Clavemeister's reports-Penns 2005(long)

"Thomas Littleton" wrote in message
news:vWnoe.3874$zT2.3291@trndny04...
First, due to the holiday week, and an assortment of other reasons, the
crowd at the Clave was smaller....20 folks in all showed up, about 14 or
15
of them actually ROFF posting regulars. The recent dry weather provided
us
with a Penn's most of the visitors had never seen, low, clear and full of
finicky brown trout. On the latter point, several of the local regulars
noted that Penn's has the best population of 16 inch plus browns we can
remember in nearly 20 years of fishing it. These are NOT pushover fish,
but
could be taken during the daytime with a variety of
oddball techniques. I used wetflies to imitate the tan caddis, others used
smallish sulfur patterns, others still used nymphs. Daylight fishing took
patience, however, and was not easy.

Nymphs for me, but just as a note, I think these fish are always there,
just the low water concentrated them into the larger holes and runs.

Now, on to the evening hatches......while the Drake hatch kept building
in
intensity, sulfurs were also hatching in good numbers, and their spinners
fell nearly every night. Also, olives were about, as were some late Grey
Foxes and March Browns. One evening, I counted 8 different mayfly species,
along with a couple of different caddis, two craneflies and a stonefly
about. From my arrival night, on Saturday, through Tuesday night, fish
rose
consistently for about the last hour of light into the darkness, and one
had
to guess what they were taking in the stretch one was fishing. If you got
it
right, you could land a half-dozen fine trout, otherwise, you could fail
miserably. I got the chance to do both.

Agreed, the Evening hatches were good the whole time, before I left, but had
to pull out when the drake was just getting good. Saw an incredible sulphur
hatch my last night, I have to say my trip ended incredibly. Most nights,
we got to see all of the fish rise, and it was a matter of having the rigth
pattern.


A 30 second slugfest put a trout into my net that measured from
the the back of the reel to the first guide.....just measured at home with
a
tape measure and came up with 22 1/4 inches. My battered fly went out
again
and landed a fish of probably 18 or 19 inches. It was now 9:20, I was
near-exhausted, but thrilled.

Nice!!..

I hope that the choice of this week led all attendees to some different
Penn's challenges. My temptation is to avoid running the clave this late
in
the future, due to the crowd of anglers, and the odd emphasis on the
bitter
end of the evening/dark for prime angling. Feedback is appreciated, but I
am
thinking a week or two earlier for 2006.


I like this time of year myself, late May into June, ...if anything only a
week earlier, two weeks earlier and you risk cold, rain, etc, etc. Don't
forget, we moved it to this time of year because of those things and we lost
some Roffers this year because of the bad years previously. If fish are
needed during the day, other streams are out there where fish can be had on
dries during the day. Elk fishes well during the day, as does BFC, Kettle
and others freestoners. We just have to remember to time it all right if we
want day time opportunities. I didn't get a chance to stray too far away
because I had to maximize fishing time, but given a full week to 10 days, we
can easily make trips out.

If we're looking for less crowded, and day time only fishing. Lets go for
the Grannom/Hendrickson hatch. Fishing is from 10-4 with plenty of time for
after hours eating and such.


I sincerely appreciate all who
showed up. I will single out the following: Handyman Mike for general
all-around services and cooking;

Here, here...Mike saved me from starvation a couple of times..once again.

similar cooking kudos to Frank Reid,
Thanks for a bed and breakfast

his pal John,

The Jambalaya was awesome, thank you!!

the boys from Massachusetts;

Never did get to drink with you guys, but the fishing was good. That first
night in Weikert was pretty cool...

Dave PA for guiding assistance; .....Joel for excellence in
Rafflemeistering,

And for a night's stay in the cabin.

Indian Joe for persisting on a bum leg and providing fascinating
commentary.

You O.K. IJ? I know you had some issues with the ankle before I left,
sounds like it got worse..



Great Clave, guys!!!!



Cheers to everyone, didn't get to spend as much time as I wished, but it was
good...