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
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