discomidge
Well-known member
Yesterday I ditched work to fish Penns Creek for the first time since it last got blown out. Flow was great (around 570cfs and slowly dropping), water was green with decent visibility though still less than average, air was a high in the low 60's, water was low 50's. The day started off mostly sunny and a little windy, the wind died down and clouds rolled in around 5, and then 45 minutes later all hell broke loose.
Up until the weather got fishing good it had been a slow pick for me. Fish were inconsistently rising to grannoms (which were most prevalent, dotting the water to lay eggs I guess) and some hendricksons (which weren't coming off in droves but still occasionally hatching). I also saw little brown stones, BWOs, and midges here and there. I threw every variation of wet and dry grannom and and hendrickon pattern I had and made a real mess of my bag but only managed a few fish, one of which was really nice.
But then, holy cow, someone turned on the grannom cannon at 5:45 and it got nuts. I tied on a simple #14 CDC body/elk hair wing grannom pattern amid a blizzard of bugs (which weren't landing on the water, just flying upstream) and started catching fish. After that fly got drenched and destroyed it was still working and looked a lot like a winged emerger, fishing those in the film proved to be the ticket. Fish were lining up on seams and rising violently; it seemed like there were multiple very hungry fish just below every rock.
No idea how many fish I landed but all were real pretty browns and minimum 12-14" with the occasional 17-18" fish here and there. A little after 8:00 and after some evening sprinkles, the rain came and I decided to run and hide my head. Earlier in the day I had shown a guy hiking out the hendrickson that was hitching a ride on my hand and he told me that it was good luck. Dazed by my good luck, I walked back to the lot near Cherry Run in the dark and the rain. That was much better than working.
Up until the weather got fishing good it had been a slow pick for me. Fish were inconsistently rising to grannoms (which were most prevalent, dotting the water to lay eggs I guess) and some hendricksons (which weren't coming off in droves but still occasionally hatching). I also saw little brown stones, BWOs, and midges here and there. I threw every variation of wet and dry grannom and and hendrickon pattern I had and made a real mess of my bag but only managed a few fish, one of which was really nice.
But then, holy cow, someone turned on the grannom cannon at 5:45 and it got nuts. I tied on a simple #14 CDC body/elk hair wing grannom pattern amid a blizzard of bugs (which weren't landing on the water, just flying upstream) and started catching fish. After that fly got drenched and destroyed it was still working and looked a lot like a winged emerger, fishing those in the film proved to be the ticket. Fish were lining up on seams and rising violently; it seemed like there were multiple very hungry fish just below every rock.
No idea how many fish I landed but all were real pretty browns and minimum 12-14" with the occasional 17-18" fish here and there. A little after 8:00 and after some evening sprinkles, the rain came and I decided to run and hide my head. Earlier in the day I had shown a guy hiking out the hendrickson that was hitching a ride on my hand and he told me that it was good luck. Dazed by my good luck, I walked back to the lot near Cherry Run in the dark and the rain. That was much better than working.
