May 20, 2017 – What are we talking about? Practice? – Wissahickon Creek

I am lucky I got one on camera tonight....

I took the my long rod and indicator tippet down the street for a couple hours on Saturday evening while the family was resting from a busy day and watching a movie I had seen before.  Good call, except I stayed out until dark without letting Tami know where I was.  It happens…  I guess “taking a walk on the Wissy with the fly rod” is not very specific.  Even my son thought that was a good one, the mitchling!  The creek has not been stocked in over a month, but the flows looked good, and I figured that the cooler temps had bought us some time together, the stockies and me.  I was right, as I tangled with 7 or 8, landing maybe 4 of them.  Stockies 5 minutes from home are so convenient, even Iverson would have taken the time for some drills!

In the faster water and deep, so the tight-line nymphing was perfect, even if I was batting 500 with landings.

I was tired, I guess, and was not all there.  At least twice, when a fish popped off before I could net him, my flies ended up in the trees above me, and there were other ugly moments, like when I went to net a 15 incher and my hemostats were stuck in the net and wouldn’t allow it to disengage from the magnet.  I was glad I got out, however.  I got to hone my high-sticking with an indicator tippet in some deeper runs and had success.  I also saw two snapping turtles embracing each other, for lack of a better term.  I am not well versed in the mating rituals of said reptiles, but I witnessed either two males trying to kill each other, or a couple trying to make more snapping turtles.  I have never seen anything like it:  they were in a, umm, 69 position, I think, and were floating down the creek, hissing once in a while.  When I tried to get close enough to get a good picture, they let me have a hiss too.  I just let them float on by.

Things you don't see at home watching a movie, unless it's a movie about snapping turtles.

Before it got too dark, I also threw a streamer for a few casts and landed one and hooked up with another fish in a short period of time.  In my defense, I was home after sunset, but certainly not after dark.  It was a night, neither awesome nor terrible, and productive for this late in the Wissy’s season.  Practice?  Practice?  No one else is fishing for these guys, so I hope young Eric gets out before he goes back to work on Monday!  If not, the week of rain showers ought to keep them alive and kicking for a while longer, anyway.