Slow start to my WW season

[Swattie87]

Squatch - The whiteflies in my box are 10-12. The few I saw on the Swatara the other night were 12ish. FWIW. A few 8's wouldn't hurt anything.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

Yeah man. 8 to 10, white foam body.

 

[McSneek]

White flies I tied and used (gave up a few years ago when the bass disappeared around Wrightsville) were pretty simple. #10 hook. White calf or hackle tail, white foam wrapped abdomen, white calf wings - split, white and/or grizzly hackle, lightly dubbed thorax.

When the fish are on them they're not too picky. Carry a bunch because as it gets darker and your fly is slimed it's easier to just switch to a new one.

If nothing else, the channel cats should be on them.

 

[Fredrick]

I like to use all white poppers and wake them along the surface so it stands out over the naturals

 

[brain]

slow? mine has yet to start. stream conditions have not been to my satisfaction yet in the middle section of the swatara. the level was getting to about were it should be, but it is still way off color. and now the storms the other day chocolate milked it again.

 

[melvinthefisherman]

i do primarily warm water fishing. this year has put the spawning scheudle behind alil. however i nabbed my first decent smallie of the year the other day so the fishing should be turning around

 

[The_Sasquatch]

Welll, I'm out of white foam. Nice. So I tied up a mess of size 10 white comparaduns. Should work!

 

[jifigz]

I feel bad for you. I have already caught literally hundreds of small mouths out of the Juniata, but I fish it almost every day. And is there really a WW season? WW fish bite great all year long, but I guess you could mean while the water is warm. After all I love wading in just shorts and shirt and feeling the water.

 

[slay12345]

Squatch, how did you make out? Rick and I hit it around Marietta and couldn't buy a bite. We only saw a couple surface takes throughout the evening. I'm think I'm headed to other areas when I want to target bass.

 

[codym21]

Mine has been somewhat slow, I fished the susky for two days earlier in the week near Halifax and caught some nice fish but mostly in the early mornings on streamers. I was hoping for some better water to fish for some carp but the rain didnt help

 

[The_Sasquatch]

Slay,
We fished some big flats about 5 miles upstream of Safe Harbor. I was looking for carp there. Big shallow sandy flats, I thought for sure I'd get into some, but nothing. The water was still pretty murky. Came back to the docks, went and got some food, came back right at dark and the white flies got thick. First cast, a big bronzeback nailed my white fly (I stopped at Walmart on Saturday and got some white craft foam so I was able to tie up a couple foam wulffs, and I'm glad I did. I could cast those suckers 20 yards or so from the dock at night and still see them out there). I set the hook on him as he made his run and my tippet snapped (I was using 8lb mono). I got the line in and it snapped right where I tied my fly. I guess tying on the fly in the dark, I didn't do the best job. I made sure after that one that my fly was on SOLID.

In the dark, the catties started coming up to take the white flies. I landed one channel catfish. First time I ever caught one on a dry fly. It wasn't huge, maybe 12". I was a bit let down by the fight. He took the fly, I set the hook, and he tanked right to the bottom of the stream. He was no problem for me to turn on my 8wt. I kept hoping I'd get the chance to fight a 15-18" cattie, but it wasn't in the cards. I missed several takes (setting the hook on them is a bit tricky, especially with them taking the fly upside down!).

It was fun though. I definitely plan on getting back out there when the levels drop some more and the water clears up.

 

[icyguides]

Fished the sus q near wrightsville saturday and sunday. The river was high and off color, borderline unfishable with flies, and the water rose about a foot from saturday to sunday. From about 8-9pm on saturday I caught 3 small bass to 12in, 1 small walleye, and a nice carp that hit a clouser near a weed bed.

Watched the marietta fireworks from the boat with my fiance while soaking a creek chub for flatheads. Had one nice flathead to the boat but it shook the hook just before we could net it.

Sunday morning Jay348 and myself launched out of wrightsville looking for bass. I caught 2 avg channel cats and 1 fingerling smb. We fished hard most of the day without much to show. It was definitely slow, but the weather was nice, the company was good, and i was happy to see some smaller healthy looking bass in the lower river this weekend.

 

[sarce]

Got my first few bass of the year yesterday on the Frankstown branch of the J. Landed 6 on various clousers. One threw up a crayfish at my feet, which another bass tried to eat! those flies surely would have worked well too.

I focused on faster water because I thought the water was still cool enough that I might get into a trout or two. Indeed I had a big brown blow up on a clouser as I was pulling it up to cast again. Couldn't get it to come back though.

Here's the second and largest fish of the day (video shot- I don't have three hands!)

 

[slay12345]

Nice, I'm sure it will be turning on very soon. I need to rig the yak with a light so I can stay out on the water closer to dusk, maybe this weekend or next. My plan will be to fish for bass until dark, then switch over to dunking some live bait for flatheads in some of the holes I discovered from my last float with the new to me sonar unit.

 

[KeithS]

Squatch,
Got a pattern for the foam white fly?

 

[The_Sasquatch]

I used a size 10 dry fly hook, black thread, white calf hair for the tail and wings, white foam for the body, and grizzly hackle.

 

[brookieaddict]

We fish the local creeks,some local ponds,the Susky,Juniata,and the Swaty and fishing is slow. This is the second time they had to remake their beds on the swaty due to very high water,maybe it will get better when they come off and get hungry after their long ordeal of spawning.

 

[icyguides]

Fished a trib of the sus q last night and had a nice night. Caught 2 walleye, one of which was 17 inches, and a couple panfish. I also fought another nice walleye, got it in close, it made a final quick run and got off. The water was a little high and off color still. No sign of bass, which was a little surprising.

 

[BrianMyers67]

My brother and hit the Conestoga at Lancaster Central Park yesterday. Water was still mucky but we each got a few smallies (all under 12") and few sunnies. Ran into an older gentleman tossing spinners on an UL spinning rod that got a tiny walleye while I was close by, out of a spot that I had not seen them in before. Water level is still up and the river bottom has changed quite a bit but was wet wadeable. Neither of us saw any carp.

 

[dc410]

I fished a new section of Mill Creek last evening. Scouting for carp and fishing for anything else that bites. I caught a small LMB and SMB on a Clouser and saw a few big carp but couldn't interest them in anything. I was mainly hanging out to see what would happen at dark. There wasn't a lot of surface activity but a few larger fish started to bust the surface right at dusk. I managed to take one on top with a white pencil popper on a real explosive hit. My first topwater smallie of the year. Not huge, but a 13" smallie for Mill Creek is pretty nice. I had almost forgotten how much fun it is to witness those topwater takes. That first hour after dusk is a great time to stick it out to watch some neat things happen on the water.