I had a fun week on Penns Creek this past week. Something I have been looking forward to for a long time. Usually, I only get a couple of days out in May so fitting in almost a week for a trip was awesome. I'll probably write more about the trip in a blog post shortly.
The weather was great for this time of year. We had a mix of sunny, but mostly cloudy days and only one day with some passing showers. Nothing that affected the water levels. Temps started off pretty cool with even freezing temps one of the mornings. Typically in the upper 50's during the day and even caught one day in the upper 70's, which felt pretty hot.
We fished several different areas of the stream. I need to say that the stream was crowded pretty much everywhere we went. Plenty of fly fishermen, other anglers, hikers, kayakers and even horseback riders. The most people I have seen near or on that stream.
The water on Penns was in excellent condition. Some very big storms the previous week helped us with the water coming down to ~650-580 CFS while we were fishing. Clarity of the water was ideal and typical for Penns with some of the mild stained green. I lost my thermometer last month so no clue what the temps were like.
The hatches on Penns evolved over the week. Not a lot of caddis, but pretty common to see March Browns and Gray Foxes during the day. (Yes I know some people regard them to be the same) Sulphurs really only came off in earnest on 5/15 and 5/16 after 8:00 pm. Big march brown spinner falls in the evening. I only saw them hit the water on 5/16.
Fishing was mostly nymphing during the day and big stonefly nymphs worked along with sulphur nymphs. The trout were not rising for much of anything during the trip even during the evening sulphur hatches. I was using some wet fly techniques with some flies that helped me land several.
The weather was great for this time of year. We had a mix of sunny, but mostly cloudy days and only one day with some passing showers. Nothing that affected the water levels. Temps started off pretty cool with even freezing temps one of the mornings. Typically in the upper 50's during the day and even caught one day in the upper 70's, which felt pretty hot.
We fished several different areas of the stream. I need to say that the stream was crowded pretty much everywhere we went. Plenty of fly fishermen, other anglers, hikers, kayakers and even horseback riders. The most people I have seen near or on that stream.
The water on Penns was in excellent condition. Some very big storms the previous week helped us with the water coming down to ~650-580 CFS while we were fishing. Clarity of the water was ideal and typical for Penns with some of the mild stained green. I lost my thermometer last month so no clue what the temps were like.
The hatches on Penns evolved over the week. Not a lot of caddis, but pretty common to see March Browns and Gray Foxes during the day. (Yes I know some people regard them to be the same) Sulphurs really only came off in earnest on 5/15 and 5/16 after 8:00 pm. Big march brown spinner falls in the evening. I only saw them hit the water on 5/16.
Fishing was mostly nymphing during the day and big stonefly nymphs worked along with sulphur nymphs. The trout were not rising for much of anything during the trip even during the evening sulphur hatches. I was using some wet fly techniques with some flies that helped me land several.
