Well, it's another year and the Penn's Clave, or should I say, the Penn's
Mini-Clave, has ended. We had but a handful of hearty souls for this, the
ninth Penn's Clave. Attendees included: Mike "Handyman" Shaw, Mike Makela,
Frank Reid, Dave Gunnett, Joel Axelrad, Vince Norris,and Bruce Fisher(a
permanent fixture at the Penn's Creek Angler). Conditions were, to say the
least, tough.
As of yesterday, the flow at Penn's still exceeded 700 cfs, so most of the
fishing was on Spring and Big Fishing Creeks. Spring was fishing very well,
with Sulfurs hatching daily to rising, but very selective, trout. Fishing
Creek yielded it's trout more reluctantly, with Grey Fox and March Brown
duns mixed in with the Sulfurs, and a spinner fall in the chilly
evenings....oh, did I mention that it sleeted a couple of times? To the best
of my knowledge, the largest fish of the trip was caught by Handyman, a
brown of a chunky 16 inches or so, maybe more. Further, fish were caught by
all, on every day, but were well earned.
Highlights: On Tuesday, I found out how difficult it is to leave a midstream
spot quickly in a driving rainstorm, when the fly has hooked itself to one's
bootlace(sort of like a marionette act). On Thursday, I noticed the darkness
of wings on Fishing Creek orange sulfurs, compared to those elsewhere.
Several times, ducks were spared the Miller touch, and allowed to roam the
roads safely. Finally, in an odd reversal, Reid showed that he helps deer
cross the road....presumably, he hunts for little old ladies in the fall.
Finally, a couple of thoughts: First, next year will be Penn's Clave
no.10(or X in Roman numerals). It will be held from the Saturday before
Memorial Day(May 23?) until June 1. This will near-guarantee the Drake hatch
during the clave. I am going to try to encourage all former Penn's Clave
attendees to make the Penn's Clave X a big one, a homecoming, if you will.
And, lastly, I note that I have overlooked the attendance of our youngest
clavers this year, Matt and Dan Makela, who enjoyed the first weekend, and
both caught fish. Dan may have also started working on his Full Reid
technique, leaving the possibility of a Youth Division in the annual Duck
Butt awards.
Tom