In
late May and early June fly fishermen in Pennsylvania start
thinking Green Drake, especially on the many limestone
streams in the central part of the state. I always plan a
trip at the time to Yellow Creek, located in South Central
Pennsylvania, about 30 to 40 minutes from the Breezewood
exit of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. While the entire stream
offers some great fishing, the delayed harvest, fly fishing
only section is my favorite. Access only at the top and
bottom requires a bit of a walk, there are fewer anglers,
and lots of fish make it a worthwhile visit any time of the
year. But the chance to get trout taking big flies on the
top really gets me excited.
On a
recent May excursion, there were just enough drakes on the
water during the morning and afternoon to make it
interesting, while anticipating a feeding frenzy at dusk on
the spinner fall - the Coffin Fly. But, though the fish were
working during the day, finding the right fly was
difficult. It seemed that conventional Green Drake patterns
were not working. Oh, the guys I was with were getting up an
occasional fish, but a close inspection and refusal was most
often the case.
I
decided to try a drake-sized fly but in a parachute pattern,
one that has worked well for me on other streams whenever
large duns were flying. Tying on the fly, after trimming
back the tippet so the fly wouldn’t spin it into a mess, I
made a couple false casts and dropped it about 3' in front
of a feeding brown. Unfortunately, my cast was 2' to the
right but before I could chastise myself, the brown moved
over, came up without hesitation, and gulped the fly. In a
couple of minutes, a nice fat 14" brown was to hand.
I’m not sure how many fish I missed, lost,
and caught in the next two days, but I don’t remember a
single refusal. Every working fish I cast to rose to the fly
and most slurped it in without hesitation. We never did get
fish on the spinners. At dusk there were some spinners on
the water and the fish were going crazy but taking #18
sulphurs. We had a ball.
-- Fred Bridge
Note:
Some readers may think this fly and recipe is familiar,
especially if they fish Lycoming and Potter Counties in
North Central PA, and it should be, as you will find it
referred to in that area as the Pine Creek Special |