Oil Creek, Venango Co. 5/26/14

krott243

Member
Joined
Dec 23, 2012
Messages
161
Fished oil 5/26, 8am-2pm. Water was at 525cfs to start the day, a bit off color but clearing up. Landed 29 fish, lost another 10 fish or so. Mostly rainbows with a few browns mixed in, biggest was a 17 inch rainbow. Sz. 14 and 16, PT variations were the ticket, most came on a hot spot. March brown nymphs and tan/olive caddis larvae worked well too. Lifted lots of rocks, tons of mayfly nymphs in the water. Craneflies and tan caddis came off in the morning, saw a few small BWO, 1 blue quill and a 2 sulphers. Seen two fish rise all day. Fish were scattered throughout the creek, hit lots of fish in pocket water that most people walk by. Beautiful day to be out.
 
Sounds like a terrific outing. Hoping the waters continue to recede.
 
Nice report. Sulfurs are likely heavy, and I'm guessing those are the nymphs you were seeing. But you left by 2 p.m. before the hatch started up heavy. The nymphs are very active so you got the fish that way. Around dinnertime and after the duns and emergers would have been the ticket, and a massive spinner fall at dark.

I like dries so I woulda probably fished the evening. But there's no wrong time to fish Oil at this time of year, just have to tailor your approach to the time of day. Early-afternoon might be a little slow when the stream is lower and the sun is out. But nymph the morning, take a lunch break and early afternoon nap, return for the evening with emergers, duns, and spinners.
 
Yep, had to work the afternoon or I would have stayed, needed to fish so nymphing was the game.
 
25 steelhead in Manchester yesterday, plus smallies. Been a freak year up here.
 
Back
Top