JackM
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2006
- Messages
- 17,349
FPC:
Arrived with Greg at The Feathered Hook about 8:05 AM and a fellow was sitting out front. We opened the window to ask if the shop was open (not supposed to be until 9:00 AM). The guy asked what we needed and I told him a couple bamboo rods and Hardy reels (we really just needed some flies and tippet). Jim was kind enough to interrupt his preparing breakfast to help us get supplied and on our way. He seemed upset about the rod and reel ruse, however.
On the water below Coburn about 8:30. The sun was already high and there were only a few clouds in the air. We fished until about 1:00 P.M and only saw a few odd rises, one of which produced a skunk-saving 6 inch brownie for me. The water was stained from overnight rains and higher than normal for this time of year according to USGS, but was very fishable and wadable. The water temperature just before noon was right at 60 degrees F. The air temps went from about 60 upon arrival to a high in the mid-eighties and returning to about where they started by nightfall.
We saw some cahills in the AM, a few slate drakes, but most plentiful were the paralep "Jenny" spinners dancing above every riffle, but none hitting the water. We marvelled at how closely the FH ties we bought matched the natural, and I surmised that it was very likely that trout never take the spinner, but so long as the tie was so accurate, the fly-buyer would likely feel it was money well-spent.
We took a long break in Millheim and returned to the water about 4:30 P.M. The Jennies must have fallen while we were gone or went back to the trees, because the clouds of them were gone. The water clarity was improving and we were seeing more cahills, slates and some of the paraleps. We beat the water for another few hours, seeing only a sporadic rise or two along the banks. I had a take on a cahill parachute on a target riser of unknown but substantial heft, but was so thoroughly desperate that I panicked and broke the tippet knot, leaving the trout with the fly and about 24 inches.
Around 7:00 PM, the hatches picked up intensity and trout started rising steadily, but not a huge numbers. Greg and I were close enough to call out to one another what we were using and what they were ignoring. After an hour of only a few "splashy refusals," I noted we had just another hour or so to figure out what they were taking. We never did. I think with hindsight they were probably taking the blue quill emergers, though this is only a guess. Greg somehow managed to avoid the skunk by getting a small brown that bested my skunk-saver from the morning by a couple inches.
As a dry fly enthusiast and hatch-lover, I concluded I had done "fairly," whereas Greg was of the opinion that both he and I had done "poorly." I'm going to be leaving Penns alone for a while-- not because of rising water temperatures that are likely, but because the trout there are so definitively stupid.
Arrived with Greg at The Feathered Hook about 8:05 AM and a fellow was sitting out front. We opened the window to ask if the shop was open (not supposed to be until 9:00 AM). The guy asked what we needed and I told him a couple bamboo rods and Hardy reels (we really just needed some flies and tippet). Jim was kind enough to interrupt his preparing breakfast to help us get supplied and on our way. He seemed upset about the rod and reel ruse, however.
On the water below Coburn about 8:30. The sun was already high and there were only a few clouds in the air. We fished until about 1:00 P.M and only saw a few odd rises, one of which produced a skunk-saving 6 inch brownie for me. The water was stained from overnight rains and higher than normal for this time of year according to USGS, but was very fishable and wadable. The water temperature just before noon was right at 60 degrees F. The air temps went from about 60 upon arrival to a high in the mid-eighties and returning to about where they started by nightfall.
We saw some cahills in the AM, a few slate drakes, but most plentiful were the paralep "Jenny" spinners dancing above every riffle, but none hitting the water. We marvelled at how closely the FH ties we bought matched the natural, and I surmised that it was very likely that trout never take the spinner, but so long as the tie was so accurate, the fly-buyer would likely feel it was money well-spent.
We took a long break in Millheim and returned to the water about 4:30 P.M. The Jennies must have fallen while we were gone or went back to the trees, because the clouds of them were gone. The water clarity was improving and we were seeing more cahills, slates and some of the paraleps. We beat the water for another few hours, seeing only a sporadic rise or two along the banks. I had a take on a cahill parachute on a target riser of unknown but substantial heft, but was so thoroughly desperate that I panicked and broke the tippet knot, leaving the trout with the fly and about 24 inches.
Around 7:00 PM, the hatches picked up intensity and trout started rising steadily, but not a huge numbers. Greg and I were close enough to call out to one another what we were using and what they were ignoring. After an hour of only a few "splashy refusals," I noted we had just another hour or so to figure out what they were taking. We never did. I think with hindsight they were probably taking the blue quill emergers, though this is only a guess. Greg somehow managed to avoid the skunk by getting a small brown that bested my skunk-saver from the morning by a couple inches.
As a dry fly enthusiast and hatch-lover, I concluded I had done "fairly," whereas Greg was of the opinion that both he and I had done "poorly." I'm going to be leaving Penns alone for a while-- not because of rising water temperatures that are likely, but because the trout there are so definitively stupid.
