Favorite Slate Drake Patterns

P

PatchezMDM

Active member
Joined
Sep 15, 2022
Messages
328
City
York County
I'm going up to Penns the first full week of September. Reading up on what to expect since I'm relatively new to this game, I saw that Penns could have Slate Drake hatches during my stay. So I was wondering which Slate Drake patterns have been your best producers?
 
A isonymph swam from fast water into adjacent soft water. a skinny prince nymph is a decent substitute. I have not had much luck fishing on top. You can get some, but it not very productive. iso's are often described as climbers, they do, but I have seen them come off mid-stream on the J and bald eagle. I can't say I've seen slates on Penns, but I don't fish penns often and never this time of year
 
Leadwing coachman.

Far from and expert, the time I hit that well was a drizzling day the first half of October.
 
What I read so far is they are great swimmers as nymphs and mostly crawlers when they emerge, That said they also will emerge mid stream if there is no structure for them to crawl on. Drys were a last resort for the most part. Emergers or nymph patterns were the better bet.

Thanks for the input so far.
 
You can't go wrong with wets and emergers. My favorite emerger is a smoke jumper. Works well all throughout the water column.

Iso Smoke Jumper.jpg
 
I like the big one that looks like an oversized BWO parachute with black hackle around the bottom of the post. The one that's popular in Pine Creek in late May/early June.
 
I really like SD comparaduns. Very effective on the Lehigh, Fishing Ck (Columbia Co), Brodhead, McMichael and a few lesser knowm streams. I can't speak to their effectiveness on Penns.

I have found that the shade of body is critical, More so than size. Colors range from a mahogany to chocolate. YMMV
 
If you don't have an ISO nymph pattern, bead head prince is just as good. Dead drift is effective but so is swinging it towards the bank. Want to catch on top? Blind cast a dry or emerger. Fish that see it will violently blow up on it. Even in the middle of the day. Keep spinners handy last 2 hours of daylight. Patterns below are EP Fiber emerger, comparadun and spinner. Great options.

Other thing to remember, the early summer brood might be #10-12. As the hatch continues, they seem to shrink to a #14. In the fall it's the second brood which is a #14 down to a #16.


Iso-Emerger-Flat.jpg
0TF-ISO-CD-12-4-500x500.jpg
0TF-ISO-SP-10-4-500x500.jpg
 
Last edited:
i need to save this thread ... i wish i had it back in late May. i was on the Beaverkill - right before Memorial Day. it was real hot. i got to the Cemetery Pool right at 5pm - no one at the big bend riffle at the very top of the long Cemetery pool - only one guy well below fishing the tail out. flow was 550 ish, after a big rain day before. i planted my fat rear into the flow in middle of that riffle - on the edge. it started to get cloudy and then the shadows started to cover the pool. then WHAM, big splashy rise. then another. then ... the whole pool is EXPLODING with rises - up in the fast water, in the seams along the fast water, in the slicks down below. everywhere. i catch a bug from the air jogging by - it was large-ish ... a #12 ... some closer to #10 --- bordeaux wine colored body / smokey gray wing. ISOs. i had on a #12 parachute ISO with a white post - had a ball. BUT ... i see now in retrospect all those exploding rises were on emergers. i wish i would have swung some of those soft hackles ( pics from above ) through there. Really -- they were smashing the surface like Orcas.

