Advice for Penns Creek tomorrow

[Flyman234]

Can anyone give a first time green drake chaser some tips for Penns creek tomorrow night?

Thanks in advance,

Bobby

 

[Flyman234]

Yeah...the title was supposed to be Penns creek, damn autocorrect!

 

[Maurice]

Flyman234 wrote:
Can anyone give a first time green drake chaser some tips for Penns creek tomorrow night?

Thanks in advance,

Bobby

Yes

http://www.thefeatheredhook.com/stream-reports.php

Shouldn't be hard to find them....I'd go to Tunnel Road and walk down toward Ingleby. Take a rain coat....and lotsa water. It'll be slow during the day if its hot but if you can find some rising fish it could be fun....oh yeah, get there early to get a spot. It'll be crowded for sure.

 

[Angled]

early to get spot is mainly for a "parking" spot. Be prepared to walk back out in dark with headlamp if want to experience the full popping. Try a big sulfur early on then switch to the drake for dusk-dark. No need for fine tippet as will be dark & fish are big, wild and strong. If you enjoy seeing lots of activity then will be fun but if expecting to catch a lot then will be a disappointment. It is a lot of action (casting to rising fish every cast) but little catching. There is no single hotspot as flies and rising fish will be everywhere as long as the forecasted hail stones dont obscure your vision. Ideally fish current areas but with uniform flow to avoid problems with line drag & mending, although at peak of activity will likely have fish rising by your boots so no need for long casts.

 

[hammertime]

Angled wrote:
early to get spot is mainly for a "parking" spot. Be prepared to walk back out in dark with headlamp if want to experience the full popping. Try a big sulfur early on then switch to the drake for dusk-dark. No need for fine tippet as will be dark & fish are big, wild and strong. If you enjoy seeing lots of activity then will be fun but if expecting to catch a lot then will be a disappointment. It is a lot of action (casting to rising fish every cast) but little catching. There is no single hotspot as flies and rising fish will be everywhere as long as the forecasted hail stones dont obscure your vision. Ideally fish current areas but with uniform flow to avoid problems with line drag & mending, although at peak of activity will likely have fish rising by your boots so no need for long casts.

+1

This is the best advice you could give somebody about the Drake hatch. Well said Angled.

 

[krayfish]

#1. Show up at 8 am so you can find a spot

#2. Sweat like you were waiting for a jury to come back with decision on death penalty

#3. Shake your head and then relocate after 3 d-bags wade out in the run you've set up to fish

#4. Hope the spinnerfall is so heavy that the fish can't find your fly

The drake spinnerfall is a sight to see but the fishing is better at other times. I hadn't fished it in 10+ years but went to Penns last night. That should hold me for another 10 years. F that circus. It is by far the most over hyped / overrated thing in fly fishing. I rather have my paycheck based on what I could catch in the letort using a 15' spey rod.

 

[JackM]

My GD experiences:

1. First mass emergence at dark with 4-5 good friends, a cooler of beer and lanterns resulting in jaw-dropping amazement, but no fish, didn't really try.

2. Fished next morning, few duns riding the current and fish casually sipping them from a hold they would not deviate from. The key was drifting EXACTLY in their narrow current flow.

3. Many likewise entralled fly anglers, all sharing the spectacle and speculating on techniques, patterns and theories of feeding behaviors.

4. Running out of the hot pattern and contemplating asking for credit at the fly shop because I only had enough money for gas to get home.

5. Memories for a lifetime.

If you think you might want to-- do it. Regardless of result, you will enjoy the adventure.

 

[jdaddy]

Its funny because csoult and i hit penns the night before krayfish and really enjoyed it. dont go out at 8 am. either go out at 5:30 am and fish until 9 or 10, then take a nice long breakfast/lunch/nap then get back out at 5 pm. fish abundent sulpurs, olived, caddis, etc until 8 or so then throw on a HUGE coffin fly with a nice bright post that you can track. you will be amazed at the bugs. simply blown away. you may or may not ecperience success. crowds were bad mid-week. i can only imagine weekends.

 

[sipe]

I fished the spinner fall near Poe Paddy last night ...my first Drake experience....awesome. I only landed 2 fish but the bugs are a spectacle to behold. My fish were 15 & 17.5" and I missed a couple other takes on big Coffinfly spinners. I caught my last fish at 10pm. Apparently the hatch was upstream of us towards ingleby. But the spinners were awesome. I knew what Penns offered...tough fishing, big fish, few catches before I went so I was not disappointed. It's worth it to experience the bugs. Geez, the bugs...those friggin bugs.

 

[krayfish]

There were more anglers than coffin flies on the lower end. Fish took sulphur emerger, march brown spinner caddis emerger and coffin fly. I saw a ton of stones and a crazy olive hatch.

Jeff, if my coffin fly were any bigger, I could have cast it with a spinning rod. Lol. It's neat to see once. I'll mark my calendar....not to hit the hatch but to avoid the area during that hatch.

 

[jdaddy]

krayfish wrote:

Jeff, if my coffin fly were any bigger, I could have cast it with a spinning rod. Lol.

lol. you have such a way with hyperbole. but in this case its about right.

 

[Hook_Jaw]

I did better with wooven stones then anything. Kray it is no doubt a circus and mostly filled with idiots who have no commen sense at all. The water however was boiling with action there's so much stuff coing off. I'll give it a couple more shots this week as it's in Coburn now well see what happens not a great year fishing the drakes for me.

 

[martin0206]

I think I learned this weekend lesson number 1 is to avoid the area where the main hatch is happening and Poe Paddy if possible. I didn't see crazy crowds ahead of the hatch.

 

[Hook_Jaw]

That's always the case Martin when it's in the c@r it's alot of walking can get away from guys sometimes I like fishing a head of it and fish the nymph but not much action except on wooven stones I caught some decent trout.

 

[Stimey]

I agree with Krayfish, I never went up there for "Drake" before, so I went on Saturday (and don't think I will do it again). What a zoo! But it was worth seeing all the bugs. Had a pretty good spot picked out until 3 guys came in and decided it would be good to fish right next to me. One went above, one below and one came from the other side of the stream directly across from me. I was there more to see the bugs so I didn't get too upset. Almost stepped on a copperhead down in the lower C&R section. 1st time I'd ever seen a copperhead at Penns (and no I didn't kill it)

 

[Hook_Jaw]

It's hard not to tell anyone off sometimes but if your gonna go gotta realize that's the way it is

 

[DaveS]

I was there Saturday. For all the hoopla that goes on for the Drakes, I didn't think it was really that crowded. There was a good 60, 80 yards between us and the next angler, upstream and down. In that amount of stream, on Penns, that's more fish than you are going to need for one evening IMHO. I didn't even walk very far from where we parked.

 

[Hook_Jaw]

Seems like alot of guys leave even before it gets dark and comes off saw alot of people leaving early.

 

[Stimey]

Picture of the copperhead, if I resized it correctly

 

[DaveS]

I Stayed until I lost a contact lens about 10 PM. At that point, I felt the challenge was too much too handle, lacking much depth perception, in the darkness, with a few thousand coffin flies in my ear.