I’ve been back for a few days here over Memorial Day weekend and the fishing has been interesting out on Pine. With the temperatures predicted here over the next few days, Pine is warming quickly and we advise to take it easy on the fish when the water temperatures get to the 70° mark.

However, before the water temperature got to that point I managed to hookup with a few.

All the same fish above, I forget what I got it on. The thing is, I’ve seen something that seems to look like a Grey Fox (which it probably isn’t as I think it’s too late for them by now), Sulfurs, Green Drakes, Slate Drakes and small Blue Winged Olives (like size 18 – 20). Each fish seemed to have gotten different memos with regard to what to feed on. I’ve found you have to switch up quite a bit to discover what a particular fish wants. Then the next fish could be tuned into something completely different. These fish, that are literally feet away from each other, would seem to feed on significantly different (to me) flies. It could be worse, you could NOT be here in the Pine Creek Valley enjoying the area and the fishing.

Oh, then my net holder breaks as I was casting to a fish. Luckily I grabbed it before it got a chance to drift down to Waterville. So I wade over to the shore to deposit it till I come in later that night. Meanwhile I catch this fellow above, and managed to get his picture or two without the assistance of a net.

I was amazed how many fish took the little Olive! I caught a couple on the Coffin Fly but then would cast to the next fish figuring that “I’ve hit it”, the Green Drake hatch/spinner fall, and I’d be all set with being able to actually SEE my fly the rest of the night. Nope! I changed over to the #18 BWO spinner, and …

The light was getting quite dim and I’m amazed how well the pictures turned out (all taken with the iPhone SE). I think my old Fuji-film would have struggled with taking these pictures. They aren’t the greatest quality but you get the idea. This Rainbow was hefty! I’m guessing it was a 15″ – 17″ fish! My hand on the fish, compared to other pictures in the same position on other fish, show you the girth this fish had. And with no net, I managed to work it over to were my net was and I actually did net it as seen in the first picture of it. It was a good one.

A few fly pictures…

The Green Drake I removed from a spider web to take some pictures with a scale. But as soon as I freed it from the web and set it down next to the scale, it took off. I thought there was going to be enough web on the fly that it would have been slowed down, but nope – it’s FREE! I am not sure if the fly featured in the rest of the pictures is what Dutch Fetter referred to as the “BBF” or a Brown Drake. I have seen several of these on Pine but I don’t think I’ve seen fish actively feeding on them. I DID get dimensions on it. And I have seen a few Slate Drakes but, again, not in large numbers or fish actively feeding on them. But… just look at the tails on that Green Drake! Amazingly long.

SRS Membership Meeting Next Weekend

Just a reminder, the SRS ‘Pat Eroh Summer Picnic’ meeting will take place next weekend, Saturday June 4th starting at 10:30 am at the Brown Township Fire Hall. PLEASE RSVP by this past Saturday (or NOW) if you plan on attending. Go to our Calendar page here on the website to see how to contact us for RSVP, thanks (you have a texting or email option).

Till we see each other again, and live from Slate Run, I’m an Unintentional Blogger… aka UB