Fishing Nov1

First cold morning fishing opportunity of the year, with temps in the mid 20’s.  I checked the generation schedule using the link below:

http://www.swpa.gov/generationschedules.aspx

Found they were planning on generating from 7am to 11am for the Beaver Tailwaters, labeled as #11 across the top of the list, which means they start around 6am, and will be in full generation schedule by the stated time of 7am.  I decided to go ahead and sleep in and go for some afternoon fishing instead and not fight the water and the temp.

I got over to the tailwaters around 12pm and found it was still at generation levels. I waited around and talked with a gentleman for 15 min or so and decided to go ahead and try some micro jigs and wooly buggers.  I got one solid bite on a peach and olive PJ’s micro jig, but that was all I was able to manage.  Tried several colors of micro jigs and several colors of wooly buggers and nothing else.

After 45 mins or so and no relief to the water flow, I decided to head down to Parker Bottoms area and try it as the water could be a little slower at the handicap access area.  There many bait fishers there when I arrived and no one was catching anything.  One gentleman had fished for over 3 hours with nothing and said he “never” gets skunked.  I tried a micro jig and then started with the zebra midges.

Finally about 2pm the water started to recede.  About 3pm I moved over the ramp that heads straight into the water and was able to manage a couple short hook ups with a size 16 rusty midge with copper head and copper wire.  I wasn’t able to get land them in, but things were looking up finally.  The bait fishers began to catch a few at this time as well.

I moved down the river and tried to fish and throw all colors of midges at them and wasn’t able to manage more than one small nibble.  I moved back up to the handicap area and tried some more midges and only managed one additional small bite.

I decided to move over to the ramp once again to try my luck before I left for the day.  I tried several colors again and finally was able to get one landed using a size 16 purple midge.  That was all I was able to land for the day, pretty pitiful outing.  Couple other flyfishers had similar luck and the bait fishers were only able to land a few as well.  Very poor outing, but nice to get out and nice sunny day even if the air temp didn’t get much about 50 degrees.