Shenango River, Mercer County, 5/2/12

[streamerguy]

Fished the Shenango this evening for a little less than an hour. Mananged to get a decent sized crappie and a trout. Both fish hit a size 10 BH bugger. There were lots of caddis hatching, but I didn't see one fish rise. There were a bunch of other guys out fishing too but I only saw two other fish caught the time I was there.

 

[ryguyfi]

I've been there when the caddis are thick as a snowstorm and not seen any rises either. Not sure what the deal is. That place should fish better than it does with all those bugs. One of my buddies fishes up there all the time and says he has 20-30 fish days at times. I seem to get skunked more often than not up there.

 

[streamerguy]

Same here, about the fish not rising and getting skunked(with trout anyways). I don't fish there a lot in the spring, but I don't think I have ever seen a trout rise there.

I also can't seem to figure out the trout there. On a good day early in the season when they are relatively fresh I might get one or two, where if I decide to go to Neshannock, Oil, etc. I can catch a bunch real easily. I do occasionally catch a bunch of trout spinfishing below the dam for walleye, white bass, and stuff but farther downstream is a different story. Now the smallmouths on the other hand I can't keep them off my flies in the summer.

 

[dryflyguy]

I haven't fished it for around 10 years or so now.
But I used to find some rising trout there in june.
Wonder if the water temp isn't quite right now. Did you check it yeseterday?

 

[streamerguy]

I didn't personally check it while I was there, but according to the USGS site the water temp there was 12.7C(54.86 F) the time I fished it.