November 8, 2026 – An Autumn Adventure in Search of Passable Flows and a Piggy – Central PA

Early success but not that early.

While the gages in SEPA and NEPA are a bit depressing, Central PA is at normal fall lows, maybe a few clicks above that, actually.  I wanted to fish today, but I did not want to fish low, leafy cricks full of vulnerable spawning trouts—low water any time of year can make them vulnerable, so imagine what making a redd in a tailout with birds of prey circling above (or Jun T with a trebled up Rapala) means for trout this time of year 😉  I saw some good looking evidence that Central PA was worth the long drive today, potentially.  Sure, I found a crick with nearly 100 CFS, but there was always a chance of a long dinkfest tour if all the large fish have moved to spawning areas.  I figured it was worth the gamble.  Next weekend I am going to Asbury Park with some buddies for a drinking and eating weekend, although I will bring a pencil popper and a rod should those big fish come near the beach.  Thanksgiving is coming up, and my son is home the weekend before that for a long break.  I usually target the surf during that vacation time.  Basically, time was running out until my 2 weeks off at Christmas to have another trout fishing adventure.  I even texted Josh to see if he was willing to fish today, but he was tied up with life.  He usually hunts this time of year, anyway, but it was worth a shot.  Solo is not something I avoid, nor do I avoid the long drives to fish the right creeks.  My buddy Tigereye says, Don’t let the old man in!  Worth the gamble today?  Yessir.  A dinkfest AND a fall piggy, likely post-spawn.  There were even a few rainbows and mink in the mix.  It was a good, long day in the brisk autumn breeze.

Some smalls, some bows, and one good one.

I did not rush out there to stalk the dawn, although I thought about it.  Instead, I shot for 8 AM arrival to let things warm up a bit.  It actually stayed milder than I expected with clouds overnight, but hindsight, you know?  I was in position and fishing by 8:15 AM and I had a couple wild browns right away.  The holes were pretty clear, so I eventually found the pattern for spot one, which was to target softer cushions in the riffles that still provided enough cover.  It was also easier not to spook fish in this type of water.  Ironically enough, I did find the best fish of the day and probably 5 others in soft, deep holes fishing a bobber, but that hole was chest deep not 3 feet deep and it was later in the day with more cloud cover.  It was one of those variable fall days: windy one minute, sunny and calm another, cloudy then bright then cloudy.  It was a good day to chunk a pencil a long distance into the ocean, but a bit more challenging to nymph small bugs.  I timed most of my casts around wind gusts, but I definitely missed a few fish because the wind caused a bow or slack in the line.  In the afternoon, the bobber was one way to minimize this effect since the flows were too low to fish heavy bugs effectively, but bobbers in the wind are another thing....

Hunting season in seasonable flows.

Maybe it was hunting season or maybe it was the variable weather, but I did not encounter another fisherman all day.  I saw one truck in a spot where I wanted to try after lunch, but I did not stop to confirm it was a fisherman since I had an additional spot in mind, as well.  It was kismet that I let that truck guide me to spot #3 because the first fish there was a doozy.  I tend to sneak up on holes, especially if I have a vantage point and so do the fish.  I feel like that is an important practice that I am not always aware I… well, practice.  I think I saw a recent article about big browns and rewatched a Kelly Gallup video about big brown behavior recently, and I realized that I naturally do the right things when approaching a hole.  The big ones often don’t work really hard, so they can be sitting right where you might march into the water.  And you only get one chance to spook or present a fly to them.  I saw some fishes taking emergers as I snuck up, so I quietly got down the bank downstream of them.  Instead of taking the time to tie on a dry or an emerger, I just went with the small bugs I had on and made a gentle cast.  Thankfully, the big fish ate first because I caught four dinks in the same hole after that.  Sometimes luck plays a part, as well!

Mink getting ready to fish too and some later afternoon trouts.

I broke off one other decent fish on a poorly tied dropper tag—my day did start at 4:30 AM today, and it was at least 2 PM when this happened, so I did not beat myself up.  Minor misses were bound to happen on little sleep and a long day.  I did not fall in, which was surprising since I did it assbackwards, carrying my staff in the morning and leaving it in the car in the afternoon when I actually did a couple hero stream-crossings.  Besides this one fish, the rest I landed at spot #3 were average wild browns or two-year old dinks.  There were some caddis in the bushes and trees and also a few olives over the water, but the high sun, high pressure, and high wind, coupled with the aforementioned spawning, did not add up to a huge numbers day despite some good signs.  I will take a high teens day with a high teens fish in the mix as a daymaker any day.  I still don’t mind the ride.  I even took the scenic way home and saw the J, the Susky, and the Amish headlights for a second time in 12 hours.

