2020 Spring Creek Redd Count

Here is the results for the 2020 redd count for our section, The Blue Bridge at Rock Road downstream to the bridge at Benner Spring trout hatchery. The conditions were good cold but not too cold and a nice overcast sky which makes it easier to see into the stream. The water was 48 degrees and LOW with tons of alge on the bottom, you could not fish nymphs in this section without cleaning your fly off every cast. Saw a Bald Eagle and three live cock pheasents just wandering around (recent stockers) and one dead bird in the stream. We counted 127 redds and some of them were massive, a lot of them were tucked along down logs or large rocks and some had active fish on them but most were void of fish. We did see a lot of fish scooting out from our approach and we saw 5 active risng fish. All in all a good total maybe not as good as last year but really close. It looks as if Spring Creek is doing well and will be in the future. I'll post the totals as soon as I get them. Happy Thanksgiving

Nov. 22 Redd Count for Spring Creek plus a clean up!!

If you have the time we could use your help on Nov. 22nd at 9:00 AM at Spring Creek Park in Houserville, PA (just off Rt 26 before the exit to the stadium), we will be doing our annual redd count plus this year cleaning up the stream side areas. We have been seeing quite a few spawing fish this past week and believe they will continue to mate till December, this year is not normal at all, we have not had out post leaf fall flush of higher water so the redds may not be in their normal spots. If your fishing on Spring Creek of Big Fishing Creek be CAREFUL do not fish to spawing fish at all! If your ar BFC you'll be amaized at the size of some of the female fish you'll see! Spring has a few of the big ones also but leave them alone! If you can help just look at Spring Creek Chapter of TU's wed site for directions and sign ups also check out the Zoom cast this Thursday Nov 4 th @ 7:30 PM for a presentation on Brook Trout- again find the direction from Spring Creek's web site.

New Materials

Here is a small sample of the new materials I have been using with wonderful results; Stonfo Streamer Soft Heads (size 1 & 2) in place of Fish Mask #5 from Fish Skull, they are easy to get on smaller sized stramers and you can get them on a bit bulkier heads there by makeing for a much neater finish on your flies. They are easy to push on and take super glue or UV resin well plus the eye sockets are large giving you a better option for eyes on them Hends; Lead Wire Flat 0.2 x 1 mm this gives you a really nice flat under bodies on any weighted nymph pattern that you might want to tie, not expensive and really worth the money. Trout Ledgend; slotted Tung beads in packs of 25, if your having trouble getting beads give Trout Legend a try the are fast and very well price and they have the colors, sizes you need. Very fast efficient delivery from Springville, NY! Hends; Spectra Dubbing, they have to colors and sparkle we are looking for PLUS the stuff dubs easly, I use their black, peacock green and peacock bronze for all my beetle under bodies. There are some other dubbing that have the sparkle and colors but they are really hard to dub without using a ton of dubbing wax! Dave Whitlock; SLF Pattern Blends dubbing mateial, easy to dub and a really good assortment of specific pattern dubbing blends. It is soft with the right amount of shimmer in them. Natures Sprit; x-caddis deer hair, you will never be dissapointed with any of their products but the caddis x deer hair is spot on, just the correct colors and the hair size is prfect. I see so many tyers who struggle with! The selection of deer hair they offer is great, leave it up to them. Hemmingway's; Synthetic Tapered Peacock Quill in Nat., Yellow Olive, Brown and Olive. This stuff makes just killer quill bodies on nymphs or larger or mid sized dry flies. No more soaking quills or even stripping them to get the tapered quill body your seeking. I have tied some killer stonefly nymphs using this material- give them a try. Here's where it buy; Stonfo Soft heads- J Stockerd or Dakota Angler Hend's products- Trout Ledgend, they carry a lot of Hends products Dave Whitlock- TCO in State College or Dakota Angler Nature's Sprit- Dakota Angler or J Stockerd in CT Hemmingways- Dakota Angler Hey the Olives are on Penn's, Spring and Bald Eagle!

