Penn's Clave 2010

I give a short summary, in the hope that the other miscreants that joined me
will chime in with the finer details.......
First off, as I arrived Saturday, I completely missed seeing Tim Carter and
his pal. I hope both of you enjoyed the creek, the bugs and the fishing.
Next time.....
By the time I arrived, Makela, Shaw, Reid, fellow Cornhusker Bazil(sp?) and
Gene Cyprich were already in the area and had apparently fished pretty hard
since Wednesday. The Drakes were in full swing, even tailing off, down
around Blue Rock. All reports were of very good fishing. Details will
follow, I hope. My arrival, as should be expected, brought rain. Heavy rain.
The kind of rain that blows out Penn's for a day or two. Just in time to
screw up a VERY promising Coffin Fly fall at Little Mountain. As I said, we
should have seen it coming as I approached the stream, but.....
Sunday, thus, sent us up to Spring Creek. During the day, the fish were
fitfully willing to hit smallish wets, but it required waiting until dark
for a heavy rise of fish, taking Orange Sulfurs of a size 16 or so. Fun
while it lasted, but it only lasted 45 minutes. Hooked one of the heavier
Spring Creek fish I've encountered in a while, but he snapped off 5x easily.
Monday, with Penn's still up a bit and murky, we all headed to Fishing
Creek. Weather was pretty much clear and bright, and the fishing was
predictably slow. Many headed back to fish the clearing Penn's for the
hatch. Mike "Handyman" Shaw and I stayed near the notable Uncle Tom's Cabin
pool. I fished the faster runs above the pool, caught good hatches of Orange
Sulfurs and Grey Fox duns, and landed 4 fish, including what turned out to
be my largest fish of the trip, an 18 inch brown with fabulous coloration.
Tuesday through Thursday are sort of one large blur, consisting of the most
massively explosive hatches I've ever seen on Penn's(and that, for the
uninitiated, says SOMETHING!). Apparently, the churn-up of the waters around
Coburn triggered a very concentrated Green Drake hatch, joining absolute
clouds, at times, of Sulfurs (one name, but 3 different species hatching).
The evenings brought out bugs to near-unbelievable levels. One could stand,
say, 20 feet off the bank, in the water, and see a wall of emerged Drake
Duns flying upstream. The wall was about 5 feet thick, 3 or 4 feet off the
water surface and ran the width of the creek. This cloud of duns continued,
every night for about 2 hours. Over the riffles, various sizes and types of
Sulfur spinners would for clusters 20 feet high and dense to the point of
being difficult to see through. Evening fishing was difficult insofar as
finding the right pattern for one's specific stretch of stream, and fishing
among so much natural food in the growing darkness. Good fish were landed,
many missed, but the overall experience was other-worldly. We fished until
10:15 some nights, leaving the stream to continued heavy rises.
Morning fishing, for the hardy who awoke to do it, was much easier. Early
on, fish were still mopping up the spinners from the Sulfurs and Grey Foxes
that had falling overnight, and Coffin Flies(Drake spinner form) were
everywhere. By later morning the Male Drakes would start
hatching(diminuative little #8 or 10 mayfles...the females are larger), and
the remaining gluttons would turn to them. Shallow little pockets also found
selective fish sneaking in some small Olives and midges.
To sum up, fishing was wild, the company was great. Joel Axelrad joined us
by Sunday, by the way. We had a nice cookout of Reid-made burgers, tended by
Mssrs Shaw and Cyprich as well. The group was small enough so we all
basically ran into one another all day long most days.
The ROFF banner turned up in camp and returned home with me, and now, I'll
leave the floor to my fellow clavers:


Tom