sulphurs

L

LouM

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Sep 21, 2006
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Sulphurs on the Saucon, both Invicta and dorthea coming off this am.
 
I saw one of each last evening so, while they may be coming off, their numbers are, as yet, small.
 
Found enough of the larger variety on Spring two weekends ago to fish them for an evening. It wasn't a blizzard coming off by any stretch, but it was enough for the fish to take notice. They're probably on the small side of 14ish on Spring, but I always seem to have better luck just fishing a size 16 there. Fish were eating the emergers. Our group of 5 probably was somewhere in the 30's on fish landed...Fishing emerger patterns or parachutes wet or in the film, and swung or lifted and skittered. Dead drifted floating dun imitations were ignored for the most part...don't think we got a single hit using that method, so I don't think they were onto the duns yet. Though it seems like even in the prime of the hatch sometimes, fish seem to prefer the emergers when it comes to sulphurs. Stayed until after dark, no spinner fall, again making me think we caught the very beginning night or two of the emergence.
 
I saw a sulphur for the first time this year on April 13. I also saw some tan caddis the same day.

Both of those are pretty early.

The grannoms started early this year too.

But as someone said in another thread, it's hard to know what's normal anymore.

We may be experiencing "new normals."

 
troutbert wrote:
I saw a sulphur for the first time this year on April 13. I also saw some tan caddis the same day.

Both of those are pretty early.

The grannoms started early this year too.

But as someone said in another thread, it's hard to know what's normal anymore.

We may be experiencing "new normals."
Click to expand...

I'm thinking the significant warm spell we had in February has had something to do with the early hatches in my area, this year atleast.
 
I ran into my first steady Sulphur hatch tonight on a south central limestone spring creek. I only saw a few small risers, but I switched over to swinging soft hackles and immediately started hitting fish in the tail outs of the runs. The takes were ultra aggressive and a broke a couple off right on the hit. I switched to 4X and made my way down to a deep run right at dusk.

I still did not see any significant rise activity, and I threw a nice cast across stream, and mended out a drift under some over hanging bush. I felt the line go tight, and I released the buffer loop hanging below my rod hand. I immediately felt the weight of a heavy trout, and the violent head shakes that ensued were adrenaline inspiring. The fish bull dogged me for the first several moments of the fight, then decided to take a hard run upstream and put on a clumsy half hearted areal display. I saw the big beautiful bronze and yellow coloration and the adrenaline continued to rise. I was able to back into a slow eddy and got his head up. The mark on my rod indicated that he was just shy of 20 inches, but I am going to call him 20, because that mark has a margin of error.

Sorry of the half hearted attempt to be poetic...But I am still pumped.
 

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Surprised how much water was still flowing in Spring Creek yesterday. Sulphers came off 4:30-5 , mostly taking emergers but a few were on the dubs. Swinging was effective and got a few on duns. This rain is gonna mess things up for the weekend based on Spring was just rounding into shape from last weekends rain.
 
Fished Little Juniata yesterday (May 11) at Ironville, not ideal conditions, but landed five on nymphs.

Saw larger sulphers at 5:00 PM, pretty heavy hatch, few rises
 
Jaybird,

Where did you see those sulphurs?
 
sulfurs also were coming off Oil creek today late afternoon. Being stockies, the trout were uninterested. Oddly, there was more rising activity earlier in the day when there were only a few caddis coming off. They must have known caddis were food but the more prevalent mayflies were a mystery.

Syl
 
I love those turquoise and purple highlights on older, darker wild browns. I don't see many of those around here.

Syl
 
Midweek, there were enough sulfurs (I prefer the regular guy-blue collar spelling...) flitting around to matter all through the Sugar Creek watershed. But enough to matter didn't seem to matter to the fish, if indeed there were enough fish around to pay any attention to them anyway.

I saw no rises, flashes or anything else. Based on what I hear and have observed, I think stocking coverage was spotty at best and I also think last year was pretty brutal to the wild fish in the drainage.

The swallows seemed to be having a good time though...
 
Sulphurs were coming off yesterday afternoon on Spring Creek, but the wind was causing havoc.Lots of debris in the water. The fish seemed to be keyed in on emergers. Threw some duns but they were ignored. I managed five despite the crappy conditions. The flies were on the small size although I did see a few larger more orange cast files coming off at dusk.
 
The sulphurs are probably currently hatching on every stream in PA that has sulphurs. Which is a lot of streams.

The sulphurs have been hatching for a long time now.

The big question is when will the Green Drakes start? It will be soon. If they haven't already.

The hatches have been running early this year.



 
troutbert wrote:
The sulphurs are probably currently hatching on every stream in PA that has sulphurs. Which is a lot of streams.

The sulphurs have been hatching for a long time now.

The big question is when will the Green Drakes start? It will be soon. If they haven't already.

The hatches have been running early this year.
Click to expand...

Last year we had drakes on the 15th in my area, with this warm spell and the right plants blooming we are figure we will be seeing them this weekend.
 
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