Pickin' Clippers (helgramites)

[fishin_musician]

I took the kids over to the river near Harding yesterday morning after breakfast to see if we could get some clippers. I didn't have much hope of finding many as the river had come up over night and the temps were in the 40's. I expected that the  spot we could get to was going to be picked clean or else under water. I was happily wrong, there was enough of a rock bar exposed to make for some descent pickin' with lots of smaller rocks for the little guys to throw in the river. I found enough baits to keep it interesting for the kids. Mary ("I face my fears") even picked up one of the nasty critters, her little brother didn't want anything to do with them. All told I found 32 which will be getting exchanged for trout down on the Lehigh tomorrow.

[corkdown]

Nice.
 The river looked way up to me as I crossed over it on the way to the Pac yeaterday. And the Pac was all brown and choppy. They must have received more rain than we did and we must have got more rain than up stream.
 I was planning on looking after this rise. looks like you beat me to the bank.

[fishin_musician]

The rain has been heavy locally in spots but I agree, there must have been some big storms up river. It is way higher today and very muddy. I had a pail out in the yard since last Tuesday and there is about 5 inches of water in it.

[mast75]

Excellent pics , how about picken me about 10 dozen clippers....LOL

[HenryDavid]

, how big were they, if you had to guess-timate an average length?

[fishin_musician]

, how big were they, if you had to guess-timate an average length?

3.5 to 4 inches

[HenryDavid]

Are the helgramites out in full force on the Lehigh the way they are on the susky?

[duffy]

We had almost three inches of rain Sat afternoon and night, it's all coming your way Fm

[fishin_musician]

Are the helgramites out in full force on the Lehigh the way they are on the susky?

They would be. They are ahead of us on the seasonal sliding scale.

[jigwiggler]

Bradford Co. and the southern tier of NY got hammered with thunderstorms that were just missing us.  The river jumped 4-5 feet in a short amount of time.

[Jigginjohnson]

Are the helgramites out in full force on the Lehigh the way they are on the susky?

No. The Hellgramites have been harder and harder to find down here. I live about 3 minutes away form the river and have had very little luck so far. As for the Susky, I will be out this weekend picking my heart out. Cant wait.

[fishin_musician]

No. The Hellgramites have been harder and harder to find down here. I live about 3 minutes away form the river and have had very little luck so far. As for the Susky, I will be out this weekend picking my heart out. Cant wait.

I never had any trouble picking a few for fishing when I have been in the gorge fishing. What ever (helgramites) are to be found now would be the time to get out for them before they wander to far up the banks and disappear into the trees.

[fishin_musician]

Who would of thought that this innocent little post and arcane topic would be our most viewed topic two years after it saw daylight. Any Hoo lol it is just about time to get out a grab a few dozen of these for bass bait.  If they are not on the march already it will be soon.

[Saxton]

I have used hellgramites a lot and have never got them on dry land....I never knew that you could. I always use a sein with it being down stream in swift water from 6" to 12".  I stand up stream and kick and dig up the rocky river bottom to get them.  IF I have someone with me one of us hold the sein and the other uses a mattock and really digs up the bottom to get them.

[fishin_musician]

Once a year they come out of the rivers and creeks to dryout and transform into the Dobson's Fly. They climb out in the rocky areas that they inhabit and hide under rocks. that is where we pick them in numbers.