2009 SE PA Trico Summit 8/2/09

[Heritage-Angler]

All PAFF members, family, and friends are cordially invited to join us for the 2009 SE PA Trico Summit on the Little Lehigh.

This event will be held on Sunday, August 2 at 7AM.

Due to the nature of fishing the Trico spinner fall, and the desire of many members to have a "mini Jam" that they don't have to make a multi-day committment to, a central location in the state (ie. Spring Creek) was deemed impractical. Therefore, the event will be held on the banks of the Little Lehigh, providing good access to anglers from two of the three largest metropolitan areas in the state.

We'll meet in the parking lot off of Park Rd at 7AM, and there should be plenty of room for everyone to fish. The Tricos on the Little Lehigh have been providing outstanding fishing for a few weeks now, and there should be plenty of rising fish.

For those members that have never fished a Trico spinnerfall before - we'll try to pair you up with an experienced fisherman to help you out.

Waders are a good idea, but wet wading is an option (if you can stand the cold water). I'll have a case of spring water on ice in my truck, but it would be a good idea to carry some with you. Alcoholic beverages are not permitted in the Allentown Parkway system.

After the fishing and inevitable BS session, we'll be heading out to do lunch, and BS some more.

No sign up required - just show up by 7AM.

DIRECTIONS -just right click twice on the parking lot and choose your option.

H.A.

 

[JasonS]

Thanks for organizing this, you can count me in. I've never fished trico's or the little lehigh, so I'm very interested in this get-together. What flies would you recommend I have in my box. Please be specific as possible, because I'm not great with fly names. Thanks

Jason

 

[Heritage-Angler]

Hi Jason - Glad you'll be joining us. You'll need Trico spinners on size 24 hooks. Beetles and ants work great for after the spinnerfall.

Trico spinner

 

[JasonS]

HA,

Thanks for responding. So this is the fly I should get for the trico spinner fall:

http://www.theflystop.com/store-page-products_detail-pid-279-dry-flies-comparaduns-sparkle-duns-spinners.html

I have plenty of ants and beetles, so I'm good to go there. Looking forward to getting a chance to meet and fish with some of the members here.

 

[FFChineseman]

ya...thanks for put this together...I would also be there. :-D

 

[Heritage-Angler]

JasonS wrote:
So this is the fly I should get for the trico spinner fall:

http://www.theflystop.com/store-page-products_detail-pid-279-dry-flies-comparaduns-sparkle-duns-spinners.html

That'll do. Bring a black Sharpie marker with you - I'll explain at the Summit.

I'm also looking forward to meeting everyone.

H.A.

 

[jayL]

I'd like an explanation too, because I never cared to notice whether males or females were falling at a certain time. I always just picked one and changed if I got refused.

Troutnut and the LLFS disagree on which sex falls first:

http://www.troutnut.com/hatch/669/Mayfly-Tricorythodes-Tricos:
After mating, the males fall spent (Spent: The wing position of many aquatic insects when they fall on the water after mating. The wings of both sides lay flat on the water. The word may be used to describe insects with their wings in that position, as well as the position itself.) and the females fly to shore to rest while squeezing little green balls of eggs from their abdomens. They return in about half an hour and fall on the water to drop the eggs. They can fall spent (Spent: The wing position of many aquatic insects when they fall on the water after mating. The wings of both sides lay flat on the water. The word may be used to describe insects with their wings in that position, as well as the position itself.) or take off again for another round

http://www.littlelehighflyshop.com/Newsletter.aspx
The first ones to die and fall onto the surface film are the females, followed by males and females, followed by all males. The trout go nuts!

I have fished many trike hatches, but never knew which way it worked... Thoughts?

 

[gfen]

Think we can persuade dkile to post this to the front page blog?

 

[afishinado]

Sounds great! I should be able to make it. In the mean time, here is some great info on the trico hatch and a great and easy to tie fly pattern and from the Little Lehigh Fly shop. There's some great info in there, but just disregard the final sentence of both articles.

