A silly question.

[Librarian]

So I was looking at some websites and books about the Tulpehocken. I’d like to drive up there from South Jersey this winter. I’ve read that one of the flies to bring are “Egg Flies”.

Two questions. What pattern fly? And the real silly question is what lays the eggs that the trout are eating?

TIA.

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[PennKev]

What pattern fly?

There are a plethora of egg imitating flies out there. It's really angler preference, but Sucker Spawn, Glo-bugs, and Estaz eggs are pretty popular. There are a limitless variety of similar flies. For stream trout I like egg imitations in yellow, light orange, and peach colors. There are other brighter and/or weirder colors trout like too. For example chartreuse and pale blue.

And the real silly question is what lays the eggs that the trout are eating?

They are eating other trout's eggs. Regardless of whether the fish are wild or stocked, they will be dropping eggs and other fish will eat them. Browns and brookies are naturally fall spawners, and stocked rainbows have been bread to spawn in the fall also.

 

[JimKennedy]

Egg patterns are productive year round. While trout spawn in autumn through very early spring (mostly autumn), suckers and carp are March and April spawners, as are white perch. Yellow perch are February spawners. Bass and various sunnies spawn in May. And catfish in the heat of summer.

At least that’s the general way it shakes out in the mid Atlantic.

Trout populations overlap with all these other fish, to some degree, and fish eggs are fish eggs when you are looking for something to eat.

While there may not be fish eggs in every trout stream, they are a high calorie, low effort food that can show up at any time, so a trout is often fooled by a salmon egg fly pattern in august, May or any other time of year.

The big advantage we have is the trout are not checking the in-season calendar at the grocery store.

Egg patterns: a worthy addition to your fly box for year round fishing.

 

[Swattie87]

Agree that egg patterns are a good, versatile fly. I personally think they’re most effective in the colder months. If you look at the spawning times of the various species in the post above, the ones most commonly found in colder water Trout streams are ones that spawn in the cooler months. Say from December 1 to about May 1, not all the time, but an egg is probably the most common fly I use over that time period. Usually paired with a big heavy nymph. Yes, they will work in the warmer months too when bugs are typically more active, but I generally find other, “buggier” patterns more effective then.

Corollary to the above. They’re like catnip for stocked Rainbows. They’ll nearly beach themselves for them. All the time. Even if they’ve heldover a season. Even completely spooked they’ll still eat them. I’ll often carry a few egg patterns with me while fishing a stocked stream over the Summer that has wild fish. If I find a stocked Bow still in there, I bet there’s about a 95% probability I can get it to eat an egg. Even if it knows I’m there and standing right over it. I recall very few stocked Rainbows that I was knowingly fishing to that I couldn’t get to eat an egg at least once.

I was fishing with my FIL over the Summer. I was fishing dries, he was fishing spinners (the crankin’ kind). He fished the spinner through a nice hole with no interest. Seemed kinda odd as conditions were pretty good and most fishy looking spots were producing at least a hit on the spinner. So we walk up to the hole and proceed to spook a nice sized stocker Bow (no Bow reproduction in this stream) under an undercut rock ledge on the left side of the pool. If that’s a wild fish, you have effectively zero chance of catching that fish until the next day, unless there’s a drastic change in stream conditions…thunderstorm, massive hatch starts, etc. Anyway, I say let’s give him a minute, while I proceed to tie on an egg and an offensive amount of split shot. First cast he shoots out and eats it. Last thing he ever ate, and then he was eaten about 6 hours later. Tasty stockies on wild streams.

As far as the Tully, I lived 10 minutes from it for 10 years and fished it 2 times. One time I went out to fish it, but went to McDonald’s instead. That’s what I thought of it. Not my cup of tea. Lots of flat, boring water. But it has a smattering of wild fish, lots of stockers (mostly Bows that like eggs) and the capability to hold them over pretty well, and is easy wading with decent access near a relatively populated area. So I get why it’s popular. Would I drive from Jersey to fish it, no way. But there’s many people who like it and likely would, and maybe do. Different strokes.