A hint about the new black nickel hooks

As I have said during this two year high water event tying flies has replaced fishing for a lot of us and during that time I have been trying new hooks from some different sources. I really like the new Fulling Mill hooks and find them to be really good quality as are some of the newer Tiemco jig type hooks BUT with the new black nickel finish comes a problem- thread turning! I have been using 6/0 Herd Howards prewaxed thread for most of my tying like (like 60 years) and have found it to be one of the best ever made but with the newer hooks I now find that I have to use Zap-A-Gap on the thread base just to make sure it is secure before adding any materials to the fly. I also have seen the same with some of the stronger power threads that I use when I'm tying big streamers or intruder style flies. I do think that it makes for a better lasting fly but who cares, hell I have too many now so if you loose a few or they come apart no big deal but for my own satisfaction I have begun to use the Zap on my flies. The only problem that I have found with using it is the dam bottle is hard to open after you have used it for a while, it builds up as you wipe the excess liquid off the brush- the stuff is hard to clean and if your not careful you'll glue yourself! Another problem is the fact it's not that easy to find in craft stores, they sell off brands and not real Zap-A-Gap, plus if you put too much on it takes a while to dry. Almost all new tying videos feature it at some point in the tying process, so if you have not used it give it a try, make sure you get the brush applicator for ease of use. I also have used it when I'm adding wing material to my intruders just to keep thread bulk to a min.
  Go ahead and keep tying, this moisture has got to stop at some point?

It's Olive time

OK the stupid Green Drake is over and so are the hoards of idiots running all over the place, time to get down to business. Fished Spring over the weekend and it was OK not bad but not great, all deep scuds! I took fish were I saw guys standing the day before? Not much surface going on, it was all later evening Sulphur duns and spinners BUT take a number or find a spot no one else liked! The fish there are nice and fat  from the higher than normal rain fall. If you go remember to take two flies, #1. a size 16 tan/gray scud with a mono rib, #2 a size 16 lt. tan caddis either an emerger or a dry, you will do well. Think raspberry time as tan caddis time.
   Penn's is going crazy now with the Cornuta (now called Drunella) emergers and of course spinners. As I was leaving driving down the Weikert Road you could see just millions of spinners over the road and you can imagine just how many of these guys hatch, we never see a great enmass hatch of them, it must be all nite. The fish are keying in of the spinners just at about 7:00 PM which is about right but you will see many fish up in the pools before that, use an emerger either an olive or a light cahill type will work. Saw no ISO's last nite, but on a good cloudy day you'll see them. The olives are solid size 15 and the ISO's are a size 10 or a 12 3x long. Be aware that  the most heavely fished areas the trout have become very slick and have learned to open their mouth and shake if they refuse your offering at that last second. Same MO as other years, olives beat their wings at the riffles and as they go down the pool expel their eggs and then float without motion- fish mid pool to tail out. Most fish last nite came to a size 16 tied short darker olive floating nymph or a 14 cahill color floating nymph tied with a loop wing of grey poly and split legs, just get it to float well or time the trout with your offering. None of this is easy, it just takes a while to spot the good targets ( find the ones that push a good amount of water) and wait till they get in some kind of rhythm, if not you'll screw them up before you have any chance.
  One good piece of advice is to find water that has not gotten the piss pounded out of it, take a walk but remember not all pools will have good population of olives, you need a good long riffle leading into it or a pool that has a good amount of under water vegetation in it. Take a walk and just watch an observe before you commit to a pool for the nite.
   Get you ants and beetles ready but some years are better than others for beetles, I remember a few years ago the conditions were perfect for them but the trout said a loud NO, could not figure that one out.