Bonus shot of bonus piggy looking even longer?

October 25, 2026 – More Peep Leafing than Rip Lipping but Some Fall Trouts Were Caught on a Gorgeous, Chilly Day – NEPA

Fall is here.

It was cold this morning!  At one point, while crossing a ridge on the way to the Lehigh Gorge, my car thermometer said it was 28 F out there.  Old habits die hard, so I was on the river by 7:30 AM and rushing to get dressed before I lost my captive body heat.  I was still trying to shake off a spooky vision I had on the road just before the Lehigh Tunnel, too.  At first, I thought I glimpsed a big black wolf staring back at me from the side of the road, before my logical not primal mind said, "Bear eating roadkill, dummy."  Still, it was a surprising sight.  It was a big animal on the side of the road in the dark.  Mouth open, tongue out, eyes lit by my headlights.  NEPA is wild, even when civilization creeps closer and closer.  Contrast the rugged Lehigh River Gorge against the buses with trailers full of bikes and bougie ladies from Jersey in yoga pants getting ready to view the late-peak foliage, and you get the picture, I am sure.  Wild trouts were had too, although I still can’t fathom why I encounter holdover, stocker browns too.  Why the organization that stocks them does it is one thing, why the Commish allows it is another.  People are in denial that there is at least a Class B wild, spawning population in the gorge.  Yes, they spawn in the tribs, but they probably use islands and other habitat as well.  I am sure fewer stockers and better flow management might even make things better for them, but I understand that the powers that be have to please many audiences.

There is a significant wild population in here.

It was an odd, crowded day until I forgot it was a Sunday on a beautiful, dry weekend morning.  I saw a dude in the distance trying to cross the river, which even at 500 CFS is not easy or wise.  I later learned he was trying to cross back.  Eventually, he was climbing the steep terrain between the railroad bed and the river, as if they did not put a perfectly good rail trail on the opposite bank where I stood.  Another dude came downstream and started fishing above me.  I was on a bend, so he didn’t intentionally high hole me or anything.  When we greeted each other, the first thing I said (oops) was, “I hope he’s not with you over there?”  And, of course, they were together, first-timers to the river (like I didn’t know it was the other guy’s first time by how hard he decided to work this morning).  “He’s crazy,” was all the friend on the sane side of the river could say.  You think?  They were young and they had caught three fish between them, but one of them really made this such an unnecessarily complicated “send” that I had to look for Go-Pros!  Nope.  Just a jamoke.  I had caught about 5 fish by then, so I did not stick around to see if he made it back across and gave them the well-worked hole, but I did see them from afar later, and the wanderer looked dry and safe in the lot.  I know Kenny and I covered a couple miles the first time we fished the River, but we never even considered making a crossing when a long cast and a long rod would do that work.

Pretty but a holdover?

Speaking of long rod, I did have out my new toy for the second (third if you count a bass side quest in the summer) time today.  It came in handy.  It did well last week on a bigger creek with some big fish, but it handled some average fish just as well today.  What it provided was reach.  With a bobber and a high stick, I could fish the seams across the river.  In the high sun and low, clear water, that was a difference maker today.  After I left the dudes, I headed up to another pool and dug three more fish out of the softer, deeper water across the river from me.  The long rod even keeps more line off the water on the backcast, and the work I did to balance the rod—including buying leadcore line to use as backing—made the long rod feel just as capable and comfortable as my 10 footer and the 10’6” that I had to replace this year.  I still like a 4 weight’s power on bigger water with more current.  Call me old fashioned for not fishing a 2 weight and making the epic send across the crick and back.  Or call me wise instead?  

Early bugger eater.

