discomidge
Well-known member
Penns Creek, man. I normally don't count fish, it makes me anxious and takes me out of the groove, but today I did. Ended up with 23 in the net. I would've caught more if I could've figured out what they were eating from 5 to 6 pm. The eternal struggle.
Great fishing weather today, 63 degrees and sunny when I parked around 12:30, water was low 50s, clouds promptly rolled in and it was gravy from there on. It was a bit windy all day, even up until dark. Rain after dusk chased me off the stream, again. The water had significantly cleared since Tuesday but it was still a beautiful green with good visibility. Flow was a lowish 450s which made wading easy. I was stomping around like it was the Catskills.
I arrived to find grannoms and hendricksons hatching regularly. The hendricksons were slightly more prevalent than Tuesday, the grannoms were a little lighter. Also saw small yellow crane flies and a heavy, tiny (like #26) white baetis (?) hatch around 7. I casted to risers for the afternoon and did well. I had a very sexy hook up on the far side of a rock that I'll replay in my head as I fall asleep tonight. Love it when you make the hard cast and can watch the fish rise to your fly.
Emergers in the film were money all afternoon. Suddenly, around 4, the bugs turned off and the fish followed suit. But, being the bug factory that Penns Creek is, it didn't take long for the bugs to get going again.
At 4:45 the grannoms started hatching hard. It wasn't the blizzard that I saw on Tuesday but it was nevertheless impressive. What was different today was that while hatching grannoms flew upstream in waves, egg laying grannoms with yellow butts flew downstream and dotted the water. As far as I could tell, the fish didn't care about flying bugs and were eating in the film. The emerger patterns that had been gold all afternoon were impotent and I struggled for an hour to figure out just what might catch a fish. I carefully destroyed some CDC/elk hair grannoms that I had so carefully tied and that worked okay, but once I saw a single spinner in the water and tied on a biot body rusty spinner it was game on. I didn't see a spinner fall but that was enough to get the fish to eat my fly.
I walked back to my car in the dark rain and found that, amazingly, I was the second to last person to leave the stream tonight - normally I'm the last. It's kind of strange to me to show up to a packed lot, see a bunch of dudes on the stream, and then see everyone clear out at 5/6. Not complaining, having a pool to myself is magic. Then til dark has been great for me lately.
Oh, and I caught nice brook trout (?!) in the pool in front of the cabin. That was a first for there. Man, Penns Creek.
Great fishing weather today, 63 degrees and sunny when I parked around 12:30, water was low 50s, clouds promptly rolled in and it was gravy from there on. It was a bit windy all day, even up until dark. Rain after dusk chased me off the stream, again. The water had significantly cleared since Tuesday but it was still a beautiful green with good visibility. Flow was a lowish 450s which made wading easy. I was stomping around like it was the Catskills.
I arrived to find grannoms and hendricksons hatching regularly. The hendricksons were slightly more prevalent than Tuesday, the grannoms were a little lighter. Also saw small yellow crane flies and a heavy, tiny (like #26) white baetis (?) hatch around 7. I casted to risers for the afternoon and did well. I had a very sexy hook up on the far side of a rock that I'll replay in my head as I fall asleep tonight. Love it when you make the hard cast and can watch the fish rise to your fly.
Emergers in the film were money all afternoon. Suddenly, around 4, the bugs turned off and the fish followed suit. But, being the bug factory that Penns Creek is, it didn't take long for the bugs to get going again.
At 4:45 the grannoms started hatching hard. It wasn't the blizzard that I saw on Tuesday but it was nevertheless impressive. What was different today was that while hatching grannoms flew upstream in waves, egg laying grannoms with yellow butts flew downstream and dotted the water. As far as I could tell, the fish didn't care about flying bugs and were eating in the film. The emerger patterns that had been gold all afternoon were impotent and I struggled for an hour to figure out just what might catch a fish. I carefully destroyed some CDC/elk hair grannoms that I had so carefully tied and that worked okay, but once I saw a single spinner in the water and tied on a biot body rusty spinner it was game on. I didn't see a spinner fall but that was enough to get the fish to eat my fly.
I walked back to my car in the dark rain and found that, amazingly, I was the second to last person to leave the stream tonight - normally I'm the last. It's kind of strange to me to show up to a packed lot, see a bunch of dudes on the stream, and then see everyone clear out at 5/6. Not complaining, having a pool to myself is magic. Then til dark has been great for me lately.
Oh, and I caught nice brook trout (?!) in the pool in front of the cabin. That was a first for there. Man, Penns Creek.
