Well, I finally made it up to BTW tonight and caught one rainbow. Actually, it was a “hands free release” right at my feet, but by golly, I’m counting it as a caught fish. It was not large, about 12" or so, but was fun.
Here’s a question for the folks who fish there a lot. The water was like trout soup. I’ve never seen that high a concentration of trout and they were all hitting on the surface. I couldn’t get more than a look see at a nymph.
There was some kind of hatch going on with a tiny flying bug. These things were about the size of the head of a pin, brown and there were thousands of them on the water and the trout were going nuts. I saw a number of fish jump clear out of the water to grab them in flinght.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have anything that small. The smallest dry fly I had was about a number 16 yellow with brown hackles. I have no idea what it is called. That is what I caught the fish on. However, I got all excited and was not watching my back cast and lost it in a tree. Everything else I had was larger in the 12 to 10 range Adams and some elk hair caddis about the same size. I had a lot of lookers, but only a couple strikes on the caddis but even those strikes were half hearted.
My question is what do you guys use in the way of flies on that stretch of water?
I mainly fish warm water for smallmouth and sunfish. I did toss a couple hoppers and even a chernyobyl ant but they didn’t even get a passing look.
On Brookville I’ll through a Sz 24 griffith’s gnat - and as soon as my 28 hooks come in I’ll be tieing some of those as well.
You’re right - they are tiny midges, and the fish feast on them. I’ve tied a bunch of midge larva (black body, silver ribbing and one wrap of peacock herl) and have done well with them…I’ll often break it up with a red body, olive/brown body or even chartruese body. A tiny brassie will work as well. I’ll tie them in tandem or have a dropper behind whatever dry I’m throwing at the time.
Good luck - and if you need any tiny midge larva - let me know and I’ll tie a couple for you.
Jim,
Thanks. I went again yesterday (see the I caught some fish thread I started). I had several small dry flies with me this time. All were in the 18-22 size range. Had Adams, Mosquitoes and some little black gnats. I was watching the midge hatch and the flies I was throwing looked just like the things that were dancing on the water (same basic shape, size and color). I had a couple zebra nymphs which sould like what you’re tying as well.
Unfortunately, they were not terribly interested in what I was throwing.
Out of frustration and also because the light was fading and I couldn’t see to tie on those tiny flies any more (magnyfing glasses in my near future for sure), I tied on a #12 Royal Coachman. I really wasn’t expecting anything to come of it as it was HUGE compared to what they were eating.
Well, long story short, they were hitting it with regularity. I managed to bring two to hand. One 12" and one 16".
I still want to try the little “match the hatch” flies because I think that is the real ticket. However, I couldn’t get anything to take the nymphs or the dry flies yesterday. More practice must be needed. My drifts were good and a LOT of my casts drifted the fly right over a fish’s head without even a look.
I was using 6X tippet and other than a few casts, I didn’t slap the water or drift the fly line over the fish’s head. The Coachman was the ticket for me yesterday.
Jeff
If you get a chance, please PM me. I’d like to ask some questions about this stretch of water and probably do not need to take up forum space talking about something that regional.
It was not large, about 12" or so, but was fun.