Looking for a hatch to fish a mayfly hatch....

drumat26

drumat26

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Apr 18, 2013
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Having fly fished for several years now I still haven't caught a major mayfly hatch besides early season BWO. I was really hoping to catch a sulphur hatch this year on Clark's or the wiconisco but just couldn't get it together. I was only seeing minimal mayfly activity while I've been out. I've been catching most of my fish on terrestrials already. I hit up penns one day hoping to catch the green drake hatch but the water was muddy and we didn't see any top water activity while we were there. Are there any hatches still going on that I might be able to catch Friday or Saturday night this weekend? Any insight would be appreciated.
 
Wow, I can tell I'm tired by the title of this post..... Lol sorry
 
FWIW, there are still mayfly hatches, but timing is the key.

June is a relative "gap" in mayfly hatches in PA. That said, every evening on many waters there will be a fair number of cahills flying about, and it's not unheard of to get a late sulpher hatch now and then either. They are hardly "mega" hatches but usually get the occasional rise, and those fish are catchable.

Much more spotty, but there are also Drunella variety BWO's in places, and they can be in large numbers, especially with a spinner fall right at dark. They generally inhabit northern tier freestoners, but Penns has em too.

There are also some blue quill (aka jenny) spinner falls, which typically happen late morning. They can get fish looking up, but it's kind of hit or miss as timing the hatch isn't easy, and even if you time it right, they're smallish bugs, typically modest in number, and at a time of day when the sun is high so fish don't always respond real well.

Many of the rivers have just blizzard hatches of hex's throughout June and July. But as a general rule, these aren't trouty places, but could be good for smallies and other warm/cool water species.

For a more reliable trout hatch, you could wait a month or so to when the trico's really get rolling. Tiny bugs, but massive in number, and very reliable (happens basically every morning from mid July to mid-September, and really, I've fished them through October to the first frost). Morning spinner fall, can happen anytime from right at dawn up to noon or so. The hotter and sunnier it is, the earlier, heavier, and shorter lasting it is. They come off on a very high number of limestoners. In central PA Spring Creek is well known for them, and the LJR has em as well. In SC PA Falling Springs has a very well known hatch, and I'm sure there are many others as well. In SE PA, the Tully is famous for them (albeit over stocked fish). That's just to name a few. They are found on a great number of streams. Without knowing for sure, I doubt Clarks is one of them, though.

After the trico's, the fall (Baetis variety) BWO's come back in, just like they were in the early spring. But then that's pretty much it till next spring. Late April-early June is certainly the prime mayfly season in PA.
 
Go out on the Susquehanna River at dusk, you'll see mayflies and fish eating them.

 
The large BWO hatch on Penns that pcray mentioned, can provide some really nice fishing in June. Especially if you hit it on an overcast or rainy day.
Just be sure to check the stream temps there beforehand though.

Isonychia hatches should be coming off on all of the better trout streams now too. I fish them on the yough river all summer, and into fall. They seldom hatch heavily. But the fish still are usually aware of them
 
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