Penns Creek 09/22 and 09/23

[JF_]

I fished Penns below Coburn on Sat and Sun morning. I caught 4 Sat morning and none Sun morning. One of the four was an eight inch smallie. One trout was a nice 13 inches. All were caught using a small caddis pupa stripped at different speeds under the surface. The trout were rising, jumping 1 to 2 feet out of the water at times. Quite a spectacle. I think they were going after cream midges touching on the water, or midges flying around a foot or two above (hence the acrobatics). I tried small cream dries but no takers. I tried small cream dries but no takers. I even saw a nice sized smallie jump out of the water. What I and a friend couldn’t figure out was why they would expend so much energy going after these bugs. It had to be a negative net result of energy for them.

Water is the lowest I’ve ever fished it, you had to find pools for a decent chance of catching fish. Plus the bright sun only gave you a few short hours of fishing each morning.

Water temp was 58 each morning.

And the PSU offense sucked again!

John

 

[dryflyguy]

I've fished Penns in the fall and have seen the fish doing that - yes they are very hard to catch.
They were probably taken caddis emergers - that's why you caught some on that pupae. I know from my experience, they won't take a dry fly very often.
Glad to see the report of decent water temps there
I'm on vacation the second week of october - will do some fishing around central PA, and plan on hitting Penns. Hopefully, some autumn BWO's will be hatching by then

 

[Maurice]

I've seen trout shooting out of the water after the october caddis when they migrate upstream in the afternoon. From a few inches to a few feet over the water, the air is full of them in waves. Fall colored fish were jumping all over this pool and PaulG and I couldn't take a one of them on the surface. It was bizzare!

 

[JackM]

Something to try. Use a caddis dry without palmered hackles and pull it under the water and slide it a foot or so every few seconds. I had a similar experience once during a caddis hatch and this was the only thing that seemed to work.

 

[volcanomil]

I too was on Penns 9/22 - I was back in the mountains - between the 2nd railroad bridge and Poe Paddy. I had to sneak away when my kids took their afternoon nap - so I fished from 1 pm to 3:00pm. I landed 3 and missed a few more. tan caddis dry with a BHPT dropper. The largest was a brown about 14" on the BHPT - but did pick up a few risers to the caddis. Water was LOW and had to fish pockets. A very enjoyable way to spend a few hours.

 

[tabasco_joe]

They were jumping like that couple weeks ago when I was at Penns. It was about 9:00 AM and there were very few insects flying above the stream. What was flying looked cream colored about a size 28. I think the fish were going after something in the top several inches of the water column. I seined for a bit above the run I was fishing (the run was feed by a riffle section) and only found one or two small caddis larva in about five minutes of seining.

There were lots of small caddis on the streamside hemlocks but none flying. Jim up at the Feather Hook said the caddis were night emergers and not a big factor.

 

[Kweaver]

I have seen trout on Penns chase emerging Slate drakes off the surface like that.

 

[LehighRegular]

Ive seen this occur too. And usually during very low water such is that is occuring now on Penns. It also might be a sign of the fish getting "angry" with one another. Ive seen this happen in locations where the trout are stacked up in the deeper pools/runs. It could also be a result of the fish living in close quarters to each other. Again, just my opinion and observance over the years fishing Penns. Personally, I don't like to fish when the stream is as low as its been even tho water temps have moderated.

 

[troutbert]

LehighRegular wrote:
Personally, I don't like to fish when the stream is as low as its been even tho water temps have moderated.

I feel the same way. I don't know that it will harm the fish or anything, it just seems sad when the water is so low. Not just on Penns, but other creeks too. It's really invigorating to be out on the stream when the water is really moving. I like it when you can hear the stream "rattling" a half-mile away.

Keep up with the rain dances! I thought I saw a couple clouds, so maybe it's working.

 

[LehighRegular]

This is my reference during these conditions the trout are under right now..

How would you like to live in a closet in your house and compete for food with the others in your family when someone opens the door.

I'd rather let the fish be to themselves. Just personal preference here. Penns fish have to endure a lot....droughts, high water temps and predation from osprey, eagles, mink and otters. (Ive seen all on the stream in the past few years)

But the fish always find a way to survive.

 

[JF_]

I don’t buy into the crowding theory. And I don’t think I did any harm to Penns fish by fishing those mornings. But that’s just me.

I don’t think it has anything to do with crowding. I’ve seen this pattern of activity lots of times in the fall and I think it has something to do with getting close to spawning time. I don’t have any scientific evidence of this, just my opinion from observations.

John

 

[tomgamber]

They were jumping all over the place in the little J on Sat too. Those cream midges must be tasty!!!!

 

[tabasco_joe]

LehighRegular wrote:
Ive seen this occur too. And usually during very low water such is that is occuring now on Penns. It also might be a sign of the fish getting "angry" with one another. Ive seen this happen in locations where the trout are stacked up in the deeper pools/runs. It could also be a result of the fish living in close quarters to each other. Again, just my opinion and observance over the years fishing Penns. Personally, I don't like to fish when the stream is as low as its been even tho water temps have moderated.

I wonder if it's not competition that causes the aggressive feeding. Several times now that I've seen the jumping I have seined and found very few insects in the drift.