Spring Creek, Centre County, PA: September 18 & 19, 2009

Got a chance to fish my “Home Water” recently. I say Home Water in quotes, because although, I live 3-hrs away I consider Spring Creek to be just that. I know it better than any other stream and I find myself testing my skills on it’s wild browns more than any where else. I guess I should consider myself lucky – I’m sure there are those whose Home Waters are across the country or across the oceans. It is a wonderful feeling to ease into my waders next to a familiar run or riffle and know that I’ll probably have some success. Hey maybe I’ll even skip the nymphing and just look for some risers. I’ve caught enough fish here over the years that I have a familiar comfort with no anxiousness about fish catching – It’s just good to be here on the banks of Spring Creek.

Me and My Shadow
It’s like Bob Dylan says in Maggie’s Farm, “I wake up in the morning fold my hands and pray for rain…” And so I did – but alas it was no to be. The whether was beautiful – and I was cursing this. The fly fisherman can be a contrary sort. While everyone else is singing the praises of a beautiful fall day, the fly fisherman looks to the cloudless clear blue sky, squinting like Clint Eastwood and looking about as ornery. It was great for a country drive or a hike in the mountains, but not exactly what I was hoping for. Gray skies, cool temps and a little rain would have made me much happier. With those conditions – maybe our little friend the Blue Winged Olive would have come out to play. But it was bright skies and looming shadows as we fished Spring Creek below Bellefonte. Bank-feeders scattered in fear as my shadow announced my presence. The shadow of the fly-line and the glint of the sun off of the fly-rod didn’t help to make for stealthy approaches either.

All of these conditions, contributed to the surprise of what we saw – surface feeding trout. It was one of those mystery hatches. Maybe a better angler would have figure it out, but I was at a loss. There were fish rising pretty consistently and no bugs that we could see. If I were a more prepared fly fisher I would have taken my bug-seine, waded to the tail of the pool and found whatever it was that was drifting in the current – but I’m not. So it remains a mystery, which is okay by me. After all, the mystery of fish and bugs, is a big part of what makes the game interesting.

What to Tie On?
I opened my fly boxes and looked over the selection. Sometimes I think that I read about fly fishing too much – and I tie too many flies. This can result in analysis paralysis. The question of which one of these things is the “right” one can cause me to open and close box after box, and then go through them again. I should probably tie on some sort of tiny emerger and fish it in the film – yeah that’s the smart thing to do. But which one?

But then I thought that it would be much more fun to put on a big dry fly and see if there were any takers. Make it simple. Fish are eating at the surface – give them something on the surface to eat. And preferably something that I can actually see at 30-ft.

Who Would Have Thought?
I tied on a tan and green, elk-hair caddis. And surprise, surprise – It worked! I tie this fly a little differently than the traditional style. I like to tie it with a twisted antron body (I like the segmented look that gives you). Also rather than palmering the hackle on the body, I use hackle only in front of the wing and trim the bottom, so that the fly floats a little lower.

The fish took this fly without hesitation. They came up out of the depths and sucked it in without a second look. I was completely surprised. Usually I only fish dries on Spring Creek when there are hatching bugs to match. I have never had much luck on Spring Creek with attractor dry flies. So why did this fly work so well? Maybe there had been recent caddis activity and the fish “remembered” this. I guess I’ll never know for sure. I’m sure the next time I try it – there will be no takers.

The Next Day
There’s not too much to report. We fished the morning in an area upstream of Fisherman’s Paradise (I don’t want to be too specific). There were a lot of big fish. I didn’t catch any of the big fish. I don’t know when the browns start spawning in Spring Creek, but there were a lot of fish gathered together. I didn’t see any activity that I’d call spawning activity and I didn’t notice any redds. The fish that I watched were not feeding at all though – they were very inactive. Of course it was bright and sunny and there was no bug activity at all – at least while we were there in the morning.

