Penn's Creek

 Before we start... He told us about 2 minutes before this was taken.."I got a great night sleep, I doubt ill fall asleep this trip"... Ha yeah right

After hearing a solid report from Steve that Penn's Creek was fishing well, Hendricksons on the water a fish were eating them. What else could you do after your first half day guide trip, jump into your car with a couple buddies and head west.

Joey, Jared, and I hit Penn's yesterday for an afternoon session. We started off fishing nymphs, but who can argue with rising fish eating Hendrickson Duns? Not us thats for sure, We fished till dark, had a great time, fishing over rising fish almost the whole time.

Enjoy:

And they call me stone-face!

 

Hot Flies: Pheasant Tails, Hendickson Emergers, Hendrickson Dun, Caddis Emerger, Stoneflies

Featured Fly - Guide's Choice Hare's Ear

This week’s featured fly is tied by Gavin Robinson; Gavin is one of our guides and fly tying instructors here at TCO Reading. This is a great fly to fish in the winter months or early season as a prospecting nymph.

Materials

Hook: TMC 200R sz. 12 - 20

Thread: UNI Thread - Red

Bead: Optional

Tail: Hare's Mask

Rib: Ultra Wire - Gold

Abdomen:  Hare's Mask Dubbing

Wing Case: Pearl Mylar

Thorax: Peacock

Collar: Partridge

Tully 03/21-23

Fishing has been awesome the past 3 days. Fish have been feeding on emerging midges in the morning, adults’ mid-day to dark, and nymphs all day long. We have hit the Paper Mill flats the past 3 mornings; the dry fly action has been steady but not on fire. We’ve had a lot of success the past 2 morning dropping a small zebra midge off our dries. The fish have been very particular to the stage of the fly, not so much the color or size. If they are taking emergers it's very hard to get them to eat a true "dry fly".

Here are a few photos from the river:

Hot Flies: Pop Midges, Zebra Midges, and Gnats.

Steelhead and Browns

Joey, Leland and I decided the best way to celebrate St. Patty's day would be go fishing. We headed north after work on Saturday, arriving in Pulaski just in time to pop a top and deal some cards. We took Joey's boat, decided the flows were right and head down with the current. The fishing was slow, fishing pressure wasn’t too bad, but fishing for steelhead in a T-shirt just can’t be beat.

Sunday, after spending half the day getting my boat ready for the fast approaching season, I headed to a small wild brown trout stream. The fishing was awesome, fish were very active on the surface, keying in on Midges and BWOs. I spent most of the time exploring pockets I hadn’t fished before, and flipping rocks over to survey the bug life. I found all kinds of bugs; caddis, BWOs, Sulphurs, but the best discovery was the Golden Stone!

Hot Flies: Pheasant Tails, Zebra Midge, Midge Pop, Sugar Daddy

Featured Fly - Caddis Larva

With caddis are right around the corner. This is a caddis larva that I came up with last year as an anchor fly for guiding. I added lead wire to it, hoping to eliminate a hing point in the leader for clients (no split shop). I start to use it about this time of year, even though there aren't any caddis in the air yet, they are starting to move around subsurface.

 Materials

Hook: TMC 2457 sz. 10 - 16

Thread: UNI Thread 6/0 - Olive or Tan

Bead: Tungsten Bomb sized to match hook - Black

Tail:  Antron Yarn - Brown 

Rib: 8lb Mono.

Shellback: Scud Back 1/8 - Tan or Olive 

Dubbing: Life Cycle - Green Caddis or Tan Caddis 

Thorax:  Ostrich Herls - Grey or Black 

Step 1: Tie in the mono rib about half way down the hook bend.

 

Step 2: Tie in the Antron where you stopped the rib. Tying the Antron back to the bead.

Step 3:  Tie in the Scudback to the start of the Antron.

Step 4: Dub the body, leaving a small gap to tie in the Ostrich.

Step 5: Tie in the Ostrich.

Step 6: Wrap the Ostrich 3 or 4 times filling in the gap.

Step 7: Pull the Scudback to the front and tie off.

Step 7: Wrap the mono making a rib, and securing the Scudback.

Step 8: Whip Finish 2 or 3 times.

Step 9: Trim the tail, and you're finished.

Finished!

 

Bugs A Fly'n

No matter what stream or river you head to right now, you will have no doubt, Spring is here. The bugs are flying. Two nights ago Joe and I took a short trip to the Tully, we were amazed at the bug activity. Stoneflies, Midges and maybe even a caddis or two, were everywhere. Its no surprise with the winter we had, and the warm 70 degree days that we are having right now, its going to be an early year, so get your dry fly boxes back out, fish are rising.

 I was fishing a small wild brown stream about a week ago and the same things were happening. Caddis and BWOs were everywhere, I grabbed a couple Olives as they lifted off the water, I was amazed at how big they were already.

Reports from Valley Creek are they same, Olives everywhere. Lenny and Jared from the Bryn Mawr store have been getting into fish on small BWO patterns down to 22s. Here are 2 fish Steve and I got last year on BWOs.