Hogosaurus

Wanted to add a few pics of Hogosaurus to Matt's post.

Caught this guy at dark,  looks pretty weak next to his giant.

Hog Johnson

Billy, Andy and I fished the river tonight from 6:30pm-dark. The water was flowing at 980 cfs with a water temperature of 62 degrees. It was another hot, bright and sunny day and the cool water was just what I needed after work. Andy and I headed up to an area he fished the other night and spotted some big fish near the bank. I got out into position and hooked into a beautiful 20 inch brown trout. I had a great fight with him and got him into the net. I could of put the rod away after that but decided to keep fishing. About 10 yards from where I caught him I spotted another bigger fish. One cast and the brown hit my streamer imitation hard! The fish was on and man was it brutal. This fish took me to my backing 3 times! After a tough 15 minutes of fighting my brother finally helped me net him. Might be my biggest trout to date. He is right around the 27 inch mark.

We continued to fish throughout the night and I only landed 1 more fish. Billy had good success with a #20 Rusty Spinner and Andy also landed a few on a Coffin Fly and Sulphur Spinner. The fish went nuts at dark but we had some trouble connecting on a regular basis. This will be a night I won't forget!

Coffin Flies 5-21-12

I called the family when I got back from fishing Sunday and sure enough they made the trip up Monday night to try their luck. The weather was overcast and 82 degrees with a slight breeze. The river was at 1350 cfs with a water temperature of 58 degrees. We could see heads sipping from the bike path and I knew we were going to be in for another epic night. The bugs that were on the water; #14, #16 and #18 BWO's, #14, #18 Sulphurs, #14 Cahills, an assortment of Caddis and Big Nasty Coffin flies.

We had great success with #14 BWO bunny flies and comparadun's. The fish were keying in on them until about 7:30pm. Then for a half an hour they seemed to switch over to the Light Cahill, my brother caught and missed a few on it. I tied on a Coffin fly at 8pm and the night went lights out. The three of us combined caught close to 25 fish on the big spinner. We nicknamed the river "The Little Juan" for the evening because the action was so intense and the fish gave such a great fight. The weather looks shady for the next couple of days but if the thunderstorms stay away the river is the place to be this week!

5-20-12

I fished the river this afternoon from 11am-1:45pm. The weather was sunny with an air temperature of 84 degrees. The water was flowing at 2,450 cfs with a temperature of 59 degrees. I got on the bike in Ohiopyle and road up to one of my favorite holes. I was very skeptical on the ride up because of the flow, I have never attempted to fish the river above 2,000 cfs. I wanted to see if I could locate any Drakes hatching so I could plan out my week. When I got to my spot I noticed a few heads sipping duns in the middle of the river. A few more minutes went by and the entire stretch was bubbling with fish!

#14 Blue Wing Olives were all over the water and the fish were crushing them. I had no fish resist my bunny fly imitation, if I saw a rise I would get a strike. After I landed the first 10 fish I moved downstream a bit and continued to see fish rising. After 13 more fish fell to the bunny fly the action started to die down. I can't believe how many fish were rising in this section, especially in the middle of the afternoon! These fish seem less spooky then in years past. Boats were everywhere and once they moved past the fish continued to rise. I did not see any drakes but there were plenty of olives and Cahills to make the return trip tonight much anticipated!

Part #2: The Evening Hatch

I headed back out tonight from 6:30pm-Dark. The success I had earlier in the day lead me back to the same spot. The same heads that were popping earlier in the afternoon were still chomping on duns, this time they were Light Cahills. I tied one one and went to town. I brought another 20+ fish to the net for the evening, bringing the total of over 45 fish on dries in one day!!!! I know it's hard to believe, trust me I know, I have fished this river hard and never have had a day like this. Coffinflies started showing up right at dark, I tied one on and got 7 heavy strikes on it. I think it's the beginning of the Drake so get out soon if you want to experience it. 

: The Drakes

Headed down to a feeder after work tonight from 6:30pm-dark. The water was flowing low and clear at a temperature of 60 degrees. I hiked in to above the Cascade Pool and started to fish with a Female Green Drake Imitation. I brought 2 fish quickly to the net and missed a few more right off the bat. I saw a few Drakes hatching and right at about 7pm Coffin flies were in the air. The heaviest activity was from 8:30pm on. I was VERY impressed with the spinner fall, heavier numbers then I had expected on this stream. From 8:30 on the action got more intense with fish rising. I managed another 3 fish at dark. Overall it was a successful night, the drakes are on so if you want to fish them I suggest getting on the water in the next few days!