Eight fish is not a banner day, but the river can be fickle and so can the fall, so I was okay with it.  The water was also barely 50 degrees at noon, so not much streamer chasing was likely to happen.  Low and slow was the order of the day.  I did catch my first fish of the morning on a jigged bugger under an bobber, but it took big nymphs and a lot of weight to score the rest of my catch.  The best fish was pretty but likely a holdover.  Something about the fused spots along the tail is a give away no matter how long she's been in the river.  Most of the rest were wild fish, including a really pretty 12-13 incher or two.  The piggies eluded me, but they might have other things on their minds right now.  Although it varies creek to creek, region to region, this is the time of year where a mature section of the population get squirrely even if they are not necessarily building redds.  Maybe these mature fish went searching for a trib in which to spawn?  Maybe they were in a tailout in the main river or behind an island somewhere?  I am either pivoting to stockers or striped bass soon, especially if it stays this dry.  I am thinking that the stockers might be a more reliable bet with the state of the striped bass.  I have not written about it here, but the Wissy has PFOS/forever chemicals, so its future as a stocked fishery and anything more than a catch and release only fishery are fuzzy.  Fall stocking there was cancelled when the discovery was made this year.  Sadness.  With the low water, the Big D might make an appearance.  I have not fished for smallmouths in the fall in a while, so that should be up for consideration too.  Options, yo.

More fishes.  Sun was slow to illuminate the gorge, so a chilly day.

October 14, 2026 – I Wasn’t Going to Miss this Opportunity with Isaias – NEPA

Mr. October

Storm chasing is tough when you have a 9 to 5 job, I guess.  When my schedule was more open during the day, I had quite a run of chasing post-rain pigs with a streamer.  I have since embraced the challenge of catching fish in any and all conditions, which is really the only way to be a truly competent fly angler.  But sometimes, I still get a feeling in my gut that says, Don’t skip this one, fella.  A tropical storm left anywhere from 1.5 to 3 inches of rain throughout most of the state on Sunday.  Sadly, the boy was home from college for fall break, and we had Monday planned as a fishing day on some bigger water somewhere.  These storms often don’t live up to the hype and track differently, but Isaias followed through with the forecasted totals.  The boy and I slept in on Monday, even though I had a vacation day off.  He had to go back on Tuesday, and I had to work that day, so we will have to wait for Turkey Day stripers, it seems.  That disappointment may have motivated me to consider taking Wednesday as an impromptu sick day, especially because work is crazy right now.  When my usual train home was cancelled on Tuesday night, after a long, busy day, and I had to take the next one a full hour later, that made the decision for me.  Nope, not working on Wednesday.  I am getting up early, doing the drive in the dark, and doing whatever it takes to find a pre-spawn brown fattening up for the thing they do pretty soon—maybe REALLY soon based on the colors of the adult fish I caught today.  This was surely my last trip to this crick for the year.

Slow start, then starting put something together.  Second shot of first stud.

I monitored the gages on Monday and Tuesday and chose well this morning, but I had my doubts.  “Dawnstalker” struck out with a streamer early.  I only caught 3 or 4 average trout and a couple YOY in the first four hours of fishing, and those were on nymphs.  The creek was still dirty, and it was cold despite a near record warm day in the forecast, but the leaf hatch was what I blamed for the holes not being all that welcoming, even with a bobber and patience.  By 10:30 AM, I pivoted to targeting shallower pocket water with caddis larva and soft hackles, and I started sticking fish.  There were adults in all the knotweed along the banks even if very little was active on the water at that hour of the day.  Sunrise is not until like 7 AM, so 10 AM is still early for the bugs to be active, at least today.  The fishing was nothing crazy, but it was a little something for the effort.  Confidence restored, I focused up and did not miss the first opportunity I had for a piggy.  The first good fish pictured twice above, took a purple CDC soft hackle up on the dropper tag in no more than 2 feet of water.  He was so pretty, I leaned the camera up against the base of a bankside tree and yelled “shoot” to capture the selfish, capturing another old stud in the process....

Let's do that again!

I picked up a couple average fish working this long stretch of pocket water, so I was growing more confident that I could put together a decent day, even if it was just more 10 to 12 inchers in shallow water, which I always enjoy.  I had done the thing I set out to do, and this was just the bonus round.  They were not everywhere, and I bet I only landed 10 fish total in 5 hours of fishing, but things did get interesting again.  Not 30 minutes after releasing what I thought was my daymaker, my reason for making a predawn drive with the truckers on a Wednesday, my validation that this was the right move, the right creek, the right day, the right kind of water to target, I found an even bigger barely pre-spawn male.  I cashed in my bonus tag for another huge buck.  He ate the anchor fly, a small olive perdigon, again in rather shallow water.  No redds in sight, and he was eating in the head of a riffle not in the tailout or any obvious spawning spot, but he looked ready for love.  Kyped jaw, the dark colors, teeth, all the right tools of the trade.

