Potter County Fishing Report, May 12: First Fish on a Dry

On Friday I was joined by neighbor and fellow fly angler Frank Weeks on an outing to the Class A section of Lyman Run.  While we had a decent slug of rain in early May, dry conditions have been the norm for the last couple of weeks.  Good when you're trying to get the lawn cut.  Maybe not for the streams.

We got to Lyman Run about 11:00 AM.  Temps were in the 70s, and would climb into the low-80s by the time we left at 3:00 PM.  The water was lower than my previous outing, but still fishable.  Stream temps were in the high-50s to low-60s.

Fly of choice was a size 12 March Brown dry.  There was little in the way of bug activity, but the trout didn't seem to mind.  As long as you found good holding water...

And kept enough distance to avoid spooking the fish, you had a good chance of landing...

In all we landed three fish, but missed/lost a good number of native Brookies and wild Browns.  Didn't matter.  Just being in the woods, wet-wading a small stream, and catching my first fish on dries this season, made for a great day.

Tight Lines,

Mikey D Fishing

Addendum:  I've spent the last two evenings hanging down at the Pavilion Hole on the WB, just to see what bug activity was going on.  With warm temps this weekend, I figured we'd see a flyapolooza of hatches.  Turned out not to be the case.  Nothing on Friday, although around 8:05 PM a few fish rose to something.  I did manage a scrawny stocked Rainbow Friday night, and also missed a couple on a  March Brown.  Saturday was pretty much the same, with one exception. There's a small pool just down from the Pavilion Friday evening.  It's nice-looking water, with a cut bank on the far side, and probably 4-4 1/2 feet deep in the center of the pool.  

On Friday I heard a splashy noise, went down and did a little casting, and had a fish flash at the fly a few times.  Last evening I returned and tossed the MB in the far corner of the pool, and as it was drifting down the trout slowly rose, inspected the fly for a second, then made the fateful decision.

A chunky 12-incher came to the net.  Guess the lesson is even though there may not be a hatch on, doesn't mean the fish won't look up and try for a tasty meal on the surface.