Then around 7:30pm it stopped ... and then the March Browns started. no explosions --- just steady rises. lots of caddis as well. then about 8;30p the ISOs started up again --- till about 9:15 ish. steady rises all evening. around 9;30p --- a #16 orange cahill started coming off ... the rises now slower - and in the soft seams and slicks. light is fading now, i'm the last one on the pool ...

way across from me on the opposite bank, over 2 or 3 seams - one is rising steady and slow. its almost dark now. i dont know how i did it, but i load a cast, shoot it out waaay over there - with a sharp upstream mend to create some pile slack. a rise. a take. i lift up .... and its like a dog jumped into the water! BOOM! we're connected for a second - i think both us we're equally surprised. then he BLASTS out of that pool, across all those seams ... and gets into the fast main current - and just keeps going. im losing alot of line and im trying to back out of a tough current, in the dark now. i get some line on him, i feel that head shaking - im thinking "remember - barbless hook". im on the edge now and have worked him close 3 times. And then - nothing.
Gone. "D#@* barbless hook"

i wasnt upset - more disappointed. i really wanted to see that fish. Was is a brown ... or a rainbow? but i was really tired. been on the water since 7am and on the road fishing hard for 3 weeks. i remember standing on the bank and looking downstream seeing the silhoutte of the Acid Factory bridge in the moon light. i popped on the headlamp, walked downstream on those cobble stones, and looked for the hole in the reeds to the trail back to the truck.

Thanks for the morning memory.
 
Beaverkill hands you a surprise every now and then. I remember one time about 15 years ago, I was standing in Horsebrook run on a late May morning. I was perched on a big rock on the opposite side when a white pickup truck pulled up and started yelling over to me. It was Dennis from the fly shop asking if I was seeing any bugs or doing any good. I had a double stonefly rig on but had stopped casting to talk to him. My flies swung in to the bank below me since I wasn't casting. While standing / BS-ing my line got real heavy. As my rod tip bent downriver, thought that a leaf or some kind of debris had snagged on my line. As my eyes follow the fly line down towards the flies that are in less than a foot of slow water, I see a 25 in or bigger brown shaking its head and then spitting out my stone fly nymph. I screamed over to Dennis then a five or six pound fish had just grabbed my flies while I was talking to him and he said "pay attention to what you're doing dummy" 🤣. I slowly stripped or twitched those flies and the fish stayed right behind them for 10 or 12 ft before he sank back out into the current. I nipped for the next hour hoping to catch him but I never saw him again. The guy that initially took me up there and taught me that stream used to tell me a story of a 27-in brown that he had caught on a green Drake in that general area. If you see that stream the first week of May and then look at it again the first week of August, you would find it hard to believe that anything could survive the brutal low summer conditions but just enough of them are able to find refuge. It also doesn't hurt that they close the cold water pools to fishing during the summer
 
All advice good. I like prospecting with parachute dries in the fall since ISO's seem to be a hatch one can blind cast in the riffles for. Water is commonly low so the fish will be concentrated. I had a Cdun period that was successful too.

A Prince nymph has been good to me, but a simple wet fly tied on a 2x long hook has been good to me as well. Tail three peacock herls cut to length. Body of peacock herl with a brown hen hackle collar. Swing near bottom, dead drift with weight or use as an emerger.

Once the rainbows start heading into the E Branch in September I have had great fishing at Cadosia rapids with a heavy 10 or 12 prince nymph. Seems there is a fish behind every rock in the rapids, but it is extremely tough wading.
 
Tups said:
These 3 patterns worked very well for me on Penns mid October 2023. Slate drakes and small olives were hatching on and off.

View attachment 1641237489
Click to expand...

The top fly is a standard Partridge and Orange.

A couple of people asked about the middle fly, so I am including the pattern I use:
Dry fly hook #14
Partridge hackle.
Silk thread, Au Ver A Soie Ephemera #925. - Red. Any red 6/0 thread will do.
Dubbing mix: brown Awesome Possum mixed with orange sparkle dubbing. I bought this premixed at auction from an estate, so I don’t have details on the sparkle, but orange sparklie dubbing is easy to find.
Ribbing: I used Danville’s size 16/18 gold Mylar - embossed. I guess any small Mylar would work as well.
IMG_7530.jpeg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Montana Angler Fly Fishing
Montana Angler Fly Fishing
Harman's North Fork Cottages


Real Time Data From
the USGS Site

Share this page

Back
Top