fishing Creek would be your best bet, Spring has BWO's and does not see the big hatches. Be aware that some sections of the streams and other entire streams are off limits till this Saturday, Bald Eagle Creek is one of the them as is Penns below the C&R section, also be aware that on Saturday you are not allowed to start anywhere before the 8:00 AM time!

Early Day on Fishing Creek

I wanted to go to Big Fishing Creek the other day to introduce my lab puppy "Drake" to fishing just as I did my "Trico" 11 years ago, there is a spot where you can see an entire hole and riffle at the same time and can easly handle a new wild dog on a 30' lead- well almost! The day began very cold and that was not a problem, the flies were a bit late, little black caddis, Grannom's and a few (very) few Hendrickson's. Typical caddis emergence in the AM where you have to hit every fish as soon as you see it, no blind dead drift casting at this time. The swarm moves up the stream and as there becomes more and more of them the actual emergence peters out, time to sit down and have lunch and give the puppy a big chew bone to keep the bugger quite! A few Hendrickson's did do a float by and there were no takers at all. Just a typical very early season day on Big Fishing Creek, it is a stream that takes a while to warm up and get things moving, my guess is that if you are there today (Friday) you would see an entirely different emergence BUT remember caddis tend to emerge in the morning then gather on structure and do their mating swarm later in the day, at that time a down winged spent caddis will result in a lot of fish. For the caddis hatch I use black bodies bubble back caddis with CDC and deer hair for the adult and a bead head pupa pattern.
  Oh my "Drake" needs a lot of work before I can take him off his lead, he tends to be prey oriented and needs constant attention, our fault for treating like a baby.
 
Enjoy

It has started

I fished Penns on Sunday before going to State College and had a nice morning with no one around! The parking lot was full of cars but no one at Johnson's, a nice day was had trying out some of the monster new streamers that have come off my vise this winter, very big articulated patterns that I had to see if they swam right, they in fact did but I noticed that maybe I should put some weight in them because they did not track that deep maybe 18-24" under the surface and that is not deep enough for the cold spring water- so back to the vise for me!
  When I was getting out of the water I did notice that the shore rocks are starting to have a few Grannon cases on them and that is a sure sign that the emergence will be sooner than expected with the good weather and lower water on Penns.
  Stay tuned for more on the early Spring conditions, the Witch Hazel has bloomed at least 2 weeks early this year, maybe we will have Grannom's and Hendrickson's early this year?

Some dates to remember

Just received an e mail from the Spring Creek Chapter of TU reminding me of a very special event this Sunday March 13th! "Veterans Service Program Streamside Opener" at the PFBC Fisherman's Paradise facility 1150 Spring Creek Road., Bellefonte. Veterans and all family members Streamside Mentors Anyone interested in checking it out. Come out for fishing, great food, kids games, hatchery tours, hookups with veterans,business/ industry leaders, lots of laughs and fishing! The chapter has a help veterans fish on Sunday in Paradise, they provide the equipment and the leadership needed, just show up and ask for help, what a fine way to give back to the guys and gals who gave for us, come check it out.
  Save Saturday March 19 at 9:00 AM at the Union County Sportsman's Club in Weikert for the "Fly Pool", bring your fly tying tools and materials and show what your working on for this year and see what the other guys are doing, it is a great time to renew old contacts and maybe shed some of that excess material you have, coffee & donuts along with lunch is provided- just show up and tie!
 I'll see you at both events, this past week was "Olives" on Spring Creek.

A little venting

I received an e mail the other day about the The Feathered Hook wanting to start some float trips down Penns, I totally understand someone wanting to have more cash flow for their business and their desire to give their customers who may not be able to wade or walk the distances needed to get to some of the spots a helping hand, but? I have seen the amount of canoes and kyaks that come down in the Spring and just what they do to the fishing- nothing! the fish go down for a while then come right back up the only thing these people do is piss us anglers off, they almost never have manners enough to ask if it's ok to float by or try and go behind us instead they cause us to get up set! Think about it most of them go past quickly and quietly then the fish rise again in a few minutes but when the beer/soda cans come down after them that is cause for great concern but that is not why the new venture of guides and float boats is bad it is where the heck are they going to take out at, if it is private property without permission well then watch out for land to be posted and all of us suffer, this will prove to be a very toxic issue, stay tuned for the wars to begin. I for one will not be happy if some bearded guide floats to where I am and begins to have his client fish where I am- that will result in a not so nice conversation and maybe a raining of rocks in the water!
  Another subject that has pissed me off or shows how old I am is all the new films on fly fishing shows guy's with beards, tattoos and pearcings everywhere and they call every body "dude", where are the old gentlemen of our sport who have manners and style, I guess gone with the passage of time. I see the same ass holes doing competition fishing in our beloved streams for the sake of a few dollars or a medal, what the hell do numbers mean, just enjoy the total experience! For Christ sakes just enjoy the total outdoor experience and maybe catch a few in the meantime.

New items to consider

Just received a few items from Devin Olsen at www.tacticalflyfisher.com, Veevus Body Quill in various colors, this new product will allow you to make very thin life like bodies on nymphs, emergers and dry both duns and spinners just use white thread as a base and over wrap this to give your bodies a really good depth and life like appearance, comes is some great colors. Another product is Veevus Iridesent thread, this is what I have been using on most of my spent wing midge patterns for 30 years but finally it now comes on a standard spool, it is an iridescent threat that when used as a body will bring life to an otherwise dull looking fly, just catches light at the correct angles to appear to be moving! I bought this in a sewing store years ago and it came on some really weird spools that needed a special bobbin to be able to use it, thanks for the new upgrade to normal spools. I also just got some Semperfli Straggle String to fool around with- looks like ultra small crystal chenille , will make for some wild caddis emergers. Give this fellow a try his speed of delivery it just great and he offers some really new items and has some nice video's of new patterns.
  I have also been using some new Hends S10 barbless scud/Czech hooks and have found them to be a good quality and really sharp. One note the other week I was using some new Tiemco Comp. jig style hooks and found them to be sharp as heck but it was almost dam impossible to get a trailer hook tied on because of their sharpness and the fact that the black finish on them is just so darn slippery they make tying and improved chench knot a must and if it is not tied well it will in fact slip!  I did find that it was a little easier to fish a good run without getting hung up on the bottom because the hook rides point up. I will try to attach an article by Devin about how to tie the wing case on top and not worry about tying it on the bottom, his logic makes sense as does his use of black nail polish to make wing cases! Sorry can not figure out how to get the article attached so please check out his web page. Want to fish in a Winter flood- try today.
   Also check out www.flytying123.com some good stuff. Also Fly vs, Jerks is back with season 7 and the first episode was just great, just Google it and sit back an enjoy.