Been catching plenty of smallmouth-trout are a different story-just caught my first trout on the fly today-bead head hares ear-I think it was. So I was really excited. They were in a small shoot-and I knew they were there because they were actually clearing the water every once in a while. I don’t know that much but hitting emergers?? ( I don’t even know when emergers emerge-or what flies represent them) It was the middle of the day-I didn’t see anything or have anything so I tried nymphs-it was only a few times that they leapt. So…while I am excited-I need to learn-what do you think they were doing, what would you have tried, how in the world do you detect hits on nymphs (excluding strike indicators), etc.
By the way, it was a wonderful 13-14 inch brownie that fought hard and didn’t want to give up-hooked him inside the roof of the mouth-not in the lip (does that mean anything?)
If they were jumping, it was one of two things. Insects were emerging and they were going after them. (Usually happens in a caddis hatch as these bugs take off fast.) Or the females were spawning, with leaps to loosen their eggs.
#2 son and I had an experience with the latter one day where we both got skunked while wading a river with fish leaping all around us. It got so we were laughing about it. I think I may also have heard the trout laughing as they leapt while we fished in frustration.
Hi cornellpd,
Sounds like you did the right thing! Nice catch.
If you are looking for emerger patterns, the soft hackle spider flies are a good start and can represent either caddis or mayflies. For dries, something palmered (I go with Wickham’s Fancy, but any palmered dry would probably be as good) is always a good starting point in my opinion, again because I think these cover a lot of ground (good for caddis, terrestrial, and to some extent mayfly). Patterns for all of these can be found in the fly tying section of FAOL.
- Jeff
You did well.
Congrats
From Allentown?
Where were you fishing?
Little Lehigh ?
Saucon?
Monocacy?
They all hold trout, Limestoners all if I’m not mistaken.
Have you tried the Heritage section of LL ?
Lots of trout to be sight fished to.
Go talk to Rod Rohrback in the Little Lehigh Fly shop on Fishhouse Rd.
He’ll put you on to the right flies for the area
I live in Allentown-not 400 yards from the little lehigh-I was fishing it but a little south of me-real nice area that people tend to shy away from. Looking forward to getting out there and like someone mentioned, keeping my line a little tighter to try to sense a strike a little better. Seems like a real fine line between just right and making the fly drag. I’ve been down to Rod’s shop, and spoken with him. A little too crowded for my taste down there, even though there are plenty of fish. Think I’ll head down there in late fall and winter.