The link to the article is at the bottom, scroll down to the middle of the page to the section on tricos for a detailed study of the insect.

Trikes are great fun to fish, I’m looking forward to fishing the hatch and meeting some fellow PAFFers.


From LL Fly Shop:

“Tricos start life as an egg. The eggs develop when the water temperature is fifty five degrees and above. Eggs laid last fall went dormant, or into diapause. This spring when the water temperature hit fifty five degrees again, they began developing again.

Eggs take about forty five days to develop into a nymph. When hatch time comes, (usually around July fifth), the nymphs begin to congregate in the “cushion” (the slow water on the bottom.) Between 10pm and 2am the males (black abdomens)change to duns on the bottom, bob to the surface with their momentum helping them penetrate the surface film, and fly to the vegetation.

Females (light olive abdomens) hatch the same way at first light.

A few hours after first light, the duns (sexually immature adults) change to spinners (sexually mature adults). Males and females swarm over the stream. Look for them over canopied riffles. Female spinners (white abdomens) on the bottom of the swarm, mating males (black abdomens) and females in the middle of the swarm and all males on the top of the swarm.

The first ones to die and fall onto the surface film are the females, followed by males and females, followed by all males. The trout go nuts!

Since the trout are high in the water column their window is very small. If a trout is one inch below the surface it’s window is only two inches in diameter. Casting accurately is a must!

I find success increases as tippet size goes down. The difference between fish and no fish is 6x and 7x. The difference between fish and lots of fish is 7x and 8x.”




“One of the Little Lehigh’s treasures was Al Miller.

Al fished the Little Lehigh about fifty five hours a week, fifty-two weeks a year. He’s did so for thirty-five years. He’s was a vigilant observer of the stream insects and their imitation. His observations sometimes resulted in patterns which out fish traditional patterns. One such pattern is Al’s Trico.

Most of the consistently successful patterns on the Little Lehigh have two things in common, they are easy to tie and look the same from all angles. Al’s imitation of tricorythodes stygiatus meets these criteria.

Imitative patterns have a triggering device, which induces the “take.” For some organisms it’s the silhouette, for others it’s the color, behavior or size. It’s important to capture the “triggering device” and once captured, not to hide it or make a mistake. For trico duns and spinners its the silhouette of the thorax and abdomen.

Al started at the eye of a size 24 Mustad #94840 hook and wound 12/0 thread (black for males, white for females) to the bend. He tied in a #22 grizzly hackle. A black thorax is dubbed and tied in over the spear of the hook. Two or three turns of grizzly are wrapped over the thorax and tied off. Winding the thread to the eye and whip finishing it completes the fly.

Between July and October male Trico duns emerge through the night; females in the early morning. They mate almost immediately. Swarms of spinners hover above the water (particularly over canopied riffles) peaking at mid-morning, falling spent by late morning.

During the first weeks of the hatch the trout are easy to catch as they gorge themselves with reckless abandon. As the season progresses they become very selective, rising to the silhouette then refusing the fly as they see over sized wings or other mistakes.

Al’s pattern eliminates this problem. Selectively feeding trout are looking for what's right not what’s wrong.
Since Al’s Trico has no wings or tail to turn them off, they rise to the silhouette and take the fly. The pattern works for duns and spinners.

Enjoy your Trico fishing. Fine tippet, good presentation and Al’s Trico will result in fewer refusals.”



Link to source: http://www.littlelehighflyshop.com/Newsletter.aspx

 

[gfen]

8x tippet!

7x inspires levels of anger I can't even begin to describe, handing me a spool of 8x might inspire me to take to a water tower with a rifle.

To say nothing of size 24 or 26 hooks...

 

[littlelehigh]

As I said in the trico primer thread I have been doing ok with blue quill nymphs and they are real simple to tie. I prefer a size 18 hook. Here is my recipe.

very sparse light dun saddle hackle tail. (3 or 4 fibers will do.)

