Neshannock Creek, Lawrence Co, DHALO 05/29/09

ryguyfi

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Oct 18, 2006
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I stopped by the shop on Friday and took a pic of a Brown Drake spinner to get my sizing right, and talked to Bob in the shop. He's always very informative. Helps out in figuring out the details of the stream.

Got to the stream around 7pm Saturday. Fished right behind the shop. Nymphed for around an hour and landed one on a copper john. An hour in the hatches started. Water temp was still fairly cool, color was perfect, little bit brownish green, but visibility was about 3 feet. Hatch was very good with a 2-1 ratio of Brown Drakes to Light Cahills. Cahills were almost white with a slight almost Chartreuse tint, sz 14, maybe 12. I came for the Drakes, so that's what I fished.

For the thousands of bugs in the air, there was very little top water activity. I moved a bit downstream and the hatch was a bit better. Saw one riser and landed him on the 2nd cast presented. Nothing else for a while. Went with my brother in law and he was about to give up and watch the Pens game and we were walking back at about 9:00 and I saw a few rises in a slow pool. Pretty dark, but I figured they were feeding on the spinners. Saw some fairly consistant rises and we had a double, and I landed one more in the next half hour. Had head lamps luckily and left around 10pm. Moon helped the visibility, but there were many bats that didn't help the fishing in fear of hooking one. I tied an extended body, sz 12 in a dun and a spinner that was close to 2" in length that we caught our fish on. Had a blast, and was fun fishing in the dark to rising fish too.

Saw my first ever bald eagle on the stream too. Saw a large bird of prey and the distinct white head fly over the stream. I think I saw him before, but never IDed him as a bald. Pretty cool sight, those things are huge.

Here's a few pics of the fish and the hatch. You look close on the 3rd pic you can see the large drakes flying right at me.

Enjoy!

Ryan
 
Nice pics and real nicepost Ryguyfi. Good to see you getting into some fish. I was there a couple of Sundays ago and the water was getting low, a little stained and guys were a plenty!

There are both an Osprey and a Bald Eagle according to Bob, he doesn't mind those two but don't get him started on the herons! lol I first saw what is likely to be the same eagle maybe 2-3 years ago. Nice to see him still around. Those certainly are a majestic bird. I've seen them in more northern part of the country and Canada but not here until more recently. Great to see them making a comeback.

Love that stream, I fish it often.
 
Yeah the stream is just beautiful. I need to try some different spots though. I usually fish from the shop down, and that gets a lot of pressure. I know a few guys who fish other sections that they say are pretty productive due to a lack of pressure. Just wanted to go someplace I knew well when fishing in the dark. For the western part of the state, this is by far my favorite stream.

Saw a heron too that day, they sure can take a bunch of fish out of the stream. Their "squawk" is aweful too. Too bad there isn't open season on those lol.
 
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