First Fork Sinnemahoning, Potter Co, 5-23-2021

[Prospector]

First Fork Sinnemahoning DHALO

Time Fished: 1145am - 330pm
Weather Conditions: Mix of clouds and sun, 81 degrees
Water Conditions: Clear, 64 degrees
Insects: green drakes, yellow drake, march brown, Caddis. All in small numbers.

I decided to hit the First Fork on my drive home from Kettle. I stopped at the straight stretch along the road just to check the water. I watched a guy nymphing with an indicator for about 2-3 minutes and he caught 2. One of them was at least 18”. He was on pace for about 40 over the next hour so I didn’t want to barge in on him. I didn’t see any rises so I decided to hit an upstream section that I had never fished. My timing was terrible since it took me awhile to put on my gear and another truck parked about a minute before I was ready to hit the stream. They were dressed for action and jumped over the guard rail first and I basically followed them the whole way downstream.

I swung wets going down and I landed a nice SM bass and had 2 other strikes. When I ran into other fisherman who were coming in from a lower access point, I tied on a dry and fished back upstream. I had seen several flies hatching with yellowish bodies (etc) so I went with a yellow Humpy and immediately missed a trout. It was then a long walk to the next set of cooperative fish which were positioned on the opposite bank with a backwater drift. I did manage one there and brought up a few others before I got to the truck.

So I ended a hot muggy trip with 2 rainbows in about 4 hours. This section was pretty nice, but I’ve done better in other stretches. The experience did warrant a return trip someday.

 

[Sharknado5]

Those guys must have thought you were me because they always watch for me and jump in front while I'm putting my waders on.

 

[mcwillja]

Neoprene sack race

 

[Sharknado5]

I arrived from the north at the DHALO water below Wharton about 8 PM Wednesday evening the 26th and was surprised with the abrupt appearance of bugs cruising Route 872, all over the roadway and all over my windshield. Also tons of little frogs on the road like an obstacle course. The identifiable bugs were coffin flies and I pulled a few off my bumper. It had stormed earlier in the day the road was wet and the weather was dark, overcast, buggy, warm and humid with no breeze. The water was still clear however. I wasn't planning to fish that night but pulled into the new water by the cemetary and tugged on my hippers over my shorts and no socks. Only one guy there with his wife, they left shortly thereafter. He hadn't had much luck but said there were plenty of coffin flies the night before. Over his head were clouds of flies headed upstream. I didn't see any surface action so walked 100 yards upstream to a small riffle where I saw what appeared to be about a dozen small fish working. They weren't sipping so I tied on a GD which I could see but it didn't work at all. The light was fading and I couldn't see anything hatching for sure. I switched to a coffin fly and again no luck. So I moved down to the lowest hole in the project alongside the road. A few trout were rising near the log wall so I fished with the coffin fly in the glare until about 9:40 until it was pitch dark. Again no luck. I looked at the water surface and didn't see any spinners but a lot of inch long shucks.

I stayed in a camp overnight. Thursday was crisp, clear, cool, windy and beautiful but the stream appeared dead. The water level is low, it was about 90 CFS. I checked out various locations throughout the day, there were a decent number of fishermen later in the day but no surface activity and no visible flies hatching. I turned over rocks and saw a good number of smaller mayfly nymphs, and lots of small pebbly caddis cases in the shallow water. I didn't stay till dark but left about 6. So I don't know if it turned on later but it didn't seem promising. It's amazing how the weather can influence a hatch.