3wt7X
Active member
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2008
- Messages
- 704
Time Fished: 08:30-06:00 PM
Weather:
It was a bright blue bird day, without a cloud in the sky. The temps rose from the low 40s in the morning to mid 70s by the time we finished the float. There was a negligible breeze from time to time.
Water Conditions:
I believe the water was pushing around 1150 CFS in the area we fished. It was a long float from Confluence to Ohiopyle, but it went by pretty quick considering the distance and flows. The water was pretty clear, and having never waded or floated the river, I would say it was a nice flow rate. Based on the stream temp gauge, the water was in the upper 40s when we started rising to the mid 50s. I observed plenty of algae growth on the river bottom, but it did not appear to be Dydimo, though I know the Yough has confirmed dydimo.
Hatches:
Strong caddis hatch throughout the day. A couple variations of caddis emerging. The smaller one Size 16 had dark mottled wings and a brown body. The larger one may have been grannoms with a large tan wing and darker body Size 14. Some midges present, but I did not see any large swarms. Both male and female Hedricksons came off sparsely throughout the afternoon hours from 2 pm on.
Results:
Very slow day fishing wise. The Yough was the fickle thing that it's reputation brings. We tried multiple variations of caddis, from dries to nymphs to swinging some wets. We fished stoneflies, streamers and several other combinations with minimal results. I took a decent rainbow near Confluence on a peeking caddis and thought that would be the ticket, 2 1/2 miles later without a touch, and the head scratching started. Finally, while nymphing an unshaded 3 foot deep channel, I saw a large swipe at a caddis pupa nymph, I picked up and put the flies right back down in the backwash of an eddy, and a very healthy 19 inch rainbow turned around and crushed my haresear as it sunk. Great fighting fish, ran out a bunch of line a couple times, took us under a sunken limb and finally came to net. A few miles down stream, we finally find a pod of risers eating the caddis, and Mike is able to fool a beautiful 14 inch rainbow on a cdc caddis dry. He has the hot hand, so we get back up in position and notice that the pod is down. We had tried large nymphs and medium, so we decided to throw some small zebra midges through the run, and Mike is immediately hooked up with a big trout. As I am working the boat out of the eddy to follow the fish, into the backing Mike goes. Aside from the Delaware, its a pretty rare feat to be seeing the backing on a stream trout in my opinion. Anyway, we chase it down, and the bow turns out to be one of the largest 20 inch bows, I've witnessed girth wise. The tough fishing starts up again and is with us the rest of the float. Overall, a great day on a mysterious river that obviously holds some monsters. It was funny, that the river appeared baron from my viewpoint on the raft, with minimal fish seen spooking or swimming around, but you know they are in there, (lying in wait).
Weather:
It was a bright blue bird day, without a cloud in the sky. The temps rose from the low 40s in the morning to mid 70s by the time we finished the float. There was a negligible breeze from time to time.
Water Conditions:
I believe the water was pushing around 1150 CFS in the area we fished. It was a long float from Confluence to Ohiopyle, but it went by pretty quick considering the distance and flows. The water was pretty clear, and having never waded or floated the river, I would say it was a nice flow rate. Based on the stream temp gauge, the water was in the upper 40s when we started rising to the mid 50s. I observed plenty of algae growth on the river bottom, but it did not appear to be Dydimo, though I know the Yough has confirmed dydimo.
Hatches:
Strong caddis hatch throughout the day. A couple variations of caddis emerging. The smaller one Size 16 had dark mottled wings and a brown body. The larger one may have been grannoms with a large tan wing and darker body Size 14. Some midges present, but I did not see any large swarms. Both male and female Hedricksons came off sparsely throughout the afternoon hours from 2 pm on.
Results:
Very slow day fishing wise. The Yough was the fickle thing that it's reputation brings. We tried multiple variations of caddis, from dries to nymphs to swinging some wets. We fished stoneflies, streamers and several other combinations with minimal results. I took a decent rainbow near Confluence on a peeking caddis and thought that would be the ticket, 2 1/2 miles later without a touch, and the head scratching started. Finally, while nymphing an unshaded 3 foot deep channel, I saw a large swipe at a caddis pupa nymph, I picked up and put the flies right back down in the backwash of an eddy, and a very healthy 19 inch rainbow turned around and crushed my haresear as it sunk. Great fighting fish, ran out a bunch of line a couple times, took us under a sunken limb and finally came to net. A few miles down stream, we finally find a pod of risers eating the caddis, and Mike is able to fool a beautiful 14 inch rainbow on a cdc caddis dry. He has the hot hand, so we get back up in position and notice that the pod is down. We had tried large nymphs and medium, so we decided to throw some small zebra midges through the run, and Mike is immediately hooked up with a big trout. As I am working the boat out of the eddy to follow the fish, into the backing Mike goes. Aside from the Delaware, its a pretty rare feat to be seeing the backing on a stream trout in my opinion. Anyway, we chase it down, and the bow turns out to be one of the largest 20 inch bows, I've witnessed girth wise. The tough fishing starts up again and is with us the rest of the float. Overall, a great day on a mysterious river that obviously holds some monsters. It was funny, that the river appeared baron from my viewpoint on the raft, with minimal fish seen spooking or swimming around, but you know they are in there, (lying in wait).
