White Flies on Slippery Rock

[drakeking412]

I didn’t see a white fly thread so I figured I’d start one. Is anyone else excited for it this year? I haven’t fished it in years now but have been on a serious warm water kick.

Also years ago Bruno you sent me a pin but with the website update and all the new phones over the years I seem to have lost it. I’m ashamed to admit I have no idea where I was even fishing them at.

 

[henrydavid]

I fish the White Fly hatch on the Susquehanna North Branch every year. They should be coming up my direction soon. Going to take a look at one of my spots this evening. Usually up here near Falls, Pa. we see them the 1st week of August.

 

[drakeking412]

I’m geared for war, will be tying a few more natural patterns as well. First recon is Friday night, I’ll post how it goes.

 

[drakeking412]

Did some recon on the rock yesterday. The morning rains blew it out so didn’t stick around to see if the flies are out. Didn’t see any evidence either though so hard to say. I’ll let the river return to normal and try again say Monday.

 

[drakeking412]

rain and more rain on the way, safe to say this might not be a great year for this hatch

 

[drakeking412]

Fished the rock last night with a buddy from out of town. Saw some spinners around 8pm and a few suns flittering around but not the blizzard hatch I’m used to. The recent rains really messed up the timing. Either it happened in late July and we missed it or it was delayed due to the high water and the party is just starting. Nevertheless there were plenty of willing bass and we went 13/18 with the largest fish being about 2#. This leads me to believe that there are flies around and I might just need to be patient or maybe move spots and look for more evidence.

 

[drakeking412]

Fished the rock again last night, even less bug activity than the previous night and definitely less fish. I stuck 2 1.5# fish and a buddy went 4/7 with one of the fish missed being an absolute brute. I unfortunately will not be able to make it out tonight but maybe can tomorrow night, we’ll see. There’s also supposed to be some storms coming in that will blow it out majorly again so this might just be a bust year for whites in that particular spot. I haven’t had time to recon other areas but this spot has been very productive in the past. Oh well, try again next year.

 

[PennKev]

Fished the rock last night with a buddy from out of town. Saw some spinners around 8pm and a few suns flittering around but not the blizzard hatch I’m used to. The recent rains really messed up the timing. Either it happened in late July and we missed it or it was delayed due to the high water and the party is just starting.

My experience on SRC has been that anything after the 10th of August is the tail end of the hatch with the heaviest activity being in the last week of July or first week of August, with the first week of August being most typical. I've never seen it significantly deviate from that time frame due to weather or water conditions. We just had crummy fishing conditions this year during that period.

Also, FWIW smallmouth fishing has been off the charts in this area the last couple years. It's gotten good as soon as the water starts to warm in June.