April 24, 2015 – Stony and Kepner Creeks – Some Streamer Fishing Fun

Path down to the creek looking springlike.

We had a frost on Wednesday and Thursday nights (and it was looking like Friday too), so our week of above-average temperatures is over for a while.  I worked on Thursday night and I have to work on Sunday for a while too, so I wanted to get up early and fish for a few hours before work today, but I was on the fence about the reality of actually fishing in 35 degrees or less.  I ended up having to do bus stop with the boy, and then the bus didn't show up, so I ended up doing carport, and so it was 9:30 AM before I even got back to the house to get my stuff ready.  I was looking at a 2 hour window to travel to my destination and fish and still have time to get back home and showered before heading into work for a 1:30 PM meeting.  Doable, maybe, but my relaxing morning had become something else altogether.

The thermometer was still displaying only 45 degrees when I arrive at Stony Creek.  The creek is fun, mostly skinny water, with a few really deep holes, and it’s not much wider than 15 feet for most of the stocked stretch; some areas of Kepner, a small tributary, are actually 5 or 10 feet wide.  It’s pretty well-cared for, however, with its own anglers association and coop nursery with some annual events for kids and such, even some stream improvement projects here and there.   Some of my favorite trout fishing involves sneaking around on small streams chasing wild brown trout, so these tiny creeks are good practice.  Stealth is not nearly important, but it’s fun to pretend it is.  Stony Creek gets crowded on nice days and weekends, but my only company today was this well-fed fella coming down to take a drink.  

My only companion this morning.

I set the alarm on my phone and gave myself 90 minutes to fish before I had to hoof it back to the Subaru and head for the showers.  I started out nymphing some slack water that I knew had to hold fish, but I really wanted a change and honestly didn't have the patience to fish so slowly and deliberately when I only had a short window to fish after an unexpectedly hectic morning.  After missing one on a hares ear, I decided to tie on a crystal bugger and try to have some fun, getting fish to work a bit for a meal instead of me doing all the work.  I quietly sneaked up on a nice deep hole, dropped the bugger into the whitewater at the lip of the pool, let it sink, and started stripping.  I was quickly rewarded with my first fish of the morning.

First one of the day ate the crystal bugger.

I took one more fish out of this hole while swinging the streamer and dancing it back upstream and then had a few unanswered casts and moved on to the next likely spot, which ended up being the honey hole that made my short morning trip worthwhile and lifted the earlier stress of the day.  This was no longer a mission to fish in order to combat mentally the idea of working most of the weekend and, instead, became just fishing.

My morning honey hole.

I pulled at least 6 more solid rainbows out of this little spot.  At first fish came out of the root system of the trees and attacked the bugger on a rather quick retrieve.  Then I just picked the hole apart from all angles and ended up getting 6 more to hand, dropping a couple others after short battles.  It was a lot of fun and much easier than high-stick nymphing, which has been my bread and butter so far this spring. 

Another pretty rainbow.

When the alarm on my phone went off, I hit snooze once, of course, and made a few more casts as I started back downstream.  I caught one more at a deep hole that I had nymphed unsuccessfully on the way upstream.  But 5 minutes later, the alarm sang again, and I quickly hiked it back to my vehicle and got back on the road, thankful for a stolen couple of hours of successful fishing, alone on a normally pressured creek.

One more after hitting the snooze bar.