Prospector
Well-known member
I fished from 715am - 1045am in the open water. Air temp when I arrived was 56 degrees and water temp was 60. Water level was up a little and was slightly off color (seems like I'm saying that in every report).
I had rigged up 3 flies the night before hoping the isonychia's were hatching but when I arrived there were no nymph cases on the rocks. I went with my rig anyway and began catching fish on the Hairs Ear wet and grizzly king but nothing would touch my isonychia nymph. After my first pass I swapped the ISO out for a small wooly bugger and that became the fly of choice. It's better when isonychia are more active since I have a much better hookup ratio on the smaller nymph than the wooly bugger. I ended up catching 11 rainbows, 2 Browns and 3 SM bass. I lost 4 and had about 30 additional strikes.
There were lots of insects present but like always, in Neshannock's open water, there were only a handful of rises and none were consistent. I saw 2 sizes of tan caddis 16 & 18, light cahills (orange bodied females and lighter males), small BWOs and the browner but same size paraleptophlebias. These 2 flies always hatch together on Nesh and the small BWOs tend to outnumber the para's 2:1. It's been that way for 30 years. I did catch some of each today.
I had rigged up 3 flies the night before hoping the isonychia's were hatching but when I arrived there were no nymph cases on the rocks. I went with my rig anyway and began catching fish on the Hairs Ear wet and grizzly king but nothing would touch my isonychia nymph. After my first pass I swapped the ISO out for a small wooly bugger and that became the fly of choice. It's better when isonychia are more active since I have a much better hookup ratio on the smaller nymph than the wooly bugger. I ended up catching 11 rainbows, 2 Browns and 3 SM bass. I lost 4 and had about 30 additional strikes.
There were lots of insects present but like always, in Neshannock's open water, there were only a handful of rises and none were consistent. I saw 2 sizes of tan caddis 16 & 18, light cahills (orange bodied females and lighter males), small BWOs and the browner but same size paraleptophlebias. These 2 flies always hatch together on Nesh and the small BWOs tend to outnumber the para's 2:1. It's been that way for 30 years. I did catch some of each today.
