Has Oil Creek Lost it's Hatches?

[Sylvaneous]

At least to the extent that they existed 10 years ago or even more recently?

Grannoms: They used to fill the air and their gelatinous egg sacks covered every rocky surface

Caddis: a May stand-by. As irregular as caddis are, but a general staple. Pretty sparse

Sulfurs: Still waiting, but it's been several years since the yellow haze of a cloud of sulfur spinners filled the air over the riffles.

Olives? I remember taking a former student fishing during the little cornuta/drunella (whatevs) olive spinners that would fall in the late afternoon/early evening maybe 8 or 9 years ago max. Hain't see hide ner hair since then.

My mind can't help but make some circumstantial connection between the well documented drop in amphibian populations, bird populations (how's the grouse hunting been?) and a recent National Geographic on a disappearance of insects.

 

[afishinado]

From the hatches forum > here.

 

[mote1977]

I fished around Drakes Well on April 23 and there was a pretty good Grannom hatch , lots of fish rising. I don’t fish that stream very often but had a great day.

 

[PennKev]

Hatches can be very fickle, and that is the primary reason I don't bother to chase them. I've had days where I do not expect to see much bug activity and see many, and I've had days where I expect a particular hatch and see none or nearly none. That applies to every water I fish regularly, from the best streams in the state to some very marginal waters. If you(we) cannot monitor a waterway 24/7, it becomes very difficult to gauge hatch activity. I've seen very heavy hatches in high/muddy conditions when no anglers are out, or have noticed heavy nocturnal activity, again when no one is fishing. Other times bugs trickle off all day everyday rather than heavy, focused hatches.
I also think that hatches naturally have years of high volume and years of sparseness. Weather and water conditions playing a bigger role than we might expect. While human actions might affect some, I think natural variations are the primary culprit in hatch variances.

 

[Baron]

Hatches are a cool Phenomena to those of us that are new to it. I never realized how much they affect fishing. The lake I fish locally had some sort of midge hatch that turned the lake whitish in areas. Together with the heat fish didn't seem hungry. On the way home driving down along the Delaware River my pickup became completely covered with slime from all the Clouds of insects I drove through. It sounded like rain and they appeared to be mostly sulfurs of some sort.

Look at the ford emblem below:

 

[RLeep2]

Not having spent much time chasing Oil Creek trout since we moved back 5 years ago, I don't really have an informed opinion on whether the hatches are changing or diminishing of late. On the one hand, it wouldn't surprise me to learn there were less bugs but on the other, as Kev sort of said, this stuff often depends on in the moment circumstances and observations.

One thing I have noticed with Oil Creek since we've been back is that the summer SMB fishing seems to have taken a hit for both size and numbers. Or at least it has seemed that way to me in the State Park section anyway. For many years, it was always in my regular rotation of bass creeks. But I haven't done well there at all in recent years. I've been catching more pike too, whatever that means. It used to be that I seldom got a northern below Titusville but this has changed over the last 5 years.

 

[dryflyguy]

I pretty much agree with Sylvaneous about the conditions there.
Until I hit the heavy grannoms in April, I hadn't seen a good hatch, and rising fish there in years.

However, I only get up there once or twice a year. And realize that very limited time spent on it probably isn't enough to judge a stream by.

I actually went there that day not expecting much - especially with a flow of almost 900 CFS - twice the normal for then.
And had a plan B and C to quickly go to if things didn't go the way I wanted: Sugar and Little Sandy creeks.

 

[dano]

2009 was phenomenal. Best I've seen in the 40 years that I've been fishing there. Since then, the hatches have seemed to decline, especially at the lower end of the park. There still has been some great days but the hatches are not as dependable or consistent as in the past.
This year has been good to me. I've been lucky so far with my timing in terms of time of day and location. Tiny 22-26 bwos have been good late morning and into the afternoon. Evenings have been decent except for this past Tuesday. Not a bust but for unkown reasons, the hatches and spinners were few.

 

[Sylvaneous]

just an update: for the 1st few days of this week, I waited for any sulfurs and again, was frustrated.

I was fishing on Kahle lake today and, to my great surprise, saw male sulfur spinners on the lake.

Stunned, I was.