Another shot of piggy # 2.  Some crick pics (for Ron).

After getting some good shots, including another selfish while yelling “shoot” at my camera propped on a mid-riffle rock, I decided that this was my day.  I am not a glutton, as I have probably shared a few times here throughout the years.  Sure, I have had days with as many as four high teens fish in one session, but many times if I get a good one, I can call it quits.  Two today within 30 minutes of each other was more than enough, especially because they looked like they would soon have other plans on their minds.  If I don’t catch them again, I at least want to catch their kids in a few years.  When I sent the boy some pics, he was jealous, but he understands that these things have their own clocks.  Monday was too soon, Tuesday was likely just a swing for the fences with a big, water-moving streamer, and today was just right.  Thursday had potential to be a 30 fish on nymphs in the same spots that did and did not produce today kind of trip, but I am back to work on Thursday, Friday, AND Saturday.  Maybe I can get somewhere in between on the upcoming, albeit likely freezing, Sunday morning.  I will have my eyes on a couple more gages following the cold front that may bring a bit more rain this weekend.

Bonus shot of a really handsome one ready to settle down and build a redd with someone special.

October 4, 2026 – Sometimes I Pick the Wrong Creek for the Right Reasons – NEPA

A real pretty one.

I was up early and on my way to the Mighty Brodhead today, when I decided to pivot to another creek.  I think I wanted to privilege solitude over prime conditions.  I didn’t expect this Class A to have much water in October, but it had rained a lot just a week ago, and more was supposed to be on the way, so I did expect a little more than I found.  Needless to say, I stayed anyway, knowing I’d have this place to myself today.  I fished 5 hours and never got even a shower despite the skies looking heavy with precipitation.  It was cool but also swampy at times in waders, but I think wet wading is officially over starting this upcoming week.  The roads were wet on my way back home, so maybe this area eventually got some rain, but it did not happen while I was fishing.  Water temperatures are good everywhere, but the bigger water likely fished better today, especially with all the cloud cover, which would have made the streamer I tied on 4X last night make more sense.  No matter, I wanted to see this creek in the early fall, and fishing in different conditions is good for any angler.  I clipped off the bugger and 4X, found a caddis larva and some 5X, and started sneaking through the woods with my 10 foot 3 weight.

Some early trouts.

It did not take long to find a few fish to eat, but I had to work through an entire pool and run without a hit until I reached the head.  Nymphing and not tossing a dry dropper from afar, this was the pattern today.  Stay low and sneak up to the bouncier water.  I did catch a couple on a streamer in some holes I had to approach from above due to trees and other obstacles, and I even skated a caddis dry a few times after witnessing a handful of rises late in the morning.  But nymphing a single bug and reacting to the quick grabs in faster water resulted in a respectable morning.  I bet I had about 10 fish in the 5 hours I was out there, but I covered a lot of water in that time because fish were only holding where they were holding.  There was a mix of holdover rainbows (some looking great and some looking stressed) and wild browns, but with the exception of one decent adult brown, all the larger trout were rainbows.  All the fish looked skinny, probably from the heat and low water this summer.  Or the skinny ones ate today because it was time to eat.  They acted fine, chasing a streamer at times, leaping when hooked, but I sort of wished that I was feeding them actual food not tungsten.  The brown did not appear colored up to spawn yet, so they likely have time to eat and get back to prime condition before making redds.  The bows can go, honestly, as they really don’t belong in this creek if it supports a Class A population of browns—which it most certainly does, today’s showing notwithstanding, of course. 

Some healthier ones.

