Oil Creek, 06/01/2011, Venango Co

[Sylvaneous]

Oil Creek is down and clear for the first time in so long. There was decent bug activity but the fish didn't care. Mostly I saw cahill spinners dapping. There was a mish-mash of different bugs present: sulfurs, Isonychias, Yellow drakes, caddis, but the fish weren't up feeding. Even though the creek is down, it's still higher than average and it has been several weeks since conditions would have allowed for surface feeding. They just aren't turned on to the top. This should change any day now. I'd NOT bet on tomorrow, but maybe Saturday or Sunday.

Syl

 

[greenghost]

Temps may have something to do with their inactivity. Were you able to temp the water?

 

[pcray1231]

Should be fairly cold still I would think. I know 2 weeks ago the non-runoff temp was still below 60. I'd expect low to mid 60's now, which is perfect.

 

[greenghost]

pc,
I know Laurel Hill went over 70 on Wednesday. That was the upper special regs. area, too. Two days in the 90s (actually, the mountains never hit 90) pumped up these marginal waters even though flows were above average.

 

[PennKev]

pcray1231 wrote:
Should be fairly cold still I would think. I know 2 weeks ago the non-runoff temp was still below 60. I'd expect low to mid 60's now, which is perfect.

I doubt Oil would have been that cool. Slippery Rock and Neshannock both seemed pretty warm yesterday. Can't imagine Oil being much different. Should be better this week though...

 

[pcray1231]

It's possible, I haven't been up there in a while. I just know what it usually does, and what the fly shop told me when I called before and during the jam. Believe they told me 58 or something similar on Wed. before the jam, and 62 on Sunday when we were thinkin about heading up, so thats 2 to 2 1/2 weeks ago now. Those numbers seemed reasonable for that time of year, based on my own past measurements on Oil.

Usually starts hitting 70 on a regular basis in late June or early July. Oh, you'll get high spikes before that, just after warm thunderstorms or something, but it doesn't stay up there.

Last year was an exception, Oil was downright warm and started going above 70 routinely in the mid-afternoons by the 1st of June, which is by far the earliest I'd seen it warm up. I've seen mid-June, but never early June/late May till last year.

I'm sure it varies by location a bit. For reference, I generally fish anywhere from Drake through Miller Farm down to Pioneer, I rarely fish below that. Doesn't make much sense to me, but Drake always seems to be a few degrees warmer than farther down. Maybe its just the time of day I hit it, though, when I'd fish it a lot, I usually fished Drake in the afternoons and then head downstream as the crowds showed up for the evenings.

 

[Utaylor]

Fished Oil Sunday morning, June 5th. The water rose Saturday night to about 450 cfs but there was still decent clarity - more of a greenish tint than brown. The water temp was 60. But the water was absolutely dead at Drake well. Just a few Caddis and bwo's. I only saw two sporadic rises all morning. I can't recall another year when Oil fished so poorly in early June.

 

[pcray1231]

The water temp was 60.

Thank you for publicly confirming my suspicions. I had a friend test it Sunday and he got 59 @ Pioneer, so all seems reasonable. Still thinkin about taking a weekend up that way sometime soon.

Slippery Rock and Neshannock both seemed pretty warm yesterday.

Oil is a MUCH colder stream than either of those. Not good comparisons. Don't know about Laurel Hill, though.

Historically, my measurements have said that Oil generally runs VERY similar to Penns at Weikert. I think Penns has more cold refuges, though, hence the fish fare better over the summers.

My dad was on the Tionesta this weekend, he was throwin minnies. But he did well, as in easily double digits in 2 or 3 hours, and said lots of fish were rising, which is odd for the Tionesta. He claimed mayflies and lots of em, he doesn't know his mayflies but caught a few and described em for me. Based on that, I believed them to be Drunella Lata, which is pretty cool for the Tionesta. Always was a decent caddis stream but I never really saw any numbers of mayflies.

And he said the Tionesta was still "plenty cold" as well, the fish were active at mid-day and fought hard, though he didn't give me an exact temp. Based on weather, flows and past journals, I'd guess 64 for the Tionesta, though it will start warming real soon while Oil should hold on at least another month. Tionesta water temps are a step function, not a smooth transition. They'll hold on cold for a while, and then very suddenly spike and stay up.