i am new to fly fishing. what types of flys are good for this time of year. i went last evening to laurel hill fly section and used a yarn salmon egg but i didnt do any good. also any good books or vids for me. i just dont understand what to use for this very cold conditions as it was only around 35 degrees yesterday. thanks for the help
It would help greatly if you told us where you are located, the species of fish you are fishing for, and the type of water on which you’ll be fishing.
dead fish don’t make reel music
hi and thanks. i am located in southwestern pa. i live in westmoreland county. laurelhill creek is in somerset county. pa.
hi and thanks. i only fish for trout. i just am having trouble knowing what to use and how to fish it.and when to use it. thanks
Griz;
Come on up to the Michigan Fish-In this August, only Trout to fish for.
Midges for this time of year for sure. Do you tie too?
Griz, forgive me for not properly welcoming you to the best site around. Coffee’s fresh, just wipe your feet. Come on and visit the chat room any evening.
Don’t forget the Michigan Fish-In August 14th to the 20th. The Holy Water’s of the Au Sable await you!!
Cactus
[This message has been edited by Jack Hise (edited 08 March 2006).]
I’ve fished Laurel Hill Creek a bunch. I grew up in Somerset County. Most of my time lately on LH has been around the scout camp outside of Bakersville, but the section below Whipkey Dam down to Ursina is a good peice of water too. Good flies to try are some old standards: White, black, brown and olive wooley buggers in size 8, 10 & 12, BH prince nymphs, BH hare’s ears, and copper johns in size 12 thru 18, san juan worms in red and green weenies size 12 and 14, can be decent early season flies to try. Even sucker spawn and glo-bugs are worth a shot in some conditions. Things are a still pretty cold up on the mountain this early. The lack of action could be related to the cold water. My guess is the water temp, at best, are still in the low 40?s, might even be in the upper 30?s. While trout are a cold water species they get pretty lethargic in those temps and aren?t very enthusiastic feeders. They can still be caught, but you have to fish slow and get the fly really close to them to get their interest. Streamer patterns are also worth trying early, small clousers styles in various color (chartreuse/white, black/white, black/tan), shiners and some brown patterns have produced fish for me on these free stone streams.
If you like Laurel Hill slip over the ridge to the Westmoreland side and try Indian Creek. It passes under Rt 31 just east of Jones Mill. Good luck, keep trying, they?re in there!
Joe B
SW Ohio
“I grew up in PA, I work in Ohio. My heart still belongs to PA.”
hi
i was at indian creek after i left laurel hill. no good there either. now you guys say midges but like i said i am a begineer and need more advice on what actually to use and how to fish them. i also have a lot of the wooolybuggers and i am assuming you just fish them like a streamer. also a guy there told me to buy some stonefly nymphs and use those. the little glo balls that imitate a salmon egg when and how do i fish those. i live about 3 miles from indian creek. well thankyou and the help is appreciated
Fish the wooley buggers, nymphs, egg patterns, etc should be fished on a dead drift. In other words it should float naturally in the current, uneffected by the line. These should be fished down in the water column a few inches above the bottom. You should feel the fly ticking along periodically. If your fly isn’t bouncing along the bottom and occasionally getting hung up you probably don’t have enough weight on. If you’re constantly getting hung up you have too much weight on. Adjust accordingly and often as you move from location to location. Yes it can be tedious, but very, very productive. Joe Humphreys has a good video on nymph fishing you should watch. It’s probably available at your local library.
You can try strike indicators as a means of aiding you in controlling your depth but I don’t like them much and don’t use them very often. They can be handy in that they will help you determine if your drift is natural and can aid in the detection of a strike (if you see the thing stop, go under or move in a way that’s contrary to the current set the hook!).
I’m still of the opinion that you just hit a day the fish were cold and/or uncooperative. It happens. Change flies often, sometimes they want white, sometimes black, sometimes your never find out but as the old saying goes “the worst day fishing…” well you know the ending!
Joe B
SW Ohio
“I grew up in PA, I work in Ohio. My heart still belongs to PA.”
Hi Griz,
I just looked up the hatches for your area, I’m from the northeast, but I do have hatch charts for most of the state.
