The above pictures are some nice Allegheny River fish that Shane landed while using his two handed spey rod. Shane has been prowling the Allegheny Tailwater using his two handed rod and experimenting with various lines in different release levels. All of these fish were landed at different levels throughout this spring. Shane has been keeping detailed records of what has been working best with each level.

If you would like to learn more about two handed rod, spey fishing, and using switch rods on big water email me at newpherd@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting NW PA Blog and I look forward to meeting you on the water.

Damon

High Muddy Water 8ft.!!!

Many days have passed since my last post to the blog. The conditions for weeks remained unchanged. Bright sunny days, low clear water, sulphurs remained the main hatch and the fishing was excellent some days challenging most, due to the water and the sun.
Last week we had a huge change, the two inches of rain we were lacking for the month of May finally came in one night bringing high muddy water on the Clarion and made the Allegheny not very fly fishing friendly, due to the release from the dam.
Most of my guests fishing with me on the boat don't have the option of driving up and fishing the peak days on the water so we head out and fish what the river gave to us. After many years of doing this the days when most fly fishers would never even think of tying on a fly we've challenged the fish and the river and have succeeded with great success.
The pictures above are of guests that fished with me last week during the low and high water, clear and muddy, and variable conditions that we faced each day.
I will be posting soon about the conditions on the Allegheny River. The forecast is for lower water and once it become a more fly fishing friendly river we'll be hitting the evening hatches and catching some of the big browns that lurk in its deep rifles.

Hope to see you on the water. It's hard to believe fall steelhead season is only 3 months away. Time to start tying steelhead flys.

Sulphurs, March Browns and Hopeful Drakes

Over the past week the Sulphur Hatch has been building with great dry fly opportunities in the evenings.
With different varieties of insects hatching and various sizes of each I recommend having varying sizes in your box. I tie Sulphurs in three sizes 12's for the early part of the hatch, 14's for the middle and 16's towards the end. The three varieties of Sulphurs start with the larger ones hatching first as the hatch progresses the smaller insects begin their emergence.
Though the large fish have been eating the Sulphurs some of the medium and smaller fish have been keying in on the large March Browns. These too have been a couple of different sizes, so you should have 10's and 12's tied for your boxes.
The Green Drakes are still struggling and should be happening soon. Though the Sulphurs and March Browns are about two weeks early for the Clarion River the Drakes typically hatch at Dark during the first week of June. We are still waiting to see more.
With all of these insects mentioned I prefer and seems as though the fish prefer lower riding patterns such as Compara Duns tied with either Deer for a higher riding fly or CDC for a Surface film fly, Parachute Patterns and for your drakes extended bodies tied parachute style.

See You on the River.