Normally, this would not be a creek I would target in the fall, but as I said above a challenge is good and there are reasons to choose a particular spot, especially on a weekend, that have little to do with prime conditions.  Solitude won this early fall day.  Some leaves are falling and undergrowth is dying, so it was easier to bushwhack and not have to wade in the water and potentially blow up a spot with a wake.  Even in NEPA, we have some time for true autumn to set in, but it felt good to be out there in the changing seasons.  I heard some practice shots in the distance, so it’s not surprising that I saw no wildlife today, maybe one squirrel.  The deer must know what’s up.  Speaking of that, it looks like I might have to find some more blaze orange to wear when fishing this time of year.  It looks like the rules about how much orange to wear exceeds that of just a hat.  Maybe a hat AND a buff the next time I head out?  The boy is off for fall break starting Friday, so we may poke around the Lehigh River or another big creek next Monday.  I guess I need some orange for him too?  There will be more to come in October, hopefully a little more excitement than some skinny trouts from another bony NEPA creek.

Bony and sometimes skinny, but a day in the woods with some fishes.

September 26, 2026 – All Kids Fish (even through a Nor’easter) – SEPA

Glad I was under the pavilion!

I met Ken and Cathy through my involvement with the Mayfly Project Philadelphia this spring.  They were invaluable to our inaugural year, and a big reason was because they had gone through a similar process in helping to start a PA chapter of I Fish I Belong, a national non-profit organization that began in Tennessee with a former Chattanooga River Keeper.  Well, they convinced a few of us from Mayfly Philly to help out with the second year of All Kids Fish PA, what they call the PA event.  It was great to see Nicky P, Carl (and his wife Galen), Kyle, Cathy, and Ken again, but we were busy this Saturday with 30-some other volunteers teaching 25 youths to fly fish in a Nor’easter! There was not much time to chitchat, although I did meet some nice kids, parents, and other mentors of all ages.  A lot was packed into one day.  I volunteered in the morning to help at a conservation education station, so I had a full 8.5 hours out there in the wind and varying degrees of precipitation.  The kids ranged from 8 to 17, so a nice guy Steve, who works for the The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, and I saw 5 different age groups for a crash course in fish handling and other important topics.  I clowned it up to make a dry topic fun for the young kids, but the high schoolers also responded to my gentle teasing.  After the morning education sessions, like knot tying, entomology, casting, we picked up the rods and had lunch with our mentees.

Rain paused for fishing.

I was paired up with a young man named Ben, a high schooler learning automotive technology from Central Bucks.  He loves fishing, but he had never fly fished.  He did know how to tie knots, and he even put his own rod together with very little input from me.  The only little trick I showed him was fishing the fly line, not the leader, through the guides—with 16-year-old eyes, it was likely just as easy his way, but he will thank me when he turns 40, maybe?  It had rained all morning and through lunch, so I was happy to be under the picnic pavilions in the morning and not out there on the grass teaching casting.  We got lucky with a long pause in the rain when it came time to go fishing, however.  The creek had not really even colored yet, either.  Ben rushed to get to our beat, so even though he was pretty quiet, there were signs of obvious excitement.  Fish were stocked just the night before, and the kids were split into beats.  Our beat for the high school kids had at least 60 trout dumped in there, but no one landed one out of the 7 in our group!  Ben was the closest, actually.  After letting him select flies for a while, I suggested a balanced leech under a bobber, and he had a nice trout bury the bobber not long after.  He could not keep the fish tight, unfortunately!  He did manage to catch a sunfish on a weenie before we had to quit for the afternoon, so he did catch his first fish on a fly today.  Only a few fish were caught overall, and I am sure the recent dumping and the crazy weather did not help.  I actually enjoyed the morning more, but I am comfortable public speaking, especially in a classroom setting.  Standing around in a hole with some recent stockers is less exciting, but had Ben landed a few, it would have been an even more memorable day.  All the kids, even the young ones shivering in blankets early in the day, stuck it out.  Not a bad way to spend a Nor’easter.

Very serious, both of us, especially after loosing a good fish!

