[jcr]

The water is in great shape. I fished tuesday and thursday evening on the middle river. Sulphurs are on with a mixture of 14s and 16s. Caddis (16), MB and big yellow cahills are also out. It could be the warm weather, but the bugs are transitioning to the evening hatch. I hope the cool, rainy weather sunday-tuesday has the hatch coming earlier

[jcr]

I’ve never seem them that late. A better question is how is the BWO hatch?

[jcr]

the thick brush along the stream. nothing more. Can’t recall who came up with the term.

[jcr]

Happy New Year

[jcr]

Fished the middle river upstream of the Greir school. A few sulphurs and cahills out from 6-8 PM. Picked off a few fish. They ignored the cahills…. until about 8PM then all hell broke loose. Caught them at will on a combo of sz14 CDC leggy sulphur (cahill) and sz16 sulphur comparadun. We are definitely into the evening hatch (at dark).

[jcr]

good hatch on spring creek last night starting at about 5. Afterwards, egg layers and spinner fall. I did well during the hatch, but couldn’t figure out the egg layers/spinner fall. tried the CET to no avail. The two I picked up during the fall were on a standard polywing rusty spinner. But two with all the fish feeding is poor. Point of this post is to ask-any one have a good pattern they are willing to share?

PS did I just read Bill Anderson took off dries to fish nymphs?

[jcr]

steady hatch started on the middle river at 2PM and lasted until about 4:45. All 14s. After about an hour and a half round two started, but not as intense. I saw some 16s mixed into the evening hatch. We might be approaching the transition.
water was stained and moving, but the fish still were acive

[jcr]

heavy hatch this afternoon on the middle river. When i arrived at 1:30 sporadic bugs were being picked off by small fish. Significant hatch at 2PM and fishing was excellent until about 3:00 when naturals blanketed the water. Hard to hook up when your fly is surrounded by 10 or more naturals. Fooled a few under these conditions by twitching. Hatch subsided at about 4PM and i left. Still the big sulphurs. I noticed a few of the orangish variety today.
Hardly anyone out. I had a very popular pool all to myself! I expected the river to be crawling with fisherman.

[jcr]

good action upstream of Spruce Creek tonight (weds). Hatch started about 5PM and lasted until dark. It was steady and brought the big boys up. Keyed in on the duns. CDC patterns worked the best, but comparaduns didi well too.

Tuesday was less intense and the more significant action was the egglayer/spinners at dark. When I arrived at 5PM trout were on the small caddis Bill mentioned (sz18) and some olives.

[jcr]

if you can get out I recommend it. I hit the “early” tan caddis that hatches in the morning the previous two years and the action was amazing. My dry fly fishing is so-so and I cleaned up, including some big fish. I wonder if the grannoms get them keyed in on caddis. Unfortunately I’m “on the bench” for the next 5 days.

[jcr]

if the sunny days and warm weather holds, the good news is the tan caddis will appear soon.

[jcr]

The length of the (daily) hatch is more of a function of the evening overnight temps and the intensity of the sun hitting the water. Not only does warmer evening temps move up the hatch earlier in the AM, it tends to make the hatch shorter but more intense. The emergence is more synchronized. This is probably because the water will rise to the optimal temp faster.

[jcr]

Could be a lot of factors. One, that is a good sign overall for the river, is that caddis thrive in marginal waters (for one example: http://fishandboat.com/anglerboater/1999/sepoct99/cadisfly.htm). The increase in stoneflies and hendricksons on the lower river and may flies in the upper river suggest the water quality is improving. The reduction in phosphorous from the Altoona plant, less defective septic systems etc should reduce the amount of algae, a major food source of caddis larvae.
It could also be a cyclical thing complicated by number of factors. Last year the water was high during emergence. This could have made egg laying difficult and increased the percentage of caddis that drowned during the emergence. This would cut the numbers this year. It seems to me that in the last two years the hatch was less synchronous (it was drawn out over more days). There is a certain number of caddis on the river bottom. If 80% hatch in a 3 day period, you’d get blizzards. If same 80% hatch in a 5-6 day period, you get a steady hatch.
Not saying i know for sure, but these are things to consider.

[jcr]

Didn’t fish, but observed during the clean up on the middle river. Many “yesterday’s” caddis were on the water. I didn’t see evidence of a strong emergence. Makes one wonder if they are waning.
Egg layers will be out for a few more days and I’ve seen emergence stop and then appear again-usually in response to cold weather like last weekend.
The first fishable hatch was reported on the lower river April 6th. Experienced it myself on the 7th. cold weather slowed the hatch down and the fish (see above for the reports for the 9th (bill) and 11th (me)).
With the warm temps friday-Monday I don’t expect them to hold on. There is always next year or other rivers such as fishing creek that are behind the LJ.

other opinions welcomed

[jcr]

another good grannom hatch on lower river today. With more bugs on the water its getting hard to hook trout. Fish were again keyed in on the skittering bugs. Started about 10AM today. With warmer evening temps predicted, expect the hatch to occur earlier.

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