Pennsylvania Angler & Boater - November/December 2014 - 12

dayBrown Trout
li Wild
o
H
by Vic Attardo

photos by the author

Cranberries, sweet potatoes and wild Brown Trout go great
with a holiday turkey-right?
Well, I don't agree either. Wild Brown Trout from
Pennsylvania streams are just too precious to be "used" as a
condiment or side dish, or for any non-emergency meal. Put
a wild Brown Trout on a plate and it cannot be caught again.
Indeed, anything other than catch and release deprives
anglers of the opportunity to catch that trout again.
But, the fact is that during the holiday season, with its
cooling water temperatures and hungry fish, wild Brown
Trout are a great target for anglers. Indeed, other than
fishing over intricate spring hatches, mid-fall to early winter
puts wild Brown Trout back on the menu-so to speak.
Just because it's cool or cold doesn't mean that trout won't
come to the table for dry flies. At this time of the year, I look
first to the miniscule floaters or subsurface emergers to help
catch the biggest wild Brown Trout. Blue Winged Olives and
midges are certainly hot dishes during the holidays.
From emergers to duns or spinners, Little Blue Winged
Olives are often the main course for Brown Trout. Though
these tiny insects-now classified as Acentrella turbida
-are much smaller than a pinhead, trout can easily see
and feed on these late-season mayflies. Little Blue Winged
Olives seem more prolific in water temperatures between
45 and 50 degrees F and that fits the holiday season.
Acentrella has been recorded as an October hatch in
Pennsylvania. However, with global warming, I've
seen the large-eyed males on Spring Creek, Centre
County, in November.
To meet any number of Baetis or what-have-you, I carry a
designated medium-sized fly box just for Blue Winged Olive
patterns that I tie and buy.

12

A key material for about 75 percent of these patterns is cul
de canard (CDC). There's something about CDC's flimsiness
and its never-looks-the-same-way-twice appearance that
makes the duck feather keen for Blue Winged Olive use.
Some of the most effective patterns incorporate CDC as a
parachute post or as a laid back "wing."
In waters where I can stretch a good cast, I like to string
two different Blue Winged Olive patterns on a leader. The
lead fly is often a size 18 or 20 Cannon's Bunny Dun, which
has a full puff of CDC at the head and wing of the fly. The
thorax of the fly is dubbed olive fur, and the rear third of the
body is made of thread with the wisp of a stiff tail.
The dropper is a simpler CDC Blue Winged Olive
emerger, a no hackle pattern that is more generic. This fly
is tied sparse with the CDC set as a wing with a dubbed
body and head. It has a full tail of either stiff blue dun
hackle or microfibbets. The length of the small bunch
of tail fibers is equal to 1½ times that of the body. The
dropper is size 20 or 22, one size below the lead fly. Both
patterns are tied on straight-eye hooks. In big water, I'm
using a long 11- to 12-foot leader with a series of hollowed
fly-line nibs as strike indicators.
The reason for using two flies is to give the fish a look
at two different patterns. Two flies, separated by 12- to
20-inches of tippet, also work, because the leader puts the
flies in different spots.
Working two flies in this manner, I've found that the trout
that I was casting to and placing the fly in its path was not
the trout that got hooked. A number of times, I watched
the leader drift over my target trout only to have the strike
indicator announce that another wild Brown Trout had
taken the second fly. Not a bad problem to have.

Pennsylvania Angler & Boater * November/December 2014

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Pennsylvania Angler & Boater - November/December 2014

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