Lower Otter Creek - Monongahela National Forest

A couple of my friends and I headed down to West Virginia, to the Monongahela National Forest to hike the Lower Otter Creek Trail Loop. We drove the whole way down in rain, and hiked the entire first day in rain, and then slept in rain. Needless to say our second day had us crossing Otter Creek three times and several other streams as well. With the recent rainfall and streams continuing to get higher and higher, we decided not to try the second day and head back to the car. This was very unfortunate because the area looked beautiful and I was really pumped for this trip. Hopefully we can make it out there again sometime, because Otter Creek looked like it would provide awesome fishing. 

In the parking lot before the hike

We crossed about 15 of these streams in the first two miles

Campsite

Several waterfalls on the hike

This would be the reason that we decided against moving forward on day two. 

Penn's Creek 4-27-12 thru 5-3-12 Wrap-up

All of the previous posts by Matt and Andy tell the story pretty well, so I'll just wrap the whole trip up.  What started out as cool to down right cold weather and decent fishing turned to cool, cloudy fantastic fishing, then to sweltering mid-June like fishing over the course of the seven days.  The first few days produced excellent bug activity with some risers in the day and decent rising at night.  The March Brown duns and spinners were the stars most of the week, with sulphurs coming in second.  The real surprise for the first four days was the lack of success on any stonefly nymph patterns, and BH pheasant tails, dark sulphur nymphs, and small Copper Johns were the highlight underneath.  Wednesday dawned cloudy with the threat of rain, and that combination produced the highest catch rates of the trip.  Stonefly nymphs reasserted there dominance, thank goodness, and the nymphing was the best I've had on Penn's in some time.  Cast after cast brought fish to the net in Penn's Creeks' ubiquitous pocket water.  Wednesday night the evening skies represented the bulk of the insect life that abounds in the catch and release section of Penn's.  Mayfly duns, emergers, spinners, Caddis flies, Midges, Craneflies, and even large Perla Stones were all present.  The two top producers were large yellow Stimulators and huge March Brown Rusty Spinners, followed by fast and furious Sulphur activity.  After a late night recounting the days' catches, the tinks and taps of rain started hitting the camper roof as we dozed off.  Thursday's excursion to the water was disappointing because the heavy rains muddied the water significantly.  While the fishing on Penn's doesn't stop because of the water, I've fished the mud so many times the last few years it wasn't appealing, so off we went in search of cleaner waters.  Fishing creek was slightly up and murky, but as has occurred so many times, Spring Creek saved the day.  Sunny, 85F temps made the fishing tough, but the afternoon thunder shower was short lived and turbo charged the fishing for the last few hours on Sulphur nymphs and dries.  The short lived showers were heavy rain events on Fishing and Penn's, so we ended our excursion a day short.  While the rain shortened our trip, it was needed very badly on Penn's so I won't complain; in fact I hope the trend continues in Centre County and beyond as Spring Creek and the Little J remain low.  All in all a great trip with Penn's being Penn's, each day presenting new twists and challenges.  The top patterns for the trip:

Dry

March Brown #12

Rusty Spinner #8

Sulpher #14-#16

Sulpher Spinner #14

#14 Tan Caddis

#8 Yellow Stimulator

Wet

#8 Stonefly nymphs

#12-#16 Dark Sulphur nymph

#12-#14 Copper John, pick a color and cast it

#14 BHPT

#12 Green Weenie



Penns Creek Pics from 4-30-2012 through 5-2-2012

As Matt mentioned Billy and I spent this week up at Penns Creek, here are some pictures from the week. I will let Billy post the details.... Enjoy!

March Browns came off sporadically all day

Took this photo by accident, but I thought it looked pretty cool

Thought this was going to be Hog Johnson, but turned out to be a Carp

Caught on a Stone Fly nymph 

Caught on a Copper John

Scenic Penns Creek

A cloudy day produced great results

Beautiful trout in this stream

Catch and Release!!!

Sulphur Hatch On Penn's Creek