Oil Creek, Venango, 05/31.09

[Sylvaneous]

Amazingly, Oil Creek was perfectly fishable on Sunday after Thursday's deluge. Based on doppler radar precipitation estimates, parts of the upper Oil Creek recieved over 2 inches of rain along with the rain from Wednesday. Unseasonably cool with mostly clear skies and occaisional gusty winds would have foretold of poor fishing, but not so today. When I arrived at Petroleum Centre at 6:00 PM, the Cornuttas were already out on the water in full force. These mayflies seem to stay on the water longer than any other I've seen. So many just sit there. Even after a long drift, I see lots of March Browns and Isonychias eventually take flight. It was total "Bug Soup" as Mike calls it. I saw: sz. 16 sulfurs, Cornuttas, sz, 16 and small ones, maybe 20, grey foxes, sz 12, a few dark yellow cahills, sz, 14. After 8:00, an absolute blizzard of tiny 'golden olives' poured off the water. On the glide I was fishing, there couldn't have been 2 feet in any direction without a pair of tiny wings up in the air. The corunutta hatch seems almost totally unhearalded, but for 2 weeks, it provides 2 hours of great fishing around dinner time, giving you about a 1-2 hour break before sulfurs start.
The fishing wasn't insane-spectacular because of the crappy dry fly weather and all the fish were not yet back on the dry fly feed after the high water and quick drop. The upcoming week should be Zany-good.

I think I landed about a dozen or so in 2 hours of fishing. Caught most with a sz. 16 leaf-green comparadun. After the Corunttas quit working, I switched over to a sz 16 sulfur trialing shuck bunny-dun on a heavy caddis hook. Fish didn't seem to be taking the golden olives (acentrellas) but a sz. 22 CDC comparadun with an abdomen of only dark yellow 6/0 thread is what I use for them. I caught most of my fish before most anyone showed up and left while most people were waiting for a spinner fall.

Syl

 

[dryflyguy]

Syl,
Nice report - but 2 questions:
I thought cornutas were supposed to be a morning hatch - although I have seen them in the afternoon on cold rainy days.
But never in the evening.
And - what are golden olives? I've never heard that before
Although I've seen olives in martinis that looked pretty golden

 

[Sylvaneous]

Corunttas, Drunellas, Walkerii, I forget the exact taxonomy, but it's not the rarest of hatches. It's fairly consistent on OilCreek around dinner time for the 1st 2 weeks of June. Causes a lot of confoundment because it's not very celebrated. Those olive hatches are quite varible. I ran into them on Penns from about 2:30 to about 5:00. Totally ruined me. So thick they clogged the eddies. And never saw them like that again , or at least for the last 12 years.

Those little tiny golden olives are very common. It's all the tiny beatis looking nymphs you see all over the rocks in the riffles. They are frequently fished to on Spring Creek in the fall. They came off the week before the sulfurs on Saucon. Ted Fauciglia I.D'd them as Acentrellas. All over the place, but water has to be low and clear to be a significant hatch. Better than midges: same thing, essentially, to the fish.

Syl

 

[greenghost]

syl,
I couldn't find a picture of a Cornuttas online.. what color are they? Would a large Adams imitate one sufficiently? I was heading up there this week, but want to make sure I'm properly prepared.
Size 16 and smaller, right?

 

[tomgamber]

Drunella cornuta: is that what you mean?

 

[Sylvaneous]

greenghost wrote:
syl,
I couldn't find a picture of a Cornuttas online.. what color are they? Would a large Adams imitate one sufficiently? I was heading up there this week, but want to make sure I'm properly prepared.
Size 16 and smaller, right?

Grassy-green, size sixteen. See, it rhymes!
Lighter green, not more olive. BUT... make sure you have dark green/black spinner flies in sz. 16. The water shouldn't be low so the super-abundant acentrellas shouldn't be a factor in fish catching. GUESSING for this upcoming weekend, I'd say: rusty spinner, sz. 16 and 18, Yellow cahills, chalk cahills (14) Sz 10 or 12 Isonychias in grey and burgundy and isonychia spinners. Sulfurs in sz. 16 and 18. Cornuttas duns in sz. 16 and the corresponding black/green spinner.
I've been doing really well with the trialing shuck snowshoe dun on a caddis hook. Try it in sz. 14 and 16 in pale yellow and lime green.

Syl

 

[dryflyguy]

Ghost:

I tie my cornutas with olive green dubbing, and dun color wings, tails, and hackle. I've also seen them a bit larger - #14 -on the limestone streams

 

[dano]

Nice report.
LOL,,,,They look like slivers of gold on the water.
I do best with a gold 24 spinner.
They've been hatching for about a week along with Cornutta(and everything else imaginable).
The cornuttas are bright out of the shucks and darken to olive on the ride downstream.
I've been on the stream about 4-5 days a week for the past 2 months and this has to be one of the best dryfly seasons in a long time. Morning to evening.