Isonychias

[Acristickid]

Fished what I would call a medium sized brown trout stream in Somerset Co yesterday.

Fished from 11-2 and was suprised with many Isonychias.

They looked huge, huge enough that I think the cedar waxwings didn’t miss any of them.

Anyways, was suprised to see them but disappointed that I didn’t observe any fish rising. Perhaps next time I’ll use a leadwing coachman.

Anyone seeing Iso’s ?

 

[Acristickid]

The stream ISO stream

 

[Prospector]

I have not seen any ISOs since the first full week in June.

I see the most ISOs on Kettle Creek. When I was young (35-40 years ago) they seemed to hatch in the evening by crawling on shoreline rocks. The duns were no value to the FF since they were never on the water. The spinner fall is where I would benefit from ISOs.

Although I still see the cases on shoreline rocks on Kettle, Neshannock and other streams, for the last 2 years I’ve had ISOs hatch between 10 and 2pm on Kettle and every fly was riding the current. This is quite the departure from my early experience. It’s intetsting that the hatch slows when the sun comes out but if it goes behind a cloud for even 10 minutes the hatch starts again.

I’m not sure if this is a different subspecies or if I’m flat out misidentying the fly but it seems like my recent experience closely parallels what you are describing (just 2 months earlier).

 

[Acristickid]

On the streamed I fished I saw many Iso’s in the air- more than I have seen on Penns or the J. There were many shucks on rocks and small eddy’s on the side of the stream. I also thought Iso’s were more of June and September hatch which is why I was suprised. Lotsa water this year- who knows.

 

[DaveS]

Paul, I dunno how often i’ve Seen fish rise to ISO’s in a manner like you will see them rise to Sulphers or Hendrickson’s.

But when they are present in a stream population, the fish see enough of them to eat them opportunistically. If I observe ISO’s on a stream I fish one. If the fish don’t want the dry, they your Leadwing will likely produce.

ISO’s are the duct tape of mid summer to fall fishing.

 

[Acristickid]

Think I had 3 memorable iso days.

Probably a few on duns but most on leadwings. One of the days was on Penns with your AK travel buddy.

Funny thing is Andrew is big on this stream. After fishing a trib with him and hooking a large trout it brought me back 4 times since then. 3 of the times I got skunked and I introduced another buddy in one of the three outings and he caught two and zero for me.

 

[dryflyguy]

In 30+ years of FF, I can only recall 3 instances where I hit a really nice ISO hatch. And with fish rising well to them:
One was on Big Fishing creek - a spot just downstream of the narrows.
Another time was on the little j in sept.
And a third it happened, was on the yough - believe it or not - in sept also.

So yeah, it can happen. But seems to be quite rare.

That said, I do catch plenty of fish on ISO dries.
But's it's kinda like fishing terrrestrials: sometimes the fish hit them - and sometimes they don't.
Definitely worth trying though

 

[sandfly]

Iso's since june on pine, non stop till September here. Started out with size 10's and now size 12's. Iso on bottom, hex above

 

[Acristickid]

sandfly- Any risers? Or more wet fly action?

 

[sandfly]

some risers. water is in good condition above the canyon. we didn't get that much rain here compared to other areas.