Do not forget these

If your out and about in this wonderful weather we have been having and happen to be along a trout stream in the afternoon and early evening- do not for get to carry a good selection of flying ants, if you do not have them and the trout begin to feed on them go home because it will be one of the most frustrating time you will every have. Trout become very selective when they are on the ant feed and will reject your offering if it is not the correct color and size, carry the following just to be sure;
#14 thru #20 Black spent winged ants
#14 thru #20 Red spent winged ants
#14-#16 Black front and cinnamon rear end ants these guys make an appearance on occasion. Your pattern has to have "2' body parts and either spent or swept back wings as long as they are there and some hackle, very simple patterns but if you do not have them along and the swarm occurs you are out of luck. This is the time of the year when the ants will swam to develop new colonies and warm sunny afternoon's are the perfect time, sleep in an arrive by noon and you will be fine. The following streams have very strong ant activity, Penn's, Big Fishing Creek, Bald Eagle and Spring Creek BUT this is a very specific area occurrence so you might have to walk and look for them.
  Also carry some Iso's just in case and the Olives should be along any day if the weather turns shitty, oh and a few smaller streamers would help, light & dark to cover the light condition.
Good Luck

At Last!

At last the Trico's were out in numbers and there were rising fish but had to wait till 10:30 AM for it to warm up. Fished Spring Creek early with a #16 red floating, under trees and in the shade, the browns like to eat the little guy, nice slow confident risers! Took off to look below the Milesburg bridge and what do you know they were up and in good rhythm, had to pick your fish because there are just too many of those smaller rainbows around but they are really fat and fight well. Took "2" really good browns in the shade and was on the move for a third one till the GD ducks decided that a fight was in order and raised hell on the water, count that good fish down! A #24 black spent wing Trico did the trick on 6.5x Head Hunter tippet and a WF #2 SA line just nice slow fishing with really good rising fish that were not in a hurry, this action lasted till 12:15 and then it was over! Asked a few guys at Fisherman's Paradise and they said the Trico's were there but that no steady rising fish showed, again that is why you have to look around till you find the fish that want to eat. All in all a very nice day, have to get them in before my new puppy gets here, fishing and dog training really do not go that well together but this guy will fish with me, look for us after the end of Sept.

There are none !

OK I have been checking Turkey Hill, Valerio and Panera for signs of the "White Fly" and there have not been any, I see some other smaller light yellow duns and spinners and a few Iso's but no white guys. What the heck happened, I will not accept the suggestion that is has been to hot, heck about every year we have low water and high water temp's but this years no flies, how can a population just not appear for a year, yes it has been true that the volume in the past few years has not been what it was at one time and we do expect that any population will have swings in density but to have them just disappear is just a puzzle. Might there be a correlation between the black fly spraying and the demise of the white flies? Why the heck does the State of PA waste money spraying for the black flies when it is a species that does not bite, oh yea it does bother the big guys while they golf at the country club- might that be the reason they keep spraying, oh no! Why take that amount of biomass and kill it rather that have it be food for our fish population, the logic is puzzling of course any thing the State does makes little or no sense. It would do no good to call the PA Fish Comm. because they are more concerned with their own agenda and would not want to bother with a trivial thing like the loss of a population if insects, just another bug lost oh well no big deal, remember the passenger pigeon! Anyone have any ideas?

What is happening?

Some of us really enjoy going to the Sunbury Fiber Dam and fishing the "White Fly" hatch but as of this week there are "0" of them, they usually make their appearance by Aug 10-15, so far none. If you look near the shores you can see them or on one of the river bridges their presence will be seen at night or the next morning as their bodies will cover the road like a blanket, not this year. I have seen other species on windows around town but no white guys, I have heard that they are around the Harrisburg area and by this time they should have been here! The conditions have been just right for them low water and clear on the Sunbury side (the water did come up after this weeks rain), just perfect for wading around below the dam and fishing towards the shore but not yet.
  Another mayfly that has seen better days are the Trico's on Spring Creek and Bald Eagle, they are there but not in the number we did have years ago (Christ I sound old). Thirty years ago I took Dave from Fishing Creek Outfitters and we had no less that 20-30 feeding trout in from of us at just one hole, well you might be lucky to see 10 fish up in a really long pool, the flies are just not there, yes you might see a small mating swarm but then the spinner fall is not en mass, this will result in the trout not getting on them like they should, all the good spots are the same, shit plant, pines, willow pool and the junction pool are all the same. What the heck is happening to our mayflies, anyone have an idea? Guys something is happening to our waters and we are just not seeing the results fast enough to react but I am not a fan of the DEP spraying on the river but Spring does not have that issue so it has to be something else!

