Conestoga River, Lancaster Co., 8/8/15

[dc410]

Well, with it being almost half way through August and not having seen the sunset over the Conestoga River yet this season I decided to fish it this evening. I fished from about 5:30 to 8:30. The flow was a bit more than I expected by looking at streamflow data and it was more off color than I expected as well. I did see a few fish hitting the surface but couldn't coax any of them into hitting any flies on top, which isn't all that uncommon for me on the 'Stoga. I went underneath to catch a few smallies and some red eyes. It was a beautiful evening as I stood in the river and watched an osprey and kingfisher fly right over me. I had two groups of kayakers (one younger and one older) pass by me and everybody really seemed to be enjoying their time on the river. I finished up the evening at dusk in the tailout of a big pool to see if any topwater action would materialize - it didn't. So I spent the last 20 minutes or so of the evening watching the bats and nighthawks working the bugs over the water. I saw more bats this evening than I have in an evening of fishing for quite a few years. Maybe this is a good sign for the bat population. All in all, not a banner night of fishing but it certainly was a very relaxing and enjoyable August evening spent on the river.

 

[HopBack]

I believe is fished in the same area tonight and experienced about the same results. The only difference being that I didn't even catch a red eye. There was a nice hex hatch with only a few risers in a big pool. One giant smallmouth smashed a fly about 10 ft in front of me. As soon as I switched over to dries the fish stopped rising. I talked to 1 guy who was fishing ahead of me with a spinning rod and he didn't have any luck either.

I was kind of frustrated at the lack of action and took a water temp on my way out. I was surprised to find that the river was running a chilly 69 degrees. I would assume that this had a lot to do with what was going on.