Manada Creek - 3/25/2012

[Tink]

Made the hour drive over to Manada Creek this afternoon to fish with Fudd. Thought today was going to be a wash, however by 4:00PM the sun was shining and the temps were comfortable. We first stopped by the pull off along the 443 bridge. There were a couple of folks there, one guy fishing under the bridge. We decided to head up to the FIG property line and fish downstream. I haven't been to Manada in years. The area must have seen extensive flooding in 2011. There is a large swath of trees down above the steel bridge. There was some large trash that was swept into the creek too.

At the bridge hole there were a few small trout rising. Saw a few tan Caddis coming off around 4:30PM. We decided to work Wooly Buggers downstream first. The water levels are low right now. I hooked up with a 12" rainbow on a size #10 Olive Bugger in one of the deeper runs. Fudd found a small school of fish and caught a couple on a Caddis dry. The fish were rising to dry flies. I lost a nice rainbow on a prince nymph. About 6:00PM there were some large Hendricksons (at least I think so, me and Fudd were debating, he thought they were Quill Gordons, maybe a veteran can confirm) in the riffles with egg sacks, grabbed a picture of one of them.

All in all, it was a nice night considering it looked like rain in the morning. On the way out, a guy on a quad stopped and let us know we shouldn't block his four wheeler trail.

 

[wgmiller]

That's pretty consistent with my my trip a few days ago.

I thought I saw a hatch, but couldn't collect any specimens to confirm it. Definitely stones and caddis. That's a good shot of the mayfly, whatever it is.

The stream got rocked with flooding and the upper stretch in particular is full of debris and trash.

 

[Gorosaurus]

Wonderful pictures. It can be both challenging and exciting to fish Manada these days. Some days, though, they just disappear!

Was the man on the quad talking about where you were walking or where you parked?

 

[jabink84]

congrats on a good day on the manada. the majority of the people fishing currently are fishing right under the 443 bridge and the larger hole below it, thats where all the stockies were dumped. i did really well 2 weekends ago and after that have been parking at the bridge hole and waling up to FIG and fishing my wag back down. been doing well on same stuff your reporting. Most of my fish have came on black stones and a little brassie. probably about half and half. and then the stretches with no risers its been buggers that have produced.

 

[Nymph-O-Maniac]

Tink that is a Hendrickson

 

[NCPAtrtbum]

Ah ha! So someone else managed to see the QG's as well. When I was there on the 24th there was a sparse hatch. Awesome.

 

[wbranch]

I don't think it is a Hendrickson but it sure looks like a QG.

 

[Nymph-O-Maniac]

I have the exact same pattern on film

 

[Shock]

I believe that is a Rusty Spinner. The Dun would have been a Hendrickson as there is no Quill Gordan hatch listed for the Manada. If I am wrong, someone please correct me.

I live 5 miles from the Manada and have only fished it once in the last 7 years. I have got to get over and give it another go. It is nice to see that there is a healthy insect population after the flooding and that they were not all washed out into the Swatara or buried in sediment.

Shock

 

[martinlf]

There are Quill Gordons in Manada, along with a number of other bugs that may or may not be listed in various publications etc. This is often, if not always, true for streams in regard to published lists.