Neshannock Creek DHALO, Lawrence Cty, 5/21/10

[PennKev]

Fished the DHALO in the AM and early afternoon starting around 9:00 AM. Nice little mix of bugs coming off. Craneflys, caddis, large cahills, and what looked ot be a sort of blue quill.

The cahills and BQ's were present in much better numbers than the cranes and caddis. Fish took #16 GRHE's very vell along with #14 & 16 Copper Johns. Even though the BQ's were very numerous, I only had a few takes on a blue quill nymph. There was some sporadic surface feeding and it looked like they were chasing emergers. Didn't really matter as the nymph fishing was going pretty well. Got around 15 total with only a few lost and missed fish. Landed one bow that stretched from my fingertips to just past my elbow.

Also hooked into a carp which promptly broke my 4x tippet.

Water conditions were very, very, very, very good. Good flow, but not high, good color but not muddy, and nice and cool.

Kev

P.s. There are still loads of fish in the open water too. ;-)

 

[greenghost]

Kev,
I was there yesterday too. I fished from 2 to 4:30pm. You're right, the water was nice. Better for nymphing than dry flies. Temped it at 63 degrees. Being a stubborn dry fly guy, I didn't do as well as you. I caught 5 missed a few more. All on a March Brown dry. Had all my luck in faster pocket water at the head and tail of the power line pool. I saw also good mix of bugs... cahills, march browns, very small #20 mayflies I assumed were BWOs (Blue Quills??) and caddis. No drakes. Unfortunately, never made it to Little Sandy.

 

[PennKev]

You're right. They might have been a BWO, it is early yet for Blue Quills. These mayflies were just a little different from what I'm used to seeing on the creek.

I might fish Little Sandy on Monday if the rain affects the bigger creeks and I don't have the guts to explore some new water.

Kev

 

[troutslammer]

i am no expert but i would say that they were BWO too , blue quills usually come off erarly in april , water is probably too warm to be hatching blue quills , could have been midges too , did anyone ever fish over a good green drake hatch on neshanock creek ?

 

[greenghost]

troutslammer,
The flies I saw were definitely mayflies not midges... #20 or possibly #18. As far as the drakes go, I've seen them sparsely but have never run into a full-blown hatch. The drakes are brown drakes from what I'm told, not green.

 

[PennKev]

blue quills usually come off erarly in april , water is probably too warm to be hatching blue quills ,

I have to disagree with that. The flies I know as blue quills hatch late spring through about mid summer on Neshannock. I've also fished what I would call a blue quill well into summer on the Little J. I think this might be a situation where common names such as "blue quill" fail us. A quick search on troutnut.com produces a large list of blue quill species, hatch dates range from March through September.

However, again, the more I think about it, the less these bugs match a blue quill hatch as i know it.

Kev

 

[ryguyfi]

troutslammer wrote:
i am no expert but i would say that they were BWO too , blue quills usually come off erarly in april , water is probably too warm to be hatching blue quills , could have been midges too , did anyone ever fish over a good green drake hatch on neshanock creek ?

Don't you mean the Brown Drake? If so I fished over them last year.... well the spinners. Did well but should have stayed later. The action really starts to heat up around 10pm. I might try to sneak out sometime this week and do that. Started early last week and only lasts about 10-14 days on average.

 

[troutslammer]

yeah i know it gets brown drakes but i didn't know if it got enough green drakes to get the fish looking up or not . probably be fishable wednesday huh ?

 

[PennKev]

I don't think I've ever seen a Green Drake on Neshannock or any of the nearby creeks.

Kev

 

[bikerfish]

no green drakes around here. I think they need better water than what we have.

 

[ryguyfi]

I made a post in the general forum, but I'm fishing the brown drake spinners on Thursday evening if anyone wants to join me. Prob be there around 8pm. Anyone who want's to join is more than welcome