Penns green drakes

S

Str8outtapowerbait

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Must have patterns for green drakes? Dries, wets, nymphs? I’ll be there the Thursday through Monday Memorial Day weekend.

Thanks in advance…Mike
 
Can't disagree with the comment above, but any coffin fly pattern should work at night. Have only seen the duns work well on Fishing Ck and never had luck with green drake nymphs. Spinner fall is usually the big event of the day. Need to stay late. Don't let the tails get too long or the fish may not suck the fly in on these big dries. Many patterns work - have even had a good night with a #6 white Wulff. Just tie a few coffin flies for good measure. Since coffin flies fall in the dark I like ones with slightly lifted wings and full hackle so I can spot them better. No flat wing spinners for me in the dark.

However, many times I have been there the fish have been on the sulphurs until very late when the coffin fly fall was very heavy. Towards dusk the huge coffin flies are smarming in the air and everyone gets excited, but the risers are usually on sulphurs until the coffin flies drop down. Huge flies in the air don't get trout excited - need to wait until they drop on the water IMHO. BTW, when you put on that coffin fly cut the tippet back to 3X. Can't cast one of those monsters with 5X or 6X and if you hook a good fish you will be glad you had heavier tippet. It is exciting when big trout are slurping big flies in the dark and the adrenaline starts pumping, but don't rush and forget to cut back your tippet to what you were using with #16 sulphurs.
 
csoult said:
Sulphur
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This is a lesson that’s taken me far too long to learn and resulted in many frustrated evenings on Penns from mid May through early June, with fish rising everywhere but none (or relatively few of them) ending up attached to the end of my line.

Most evenings during this time frame there are way more March Browns and/or Green Drakes in the air, and you become fixated on that. They’re huge, and they’re everywhere. But more often than not, the fish are eating the rogue Sulphurs that make up like 1% or less of the bugs you see. I joke that they must taste better.

So, short answer, have some standard Green Drake (and March Brown) patterns along, but try a Sulphur first.
 
JeffK said:
Can't disagree with the comment above, but any coffin fly pattern should work at night. Have only seen the duns work well on Fishing Ck and never had luck with green drake nymphs. Spinner fall is usually the big event of the day. Need to stay late. Don't let the tails get too long or the fish may not suck the fly in on these big dries. Many patterns work - have even had a good night with a #6 white Wulff. Just tie a few coffin flies for good measure. Since coffin flies fall in the dark I like ones with slightly lifted wings and full hackle so I can spot them better. No flat wing spinners for me in the dark.

However, many times I have been there the fish have been on the sulphurs until very late when the coffin fly fall was very heavy. Towards dusk the huge coffin flies are smarming in the air and everyone gets excited, but the risers are usually on sulphurs until the coffin flies drop down. Huge flies in the air don't get trout excited - need to wait until they drop on the water IMHO. BTW, when you put on that coffin fly cut the tippet back to 3X. Can't cast one of those monsters with 5X or 6X and if you hook a good fish you will be glad you had heavier tippet. It is exciting when big trout are slurping big flies in the dark and the adrenaline starts pumping, but don't rush and forget to cut back your tippet to what you were using with #16 sulphurs.
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Thanks for the response very helpful 👍🏼
 
I was fortunate enough to catch the 2021 green drake hatch on penns.
I found that just about any dry fly that was big worked. Dry fly fishing was much too easy. If you put a large fly out and drifted it, they hit it.
For wet flies , I used 6-10 green flies ,green with yellow, or cream soft hackles, Maurice flies tied in green ,and light cahills.
It was impossible to NOT catch fish,regardless of fly. Very similar to fishing for bluegill .
 
shakey said:
I was fortunate enough to catch the 2021 green drake hatch on penns.
I found that just about any dry fly that was big worked. Dry fly fishing was much too easy. If you put a large fly out and drifted it, they hit it.
For wet flies , I used 6-10 green flies ,green with yellow, or cream soft hackles, Maurice flies tied in green ,and light cahills.
It was impossible to NOT catch fish,regardless of fly. Very similar to fishing for bluegill .
Click to expand...
I call it unfortunate enough. Drove up that way 4-5 years ago thinking I was going to fish sulphurs and maybe some isos. Forgot all about the Drake and was floored when I pulled up and struggled to find a spot to fish at 4:00 in the afternoon. While it is a sight to see, want no part of it or the circus surrounding it.
 
shakey said:
I was fortunate enough to catch the 2021 green drake hatch on penns.
I found that just about any dry fly that was big worked. Dry fly fishing was much too easy. If you put a large fly out and drifted it, they hit it.
For wet flies , I used 6-10 green flies ,green with yellow, or cream soft hackles, Maurice flies tied in green ,and light cahills.
It was impossible to NOT catch fish,regardless of fly. Very similar to fishing for bluegill .
Click to expand...
Heck yeah good info! What dates were you there?
 
Big Drake DryFly with a sulpher tied 18 in off the back of the hook.
 
Check the local fly shops. Two of the last 3 years the GD hatch came off in the early morning and the fish were eagerly taking them.
 
My history with drakes is.

During the duns they're usually on the drakes. But big patterns are easier to spot as fakes and the fish are being pressured. You can pick a few up. Look for the risers here and there, focus on ones in spots with some current, use a high floating pattern and skitter it a little. When you watch the duns, it's the ones that are all flippity floppity on the water that get nailed, the calm floaters float on by.... Often the feeders are just feet from shore where current sweeps against some rocks, they hold off the point of a rock sticking out if it forces current around it. That rock has one, that rock has one, that rock has one.... Cast in the slack water or even on shore above the rock, skitter it back to the point of the rock, let if float around the rock, bam.

During the spinner fall, there's a smorgasboard. Sulphers, march browns, coffin flies. Spinner patterns in all. But more often than not, yeah, they're on the sulphers and MB's. There ARE more of those, nomatter how hard it is to believe that, just harder to see because they are smaller and not so white. Don't look at what's flying, get out in the current and look at the water at your legs and you'll see 20 rusty's for every whitey. So rusty spinners anywhere from 10-16 tend to outperform coffin flies. It gets maddening because this fish here wants sulphers in a 16, that one wants MB's in a 12, and that one over there is on coffin flies, you have all of 20 minutes where they're going nuts, and changing often cuts into your fishing time. But if it weren't frustrating it wouldn't be fun. I usually tie on a 14 rusty, and if that fish don't hit it, I move to new fish, not new flies, lol. Quicker that way. Plus, I'm lazy, and there's nothing more frustrating than switching flies in the half light when fish are rising all around.

Hint, after dark, and 9/10 fisherman have left. Every fish in the stream isn't rising anymore, just those couple annoying ones back there in that eddy you can't get to come up every few minutes with an audible GULP that you can't really see. THOSE fish are on coffin flies. And they tend to be big. And they will still be doing that at first light too. ;)
 
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Matt, I got a dozen of your Matt’s Eastern Green Drake Comparadum and they look great, I just hope I live long enough to learn how to tie them. Thank you for letting me know where to get them.
 
Wbranch, I liked your pattern also. I wrote the recipe in my notebook. Thanks!
 
krayfish2 said:
I call it unfortunate enough. Drove up that way 4-5 years ago thinking I was going to fish sulphurs and maybe some isos. Forgot all about the Drake and was floored when I pulled up and struggled to find a spot to fish at 4:00 in the afternoon. While it is a sight to see, want no part of it or the circus surrounding it.
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I had very few people around. Plenty of open water down near weikert

HOWEVER , the night before,closer to coburn, the banks were lined by dry fly guys staking out their spot
 
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