Spinners

Swattie87 said:
Darn it. I was hoping for flashy rotating metal blades.
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RRT ALSO ADDED:
What?? No Rooster Tails, Mepps, or Joe Flies?!?!?

So glad to see mine was not the ony mind that went that direction!
 
Actually I added what Afish said: This is PAFlyfish.com.
 
Also, the short video's photography is wonderful. In five minutes, the video gives a pretty nice synopsis of a spinner fall.
 
Thanks, Afish! Great video production by Orvis. The clip of the bird working over the spinnerfall was awesome! Over the years I’ve always enjoyed being there for a spinnerfall. I often spend more time sitting there on the bank watching it unfold in front of me than actually fishing as I have usually found the fishing to be pretty frustrating. Some of the ones that always used to stump me were the March Brown spinners descending on Penns Creek in that last 45 minutes of daylight. However, I loved laying on the bank and watching those flocks of little pterodactyls do their thing!
 
Sometimes I arrive early and just sit on the bank . The balls of spinners can be seen high over the trees and they slowly make their way down. I wait and wait and they never get on the water and soon it is too dark.
 
caddisflyer said:
Sometimes I arrive early and just sit on the bank . The balls of spinners can be seen high over the trees and they slowly make their way down. I wait and wait and they never get on the water and soon it is too dark.
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I feel like this happens a lot while the March Brown spinners are overlapping with the beginning of the Sulphur emergence. Mid to late May-ish. All you see is March Brown spinners, everywhere in the air. But none are on the water. You see the occasional Sulphur, but it’s like 1000:1 MB’s to Sulphurs. But, the Sulphurs are emerging, and are what the fish are able to actually eat. When I fish the second half of May on the big limestoners now, if there is any evidence of Sulphur activity, I don’t even try to fish a MB spinner anymore.

Some nights the MB spinners hit the water, right at, or after dark, but many nights they don’t.
 
djs12354 said:
RRT ALSO ADDED:
What?? No Rooster Tails, Mepps, or Joe Flies?!?!?

So glad to see mine was not the ony mind that went that direction!
Click to expand...
Just think of it as a really heavy streamer. All the reasons I like a great streamer take are the same reasons I also occasionally chuck a rooster tail or blue fox. Sometimes the fish want some flashy meat.
 
My experience is, unless a sudden change in weather, they do indeed hit the water. But it might be after dark and a lot of people leave too early.

MB's notably stay in the air a long time and hit late. It's very frequent you watch them hovering around for more than an hour, the sulphers are hatching. Then suddenly a boat load of sulpher spinners comes out and gets on the water quick. Then the MB's finally hit.
 
pcray1231 said:
My experience is, unless a sudden change in weather, they do indeed hit the water. But it might be after dark and a lot of people leave too early.

MB's notably stay in the air a long time and hit late. It's very frequent you watch them hovering around for more than an hour, the sulphers are hatching. Then suddenly a boat load of sulpher spinners comes out and gets on the water quick. Then the MB's finally hit.
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You’re probably right.

I have really bad night vision. Genetics? I have very dark eyes…Have heard that’s bad for night vision. Legit or wives tale?

My vision is 20/20 and I don’t wear contacts or glasses, but I can’t see at night worth anything. So, by the time the spinners hit, I probably haven’t been able to see for a good half hour or more, and am far more concerned about the burgers or sausages on the grill back at camp, or the wings at the bar, by then.
 
Swattie87 said:
I have really bad night vision. Genetics? I have very dark eyes…Have heard that’s bad for night vision. Legit or wives tale?
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Wive's tale. I have very dark eyes as well and had excellent night vision until I developed cataracts.

Well, excellent is relative term. I have lousy daytime vision.
 
redietz said:
Wive's tale. I have very dark eyes as well and had excellent night vision until I developed cataracts.

Well, excellent is relative term. I have lousy daytime vision.
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Yeah. I guess I’d rather have the good daytime vision, but my nighttime vision is noticeably poor, and is especially notable in comparison when I’m around other people fishing at night or near dark that seem to see things much easier than I do. Things don’t get blurry, it just seems others have better adjustment to low light conditions than I do.
 
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Swattie87 said:
I feel like this happens a lot while the March Brown spinners are overlapping with the beginning of the Sulphur emergence. Mid to late May-ish. All you see is March Brown spinners, everywhere in the air. But none are on the water. You see the occasional Sulphur, but it’s like 1000:1 MB’s to Sulphurs. But, the Sulphurs are emerging, and are what the fish are able to actually eat. When I fish the second half of May on the big limestoners now, if there is any evidence of Sulphur activity, I don’t even try to fish a MB spinner anymore.

Some nights the MB spinners hit the water, right at, or after dark, but many nights they don’t.
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Agreed. I have also had it happen with Green Drakes and Brown Drakes. A lot of spinner fall feeding activity happens after dark. I just don't enjoy fishing in the dark. I do always carry a "night fly", especially when Coffin Flies are about.
 
Swattie87 said:
I have really bad night vision. Genetics?
Click to expand...

Could be….sorry, science geek here.​

X-linked congenital stationary night blindness​

Mutations in the NYX and CACNA1F genes cause the complete and incomplete forms of X-linked congenital stationary night blindness, respectively. The proteins produced from these genes play critical roles in the retina.

Within the retina, the NYX and CACNA1F proteins are located on the surface of light-detecting cells called photoreceptors. The retina contains two types of photoreceptor cells: rods and cones. Rods are needed for vision in low light. Cones are needed for vision in bright light, including color vision. The NYX and CACNA1F proteins ensure that visual signals are passed from rods and cones to other retinal cells called bipolar cells, which is an essential step in the transmission of visual information from the eyes to the brain.

Mutations in the NYX or CACNA1F gene disrupt the transmission of visual signals between photoreceptors and retinal bipolar cells, which impairs vision. In people with the complete form of X-linked congenital stationary night blindness (resulting from NYX mutations), the function of rods is severely disrupted, while the function of cones is only mildly affected. In people with the incomplete form of the condition (resulting from CACNA1F mutations), rods and cones are both affected, although they retain some ability to detect light.
 
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