Trout Tails - April 21, 2014

Brad and I headed up to the Little J. Thursday for a couple days to try and hit the grannoms.  Seems like everything is going to be behind this year.  Only saw a few grannoms, some olives, and a few hendricksons (no, really there were hendricksons on the LJ!).  Almost zero dry fly action, had to nymph them up from the depths, more weight the better.  Fish came to the net, but you had to work a bit for them, especially friday afternoon.  It was good to fish without the guides icing for a change!  Seems like spring is finally here.  I'm sure the hatches will be going strong soon.  Saw a pile a stone flies last week on the Loyalsock and the olives and caddis have been on spring for a couple weeks now too.  Also hearing reports of black stones on Penns.

Trout Tails - April 7, 2014

This weekend was the weekend of extremes when it came to weather.  Brad and I floated Big Pine on Friday.  Started the day off, dropping a vehicle at our take out.  The road already had about 8 inches of water on it and was about half way up the tires, but we made it through ok.  After dropping a vehicle, we headed about 12 miles upstream to the put in.  Water was way up, and there is still glaciers on the banks the size of cars.  We fished for a couple hours, but the high, cold water made the bite non-existent!  The 20 mph head wind also made casting and floating more than difficult.  After a couple hours, the sky began to darken and we decided it would be best to just get after the oars and row the last 8 miles back to the car.  About a mile from the car, the rain let loose.  By the time we got back to the car, the road had about a foot or more of water on it.  We ran up to get my car and trailer and had an interesting time getting the boat on the trailer.  Water was about up to the floor boards by the time we left, still pulling debris off the frame of the car. 

With the nice weather Sunday, decided to give it another go on the Clarion.  Met Chase and Kris early in the morning and we floated for about 5 hours.  Air temps were in the low 20s in the morning, but reached 50 by early afternoon.  Water looked great, but we only boated two fish, both pretty nice ones though.  Guess the water is still just too cold to really get anything going...it has to break soon!  Definitely a nicer day on the water than Friday though!