Fly choice for opening day

[Allmyne]

I will be fishing the SE pa opening weekend and then the NE opening week by White Haven (lehigh). What is your fly of choice for opening week? in the SE I usually go with a green meanie, and san juan. Never fished opening week on the lehigh so not sure what I will use. What will be your first fly choice to be thrown for the 2008 season?

 

[shipnfish2006]

#8 Gold Krystal Bugger will be the first fly to touch the water at 8am. Seeing as how I only have about 3 hours to fish, chances are it might be the only fly on my line all morning.

 

[Chaz]

whatever fly is hatching, it could be any of about a dozen flies.

 

[MattBoyer]

I'll be hitting an unstocked native stream, so I'll probably be using either a bugger or a wild mountain cougar.

Boyer

 

[sundrunk]

Hendrickson, grays, blues and greens. Dry Flys for trout.

 

[Padraic]

If you are fishing for newly stocked trout, I wouldn't overthink the selection too much. The Green Weenie & San Juan you mentioned would be great, glo bugs, wooley buggers (brown or black) and any other favorites you have.

If you see some rising, I would have ants as well as some of the ideas posted above.

 

[FishTank]

I usually throw a brace of flies. On the point is a #6 4x black bugger with barbell eyes to get down in the column. Above that is usually another unweighted bugger in olive hackle and crystal olive dub, or a mickey fin, and above that is a #10 2x sparsley hackled partidge and peacock.

I usually start the day casting into a sizeable plunge pool on one of two streams near me, so gettin' down is a must, and this settup is fun over stockies cause when one fish gets hooked up others will often take a swipe at the other flies bouncing around on the leader.

It's double haul chuck & duck with a strippin' basket but tossin' a glorified sabiki rig over stockies is something different for a day.

I get a kick out of the looks on the faces of the powerbaiters!!!

 

[fishinislife]

Bead belly san juan worm. Especially in higher water, something with a little weight to get it down. I know there are some purists who "would not dream of using one of those" to them I say, I'm catching fish. San Juan worms are dynamite and they are a fly. A fly is an imitation of a trout's diet, yes?

 

[mute]

i usually start with eggs, not only will you catch them all, but you also teach them not to touch power bait

 

[Maurice]

On opening day in stocked streams you cannot go wrong with a woolly bugger in olive or black with or without beads aor coneheads. Get em down and dance them across the bottoms of pools or inbetween pools to get away from the crowds. Most of the fish will be pooled up with their buddies but some loners or smarter stockies will venture out before opening day and find less obvious lies than the deep water. Look for them in small cuts and any feature different or deeper than the shallow glides between pools. You can pick fish up all day long this way.

Good luck, I will be at work.

 

[JustFish]

Here is food for thought fellows. If you are fishing a put and take stream over stockies try tying on a number 16-18 bare hook with a egg bead pegged in about an inch above the hook. When the trout goes for the egg and when you see the strike you set the hook and it hooks them right on the outside of the mouth. Plus you can get the hook out rather quickly. A friend of mine drew out the rig and faxed it to the PFBC and they said it was perfectly legal.

 

[Padraic]

JustFish wrote:
Here is food for thought fellows. If you are fishing a put and take stream over stockies try tying on a number 16-18 bare hook with a egg bead pegged in about an inch above the hook. When the trout goes for the egg and when you see the strike you set the hook and it hooks them right on the outside of the mouth. Plus you can get the hook out rather quickly. A friend of mine drew out the rig and faxed it to the PFBC and they said it was perfectly legal.

I'm told that's THE rig to use for rainbows up in Alaska when the salmon are running. It's supposed to be less damaging to the trout's mouth.

 

[FishTank]

As for the San juan worm, there are water born worms in most waters called oligacheats{sp?}. They live in the sediment and detritus of lotic waters. They don't really appear to be much different morphologically than a tiny earth worm.

I used to do BMI surveys{benthic macro-invertebrate surveys}in the lackawanna, for the Lackawanna river corridor Assoc. when I was in highschool, from '90-'92. Large counts of these worms showed up from all sample sights, however the greatest portions of them showed up from areas being tested that had the greatest amount of siltation due to runoff.

To me, a san juan worm, is as valid as a crane fly larva, or stone fly nymph, etc.


Just a FYI, and many may know this, but the "San Juan shuffle" was a technique where by anglers would kick up sediment in the Rio Grande (I believe), by shuffling their feet, and un-earth these worms, then they would use this pattern dropped back in the "chum slick" if you will. Last I heard CO's watch for this as it has been deemed illigal in that river.


Tighlines

 

[pete41]

A 2 or 3x long size 12 0r 14 deer hair bug trimmed smooth works well as a nymph for stockers as it looks like FOOD they are use to.

 

[eballat]

I like using eggs i tied with McFly foam for the first day for the stream i fish is primarily stocked with rainbows and they are spring spawners. You can't go wrong with white, black, and olive buggers either. I've also used muddlers on the first day. Although that's the only time i ever catch anything on a muddler.

 

[PaulG]

Would love to see some hendricksons hatching or Quill gordons would really be nice, if not I'll be throwing some Buggers!

PaulG

 

[JustFish]

Padraic wrote:

JustFish wrote:
Here is food for thought fellows. If you are fishing a put and take stream over stockies try tying on a number 16-18 bare hook with a egg bead pegged in about an inch above the hook. When the trout goes for the egg and when you see the strike you set the hook and it hooks them right on the outside of the mouth. Plus you can get the hook out rather quickly. A friend of mine drew out the rig and faxed it to the PFBC and they said it was perfectly legal.

I'm told that's THE rig to use for rainbows up in Alaska when the salmon are running. It's supposed to be less damaging to the trout's mouth.

I have an email in to the pfbc. Just wondering if this rig is legal on spec. regs. areas?

 

[Padraic]

JustFish wrote:

Padraic wrote:

JustFish wrote:
Here is food for thought fellows. If you are fishing a put and take stream over stockies try tying on a number 16-18 bare hook with a egg bead pegged in about an inch above the hook. When the trout goes for the egg and when you see the strike you set the hook and it hooks them right on the outside of the mouth. Plus you can get the hook out rather quickly. A friend of mine drew out the rig and faxed it to the PFBC and they said it was perfectly legal.

I'm told that's THE rig to use for rainbows up in Alaska when the salmon are running. It's supposed to be less damaging to the trout's mouth.

I have an email in to the pfbc. Just wondering if this rig is legal on spec. regs. areas?

I'm thinking not in the FFO areas. Maybe in all tackle... Post your reply, because I think that it is a good C&R rig. Although, the rainbows in Alaska are quite large. Perhaps smaller trout could get snagged in the eye? I'm not sure. I'd want to see what the commission says.

 

[JustFish]

Padraic,

My friend's Dad's friend uses it on the East Branch Brandywine which is a DHALO. I am pretty sure you can use it there but I think you are right about the FFO. People also use this rig for steelhead out west. My friend's Dad actually used this method when we were up Erie last weekend and landed some fish with it.

I will post when I get a response. Hopefully tomorrow

 

[MKern]

Like said before -
Stocked stream = egg patterns, buggers, and pellet flies.
If you don't like the idea of fishing an egg pattern while the bait fishermen are using salmon eggs, use a flashy nymph (flashback beadhead PT or hares ear).

What ever you do, don't over think it.

Mo brougth up a good point about moving away from the croud. If they dump 200 fish in a hole the size of a bath tub, and everyone is hovering over that hole, there will surely be fish above and below that hole. If not, when ever you catch a fish, transplant it to an adjecent riffle. This redistributes the fish for fishing on later dates.