The Wissahickon Creek – 4/16/15 – One of Those Silly Fishing Days

The beautiful Wissahickon in Fairmount Park

Although this trip was a Thursday morning trip, it wasn’t one of those fake sick days.  I wasn't feeling well the previous night and into the morning.  Familiar with BRAT?  Bananas, rice, applesauce, toast.  It was one of those kinds of 24 hour bugs, and that was all I could eat today.  But the Commish had dumped a fresh load of fish in the Wissy on Tax Day, so by 10 AM, feeling a bit better, I suited up and took a ride into Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park.  The Wissy by my house in Montgomery County is a wreck, basically a storm drain ruined by all the development in the area upstream—sad because I can literally walk down the street and catch fish.   However, in the City, if you squint and keep your back to Forbidden Drive, you can think for a moment that you’re on a mountain freestoner.  It’s a beautiful stretch of water, lined by old-growth trees, that cuts through a deep gorge with nice runs and deep, braided holes,  and I love that I can be there in 15 minutes.  It holds fish long after guys stop fishing for trout down there, and I even have fun catching decent smallmouth bass for a quick summer diversion once it warms up.

Laying off the coffee and opting for another banana on the short drive, I arrived at my destination feeling okay.  It was 60 and sunny, so it’s hard to feel bad in that kind of weather.  As I walked down into the woods, the sight of the creek, improved by both a bit of rain, and hopefully warmed by a few days of sun, looked very promising too, and that further boosted my spirits.  I was convinced I was not crazy, and I could do this.  I spied only one other angler in the pool above the one where I wanted to start fishing, so that was good too.

I started by tossing a streamer, hoping the freshly stocked trout would react, and I would have some excitement above and beyond the normal early season nymphing.  I had a bunch of follows.  None committed, but I did confirm that the rumors were true, the PFBC had put a fresh load of fish in the creek.  I switched to a jigged hares ear with some flash and added a couple split shot to get down in the deep run.  On the second or third cast, I was hooked up to a decent rainbow. 

Back to nymphing...

I kept working the seams on both sides of this deep run, and pretty much had a fish on every other cast.  A couple of the rainbows were 14 or 15 inches, and with the warmer water, I was treated to some acrobatic jumps and long drag-pulling runs.  Silly fishing.

Healthy, acrobatic rainbow.

I picked through the rainbows, and then got 3 or 4 browns in a row after that.  I am partial to brown trout, so that made me happy too, especially since I hadn’t caught brownies in the Wissahickon yet this spring.

My first Wissy brown of 2015

The dude fishing 75 yards above me was not having any luck, and probably hated me, since I was at least 10 fish in, not 30 minutes since I dropped in below him.   When he left the hole above me—also a nice hole, but a harder one to fish, deeper, with two big eddies on each side of a deep fast run—I gave the fish in the first hole a rest, and walked upstream.  I kept picking away at fish here too.  More bows and a few browns, a couple of which were good fish like this long, skinny one.

He's all tail, this guy.

I fished this second, more difficult hole until it quieted down, and then moved back to the first hole, and got a few more, just for the hell of it.  I fished from about 10:30 to 1:00 PM and lost count at over 30 fish.  It was just one of those silly, silly days of fishing that we all deserve once in while.

I ended up actually going to work by 2 PM, so I didn't even unnecessarily burn a sick day, which means I have another one to use this spring....

One average-sized fish who must have jumped to deserve a picture.  One of 30 + for the morning.  Just silly!