Laurel Hill Ck.
sculpin minnows size 6-8 anytime
B.H. Nymphs size 12-14 anytime
Woolly Buggers size 8-14 anytime
Honey Bugs size 12-14 anytime
Black Stonefly size 16 anytime
Hope this helps you out, Dave
Tying and Flying is the only way to fish!
[This message has been edited by dragonfly1 (edited 08 March 2006).]
[This message has been edited by dragonfly1 (edited 08 March 2006).]
[This message has been edited by dragonfly1 (edited 08 March 2006).]
grizzly1972:
Over there in the left-hand column, is “Flyfishing Basics”. It has everything that you ever needed to know about fly fishing…
Knots
Basic Tying Kit
Fly Tying…Beginning,Intermediate,Advance
Beginners Journal
Hatchery Fish
Not Quite Entomology
Fish Weight Chart
Fly Fishing 101
Fly Tying Terms
Float Tubing
Rod Building
Saltwater Fishing
Give it a try, lot of time and effort by many anglers went into creating this section, covering just about every question we all had when starting into fly fishing.
~Parnelli
No such thing as a “Stupid Question”, “Stupid Answers”…yes, “”…no
thankyou all so much for the help
dragonfly, where did you get hatch charts for laural hill? do you have a link for that and other southwest streams?
I’m sorry, I don’t have any links, I get most of my charts off local fly shops and out of magazines. These hatches are posted in The Mid-Atlantic Fly Fishing Guide, wich is a free magazine at the local fly shop here in the northeast. It covers NY,NJ,PA,VA,DEL,CT, and MD. It has a few of the streams and rivers from each state. I can’t say if you can find the magazine everywhere in these states but you can subscribe to it. It’s published here in Pa in Montoursville, subscriptions are $18 and it’s published ten times a year FEB.-Nov. Their Ph.# is 570-523-0485 and their address is:
MID ATLANTIC FLY FISHING GUIDE
P.O. BOX 331
MONTOURSVILLE,PA 17754-0331
Hope this helps you out, Dave
Fly fishing is not a hobby, it’s a way of life that we all should follow…
thankyou
hi
i have a huge selection of wooly buggers. all kinds of colors. but what is the proper way to fish them. do they represent a minnow? and what is a honey bug?
also that one fellow said to look in the left hand column for fly fishing basics. where exactly in the left hand column is that link?
Fishing a Woolley Bugger - Reread my post above! Think DEAD DRIFT!
Do they represent a minnow? They represent many things and nothing spacific, they can look like sculpin, crayfish, leeches, minnows, helgramits, a whole bunch of stuff! Fish with them, they work!
Can’t help you with the Honey Bug.
Flyfishing Basics - go to the top of the screen. Look on the left hand side. See the Fly of the Week? Just below that are “Links” go to the fourth one down that says “Flyfishing Basics”, (it’s between “About Us” and “Bulletin Board”) click on that. Read all the information that comes up on that link, plus look for the new links that will be display:
Knots
Basic Tying Kit
Fly Tying…Beginning,Intermediate,Advance
Beginners Journal
Hatchery Fish
Not Quite Entomology
Fish Weight Chart
Fly Fishing 101
Fly Tying Terms
Float Tubing
Rod Building
Saltwater Fishing
Good Luck!
Joe B
SW Ohio
“I grew up in PA, I work in Ohio. My heart still belongs to PA.”
[This message has been edited by alra195 (edited 09 March 2006).]
Forget about hatches - fish the nymphs and wooley buggers as mentioned.
Or just do everything that alra195 says cause he is right!
paflyfisher
I fish loyalhanna often
[This message has been edited by paflyfisher (edited 09 March 2006).]
grizz…click on the 4th link below the fly of the week pic on the left side of this window… 
)
mojo hth
thanks so much for all your help to everyone. they are stocking laurel hill this saturday. i have to work on saturday but i am going to give it a shot on sunday and monday. i will let you guys know how i did on tuesday.
If you’re looking for hatch charts, try Google. I did that just now and almost drowned in the sheer number of decent results. 
Here’s one for the central PA area:
[url=http://thefeatheredhook.com/htchart.htm:d5315]http://thefeatheredhook.com/htchart.htm[/url:d5315]