Donegal Creek, Lancaster county, 3-17-2013

[jeremymcon]

I was on the FFO section of the donegal for about three hours from 1 to 4 pm on the 17th. I'm officially calling it spring, because I was catching fish on dry flies!

There were some larger midges on the water - about a size 22 or 24 rather than the size 28 or so that were there for most of the winter, and I saw quite a few fish rising. I caught one 7 inch rainbow on a size 14 Adams. Then tried nymphing for a while, but was unsuccessful. Switched to a size 20 parachute Adams, and caught 2 more rainbows, and a brightly colored brown trout around 8 inches long. Water was low and clear, and my thermometer said the water was about 48 degrees.

 

[wgmiller]

Those rainbows aren't real educated yet when it comes to topwater action, so they're susceptible to a wide selection of flies. They were just stocked in the fall, so once they get a season of hatches under their belt, they become tougher. There aren't a lot of good hatches on the Donegal anymore, but midges and BWO's are always a sure bet. You can also get some good action with a caddis pattern or sulphur pattern in early summer.