Years ago I walked blindly into one of the best hatches I've ever encountered with the Grannom Caddis. It was so good I drove the 3 hours the next day again with my wife so she could see it first hand.
Since that year, I've been chasing this hatch and trying to recreate the insanity that happens on a few mid-April mornings. The challenge is that the hatch is really short-lived and a 3-5 day cycle. Being 3 hours away + work + Easter + weather + blah + blah = a bunch of recent swing and misses on hitting this hatch. But not this year,...I was convinced the timing was PERFECT.
I met my good friend for a two day mini-trip to a central PA limestone stream. We fished the mornings and camped and drank beer in the evening. A pretty good plan for sure. I'll skip to the punchline...we never hit the Grannoms. I saw a few emerge and I thought it was going to be on like Donkey Kong, but it just never happened. It was a cloudy day and what did happen (once I abandoned nymphing the high water) was one of my best streamer days. The wild browns were absolutely pounding the streamer and it was so much fun.
The next day was a blue bird day and after I acknowledged this bug was a no show again, I switched back to my same exact streamer set up. Conventional wisdom says streamer fishing isn't nearly as hot on a sunny day and conventional wisdom was right again. I didn't even get one chase. I reluctantly went back to dredging the bottom with some HEAVY nymphs and managed a couple to salvage my pride.
