Sulphurs are still going strong on the Little J...

I find it hard to believe that I would frequent the Little J over Spring Creek in the early hatches of the 2013 fly fishing season.  Every angling experience that I partake in on the Little J presents multiple opportunities to get into great fish.  The last two evenings have had abundant spinner falls and the dry fly activity has been great.  

On Monday, I could not fish all evening as I had to call it quits around 6:00PM, but the nymph fishing was very productive.  I started the afternoon fishing an inch worm due to the increased winds the last few days and caught a bunch of fish.  After that I switched to a sulphur nymph once I saw a few duns and picked up a few additional solid brown trout.  

One other notable observation that I made was due to the low water conditions and that these trout have be subject to a lot of dry flies, you may want to use a smaller diameter tippet.  A no brainer, I know but sometimes I find myself being a creature of habit and I forget to take specific variables into account.  With that being said I typically use 4X tippet but recently have had trout rise up completely vertical to refuse to eat dry flies.  After making the switch to a 24 - 30 inch 5X tippet segment, fish began to attack my fly once again.  Try it out, as I'm sure most would be able to make these distinction but it is often worth trying if you find yourself experiencing similar refusals in shallow or slower moving water.   

Below is a group of photos of some of the fish that ended up in one of Kevin Best's beautiful Nomad hand net.  

Grannoms on the Little J

Hello Everyone,

I know it seems like all that I have been fishing is the Little J, well that's really all that I have spent time fishing because of my crazy schedule.  This past Sunday was a beautiful day to be out on the stream and the insect activity was even better!

Grannoms were apparent yesterday but it was a non-stop swarm on Sunday.  I was thankful that I wasn't getting hit with sleet or snow with the weather we had in Central PA on Saturday.  Sunday there was a change in what was flying through the air.  I was continually getting pelted in the head and sunglasses with the grannom caddis swarm (and BWO's) that were moving throughout the stream.

I began fishing around 3:00PM and the last fish I reeled in was at 7:58PM (on a dry fly).  I switched between a bi-visible and a elk hair caddis and the only time I changed flies was when my fly got beat up and I had to put a crisper imitation on the end of my line.  The height of the feeding frenzy took place between 6:00PM - 7:00PM where the water was boiling with aggressively rising fish.

If you get a chance I would get to Fishing Creek, Lower Spring Creek, or the Little Juniata to take part in this remarkable hatch that we are lucky to fish on an annual basis.  Special thanks to Kevin Best at Nomad nets for providing me with such a durable and dependable hand net!  It's been getting a ton of use again for the second season!

Below are a few pictures of a few of the longer fish that I hooked into, enjoy!

Little J Update (4/13/2013)

Hello Everyone, 

I didn't get a chance to fish opening day but my schedule cleared up Sunday to hit the streams for several hours.  BWO's were cruising around for most of the day but there wasn't the dry fly activity that my father and I witnessed the previous weekend.  

I had a lot of success fishing underneath with an assortment of nymph and larval patterns.  Throwing streamers and slump busters yielded fish as well.  Here are a few pictures from my time on the stream and I look forward to getting back out again to fish the optimal conditions once the Little J returns back to normal discharge levels. 

Hopefully everyone got a chance to hook into a few fish over the PA trout season opener!

Enjoy!

I had to add this because of its unique color on the pectoral fin.