Pennsylvania Fly Fishing Report, Yellow Breeches 3/31/16

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The season is underway and moving along. Forsythia is in bloom and that means we can find Grannoms and Hedricksons.

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Today I arrived on-stream later than what is ideal for these hatches, I pulled into Boiling Springs around 1pm. Anglers reported denser grannom caddis activity with steadily rising fish mid morning.

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There were caddis sporadically being taken off the surface by greedily rising trout in the afternoon. The caddis were concentrated over the riffs where they could be found dive-bombing water and then dacing across the surface as they dropped their eggs in the choppy waters.

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Skating a #10 or #12 black caddis or a dark color stimulator over rising fish of course is productive. However, it is important to note that it was perhaps more effective to prospect over high quality fish lies such as feeding lanes, large rocks, and dynamic depth changes with an active dry fly presentation even if rising fish were not obvious.

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Skating or skittering (PA Dutch translation) a dark body caddis pattern over high probability areas even though there was no sign of steadily rising fish can be very effective. Adding movement with the right speed and action appeared to make a more enticing presentation compared to dead drifting as there was intermittent periods of intense debris in between the gusts of wind and the movement seemed to attract attention. The best way of describing the presentation is to think of dancing the caddisfly across the water and into the prime area or target area. This often means fishing down stream or across and landing the fly well before the target area so that you can dance the fly across the surface in front of the fish. Just like swinging a wetfly but dry, the takes however are just as electric if not more because of the violent and unexpected way they can manifest. No setting the hook is required, if the fish wants the fly you won’t have a choice, he WILL be hooked.

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Get out while you can. With the weather pattern being unpredictable lately it will be hard to say how long the hatches will last. Go fish!

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