Transcript
Marvin:
[0:04] Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Flower, back with another Central PA Fishing Report with George Costa of TCO Fly Shop in State College. How are you, Jorge?
George:
[0:14] I am amazing as always, Marvin. Thank you.
Marvin:
[0:16] Yeah, and I heard your heart grew three sizes because you've been guiding the last few days.
George:
[0:21] Yes, exactly. Exactly. Yep. I've been out on the water the past couple of days, so that's been a lot of fun.
Marvin:
[0:26] Yeah, so you don't have to make up the fishing report this time.
George:
[0:29] No, I usually do just kind of, you know, I just kind of look out the window and just kind of go with, you know, whatever it's looking good, you know, but no, I actually saw some bugs today or yesterday, which was pretty good.
Marvin:
[0:40] Well, we'll give the crazy eight ball a rest and you can tell us what you're seeing out on the water.
George:
[0:44] Right. So yeah, so it's been, um, high water the past week. We had a lot of rain come in over this past week, um, over about an inch and a half.
So everything is still up. Everything is still a little off color.
River creeks are just coming back into shape now, Penns, Little J, Fishing Creek.
They were kind of blown out early in the week, but they should be fishing by tomorrow. Everything's right about down to reasonable levels again.
Spring Creek's held its own. It's been fishing good. We've been on that for the past couple of days. And sulfurs are popping. We're seeing sulfurs.
We're seeing olives. We're seeing tankatus.
There have been some March browns on the bigger streams as well from what I'm hearing, but sulfurs are pretty much everywhere.
And fishing creek haven't gotten confirmed reports of sulfur's there yet but you should start seeing them this week i'm sure uh...
Couple guys are asking about the sulfur's earlier today and they are uh...
Cloudy rainier days look for them in late afternoon so let's say from two to five o'clock on those cloudy rainy days is when we've had in the past couple days uh...
As it's sunny and brighter you're gonna see them right before dark they just don't like light too much So you want a little cloud cover to get them earlier in the day, brighter days, look for the sulfurs to start hatching a little more in the evening.
So overall, I mean, conditions are great this week. We've got a little more rain slated, temperatures are going up again, should start really, really cranking. It's going to be a good, you know, next couple of weeks as we get into prime hatch season.
Marvin:
[2:12] Got it. And if you're nymphing with that stained water, do you need a little bit more flash in your fly?
George:
[2:18] Not necessarily. We were doing really good on more natural looking nymphs.
Visibility was about 18, 24 inches on Spring Creek the past couple of days, so it wasn't great visibility, but I think if you get it in those feeding lanes, the fish are still going to react to it.
A little bit of flash might not be a bad idea, but sometimes I don't like too much. It can kind of put them off. I think a lot of our local fish are so heavily pressured that keeping it as natural as possible might be a better option.
Marvin:
[2:42] Got it. And I got a question for you from Brenner. You ready?
I am yeah, it's the best way to match the hatch and basically he wants to know should you flip over rocks and looks it look At nymphs should you actually watch what's going on or should you you know, get up a pump and pump some stomachs?
George:
[3:00] Good good question. I get that question a lot. This is a Thing I talk about a lot of my beginners classes The best way to do it really is to just observe take time and look at what's going on around you you.
If you take a couple of minutes before you start tying a fly on, and I know I'm guilty of it, sometimes I'll tie a fly on at the car, I'll get to the creek and suddenly I'm like, that's not the right fly.
So wait and be patient is really the best thing to match the hatch.
Flip over those rocks and look, but fish might not necessarily be eating what's under the rock.
If you're going to nymph, that's a good indication, but especially with dry fly fishing, you really got to look and see what's going on and observing how fish are rising and how they're reacting to what's happening is going to be a really key indicator as to what kind of pattern to use.
You know, a bigger, splashier take on the surface is an indication that a fish is eating something that's about to come off the surface, like a dun or a caddis fly.
A smaller dimple and a softer take is an indication that that fish is eating either a stillborn and a merger or a spinner.
So I think really the key to matching the hatch is patience and observation.
So take the time, look to see what's going on, and just go from there.
Marvin:
[4:13] Yeah, that's funny. It's like you still have the residual effects of May the 4th Be With You that's very Zen and Jedi-like.
George:
[4:20] I'm feeling very Zen and Jedi today, I think. Actually, a little more Sith.
I'm leaning towards the Sith sidebar, so we'll go that way.
Marvin:
[4:27] I know that's how you roll. Old Testament, George.
George:
[4:33] Exactly biblical. Fire and brimstone for everybody.
Marvin:
[4:37] There you go. Don't spare the rod. Right. So, you know, folks, we love questions on the Articulate Fly.
You can email them to us or you can DM us on social media. And if we use your question, I will send you some Articulate Fly swag.
And we will enter in a drawing for something cool from the shop at the end of the season. And, George, before I let you go and return to retail bliss, you want to let folks know, shop hours, specials, classes, any of that kind of good stuff?
George:
[5:00] Absolutely, so we are here Monday through Saturday 9 to 6 in State College, 9 to 3 is on Sundays. All our other shops are open about the same hours on the web at tcoflyfishing.com.
Classes are getting pretty full for the year, but we still got some spots a little later in the season for beginners classes. Check out our website for that, and we hope to see you in the shop soon.
Marvin:
[5:20] Well, there you go, folks. You owe it to yourself to get out there and catch a few. Tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, George. Take it easy, Mark.