Get ready for summer action with this effective pattern.
A very effective small fly nymph, especially for blue wing olives, Baetis, and others. Search Fly of the Month for a beadhead version.
In this podcast, Tom Rosenbauer discusses the following:
Finally, no significant wind and my back is feeling better, so it’s time to hit the river. Kevin has been out, of course, and has suffered one trout days, if he was lucky. It turns out we were both on the river April 12th within a mile or so of each other, but did not know it. I did nothing and he struggled to catch one small trout.
I sent Kevin an e-mail telling him where I was planning on fishing April 13th. You see, every time we intentionally make arrangements to fish together, we do nothing – we call it Leo’s Curse. In fact, Kevin created a curse busting fly to stop it. It hasn’t worked for me, but it does for him. Anyway, it turns out that even with the warning, we were again fishing within a mile of each other in North Scranton. I’ve been nymph fishing using an indicator built into the leader, but I feel it hasn’t been working very well because of the low river flows. On this day, I decided to try a dry-dropper rig, i.e., a dry fly with a trailing nymph, wet fly, or emerger pattern. There were lots of caddis emerging but, as usual, no visible rising trout. I worked my way upstream into a deeper run and noticed two, imagine that, rising trout. Based on the “boil” of water, they both looked rather large. I chose to cast to the lower one and rigged my dry-dropper with a CDC-elk wing caddis and a caddis emerger trailer. After a few casts, he rose to the offering, was hooked, and tore off up river. The battle lasted a few seconds as he got the trailer fly hung-up in some underwater debris. I worked my way up to the second trout and had the same results – momentary hook-up and lost. I spotted another trout further up, but to the far side of the river. Using the same rig, I made a decent cast and got a good float over the trout. He took the trailing fly and was landed after a few minutes of fight accompanied with several tail-talking leaps. This one measured out at 15″. That was it for the day. I watched for a while, but saw no further surface activity.
Here’s Kevin’s report – Did you kick ass today? … I thought I saw your truck at the end of the road above the pump station. Later in the day, I fished about three-quarters of a mile below you. … Great caddis hatch. Fish were rising all over the place and were taking any fly I could get to them. Got about 15 and missed at least as many. (They were taking the nymphs so quickly upon them hitting the water that it was a challenge to be quick enough to set the hook.) …What a difference a day makes huh?
Although there were not as many trout rising in my section, see curse, I would have to agree with Kevin’s assessment about what a difference a day makes.
By the way, before I left to go fishing my wife asked where I was going. I told her, but she heard something else. I told her “No, not there, maybe another day.” The someplace she thought she heard was the place where Kevin would up fishing. You see, my wife’s errant hearing was a good omen, but the curse is way stronger and I was someplace else.
On April 6, 2012, Kevin and I met to fish the river in South Scranton. It was a day when there was a lull in the extremely windy period the region was suffering through. For this time of year, the river is running extremely low thanks to the mini-drought. This particular day was not without wind, but it was, at least, fishable. Anyone who nymph fishes knows what the wind does to line control and management. Neither of us got any significant trout that day, but I did catch a rather sizable smallmouth bass (16″) on a crystal bugger.
As an aside, did you know that Russell Blessing of Lancaster, PA – died 2009 – invented the Wooly Bugger? He created the fly in 1967 by adding a marabou tail to a Wooly Worm fly. He was looking for a better imitation of a hellgrammite for the purpose catching smallmouth bass.
In this podcast, Tom Rosenbauer discusses the following:
Click here for the latest report from A&G Outfitters, your local Orvis dealer serving Scranton, Dickson City, and vicinity.
In a earlier post, Kevin described about how he broke his new fly rod. The company replaced the broken section. But, the next time out Kevin broke another section of the same rod. Now, in Kevin’s case it may be that the rod was weakened at the first occurrence or the design is poor, but there are things the angler can do to prevent a broken rod. Gary sent us this article explaining one way. This, of course, does not help those who put their rods on the roof of the vehicle and drive off.
Kevin uses an Orvis Sling Pack. Have you ever wondered why he uses one and what did he use before the Sling Pack? Watch this video for the answer. Get yours at A&G Outfitters.
