Penns Creek Angler
Article Sept 2008
Penns Creek Angler
Bruce
Fisher
In
last months article I talked about the different stages of an insect’s life.
We discussed how the nymph is very vulnerable once it is caught in the drift.
The emerger is a little trickier in that it can come off the bottom with amazing
speed or can simply drift to the surface slowly; it all depends on the type of
fly. An emerger is in the process
of swimming to the surface in preparation to hatch to an adult, this can also be
a very short affair or can last minutes. The dun in my opinion is the most
beautiful type of fly but can be the most frustrating because the fish can see
any drag the floating fly has to offer. Cripples, crippled duns and spinners
offer the best feeding opportunities for anglers. The fish know these flies will
never make it out of the water and can take them at their leisure. These fish
will simple setup in a feeding station and wait for the food to come to them.
However on certain on sections of the creek the fish will prefer one stage of an
insect’s life over another. In slow deep pools my experience has taught me
that nymphs will work the best provided the drift is drag free and looks natural
to the fish. Emergers are a different story; they can work in fast or slow water
providing the fish are feeding of them. The trick is to find out what fly the
fish are taking and then duplicate the process the nymph uses to get to the
surface. Some flies hatch out of their nymphal shuck on the bottom of the creek
and swim to the surface and others release themselves into the drift and
breakout of the shuck at the surface. This can be a complicated affair to
determine for the novice angler but its something you must learn. The dun in my
opinion is the most beautiful of all the varieties of an insect’s life. You
can simply sit and watch the trout eat them and you will quickly determine what
the fish is eating. It’s the most common method of fishing a hatch because the
angler can see everything happen. All the Cripples and spinners are grouped
together and are somewhat more complicated because the angler may or may not see
the fly in the water. This is the reason why wet flies work so well during a
hatch and spinners work during the mating flights. But you have to know when and
where to fish them to be successful. The heads of pools are the best spots to
fish cripples or semi-emerged flies that could not escape their nymphal shucks.
The middle and tails of pools are great spots to fish spinners because this type
of water offers the trout an excellent view of the fly and the trout can see
them well. Without going into more details about an insects life and how it
hatches I will talk about equipment that will help you become a better angler
using all the stages of a flies life. There are many books that can describe in
great detail each fly, how it hatches and can be best used. I will try to help
you make sense of everything I have written so far by telling you some things I
am a guilty at times of doing. First let me say I love to use 2 weight rods of
various lengths because I have arthritis in my casting hand. For me this can be
a blessing or a curse! I’ll talk about nymph fishing first because it is
critical to use the proper rods for this kind of fishing. 5 or 6 weight rods 9ft
in length are the popular rods of choice for fishing the heavy stonefly nymphs
needed to fish Penns Creek. I used 3 nymphs under a strike indicator and this
type of fishing can become very tiresome and cause fatigue after a few hours of
fishing. However, you will catch more fish using this kind of setup simply
because you are covering more water with the 3 nymphs and the rods will have the
power to set the hook on a heavy fish. A 2 weight rods would not a good choice
unless you are using very small nymphs in size 16 and smaller, but you may run
into problems hooking trout if you are fishing deep water with these light rods.
Emergers can be fishing with lighter rods because you are casting in most cases
down steam and the fish will hook itself if you hold your rod at a 45 degree
angle (or higher) to the water letting a large loop of line hang from the tip of
the rod. The fish don’t attack the fly like a minnow they follow the fly and
then try to inhale it in their mouth with suction. This is where the loop of
line and angle of the rod will allow the fly to enter the mouth of the fish must
more efficiently. How many times have you felt just a pluck at the fly but
don’t get a hook up. The reason this happens is there is not enough slack line
to let the fly enter the trout’s mouth. I usually use a 3 or 4 weight rod of
7.5 to 9 feet for this kind of fishing. Using a lighter rod can make hooking a
large fish so much fun! Dry fly fishing is very popular and rods from 2-5
weights in lengths of 7.5 to 9 feet will accomplish this task under normal
fishing conditions. Some people like fast action rods and some like slow actions
rods, it all personal choice. I personally like using very slow or medium action
rods from 6.5 feet to 9 for casting dry flies and wets. I use these rods not
because I like to collect tackle I use them for specific fishing conditions, one
rod can’t cover every method as you have read above. My shorter and lighter
rods are for fishing very near the fish with smaller flies and my longer rods
are for the big pools where casts of 50 to 60 feet are needed. All the rods for
dry flies can be used for spinners under the same circumstances. In part 3 of
this series I will talk about Leaders, weight, lines and how to use them
effectively. As always this is just my opinion, if you are catching fish and
enjoying yourself there is no reason to change what you are doing. With
September 11th only a few days, God Bless everyone that’s wears the
uniform.
“Catch
you Later”
Bruce
Fisher
©2008