Black or stripped peacock quill body

weight .015 or .020 will do

adams gray dubbed abdomen picked out

pheseant tail wing case

gray thread.

Of course the fish will probally make a liar outta me that day but at least it could give some of you an alternative to trico fishing.

Also H.A. I think the spinner fall is happening around 9:30. If I'm wrong please correct me but I just think that's important to those that want to hit it but can't make 7 am sharp. Of course if the temps pick up it will get earlier.

 

[surveyor06]

I'll be there. Still learning how to fish tricos, I need to see how some of your pros do it. See you guys there.

 

[JF_]

I'm going to try and make it. The only problem is I'm attending a party the day before, specifically planned to be held on Jerry Garcia's birthday. That could cause some problems....
John

 

[Heritage-Angler]

jayL wrote:
I'd like an explanation too, because I never cared to notice whether males or females were falling at a certain time. I always just picked one and changed if I got refused.

Troutnut and the LLFS disagree on which sex falls first:

http://www.troutnut.com/hatch/669/Mayfly-Tricorythodes-Tricos:
After mating, the males fall spent (Spent: The wing position of many aquatic insects when they fall on the water after mating. The wings of both sides lay flat on the water. The word may be used to describe insects with their wings in that position, as well as the position itself.) and the females fly to shore to rest while squeezing little green balls of eggs from their abdomens. They return in about half an hour and fall on the water to drop the eggs. They can fall spent (Spent: The wing position of many aquatic insects when they fall on the water after mating. The wings of both sides lay flat on the water. The word may be used to describe insects with their wings in that position, as well as the position itself.) or take off again for another round

http://www.littlelehighflyshop.com/Newsletter.aspx
The first ones to die and fall onto the surface film are the females, followed by males and females, followed by all males. The trout go nuts!

I have fished many trike hatches, but never knew which way it worked... Thoughts?

Rod is correct on this one. I've noticed that many respected fishermen claim the opposite, but Rod didn't come up with this on his own. This comes from several entomologists that Rod knows.

Check This .

 

[Heritage-Angler]

littlelehigh wrote:
As I said in the trico primer thread I have been doing ok with blue quill nymphs and they are real simple to tie. I prefer a size 18 hook. Here is my recipe.

very sparse light dun saddle hackle tail. (3 or 4 fibers will do.)

Black or stripped peacock quill body

weight .015 or .020 will do

adams gray dubbed abdomen picked out

pheseant tail wing case

gray thread.

Of course the fish will probally make a liar outta me that day but at least it could give some of you an alternative to trico fishing.

Also H.A. I think the spinner fall is happening around 9:30. If I'm wrong please correct me but I just think that's important to those that want to hit it but can't make 7 am sharp. Of course if the temps pick up it will get earlier.

LL - The reason you've been doing well with the Paraleps is that they're present and actively hatching now.

As for the Tricos - the spinnerfall can start as early as 7:30-8:00 depending on the weather. You don't actually think I'd crawl out of bed any earlier than I had to on my ONE day off? ;-)

 

[dryflyguy]

I've always wanted to fish the little lehigh, and am thinking about making the 5 hour drive out.
I know this is in an urban area, but are there any campgrounds fairly close to it?
Looking at the DeLorme, I see that there are several along route 78 between Hamburg and Allentown. And I believe there is one in Bath, north of Bethlehem

 

[gfen]

I know a great little homeless mission next to a bridge only a hop, skip and a jump from here.. But a camp ground?

Closest I can think of is a KOA on rt100 by the SGL 215..probably 30 minutes from the fishing spot.

 

[tracker12]

Glad I saw this post. I am going to try and make it. I will need to pair up with someone if not just to try those #24s on. I am coming up from the DC/Balto area if anyone needs a ride.

 

[philfisher]

I'd love to go to this! Anybody willing to give a poor grad student a ride from Philly? I'll happily chip in on gas and/or buy your lunch. -Mike

 

[jayL]

Check your PM