Ben came into town last evening to help finish the current kitchen progress. We hit the stream almost as soon as he arrived and ended up in the middle of the infamous green drake hatch. Penn's was alive with millions of drakes, sulphurs, caddis, crane flies, march browns and cream midges. The sheer size of the green drakes, however, is overwhelming. The bodies are easily two inches long and their tails can be 2 or 3 times that length. The coffin flies were falling, littering the stream, and the fish were rising everywhere - places I've never seen fish rise were just boiling with fish. By dark the bugs were so thick I had my shirt buttoned to the top and my collar up just to keep them out. The caddis were out like crazy, too, covering the stream bank, rocks, and our legs and arms...kinda gross after a while. I ended up with four fish, one bruiser; Ben with two. But once the coffin flies started to fall, the stream was literally littered with bugs and our flies were lost in the smörgåsbord of bugs. So despite fish rising everywhere, and rising violently, splashing, thrashing, catching fish is almost like winning the lottery. Can't wait for tonight.
