Calm Before the Storm (Little J)

Jeff Scipione and I made another run at the Little Juniata before the heavy rainfall started last night.  We got there around 4:30PM and the Sulphur's were starting to come out in full force along with a fair amount of tan caddis.  

After the rainfall we received last evening and this morning the streams have elevated water levels but we needed the rain to support the trout/aquatic insects at later points this summer.  

It was a crazy few hours of fishing and we hooked into some beautiful brown and a healthy rainbow trout!  Below are a few of the better trout we took on a variety of dry fly sulphur patterns.  

Photos from the Little J

Recently I've made a bunch of trips to the Little J and there have been some very memorable trips angling for "river trout."  Jeff Scipione, Doc Scipione and I had an extraordinary evening on the stream using a myriad of crane fly, sulphur, caddis and BWO dry fly patterns.  The stream has literally been flooded with insects. 

I've been seizing every opportunity to make the trip to the Little Juniata because every time I go there, there is either a good fish is caught, landed or lost and put into my mental log for the next trip!  

Spring Creek has sulphurs, so does the Little J and Penns has reported some good march brown activity.  All of the local streams are heating up and anywhere you go, I'm sure it will result in great fishing!

Kevin Best at Nomad nets would enjoy the amount of use that his incredible hand net is getting.  There have been several occasions where we had multiple fish in the net at one time from numerous "doubles."

Here are a few photos of recent adventures on the Little J, enjoy! There were plenty of other trout caught and not photographed because things were crazy and we were into a ton of fish.  

Destination: State College, PA Spruce Creek

Bob Kalantari hoists a torpedo sized rainbow!

Destination Part 3 is all about Spruce Creek, Pennsylvania.  When you think about Spruce Creek, you immediately think of Wayne Harpster, Jimmy Carter and all of the famous people who frequent its banks in hopes of catching a massive trout.  We don't have the luxury of spending thousands of dollars to fish any of the private sections of Spruce Creek, so we are "stuck" fishing the public water.


My favorite time to fish this area is when the temperatures aren't too warm and when the flow is normal to above average. The higher flow will allow this section to hold some of the bigger fish.  That being said I love fishing it throughout the fall, winter and spring months prior to the dog days of the summer when I give the fish a rest due to the intense heat.  


One of the things that amaze me every time I hook into a gigantic fish there is that so many times the fish lay underwater completely hidden to the naked eye.  Some of these monsters barely have there backs covered in the water they're hiding in.  


I have had the opportunity to fish here a lot and each new trip I take to Spruce Creek I often am reminded about specific fish at different sections of the stream.  Sometimes I find myself wondering if one of the huge fish and I will get to meet again.  A story that I often tell first time fisherman that go to Spruce Creek was originally told to me by my father and occurred while he was a graduate student at Penn State.  He was fishing a section of the stream when he was greeted by a female mallard and its nine ducklings.  This was nothing new and he took in the small, newly hatched ducklings as they were approaching the area he was fishing.  Next thing he knew, an carnivorous trout exploded above the waters surface and the ducklings had no idea what just happened.  After the crime scene calmed, my father was shocked! What just happened in front of him?? He recounted the ducklings and noticed that there was now only eight ducklings...  To this day I recreate what that scene would've looked like and I often wonder what that toad of a brown trout would've looked like out of the water.  


If you need any other reason to pursue Spruce Creek, below are a few pictures that document some of the fish who in the past have been fooled by a fly.      

Snowy rainbow caught on a frigid winter day.

Brian caught this on a #16 prince nymph.

Sulpurs Still Going Strong!

So those of you who had the time to fish the Drakes on Penns, I'm very jealous, but I hope to get a chance to fish it this weekend!  For those of us who don't have enough time to get down to Penns, I made the trek to Spring Creek.  The water was moving significantly faster then the last few weeks but the fish were just as active!  

Most of my fishing was done in eddies, behind rocks and other seems where the slower water met the faster water.  One specific eddy I caught close to 10 fish all ranging from 12 - 15 inches.  It was fun to see multiple fish bumping into one another while chasing my parachute sulphur.  