 

September 13, 2026 – A Pennsylvania Trophy Punctuates an Otherwise Mid Mid-September Outing – NEPA

A Pennsylvania native

An 8 AM start is late for me, but even giving the storms some additional time this morning to pass slowly west to east, I still had to contend with periods of very heavy rain during my drive.  I took my time at home and drank a leisurely coffee while hoping the weather folks had gotten it wrong.  They often do, but the radar on my phone was not lying today.  Eventually, I just had to go for it and hope my plan worked.  It was pouring so much when I was about to start the ‘Ru at 6 AM that I had to grab a rain jacket just to run from the front door to the car.  I knew if I headed due north or, worse, north and east, I was going to run into flash flood waters, but in doing my research last night and this morning, I knew that parts to the north and west of here might not take the full brunt of the storms.  I was right, maybe too right.  I was counting on at least half an inch of rain to spike the creeks in this region, but they appeared to be pretty unaffected—or so low previously that they did not register a bump.  Even though I had packed the rod for it, it was not streamer chunking conditions, even though it stayed cloudy until noon and was streamer chunking conditions somewhere in PA today.  I did catch my first fish on a black jigged bugger on the nymphing rod, but I switched to bugs when I worked an entire prime run with nothing more to show for the effort than a fallfish taking the bugger on the fall. 

A pretty good start.  Maybe I should have been here at 6:30 AM ;)

I caught some trout, like three maybe four of them, and the water temperature was 62 F, but the minnows and chubs were dominating.  I guess the water temps have just been yo-yo-ing, and that does not make the trout trust that summer is over.  This was pretty big water too, so minnows feeling this safe was not a good sign that the trouts were on the prowl.  I gave this first spot about 90 good minutes based on the early success and the potential to find a better fish in the deeper, bouncier spots, but I knew when to throw in the towel and head for a potentially cooler tributary.  It was still cloudy and drizzly when I made the 15 minute drive to the next spot.  I was secretly hoping for a long shot, that this one would have gotten a rain bump even if the water had not yet reached the bigger creek, but that was not the case.  I fished it anyway but limited my visits to three prime spots with elevation changes and some current and depth.  They were good stops, and one of them was really good.

Stop two produced some pretty brown trout.

You probably saw the big brookie that opens this post and have been wondering when I was going to get to the day’s highlight?  Well, it was a highlight for sure.  This thing was at least 10 inches long, likely half an inch longer.  She hit the black jigged bugger that had kicked off my day with a decent brown.  I actually caught a really pretty brown on the bugger in this same hole not two casts before landing this PA native.  The nature of this creek washes out the colors quite a bit and sometimes makes the browns exceptionally beautiful, but it does not always cast the brook trout in the most impressive colors.  That said, I am 100% certain that this is a wild fish, my second over 10 inches this year.  Just amazing and even more special following a rather middling morning, even for September, which itself can sometimes be pretty meh.

She got the full photoshoot as quickly as I could.

While keeping her wet and minding the late morning water temps, which may have been 65 not 62 at this hour, I gave her the full photoshoot and then let her go in a quiet spot.  She shot right for an undercut bank with plenty of energy.  This made me more hopeful that fish were feeling good here despite the noon hour approaching, but my next spot produced an average wild brown and the hole after that, one that is a proven honey hole, produced a dink and some short hits.  I knew it was time to go.  Honestly, the humidity and the gnats were getting to be a bit much.  I was in waders and a sun hoodie, so I was not all that comfortable at this point.  When the sun came out, which it was starting to do at this hour, it was downright terrible.  Sun and 90% humidity is not fun while wet wading, let alone in waders!  My fishy September rolls on, and I have a really cool event coming up in a couple weeks that I will share more about soon (think: one day Mayfly Project vibes), but I am still looking forward to actual fall.  

Yeah, one more.

September 6 and 7, 2026 – A Couple Late Summer Walks with a Fly Rod - Let’s Call them Scouting Missions – SEPA

Should have been the spot, low water or not!

September can be crueler than March for fly fisherman.  Actually, even with saltwater fishing I have always had a love/hate thing when it comes to September.  The water is often cool enough to fish, but the fish don’t always get the memo.  I did great last weekend in NEPA, and the previous in Central PA, but I struggled this weekend in SEPA trying to stay close to home.  I think that is common too.  Comparing yourself to others at this time of the year is also rough since conditions vary by region, by type of creek, by weather and water conditions.  Mountain freestoner with some rain, magic hour.  Limestoner in between tricos and the next batch of olives, maybe not so good.  A creek with some limestone influence where fish move miles each year to seek summer refuge?  Easy to jump the gun.  I try to stay off social media in general but even more so this time of year.  Like this weekend, I just try to enjoy the cooler temps with a walk in the woods with a fly rod, knowing the party will start soon, albeit in fits and starts.  Some company and, like this weekend, some wildlife sightings often make the walks more enjoyable.  Eric and I fished our spot on Sunday morning and were met with typical September low water conditions and borderline temps in certain stretches.  As a result, we struggled to find much more than chublife during our time on the water.  We covered a lot of ground and got to assess the many changes that have happened since the spring.  A lot of tree work, manmade and natural, has occurred.  One favorite stretch looks like a beaver pond, but no rodent was involved, just two trees giving way.  It is great for duck hunting this fall, which the landowner will do, but not great for the fishing—nor the stream flow below this massive, growing impoundment. 

