Oil creek, Venango County, 05/02/2015

[Sylvaneous]

Water mostly clear and at a good level, under 400 CFS. Not much grannom hatching but lots flying upstream. Swinging and tightlining pupae was marginally effective. Only very sporadic and occasional rises. Got 7 around Rynd farm bridge. Started nymphing pupa with I dictator and caught a beautiful big wild brown in the slate pool below Cherry tree run. Blood farm area had much better rising activity for some reason. Caught some nice rainbows on grannom dries. There was a good number of dead caddis on top and this had them rising. Dead drifting worked because it looked like dead caddis under water. Caught 3 at the end of the day by nymphing a dry. Caught somewhere in the low 20's.

 

[Sylvaneous]

So the next day, May 3, was a complete change. Well, there wasn't much of a hatch, like yesterday. In one place, the same place as yesterday, I found rising fish. I only caught one and that's a lot different from the 20-some I got yesterday. I don't know what happened to the grannoms. I suspect this was a lull after an initial burst of hatching. They may come back. They may not. There is usually a smaller grannom like caddis, sz 16-18 that happens after the grannoms but I don't always catch it. Nothing like that has shown yet. But if anything is consistent, it is the inconsistency of the hatches on freestone streams.

 

[dano]

Give it another 4-5 days for brachycentrus #2. (crossing my fingers)
last year the popped when the br.green. caddis showed.

 

[vanorvis]

Saw the same pattern as Sylvaneous. Fished above Petroleum Center on Saturday above and below the bike bridge. Lots of bugs with sporadic risers all day. Caught fish with pupa, emergers and drys. Emergers seemed to work best for me. Landed one nice holdover Brown.
Stopped at Pioneer in afternoon and saw very few bugs and not one fish rising.
Sunday different story, very few bugs around. Fished Petroleum Center, easy parking with camper in tow. Pounded up over a dozen fish to a twitching dry, only landed a few. Fooled a few more of the sporadic risers with a caddis emerger.
Great weekend to spend on Oil Creek, walked out Sat. evening after a day of catching fish under a full moon. Looking forward to the Green Caddis and Sulfurs.

 

[kbkpitt]

Sporadic Brachy hatch has me nervous about this weekend of fishing. My cousin flies in from St Louis to Fish OC just for this time of year. Any updates this week (May 4 - current) would be great? I see a little rain has fallen today.

Vanorvis? Any news?

 

[dano]

You'll do fine this weeknd.
Grannoms are again popping off very early in the morning with these warm nights. Olive, little black and little green caddis through the rest of the day.