Fished on Friday May 1st, 2009
Well the weather report looked bad – possible rain in the morning, probably thunderstorms in the afternoon. So we went fishing anyway. Thankfully we didn’t let the weatherman dissuade us from our trip. He had it right about rain in the morning, but the afternoon turned out to be beautiful – it was sunny but cool. And the fish were cooperative. It was one of those days when everything comes together.

As soon as we got out of the truck, at the Yellow Creek Fly Fishing Only Project Area, the sun came out and the rain stopped – but the water was pretty high and discolored. The site of the discolored water did not make me happy – I never seem to have much success when the water is off color. But these misgivings proved unwarranted as we looked upon our favorite fishing hole. The fish were rising. A lot of fish were rising. It was a nice little caddis hatch – not a blizzard type hatch, but a consistent parade of fluttering caddis popped off the water, and fish continued to hungrily rise to them, all afternoon and into the evening.

There were several different caddis coming off - most were generally light colored and maybe a size 14; a smaller number were dark gray or black and more of a 16 or 18. I was never able to catch any of these bugs though, so I can’t give a better description. I’d love to know what color and size they really were – I think we could have had one of those truly stellar days if we’d had a good match. As it was we did okay, catching fish on a variety of different patterns.

A typical fish for the day - notice the nice blue color on the gill-plate

Caught on a Yellow Sally

On the surface I caught fish on size 12 and 14 Elk Hair Caddis with tan and gray bodies, size 18 black caddis, and a size 14 Elk-hair Yellow Sally was good for a few too. Due to the rising fish I didn’t fish underneath much – but a size 12 Peacock and Partridge Soft Hackle, fished on a rising swing, was good for some hookups. Every change of fly would bring a few lookers – and usually a taker.

E.E. and the Old Ranger fish the rise. The Old Ranger is casting his vintage late 40s Glass

I have a hard time just fishing – I’m always trying to learn something. This trip drove home a few good lessons (I seem to continually learn, forget and then re-learn the same things).

Lesson Number 1: Don’t let the weatherman tell you what to do.
If we had heeded the weather man’s warnings we would have missed a memorable day on the stream. Whatever the weatherman says – just fish!

Lesson Number 2: Always have plenty of caddis in the most common sizes and colors
Of course, I know that a caddis hatch is always a good possibilty – so there’s no excuse in not having the right color or size. Do yourself a favor sit down tonight and tie some caddis dries in assorted colors (Tan, gray, olive) and sizes (12 – 18). Most caddis I see are best imitated using a light colored wing – but occasionaly I’ll also see some fairly dark brown or gray caddis, so be prepared for both.

Lesson Number 3: Don’t be afraid to improvise
One of our crew – after losing his best hatch-matching caddis imitation – in a trout’s lip – got out the scissors and improvised. He trimmed down what I think was a size 12 Gray Wulff and made an awesome caddis emerger. This fly worked well. It not only caught rising fish – it brought some fish out of the depths as an attractor fly. The modifications consisted of cutting off the tail, trimming off most of hair-wings, and trimming the hackle. What was left of the deer-hair wings floated flush on the surface and the body of the fly hung suspended beneath the water. The result was a decent caddis emerger not unlike the Vermont Caddis:

Vermont Caddis Recipe:
Hook: Standard Dry Fly Hook 12-20
Body: Hare’s Mask Dubbing to match natural (tan, olive, black, etc.)
Hackle: Brown and Grizzly mixed (one size smaller than normal for hook)
Fish this fly without floatant – so that the hackle lies flush and the body is suspended vertically under the surface.

Lesson Number 4: Don’t forget to enjoy the surroundings! With a blog post in mind – I made sure to look around me and notice things, so that I would have some pictures.  Well – I should remember to always do this.  Here’s a few bits of nature that we enjoyed.,

Mallard Ducklings

Purple Trillium

Fungus Amoung Us: What the heck is this thing?

Oh and don’t forget to stop at The New Frontier Restaurant after your day of fishing. The Restaurant is located on Rt. 36 about 100 ft from Yellow Creek. It has good homestyle cooking at good prices. I’m a sucker for the Hot Roast Beef Sandwich with fries and Gravy. If you’re there on Friday try the all you can eat fish dinner.