Buglife, chublife.

We had fun and got a lot of walking in.  We also spooked an immense buck, who had bedded on the bank right next to one of our honey holes.  Eric and I were sneaking up to the spot through the brush with high hopes of actually sticking a trout when we heard what sounded like a cow jumping into the deep hole!  Not long after, a huge animal with many, many tines scrambled under a cattle fence and up the steep bank opposite us.  As an archer, this made Eric’s day, of course, but it was pretty exciting for me as well.  Last night when Eric texted him that we’d be on the creek this morning, the landowner actually asked us to avoid a stretch of crick downstream of here.  He had been seeing a couple big bucks on his trail cams.  Either this was a third one, or Eric and I met one of his dream quarry this morning.  Notch this up to things you would not see if you had chosen to stay at home today.  To that add the stick bug that landed on Eric’s rod.  As for fishing, well, I dropped one brown trout after a short battle on a jigged bugger deep in a root ball.  Otherwise, we had to be content with chubs and other wildlife to keep it interesting.

Eric trying to make it happen and better flows on a SEPA limestoner.

I packed up on Sunday night in case I had the drive to get up again, but my research that night did not leave me charged up or with any clear plans.  I slept in and took care of some Sunday stuff on a Monday before the gorgeous weather gave me enough FOMO to pack up the ‘Ru for an evening adventure.  I drove under an hour to a SEPA limestoner to poke around for a few hours, but mostly to get out and enjoy the wet wading and the bushwhacking.  I spotted an eagle, jumped another buck, and actually caught three wild trouts.  Two of them were barely legal, but one was at least 8 inches long.  A family with young kids was out swimming in the creek, so I dropped a thermometer a couple different times and found temps between 66 and 62.  They and the trout were swimming in chilly waters.  Flows were also amazing for this time of year, so the springs were charged up.  I kept expecting to raise a good fish, and I even tossed a bugger after the sun had dropped below the western ridge.  Again, the fish really didn’t get the memo that conditions were looking prime out here.

Where's Wal-buck?

When I got up to the hole where I was convinced I might find at least one decent fish, I only found one of my two dinkers there and willing to eat.  All the fish hit a drowned ant pattern on the dropper tag.  In the absence of any aquatic bugs besides size 28 midges, a terrestrial was likely the move.  I thought I saw two pale evening duns, but I saw zero rises even at magic hour, so am not sure that prospecting with a terrestrial dry would have netted any more fishes than my nymphing and bugger chunking.  I hit one more hole upstream and then fished this honey hole again with a bugger.  Nada.  I tossed the bugger in likely spots on the way back, but I had a bit of a walk to take with limited daylight, so I moved back along the bank pretty quickly—and loudly enough to spook a decent buck and a couple doe.  I even thought I saw a coyote at a distance, but they are far more ghostly than deer.  I have had a sighting here in recent years, however, so it probably was not just my eyes playing tricks in the waning light.  Again, a reason or two beyond the actual fishing to get me off the couch and into the woods while I wait for the real fall fishing to commence. 

Some actually wild browns this time ;)

Yes, March is cruel but I have found that September can be as well.  Still, it was good to get outdoors in the much cooler temps and also spend some time with young Eric before deer hunting consumes his time.  I will probably be at it again next weekend.  Some bigger NEPA creeks are getting close to what I like to see, and there is always the longer drive to Central PA on the table.  When I look at the blog, September often has fewer trips than January, so I will be grateful and take a wet September with below average temperatures.  If I keep getting out of bed, there will be more big fishes and more double-digit days ahead.  Until then, I guess I just have to enjoy the changing seasons and the walks in the woods with a fly rod.  Patience, I tell myself.  Patience.

Bonus shot