Myself, DaveS, Fishwagen, Mkerr, BigBass and Cosmic Frank got together at the Capra in Hancock to fish 5-21-16 to TBD by conditions. Dropping flows, sky high air temps and little dam release came into play after just a day or two. We had to alter where and when we fished. Some nights, we didn't get back to the room and start the grill until 1am. Bluebird skies didn't help as it pushed the hatches to first light or after dark. We had tan caddis, olives, march browns, olive caddis, green drakes, spotty hendricksons (still), sulphurs, cahill or some steno variety. Don't forget.....midge and cranefly swarms of epic proportions. Turn on your headlamp and you'd regret it in seconds. LOL. For those that made their first trip up with us last fall, that was a difficulty level of 4 out of 10. This last trip up, the difficulty got ratcheted up to 9 out of 10. You got a little taste of how unkind the fishery can be. With that said, we found fish every day and sometimes, all day.
Highlights: Getting stopped by National Park Service and Mkerr hand netting a lamprey in shallow riffle. Shad were EVERYWHERE by the thousands. It's just a shame that the lack of release and near record temps cut the trip short. Water became to warm to fish.
NEXT UP.......... Warm Water Jam on Juniata or Susky. Looking for late June to mid July timeframe. Sound off if interested.
