February 19, 2017 – It Happens Sometimes – A Northampton County Double-Skunk

Tough fishing on nice water.

Eric and I fished from about 7:30 AM to noon today (too long) for a goose egg between us.  Speaking of geese, waterfowl did contribute to the problem, as the geese are pairing up already and making a ruckus.  A pair flushed and splashed down a pool ahead of us a half a dozen times through a prime stretch of pocket water in the late morning, and two dozen were swimming in one of my favorite, go-to winter holes, as well.  I spotted mergansers in this area early last year, and we saw one first thing this morning too.  Like loons, these birds dive and fish, so we have had some competition this summer.  That said, we fished some great water, had some awesome drifts, fished different combos of flies from each other, and we still had a tandem beat down.  To add insult to injury, I narrowly escaped a swim—in the gentlest of all the stretches we fished!  I emerged with only a wet arm, but it was just the kicker to a tough morning.  Imagine navigating a mine field, only to sit on a grenade in the Humvee.  Skunky, I tell you.  It happens.  I would have been happy if Eric stuck one, so we could have quit two hours before we did!  He probably felt the same way.  It doesn’t help that young Kenny was sending me pics on our way home of big bows from a Berks County lake, and Alex landed a beauty bow much, much closer to home.  

I ignored one riser in my honey hole, not wanting to backtrack, which in retrospect was silly, but the morning was young, and we were full of hope and promise.  The aforementioned geese were there by the time we circled back late morning.  Midges were coming off steadily, but the wild browns just seemed to be hibernating today.  They live in water, remember, so even though it was a perfect day for us, these fish obviously wanted no parts of it.  In their defense, 66 degrees and sunny in mid-February is pretty ridiculous.  It is supposed to stay mild this week, so I will sneak out somewhere, I am sure, somewhere very easy to wade and fish with, like, a mop fly on 4X under a 2” diameter thingamabobber.  Or maybe a big hatch of little black stoneflies?  Eric and I earned that much today…