Why such a tough weekend (4/21-4/22)

[bjkaledas]

I was out on Penns and Spring Saturday. Penns was a little high and off color, but Spring was fine and there were a ton of hatches out. There was little to no activity and I had the same report from fisherman at both places. Some claimed it was the north winds?

I think maybe it had to do with it being a little too warm that day, but how did everybody else do this weekend?

BJ

 

[Troy]

I fished Bushkill Creek and I had the same thing happen. There was a big caddis hatch and some quill gordons. I didn't see 1 fish rise all day. The water was definitely high, but clear. I was wondering why the fish weren't taking anything off the top. I did catch them on nymphs though. It was a beautiful day to be out.

Troy

 

[vcregular]

Two words - - - brite skies.

 

[littlejuniata]

Did anyone check the water temperature? Not a lot of top action below 50 degrees!

 

[Chaz]

Don't forget that Monday last week there was very cold weather and many areas received snow, Honeybrook got as much as 8 inches. A rapid warm up or cool down always turns the trout off for a couple of days. I can't tell you how many times I've experienced this.

 

[cwwbell]

As has been mentioned, bright skies (there still aren't many leaves on the trees to give shade) and cold water are two reasons. You gotta get at them on the bottom.

 

[mediclimber]

I was out too and had a BWO hatch happen around me. Nothing fishy was moving. I put it off to water temps in the mid 30's to mid 40's and bright sunny skies. At least I got out and got some fresh air and sunshine while wading around a favorite spot.

 

[sandfly]

Even though the water is warming the fish are not acclamated to it yet..it takes a few days for them to come up to temp....sunny days here are great...I think cloudy for spring creeks and sunny for freestones.....make for good fishing...we have all kinds of insects but no risers yet...another 2-4 days and it will bust loose.. :-o

 

[bigjohn58]

I wondered the same thing this weekend until Sunday evening. I did awful out Kettle this weekend dispite large numbers of flies coming off and didn't know or see anyone do well. The water was high there though. I fished Fishing Creek all day on Sunday and didn't do anything until right at dusk. I was beginning to wonder if I still knew what I was doing but I finally got lucky and was able to forget about those stupid grannoms coming off like crazy and went to some mayflies and did extremely well but it took a lot of traveling to find a hole where things were working.

 

[Coughlin]

I'm with VC. Bright skies drive fish down. So here's a question: Has anyone done well on top during these conditions: 1-bright skies after a low pressure system or 2- bright skies after, say, two or three days of a high pressure system?
Coughlin

 

[Festus]

I did pretty darned good on Kettle today and Saturday. Bright skies, high winds, good topwater activity. Ran into another poster from this board and his group slammed them Sunday night on the Kettle.

But my favorite weather for early season hatches is a cold rain following a warm trend. There outta be a law against it. :-D

 

[pennsangler]

I fished Penns Creek from 7:30 am until noon on Sunday. Great activity until about 10:30 and then it shut off. There was a heavy hendrickson spinner fall around 10 am and then tons of hendrickson duns until noon. Very little surface activity, and the rises that I saw were in the shadows. I have almost never done well on bright sunny days on Penns Creek.

I was not there, but understand that the guys that stayed until the evening did very well before dark.

I don't buy the temperature arguement at all. The water was much warmer than the first day and I saw more rises then.

 

[PALongbow]

I fished on Fishing Creek in Columbia County and there were plenty of mayflies and caddis but no rising fish. I did manage to catch a lot of trout with wet flies on Saturday afternoon.

Ron

 

[bede]

You must have fished a different Penns Creek this weekend.

I fished 4/22. Water was up but not the least bit off color. The color is no different now than it would be in midsummer, the water is just higher.

Not much activity on the surface but my dad caught 10 fish over the course of the day in fast water, mainly on nymphs. He caught a few more in the evening.

Dusk settled and there was literally a cloud of Hendricksons, all with egg sacs, suspended over the water that brought good numbers of fish to the surface, the water was by no means boiling but there were many more fish rising than there was daylight left to catch them all.

I caught 4 in the evening, had on 3 more, and missed many others.

Condions are awesome and the fishing was good despite there not yet being a grannom hatch.

Where did you fish, I will certainly acknowledge that the stream can be very different on different stretches. I fished Ingleby.

 

[bede]

Also, the water was 54-56 around miday Sunday, as per JF.

 

[bjkaledas]

I fished Coburn down by the tunnel on both sides. I think I agree with the bright skies. This is what I kept thinking all day.

At Spring the primary activity was underneath the bridge there by the USGS post. I tried fishing under there, but it was a pain. I actually missed two there, but they were the only chances I had all day.

BJ

 

[Squaretail]

I was at Ingleby monday the 23rd with plenty of Hendricksons and large BWO spinners that joined them in the evening to sporadic rises. Nymphs probably would have been a better choice but with all the insects in the air, it was enough to keep me on top. I caught one and my partner two.
Did notice quite a bit of minnow chasing. Maybe that what has the large ones interested as all the rises appeared to be average sized fish. We'll see what happens next week.

 

[Wulff-Man]

I fished 2 southeast PA freestone ATWs on Sunday and Monday and caught every fish I saw rising: 4. Got 1 on a dry, 1 on a nymph, and 2 on wets. While it was nice to have a 100% success rate, it wasn't much fun fishing most of the day without seeing fish. There were a fair amount of bugs hatching. I don't much like nymphing and did it only sporadically. I usually search with wets when not much is happening, and this turned up just a couple tugs. The water temp was about 40, and I chalked it up to this. Maybe the bright skies had something to do with it too.

 

[redwing134]

i fished a number of creeks in the laurel highlands on sunday with similar results. there were plenty of hatches but not much fish action. i didn't see any fish rising. i tried to get to the bottom but the stream flow made it tough.

i might have to agree with the bright ski theory. by the end of the day i felt like i wouldn't catch any fish all season.

very frustrating on such a beautiful day.

 

[sight_nymph_17109]

I fished just above Cherry Run on Sunday from 11 to 3. Lots of fisherman, lots of hendricksons and stream temp was 50... maybe 52. I saw one fish rising and that only lasted 5 minutes. I missed him on a hendrickson emerger. I was dragging stoneflies, beadheads and everthing else in my box along the streambed. I'm glad that I wasn't the only one who had a rough go of it. From the sounds of things, I should have stayed a little longer. Even with the bright skies, I couldn't believe that there weren't more fish active on the surface. I shared a run with 4 other nympher and the only thing hooked was the streambed.