Surgical Streamers

February is a great time of year to restock the fly boxes and stave off the cabin fever.  So, it was no accident that I strategically scheduled my needed hernia surgery for mid-February right between hunting and fishing season.  I was also smart enough to place an order for new materials and hooks that came right before my surgery date.  #DaddyDowntime.  

By day 3 post-surgery, I was able to sit in a chair and it was time to lash some feathers and flash!  I probably should have refilled my nymph boxes, but tying streamers and dreaming of two-foot browns was so much better than tying size 16 Pheasant Tails.

As I cleaned up the explosion of hair, feathers, flash, and fur, I got a little creative and took some finished fly pictures.  My wife made fun of me as I set them up like my 5 year-old lines up his to cars and dinosaurs.  I believe her comment was ' I'm surprised you don't have them in the bathtub with you swimming laps to test them out....."  Hmmm, now, that's not a half-bad idea!!!

Chasing the Grannom hatch ...

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.