Bastard's

Just when I thought it was safe to say someone did something right we get screwed and are too dam dumb to realize it. Now if you read the new issue of Fly Fisherman mag. you get the real truth about the Prebble Mine! I quote "No decision on Prebble Mine until after election", that means we are being used as dummies to vote for the present adim. then we get screwed. Even with Nick Ayers, Donald Trump Jr. and Johhny Morris appearing on Tucker Carlson Tonight show slowing this down it appears that it is only a matter of time till this goes ahead. It is a shame that politicions use us sportsmen and women as a pocker chip just to get either elected or reelected. Both of the Alaska Senator's are just double talking about this and riding the fence till after the election. As I have said before this is nothing more than a game to the mine owners, wait and pay off people to get what you want, I bet it would be avery different story if it was an American company wanting to put a shitty mine in Canada? OK enought of that, just keep watching and we will get a clear idea of just how much our leaders care about our views. On a happy note the water is cooling down and the fish are getting active now, Oct. caddis have begun to appear and the trout will take one if your getting it over them. Olives have started on cloudy days and there have been some flying ants if your in the right location. Still tying flies like crazy every evening, I'm trying to do smaller patterns now now that I can see well, maybe there might be a time when my hands and eyes will not let me tie the smaller patterns, heck I have enough Trico spinners to last the rest of my life, BUT. We all need to keep refining our tying and our patterns every year, sometimes I look at stuff I tied 30 years ago and wonder what the heck I was thinking. I have been trying new materials and will post a review of them in the near future. If you walk into some of the fly shops now they are all excited about Cortland and SA tippet material, I for one am very happy with Trout Hunter and am not willing to try yet another new best thing!

OMG go look at the river below the dam in Sunbury

We took the dog for a walk below the Fibra Dam at the South end of Sunbury and it is just hard to believe just how low the river is, never in my adult years have I seen it this bad, there were 18 white cranes and a larger one just eating minnows. Also there were at least 50 of the red head mergansers just going nuts chasing and eating minnows just off the boat launch area. If there was any smallmouth spawing this year I will bet most of the fry are gone by now. Jesus we need rain and not just a little but a lot. I am holding off fishing this week in order to do some fly rod and line cleaning, yes I do also clean my rods not the grips but just the rod shafts while also giving them a good lokk to see if I might have hit them with a stupid back cast. Oh by the way PLEASE go to the Fiberglass Manifesto blog and look at the 12 Prebble Mine tapes- those ass holes will not let this die and it is all based on LIES! So far Trump has not killed it either, so we have to keep fighing to get rid of this stupid gold mine! If we do get some rain get out after with flying ants and a lot of olives because it will be really good.

Get creative

It's time to get creative, not much going on on top so try swinging a big wet or an intruder (light on light days and a dark one on cloudy days), don't get too big yet about 3" is just right. The other day all I could get any fish to take was a 3" light tan intruder, BUT make sure you get them down and not high in water column. and keep them in the full swing. It's also time to target midge feeders on top, Penn's clears up really nice in late Sept and Oct, so clear that it's really easy to wade. The trout are on midges at this time and there are not a lot of them feeding but the ones that are tend to be good ones- this is really slow techinacle fishing with 6-7x tippet and careful wading in order to not wake them. Try it, only the very large pools tend to have this action, Stan's pllo has a good amount of them BUT make sure the water is cool and not in the 70's.

Trico time has gone

Sad to report that the Trico's are about done, maybe a few stragglers might show if the weather keeps warm but the rise is short and sweet. Still taking fish on beetles but it's a chore to find water that has not been fished over. I would expect to see ants after Friday, it is to be very nice they love that weather pattern. Now is the time to get you BWO boxes ready, cloudy days in the mid afternoon will bring them out in force. Remember that the BWO's come off in waves, they come then stop then come again. Yu my have to look for a spot that holds them because not every area has a good population of them. Carry #16 thru #20's I would also carry some 3" shiner streamer patterns to tease some ot the more aggresive fish with. Beat Covid 19- go fish!