Yough River - Fayette County - 11-9 -09

[dryflyguy]

Started fishing at noon on a warm overcast day
Water temp was 48 when I started, and reached 50 by the end of the day.
I was surprised to find the fish rising to winged ants - this is the latest in the year I can ever remember seeing them on the water. There weren't a lot of them, but definitely enough to get the fish's attention
Did "good" on a #16 winged ant pattern.
There were also a few BWO's hatching sporidically - but the fish were definitely keyed in on the larger ants

 

[Bruno]

Dryfly - which part of the beast did you fish ?

 

[YoughRiverGuide]

Sweet! I love the flying ants. Were they brown or black? There were a few black bodied winged ants around on Sunday as well. For whatever reason, these bugs always seem to bring up some really big fish, did you find any?

 

[dryflyguy]

YoughRiverGuide wrote:
Sweet! I love the flying ants. Were they brown or black? There were a few black bodied winged ants around on Sunday as well. For whatever reason, these bugs always seem to bring up some really big fish, did you find any?

I saw both colors, but probably more brown ones.
All my winged #16 ants are black, and the fish took them OK.
But I think I might have done better with some brown ones. Have added them to my tie list.
The ants were on the water from noon until around 2:30, and I landed a dozen on them - all between 12 and 15 inches. About half and half browns and rainbows.

 

[YoughRiverGuide]

Sounds like a great couple of hours. Nicely done. I've had the same experience with finding both colors on the water at the same time, and some times multiple sizes even. I usually fish a tandem rig that offers both colors.

Anyway,, thanks for the report.