Favorite Trico patterns

[Burnsie]

Fishing the Tully in Reading this morning, the water was warm but fish were rising pretty good for Dunns on the water before light. I threw everything I had with only one hook up. Looking for a pattern that has proved itself on that creek. Any sugestions

 

[jdaddy]

Burnsie wrote:
Fishing the Tully in Reading this morning, the water was warm but fish were rising pretty good for Dunns on the water before light. I threw everything I had with only one hook up. Looking for a pattern that has proved itself on that creek. Any sugestions

I have a ton of suggestions.

First, are you keeping those fish or releasing them?

 

[Burnsie]

Always catch and release

 

[teacreekfreak]

burnsie,

u might want to invest in a thermometer, if the water is above 70 degrees, catch and release does not do much good, fish have low survival rate if water temp exceeds these high H2O temps.....never fished the tully, but i believe the temps there can exceed the danger zone, stick to limestoners that stay cool if you want to protect the resource

 

[NCPAtrtbum]

I'd keep away from trout if the water temp is above 70 degrees, just my two cents.

 

[trout_stalker]

...fish were rising pretty good for Dunns...

What are Dunns?

 

[Maurice]

Its Dun. (one N)

Its the stage of a mayfly after the nymph where they emerge to the surface and molt from their nymphal shuck exposing wings for the sub-imago stage of a mayfly life.

Dun is the nickname for sub imago. It indicates a mayfly prior to the Spinner stage. The imago stage

I am looking to get out in the am on a stream with Tricos, tying some now.....storms could mess it up. If yer heading out somewhere in SCPA, let me know and I might be able to make it.

 

[stevehalupka]

if you fish, don't throw duns haha

 

[jdaddy]

Burnsie wrote:
Always catch and release

Ok. In that case I'll be gentle and assume you are not familiar with the outrageous nature of your opening statement and will send you a PM with my contact info. I will provide plenty of trico winners, alternate waters and info on fishing during the heat of Summer.

In the stream discussion section of the forum I have a post a couple of days ago regarding the exhaustion of cool water pocket in the lake since Tuesday and how the marginal temps are now cooking hot. If you fish the Tully right now simply rope your fish and enjoy dinner. Please don't throw them back to die. Alternately you can skip this quasi tailwater and fish plenty of other streams that are nice and cold. I put a link in the other thread that should be a ready reference for the weeks historical temps. A thermometer alone does not tell the whole story.

Maurice, I am planning on fishing a lot this month. Shoot me a pm and we'll chase some tricos down.

 

[Burnsie]

Well I was aware of the water Temp, it was 65 degrees at first light and I know not to fish above 70. I had not been to that creek in several weeks and wanted to check it out. Before I went I checked the stream conditions at TCO web site plus it was a cool morning bringing the water temp. down. All I was looking for was some ideas on trico patterns instead i get spelling lessons sorry i had one n to many in dun my keyboard does that some times. I will try to keep from posting in the perfect forum from now on.

 

[Fishidiot]

Burnsie,
Welcome to our forums. Don't be discouraged. If water temps were 65, I'd say you were fine. When you mentioned in the original post that the stream was "warm" some folks whose hearts are in the right place, jumped to conclusions. We have all manner of experience here on these forums and it was assumed you were a beginner who didn't know about water temps.

As for patterns - I don't fish tricos on the Tully much so can't offer specific patterns for that stream. For trico fishing in general, I like a very sparse spinner pattern with microfibbet tails and synthetic wings. I think with tricos, more so than many other forms of dry fly fishing, the presentation is esp important. I usually fish downstream with a longer than typical leader (in the range of 4'). Hopefully somebody can give you a more detailed fly recipe.

 

[Heritage-Angler]

Burnsie wrote:
...instead i get spelling lessons sorry i had one n to many in dun my keyboard does that some times.

I hate it when my keyboard does that. :lol:

Even though the water temps may be fine early in the morning, they go way out of the acceptable range pretty quickly as the day progresses.

When you fight a fish, it has a lactic acid buildup in it's muscles that can take hours to return to normal levels. When you add the additional stress of high temperatures, the fish may not survive.

So even though you caught that fish when the temperatures were OK, it may not survive. These guys were giving you good advise. A safer bet would be to fish the Tully above the reservoir, where its a limestone spring creek with better temperatures for trout. Or head East to the Little Lehigh - it's been pretty cold all summer, so far.

 

[jdaddy]

Thought I was pretty nice and got that attitude. Oh well. FYI, it was NOT 65 unless you were just pounding the thermal refuge at Cacoosing. It was never below 70 yesterday.

24 or 26 black thread body with touch of black dubbing at thorax. Very, very sparse zlon to imitate impression of wings. Thus works like a champ. Use 7 or 8x so you can fight them a long time and increase lactic build up before release.

 

[Burnsie]

My apologies to all for snapping. I should have realized that everyone's intent was to preserve this fine fishing resource.
To Jdaddy I apologize you did offer to share some patterns which I would gratefully appreciate.

As far as temps while fishing, I was at the paper mill and the water was 65, Now I admit I was not aware of the lactic acid build up in the fish. I always thought it was more of a O2 issue. I will not be fishing the Tully anymore until the temps come down.
And if I cant fish I get just as much of a kick tying a new pattern.
Again my apologies to all and tight lines to all.

 

[BrookieBuster101]

CDC
Edit: Jack I saw tricos on spring today after the first wave of storms came through. I dunno about tomorrow, but im probably gonna be dredging vladis.

 

[jdaddy]

Burnsie wrote:
My apologies to all for snapping. I should have realized that everyone's intent was to preserve this fine fishing resource.
To Jdaddy I apologize you did offer to share some patterns which I would gratefully appreciate.

As far as temps while fishing, I was at the paper mill and the water was 65, Now I admit I was not aware of the lactic acid build up in the fish. I always thought it was more of a O2 issue. I will not be fishing the Tully anymore until the temps come down.
And if I cant fish I get just as much of a kick tying a new pattern.
Again my apologies to all and tight lines to all.

Cool.

The stream that comes in at the Papermill is called Cacoosing Creek. It is a very fertile limestone spring creek. As such it stays in the low 50s year round. The water in the riffles above the confluence will be 74 degrees and the Cacoosing is coming in at 50s. This shot of cold water tends to stay on the right side of the stream for quite a stretch. This will give you the 65 reading. This is for all intents and purposes the only major thermal refuge on the stream, thus fish stack up there. Fishermen stack up there as well. I'd rather not hassle the fish when they are stacked up in the thermal refuge. That is what JayL alluded to earlier.

So you had two things against you (minimally). One, you were fishing a HIGHLY fished spot thus the wariness. Two, you were fishing tricos late in the season. The fish get more selective after being caught a few times and the naturals are getting smaller and smaller.

Check the USGS gauge at the staircase (you can find the link in a Tully stream location post I put up or link from TCO site). It will give you flows, height and temp. The red bridge gauge does not give temps. While on the site check the upper Tully (above blue marsh). Ice cold year round and I hear there is a wild fish or two up there. It's a lot smaller and access is not as easy but definately worth it in my opinion.

Check the fly tying section for Trico titled posts. There are a ton of suggestions there.