Paflyfish Jamboree and Meetup 2013 Recap - Part 1
The 2013 Paflyfish Jamboree and Meetup was marked by some of the best weather and hatches we have had in years. The crew that made it up starting mid-week took advantage of the great conditions hitting many of the central Pennsylvania streams like Penns Creek, Spring Creek and the Little Juanita (Little J).
The good dry fly fishing conditions dominated the weekend with pretty typical mid-May hatches. The colder weather that lasted into March and April did push the hatches back in general. Sporadic March Browns and sulfurs were the common mayflies every day. The evening crush hit just after 8:00 pm with spinners, March Browns and sulfurs hitting hard with a quick evening flurry of activity the trout went nuts on. Everyone seemed to do pretty well, but you had to be quick to take advantage of the evening party.
Along with he good weather and fishing many PAFFers took advantage of catching up with friends from across the country.
I ended up starting out on Thursday at Penns Creek with Bikerfish, Wgmiller, Csoult. Fun evening with Csoult who crushed it with a big night and Wgmiller catching a chain pickerel. I headed back to Penns on Friday with Afish and Frederick for a repeat. Plenty of guys enjoying the weather most of the afternoon and evening waiting for the evening hatch. Saturday was a little overcast and headed over the Little J. Fishidiot, Maurice and I put an assault on the the Little J. Glad to catch up on the stream with so many guys.
Much of the non-fishing time was centered around the Seven Mountains Campground. As usual Friday evening was a good gathering of campers catching up from the evening fly fishing. Saturday morning was marked with some morning coffee before everyone went of for the day. Saturday night was our raffle and will be covered in our part 2 of the blog post. Phish_On...
Along with he good weather and fishing many PAFFers took advantage of catching up with friends from across the country.
I ended up starting out on Thursday at Penns Creek with Bikerfish, Wgmiller, Csoult. Fun evening with Csoult who crushed it with a big night and Wgmiller catching a chain pickerel. I headed back to Penns on Friday with Afish and Frederick for a repeat. Plenty of guys enjoying the weather most of the afternoon and evening waiting for the evening hatch. Saturday was a little overcast and headed over the Little J. Fishidiot, Maurice and I put an assault on the the Little J. Glad to catch up on the stream with so many guys.
2013 Fly Fishing Jamboree and Meetup
We have a lot of fun fishing over some of Pennsylvania's finest streams. If the Green Drakes often hatching and many head over to Penns Creek. Other streams the Little J, Spruce, Fishing and Spring Creek all offer some of the best in class fishing in the region. In some years it has rained, well every year, and there are many alternatives to the bigger named streams as well.
This year is no exception and members on the forum are making plans to meet the weekend of May 17-19, 2013 at Seven Mountains Campground in Spring Mills, Pennsylvania. Please contact them if you would like to stay there that weekend. They have a limited number of cabins and campsites.
We are working on more details but often we will have guest speakers, casting lessons, fly tying lessons, gear swaps and cool gear to check out.
Jam attendees often start arriving throughout the day if they haven't arrived earlier in the week. We don't have use of the pavilion until 3:00 PM on Friday. Stop by after 3:00PM to help or meet others trying to get back out on the water.
Saturday, May 18th...
Cicada Fly Fishing Coming Soon!
So you probably have already heard about the onslaught of cicadas coming our way on the nightly news and just about every other media source. Cicada's are just weeks away from inundating much of the east coast and more annoying news coverage to follow. Mainstream media will pull out the playbook and ultimately take it to a stupid level like encouraging some Honey Boo Boo wannabes into eating some of these Cicadoidea [latin]. By the end of the coverage, some clever reporter will talk about cicada soup or grilling them or better yet some dumb sauce to put on them.
Sorry I digress and back to trout eating cicada.
So will this be a big deal for fly fishing? For some of parts of the region it may be. It has been 17 years since the Brood II has emerged. Generally they will be covering North Carolina thru New York. But heavily in Eastern Pennsylvania* and New Jersey.
Generally, we will not see much activity until the ground temperature reaches 64 degrees. Most records seem to indicate that this late May to early June.
"Thermal soil temperature is one of the things that trigger their emergence, along with a gentle to moderate rainfall," Greg Hoover, Senior Extension Associate Ornamental Entomologist at The Pennsylvania State University, said.
These insects emerge, mate and die all within about two to three weeks. They have no mouths and do real no damage during this final stage. Remembering former cicada brood fests, it is really just a big pain in the *** having millions of these bugs all over the place. They get into your house, car and just about anything you leave open.
For fly fishing anglers what does this mean? Well these things are insects high in protein and will likely fall in the water. No fear trout and other fish will be eating them.
Will cicadas be the only thing in their diet, probably not. Being prepared with a few tied up cicadas is...
Sorry I digress and back to trout eating cicada.
Generally, we will not see much activity until the ground temperature reaches 64 degrees. Most records seem to indicate that this late May to early June.
"Thermal soil temperature is one of the things that trigger their emergence, along with a gentle to moderate rainfall," Greg Hoover, Senior Extension Associate Ornamental Entomologist at The Pennsylvania State University, said.
These insects emerge, mate and die all within about two to three weeks. They have no mouths and do real no damage during this final stage. Remembering former cicada brood fests, it is really just a big pain in the *** having millions of these bugs all over the place. They get into your house, car and just about anything you leave open.
For fly fishing anglers what does this mean? Well these things are insects high in protein and will likely fall in the water. No fear trout and other fish will be eating them.
Will cicadas be the only thing in their diet, probably not. Being prepared with a few tied up cicadas is...