May 2021 Trip Report and Unofficial Jam

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This past January made it very difficult to plan a few weeks out let alone several months. The normal Spring May Jamboree was officially put on hold again. Unofficially, the Sulphurs, March Browns and Green Drakes would still be hatching.

Many of the usual crew made it up for the weekend and stayed at Seven Mountains Campground. The weather was great and we were able to enjoy a couple of good nights of catching up, listening to music, and even enjoying some of the pizzas from Bruno’s oven. Plenty of music from Shakey and Turkey added to the evenings.


Saturday morning turned into an impromptu casting clinic with Derek helping a few new and experienced anglers with some techniques. Which came in handy for our fly fishing during the weekend.


Back to the fly fishing. On the first evening of the Unofficial Jam, Afishinado and I went over to the Little J with the anticipation of an evening Sulphur hatch. We made an important dinner stop at the Spruce Creek Tavern for some burgers, beers and fries before hitting the water. A great joint to hit if you are in the area.


Afishinado picked slower and softer water to fish. I stuck to some faster ripples for the evening. I got into a few bringing up many fish in the faster water at about 6:30. It got slow at about 7:30 and then when the Sulphur hatch hit we did very well.


Saturday most of the crew made their way to Penns Creek and Tunnel Road. A slow day, but plenty of Sulphurs and spinners in the evening. Unfortunately, the evening was as challenging as the day even with all the bugs. Our first day on Penns proved again to be a bit of mystery.


On Sunday Maurice and I left the Jam and made our way downstream towards Millmont for several extra days on Penns. Once downstream it was a pleasant surprise to find Coffin Flies galore and some Green Drakes around the stream. So naturally, we settled into our new place and found our way to Class A for some Brookie fishing. A fun diversion from the big water and we got into a few nice trout.



We tried to make a go of it at Glen Iron to find more Coffin Flies, but no Green Drakes hatching. A quiet night for me, but Sulphurs upstream for Maurice and some fish. We were 100 yards apart and we had completely different experiences. We got back to our place to find our place covered in Coffin Flies along the banks. The street light tracked thousands. We had so many Green Drakes and spinners in our place we found them in the kitchen, shower, and bedrooms for days.



Things improved for me Monday night with the Sulphur hatch around Weikert. The Green Drakes had a big hatch occur about 10:00 am that morning. Which we missed so we really didn’t see any Monday night.

Tuesday we moved upstream and finally find a good location of some steady Green Drakes. I think I must have missed almost 18 fish with a Green Drake pattern. We did get a few. It seemed like the steady risers were the biggest fish. That evening I did okay with my B-52 Rusty Spinners during the evening bug fest that started at about 8:15.


Penns Creek really sucks me in with the trout and beautiful setting. It was fun to hang out with Maurice and find some new places. I caught one of my better wild browns on drake at almost 20”. Penns is not easy on the legs with all those greased bowling balls on the stream bed. It can really beat you up and to think when I was younger I would run around there without a wading staff? Another great trip, as I caught more than I normally do on Penns, but she is a tough mother.


In a lot of ways, it was one of my best trips out in many years. Seeing everyone again was great. Making time for a six-day trip makes a huge difference in your approach to fishing and where you go. Looking forward to next year when we can get back on track for a normal 2022 Spring Jamboree!
 
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