Call Noah

Gees just when the levels were getting manageable this shit started again, I had 1.9" of rain Sunday and most all the Central PA. area had about the same! If this keeps up like last year our trout will be huge when we can get to the water, they feed very well in high water. Even if you decide to toss some really heavy streamers it will be very hard to get them down deep enough. How about trying some of our smaller streams around, Weikert Run, Laurel Run or maybe White Deer may be good choices if you just need to wet a line, just remember to downsize your rod length. The same nymphs and streamers will work well on them but maybe a bit smaller, the choice for dries is pretty simple- think Adams.
  I have more flies than any one person can ever think to use in their life time, now I'm going back and looking at all my boxes and giving them the once over to see if I can improve any of them. I did find that my selection of caddis emergers was a bit thin given the sheer length of time we see our tan caddis emerge. The organza ribbon caddis emeger tied like Davie McPhail is just a killer pattern and fishing it suspended off a Blue Ribbon tan Iris dry is just killer about the time our local raspberries are rip to pick!
  Another option is to find a good pond and practice casting with a long leader and some weighted wet flies for Sunfish, they just god wild for them or us some bait. I take my granddaughter to the pond at Tussey Mt. Ski area and we just have a ball catching Sunfish but we use wax worms and Eagle Claw Circle Bait hooks, these work well for younger people because the fish hook themselves- only make sure you have good hemostats because they do hook and hold well. Sometimes when we are there the larger bass begin to get active and try to eat the fish she has on her line while she is reeling them in this makes for total chaos. Give this type of fishing a try, it will help calm the itch you have!

Everything will pop at once!

If you look at what is happening on Penn's, Fishing Creek and Spring it appears that all the major May hatches will pop at about the same time due in part because of the water temp. We will have Grey Fox, March Brown's, Tan Caddis and Sulphur's all at once- boy it will be tough to tell what they are eating. For my money I'll take the Grey Fox (fished off the banks mid pool to tail out) and the tan caddis (Blue Ribbon's Iris Caddis pattern is the best every). The tan caddis is a long a wonderful hatch lasting till Trico time and beyond, emergers in the AM and adults most of the day.
  Sulphur's on Penn's and Spring can be just wonderful but it presents a hard puzzle to solve as to what stage the trout are eating on any given day, just slow down and watch before you blast that cast. After that sprinkle in some Crane Flies and a lot of spinners and no wonder all the fish look like little pigs when you land them in May. Beware the Drake fever might be higher than normal this year due to more water under special reg's (this tends to bring more people to an area), I for one hate that hatch because of the nuts it brings and what it does to the fish when guys rip them and then let them go, we see more dead fish after that hatch than any other time of the year.
  I just finished an order for intruder trout flies and can attest to the fact that OPST trailer hooks have to be the sharpest hooks on the market, drove one in my thumb and had to push it out the other side and pinch the barb down before backing it out, the hooks can either be up or down and when up they get in your way till you put a hair clip over it!
  I see the next "7" days are to be cloudy with showers- any more perfect on could not want- just go!

Grannom's?

Looks as if this years Grannom hatch will be a brown water (high water) event due to the 1" plus rain we had last Friday, Penn's is still running close to 2000 cfs! When will we break this shitty weather pattern with all the moisture coming up from the South and not from the West as usual. I know it's good for our water table but really can we just wade a bit with out the fear of getting washed down stream.
  Look for Grey Fox, March Brown and yes Sulphurs soon but don't forget the Grannom spent adults in the early afternoon IF the water goes down.

A Perfect Day was a BUST

Thursday seemed to be the perfect day, cloudy and cool in the morning BUT turned out to be sunny, windy and a bit colder- a total bust except for the 4 trout that rose all afternoon just off the far bank just up from Johnson's cabin!!! Yes Little Black Stones, Quill Gordon's, Hendrickson's and some caddis were out but we had no players. Was nice to catch up with some old and new friends.
   The Grannom is a good week away based on the number of caddis covering the rocks near shore, when it's time for them to emerge the rocks will be covered and you know it is time. We just have to wait till it gets a bit warmer and a good cloudy day?

Check the flowers

Hey it's that time of the year when the forsythia are blooming (not in your back yard but in the mountain stream side) and that means Grannom's in the morning till noon then Hendrickson's emerging till about 3-4 PM then Grannom egg laying and then Hendickson spinner falls! A wonderful time of the year, this is about 4-5 days away. My favorite stream for this is Big Fishing Creek between Tylersville and Lamar in the narrows section.
  Hey what the hell's up with all the No Trespassing signs on Penn's now? Check it out just above AFREO cabin!!