I planned a morning of fishing with Bill M., a good friend of mine. We met in Ephrata and traveled together to the Tulpehocken to fish the special regs area of this stream. We got there a little after daylight and got suited up. It was a couple weeks since I last hit the water and I was really looking forward to it. The water level was just perfect. We knew there were fish in the water because when we got there the Blue Herons were trying to take claim to certain spots along the water.
.JPG)
The water temps were perfect at about 51 degrees. The water flows were about 140 cfs which turned out to be an awesome level. As soon as we were on the water, it didn't take long till I had my first fish of the day. It was a nice rainbow that took a pink and white Y2K egg. I have to admit, I am not the best fisherman around. I am a better tier than I am a fisherman. I would have had double the numbers brought to hand if I would have done better at giving good hook sets. There were several flies that brought fish to hand for me today. Anything from the Y2K (yellow/orange and pink/white),
Chain Gang Pheasant Tail, Chain Gang Hares Ear, Double Duty, and even a #24 stripper midge. The two that did the best were the stripper midge and the Y2K, and actually the stripper midge brought the biggest fish of the day for me.
There were spent midges on the water everywhere. And actually the fish were rising to them all over the place. Although, I couldn't break off my rust and connect with any of the rises. I did a great job of missing every rise that came to my small
BWO Foam Biot Emerger, which happened to be the smallest dry fly I had with me. I wasn't expecting any surface action today. I used my ice magic and managed some short hookups but nothing to hand. Like I had said earlier, there are some things I need to work on so that I can have more fish come to hand.
Well, I hope everyone gets the chance to be out on the water soon. It was a great morning for being outside and especially to be out fishing.
.JPG)
