Salmonflies
Pteronarcys californica
The giant Salmonflies of the Western mountains are legendary for their proclivity to elicit consistent dry-fly action and ferocious strikes.
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This species was fairly abundant in a February sample of the upper Yakima.
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Report at a Glance
| General Region | Dauphin County, PA |
| Specific Location | Ned Smith Center on Wisconisco and FFO on Clarks |
| Dates Fished | April 29, 2015 |
| Time of Day | 10:00 - 12:30 & 1:30 - 4:00 |
| Fish Caught | A big zero |
| Conditions & Hatches | Wisconisco full and turbid, Clarks low and good visibility. No bugs at Wisconisco and tons of Rusty spinners on Clarks. |
Details and Discussion
Wbranch on Apr 29, 2015April 29th, 2015, 5:09 pm EDT
Fished Wisconisco for the first time. Parked at the Ned Smith Center and nymphed my way down from what looked like a concrete wall at a plunge pool and continued down about 100 yards until it got too deep to wade. The stream was quite full and very turbid. Is it always like this? I'd say there was no more than 8" of cloudy visibility. Saw some very small caddis but no surface activity. Fished 9:45 - 12:30.
I don't know what the water temperature was but it was not very cold. I was disappointed I didn't see any bugs, or rising fish, on the Wisconisco.
Got out of the water and walked down into the DH water and fished a couple of nice nymph runs. Never touched a fish. Was not comfortable wading water that I've never fished before with pretty much no clarity.
Drove over to Clarks and got there about 1:30 and left at 4:00. Don't know the name of where we parked but it is where the parking is on the right going north on 325. Saw hundreds of Red Quill spinners at the head of a couple of riffles. Saw one fish rise twice with all those spinners flitting around and many falling onto the water.
So much wood all up and down the creek! I can remember years ago when you walked straight down from the parking lot and turned left to go upstream there was not one pool or riffle congested with wood and log jams. Now there are trees entirely across the upper end in 2 - 3 places, trees and branches in the water, and two huge log jams in that upper end.
Walked down to that one nice pool about 100 yards to the right when you come to the end of the path and didn't see any fish in the water but did see a sunken pine about 15" diameter and 15' long that would snatch any nymph drifted through that pool.
Maybe the creek was full of fish but none tugged on my flies. Saw only three cars parked in the various parking all the way up from where the kids water is located.
I don't know what the water temperature was but it was not very cold. I was disappointed I didn't see any bugs, or rising fish, on the Wisconisco.
Got out of the water and walked down into the DH water and fished a couple of nice nymph runs. Never touched a fish. Was not comfortable wading water that I've never fished before with pretty much no clarity.
Drove over to Clarks and got there about 1:30 and left at 4:00. Don't know the name of where we parked but it is where the parking is on the right going north on 325. Saw hundreds of Red Quill spinners at the head of a couple of riffles. Saw one fish rise twice with all those spinners flitting around and many falling onto the water.
So much wood all up and down the creek! I can remember years ago when you walked straight down from the parking lot and turned left to go upstream there was not one pool or riffle congested with wood and log jams. Now there are trees entirely across the upper end in 2 - 3 places, trees and branches in the water, and two huge log jams in that upper end.
Walked down to that one nice pool about 100 yards to the right when you come to the end of the path and didn't see any fish in the water but did see a sunken pine about 15" diameter and 15' long that would snatch any nymph drifted through that pool.
Maybe the creek was full of fish but none tugged on my flies. Saw only three cars parked in the various parking all the way up from where the kids water is located.
Catskill fly fisher for fifty-five years.
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