Penns/Pine Creek is the place to be right now, but if you don't have time to get there, Spring Creek will do!

Enjoy!

Phenomenal Fishing this past Week!

This past week offered amazing nymphing and dry fly fishing on the streams.  To top it off, it ended on Sunday with us getting some much needed rainfall (The heaviest rainfall happened well after the hatches were over).  Sure the stream levels on Penns, the Little J and Spruce are flowing above normal, but it will all pay off throughout the summer months.  

The Sulphurs continue to be heavy on most of the streams and I am seeing a varying number of Light Cahills on Spring Creek on a nightly basis.  I caught close to 35 fish using a parachute Light Cahill and the following night in Milesburg I caught a majority of the fish on a yellow Sulphur comparadun.  Sunday night there was a larger spinner fall and I switched to using an orange Sparkle Dun.  It's been a lot of fun tying a variety of Sulphur/Light Cahill/Crane Fly patterns and putting them to use the following fishing trips.  If you have a variety of those flies tied you should have adequate ammo to cast to a majority of the rising trout.  

It looks like the rainfall is to continue through Wednesday and let up on Thursday so you can have some luck throwing cone head Olive Slumpbusters depending on the water levels.  Either way a rainy day on the streams beats a bad day at the office!

Tight lines! 

It was raining, sorry for the blurriness!

The Green Drakes are Coming!

Had another great afternoon and evening of fishing the Sulphur hatch!  The afternoon provided great action using pheasant tail nymphs.  Later it went to tan caddis and finished up with sulphur duns and spinners.

On another note, the Black Locust trees are in bloom which when at full bloom is associated with the Green Drake hatch!

Today marks our 100th post, thank you to everyone who has continued to visit our blog, hopefully it is informative and enjoyable to read!

   

Light Cahill's on Spring

Monday began by providing the rain that we've needed badly for several months.  We should all be thankful for that because when the Central PA streams reach the heat of the summer the water will be in a little better shape.  Plus, it's no fun fishing nymphs in highly vegetated areas or putting excess stress on fish in warmer, shallower water.  

With that said I had time to get out from 6:30PM - 8:45PM on Monday night and it offered my best day fishing of the year to date.  I arrived a the parking area along Spring Creek the rain had slowed down and then suddenly came to a sudden stop (I had a feeling that the fishing was about to pick up!).  
  

I motored down the path to where I was far enough away from any other angler.  I watched the stream carefully before I stepped into the water and saw a moderate amount of Light Cahill's. Literally every insect I watched float downstream was getting eaten.  Sure there were Sulphurs, Crane Flies, among other insects but I choose to tie on a Parachute Light Cahill.

It was insane, almost every single fish that I casted to took the Cahill imitation on the first cast.  Most of the fish were between 6 - 12 inches where I was fishing but still it was fun to release a fish and repeat the same procedure within the next few casts.  I would cast to the fish that I could see working around me and then take a few steps upstream and then cast to new unsuspecting trout.  Even by doing this I only fished four or five pools and one of the last pools provided me with a humbling experience.  

I was approaching a new riffle and casting along the seem and all of the sudden a fish took the parachute pattern and immediately pulled the rod straight down after I set the hook.  This is always a good feeling because you know you have a quality fish at the end of your line.  Amidst the battle with this fish it took me to the bottom of the pool for a large percentage of the fight and I only got one good look at the it...  The "educated" brown was headed for an exposed tree root system and I bent the rod to my left to deter it from getting tangled up in the roots.  I successfully pulled it away from the tree roots and as the fish was approaching the surface I saw the huge silhouette of the trout and in slow motion I watched my fly pop out and shoot straight towards me!  Just too much tension in the wrong angle at the wrong time.. This situation happens to all of us and I was thankful for the brief fight that we had! 

All in all the night was incredible and I'm still thinking about the huge brown that outsmarted me!  I guess that's why we anglers keep going back! For me it is to try and get another shot at seeing just how big the trout are that got away...Until next time, tight lines! 

Flies that have caught big fish recently!

Bead-head Pheasant Tail Nymph Files

Rusty Spinner Files

Parachute Sulphur Files

Sucker Spawn Files