Trouble in Coburn

Last week I looked at all the USGS sites and found that Penns was in the best shape, Spring and Bald Eagle were both too high to support a decent Trico spinner fall- hell the trout could not take them that fast as they would float by them! As one again cleaning the parking area at the walk over bridge below Coburn I met a fellow from Manitoba, Canada that has a summer cabin on Big Fishing Creek who had his dog over on Penns for a long walk an swim, talk about a long drive for a summer vacation- wow. Once again I had to clean the parking lot, just full of crap and one pile had nothing but sun tan lotion bottles on it (4 to be exact) as I was getting ready to fish one of the local fellows drove down and showed me more of his pictures and tell me about the 70 year old from Milheim that has long white hair and his habit of coming down at 5-6 AM and fishing minnows and taking every trout he catches home, some time eating them or selling them to the Amish, the fellow also told me that he and another guy called the PA Fish Comm. and got no where, heck it took them 4 days to call them back and the Waterways office told him that he was to busy to come over and take a look- what the hell ever happened to the old days when a poacher would be a target of an field trip, I guess a few trout are not that important any more,maybe the locals should teach the fellow a lesson on driving a truck that has holes in the tires or something else that will make him think twice before he does this crap again but these types of guys never change till they die or become to old to do their thing. If you are there in the early morning and see this guy fishing minnows and in the act of keeping fish do confront him, this crap has to stop.
  Tried to fish this Wed but it again rained like hell for most of the morning, my advice buy an ark.

Time for Trico's and Caddis

If it ever stops raining maybe we can fish without fearing for our lives because of the lighting or the fast rising waters. This week it looks as if we can get a chance to fish one of the best time in the entire year the first two or three weeks of the Trico hatch and spinner fall, I focus on spinners and very seldom even fish a dun but before the fish get spooky after getting pounded by guys who can't cast a shit or don't know how to get a good drift make the fish ultra picky- go now. As on the Missouri River make sure your first cast is the best one, across and slightly downstream is the best presentation. I use #24 or a #26 (if the fish are picky) poly wing black or dark olive spinner with the barbs pinched down. After a good hour of spinner time, it will be about the time the #16 tan caddis start to make their appearance, do not over look these, at this time of year the trout feed on them very well, if your on Penns in the morning look for spent caddis in the slicks or back eddies then as the morning fades look for the adults to emerge just fluttering over the waters surface, trout love them.
  If I'm fishing Spring or Bald Eagle and it gets to be noon, I have lunch then look for a shady section to fish a #12 black foam beetle or it it's Penns a #16 Black ant or a nice fat hopper pattern! Nice easy slow fishing and your home early- just do it. I was surprised as to how good Penns is holding up and how it did not get blown out at Coburn and below Weikert, not like Spring and Bald Eagle and not to mention Big Fishing Creek they all are suffering from excessive water but hey normally we don't have any this time of year!

Water water everywhere!

As I write this on the 4th of July we are blessed or cursed with a ton of water, no fishing for a few weeks will do the trout well. The other week I was to help the Big Brother & Sisters of Center County with a fish out at the Federal Hatchery in Lamar but due to a violent thunderstorm it was cancelled unit July 7th (no worry about high water all the fish are in a raceway), I drove back to State College to fish the afternoon. I have know Steve S. at Fly Fisher's Paradise for more than 40 years and always value our conversations, this time he was in a bad mood because of guys fishing Penns with the higher water temp's, ok we might do that but most of us stop fishing Penns in July & August because of low water and high temp's, ok that was solved. Steve also was adamant about anglers not using big tandem streamers for trout, might a new book by Geo. Daniel have something to do with this? Steve also once again told me to use wet black ants and this has not been the first time he has told me this, he even said it works well on Penns, ok I gave it a try on Spring that afternoon and it did work very well, I used a #16 black epoxy ant under a NZ wool indicator with "2" very small shot to get it down, not bad to cast and the trout ate it, next time your out give it a try! I have not used any streamers with tandem hooks and really do not know if it really hurts the fish as Steve thinks it does, all my streamers are single hooks and I am now just starting to do some tube and intruder style streamers for later in the year when I hunt for bigger browns in Bald Eagle!
  Until the water goes down read or tie flies and give the trout a good rest because on Penns they really need it, if you see the amount of guys that fish below Cherry Run in the last 2 months you will understand why they need a rest period- where the hell do they all come from "Hoffman's cabin"?