As we slowly trudge along here in Pennsylvania towards warmer weather and the meat of our spring mayfly hatches, I wanted to share my favorite Baetis patterns and give a trip report on a few of the streams I've been fishing.
Little Lehigh Creek (Fly Fishing C&R Section)
It's good to be home, that's for sure. Last week I fished the riffle sections below the overpass and got into some rainbows and a few wild brownies. I skipped fishing my confidence flies and moved straight to a Baetis rig, running a nymph about 6 inches off the bottom and an emerger pattern another 12-18 inches above it. Both Kevin Compton's Cinnamon Toast Crunch nymph and Kelly Galloup's improved BWO took fish. Later in the afternoon Higga's S.O.S. and the Evil Olive worked well as an emerger.
Monocacy Creek (Trophy Trout Section)
One of my all time favorite little creeks in the Lehigh Valley. It's tough fishing when the flows are down but there's just something about catching wild browns 20 yards from a Rehab joint. I went really light on my rig, fishing a sz. 20 bwo puff daddy and trailing a painfully small wd-40 off the back. I covered plenty of water and was rewarded with one brownie and a bunch of little guys that nibbled the shit outta the dropper.
Jordan Creek (Stockie Bashing)
Usually I try and avoid bashing stocked trout, especially right after opening day. I could write a thesis on the benefits of C&R practices on stocked trout streams, (save it for another blog post?) but I really want to try and smoke some trout this Spring so I figured I'd snag my limit and apologize to Norman later. I went with two of my favorite nymphs, the Frenchie and the Duracell Jig, and was outta there about 30 minutes later. The only insight I got from this trip was it seems like the stockers are still chilling in the slow pools. So, if you're going to some of the honey holes in the LV this weekend target the slower moving water.
Baetis Patterns
My favorites right now for Lehigh Valley trout in order of hatch progression:
BWO Puff Daddy (Sz. 18-20 in Olive / Brown-Olive)
Evil Olive (Sz.18)
Higga's S.O.S. (Sz.18-20, my own concoction pictured below)
WD-40
Improved BWO Nymph ( PT and white dubbing)
Cinnamon Toast Crunch Nymph (Sz. 16-18 Brown-Olive Turkey Biot)
Puff Daddy, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Evil Olive, Improved BWO, Higga's S.O.S.