Fishing Reports - Schuylkill & Tully

Wow, what happened to July, it's August already. The fishing is just starting to pick up on the Schuylkill, now that we finally have good water conditions. I have been out a few times so far, but the next three months are full of trips. Casey had a trip the other morning and they put a monster in the boat with a lot of medium sizes ones. The yearlings are eating well, so look for lots of fish in the 10-12" range. The later we get into the season, the larger they will get.

Tully fishing has been awesome, tricos are all over the place and they are still eating flying ants. Look at the water temps before heading out, and if you do go out try to be off the water by noon. After that you run the risk of killing fish because of High water temps. Spent wing caddis have also been a sure thing mixed in with trico spinners.

Featured Fly - Sunken Trico

Here is another trico pattern, I wouldn't say its my invention, but it does have a few twists to the traditional sunken trico in the shop. It has worked wonders for me the past few days. I fish it under a pop emerger or a CDC Caddis, only about 6-8 inches below the dry fly.

Materials:

Hook: 2488 sz, 20-26

Bead: Tungsten Bomb Beads sz. 1/16th - Black

Thread: 14/0 Veevus - White or Black 

Rib: Pearl Tinsel sz. Small 

Abdomen: Superfine Dubbing - White or Black 

Thorax: Superfine Dubbing - Black 

Wing: Antron Yarn - White, Lt Grey, or Dun 

Step 1:  Slide the bead on the hook and place in the vise.

Step 2: Make a thread base, tying in the tinsel as you go back.

Step 3: Thinly dub the body, leaving about a hook eye space behind the bead.

Step 4: Wrap the tinsel forward, making a nice segmented body.

Step 5: Tie in the antron for the wing. I tie this in with figure 8 thread wraps.

Step 6: Trim the wings to the length you prefer. For the sunken tricos I like the wings a little sparse.

Step 7: Using the same figure 8 thread wraps, dub the thorax with the black dubbing.

Step 8: Whip finish and Cut off!

Finished Fly:

Here are the two color ways, male sunken and female sunken

A Good Day - Tully

Finally, I went trout fishing. It's been a while since I've fished my home waters; the Tully was fishing awesome this morning. Spent caddis and trico spinners were all over the place, with steady action from all trout. It was a little slower down river, so I started the day off nymphing, small pheasant tails, and caddis pupa. After a while, I headed up stream to find some open water around the water works. The fishing was awesome, but with low water comes picky fish and small tippet, 8x to the dries and 6x to the nymphs. Play your fish smart and get them in and out as quick as possible. The temp gauge is busted right now, so while I was out, I checked the temps everywhere I went. It's getting warm out there, mid 60's so please be mindful of the temps when fishing from here on out. 

Featured Fly - Glass Butt Trico Spinner

Ok, so because I was so bad with the featured flies last month, I am going to try to over load you this month. Fishing and Tying has taken a back seat to life the past month or so, but its smallmouth and trico season, so let the fishing and tying begin! This is a simple fly that was shown to me by Wes years ago, it has be tested and proven. So I wanted to share it with everyone, Enjoy.

Materials:

Hook: TMC 2488 sz 20-28

Thread: UNI Thread 8/0 - Black 

Flash Butt:  Pearl Tinsel - Small

Wing: Poly Floating Yarn - Lt Grey, White, or Med Grey

Thorax: Superfine or Antron - Black 

Step 1: Make a tight thread base, tying in the tinsel as you go back. 

Step 2: Keeping the wraps tight, bring the thread forward about 3/4 of the hook shank.

Step 3: Wrap the tinsel forward, keeping the wraps tight. Tie off and cut excess.

Step 4: Take a small piece of poly yearn, and tie it in, you can trim to size once they it is secure.

Step 5: Dub the thorax, you do no need a lot of dubbing for this.

Step 6: Whip finish and cut thread.

Featured Fly - Lite Brite Ant

Here is a ant pattern that I came up with after having a conversation with a customer a few weeks back. Yup thats right a few weeks back, sorry for the delay, and lack of posting. This is an awesome little, or big ant pattern, it floats high and seems to get the trouts attention nicely.

Materials:

Hook: TMC 100 sz. 12-18

Thread: UNI Thread - Color to Match Dubbing 

Body: Ice Dub - Black, Copper, Red

Flash: Flashabou Accent - Pearl or Opal

Under Wing: Web Wing - Brown or Grey

Wing: CDC - Natural Brown or Med Dun 

Step 1: Make a thread base.

Step 2: Make a small dubbing ball, then wrap the thread forward. This will make the middle of the fly.

Step 3: Choose about 6 strands of flash and tie in. Leaving about a 1/4 of the hook open.

Step 4: Next get your web wing out and cut a small rectangle, about the length of the hook shank. trim the edges to make a tapered wing.

Step 5: Tie in the wing, just over the flash.

Step 6: Strip and stack one cdc feather. Tie it in and trim excess off.

Step 7: Make another dubbing ball, this will form the head.

Step 8: Whip finish and start piling them up.