June 29, 2015 – The Bushkill Creek After Another Round of Summer Rain

A big paddle of a tail and great fins on this healthy 14 inch rainbow.

After having such an unexpectedly good trip on Sunday with my son, I decided to take advantage of the good creek flows and take Monday morning to fish the Bushkill near Easton.  Kenny and I had fished this general area earlier in the month with good results.  We were spin fishing that day, and at the time I wished I had brought the fly rod, as I watched fish rise all around us in the post-rain morning to what looked like blue winged olives and a couple small caddis.  I checked the gauges for the creek and the nearby Little Lehigh before I went to bed, and the water was coming back down quickly, but the area must have gotten another shot of heavy rain overnight because the creek was still pretty messy when I arrived around 5:30 AM.  

This guy hung with me for an hour looking for a handout or just entertained by my angling prowess in the mud flow...

Not knowing the stretch I had decided to fish all that well, wading was tough, and determining how deep I was fishing or needing to target involved a lot of trial and error, not to mention lost flies.  Heavy streamers have a way of finding every hidden rock and submerged log, and I lost the first cone head bugger within minutes of dropping into the creek.  This place is tough to wade even when you can see your feet and the rocks on the bank aren’t wet, but this morning only the fastest, shallowest runs allowed me even a clue as to where I was walking and casting.  Fittingly enough, today I was wishing I had brought a spinning rod and big flashy plug or spinner that I could sneak through undercut banks and low hanging trees covering bankside eddies and such.

A brown that found his way into an unstocked stretch of water.

While tough going, it ended up being a decent day, with at least 6 good fish winding up in the net or my hand.  Although I was fishing an area that usually has a good mixed population, the wild fish were hunkered down, nowhere to be found today—though while using a big cone head wooly bugger I hooked and briefly fought what appeared to be a bigger wild brown late in the morning.  The rainbows I did hook and land were healthy and strong.  One looked to be nearly wild, with a huge paddle of tail and a full set fins the bright color of a wild brown trout’s.

Besides a couple on the streamer, the big flashy copper john was the only consistent producer.

I saw no rises or even actively feeding fish all morning, and I expected more follows on the streamers.  The two I did catch on the cone head took a slow pulsing retrieve as it swung in the current near the bottom.  The wild brown just mouthed it, and came unbuttoned as a result, I am sure.  The most memorable fish was the one pictured at the top of this post, a good 14 inch fish that would not quit in the fast water.  I could not get his head above the surface long enough to glide him into the net until the third or fourth attempt.  I am thinking that he’s been around these parts for a while, as he was in a prime holding spot against a bridge abutment in a tangle of tree branches and rip rap.  The shine of a big size 14 copper john coaxed him out of hiding, as it did for four of the other six fish I landed this morning. It was a good, short trip with plenty of solitude and quiet.  Even being adjacent to the city limits, my only company was my pet goose, who fished beside me for a good hour.

Another rainbow in good shape.

June 28, 2015 – Take a Small Boy Fishing - Wissahickon Trout and Panfish

The boy throwing a CD 3 with Dad's spinning rod.  So proud!

Sometimes the stars align and my 7 (and ¾, he reminds me) year-old son actually asks to go fishing!!  I consider today a late Father’s Day gift, although I did manage to drag my wife and son to Bass Pro Shops in Atlantic City last Sunday, so I guess I have had two Father’s Days this year.  I have been taking my boy fishing since he was barely 3 years old, which is far too early, I know, but now he is finally able to cast and reel fish in by himself.  I have even had him throwing a 6’6” 3 wt fly rod on the front lawn: practice for the future, I hope.  But I try not to pressure him to go because I want him to enjoy it and not feel like he’s onboard for an 8 hour Dad trip where we do nothing but fish.  Right now, about 2 hours with walking and chasing frogs and bugs is perfect for him.   Good weather helps too.  We left home at 4:30 PM today, and were back by 7 PM, happy, wet, and dirty.  I only bring one rod to insure that he is the focus of the adventure,  although I still can get carried away on a good fishing day like today.  I have a problem called One More Cast that I try to keep in check when he’s with me!

We had a lot of rain on Saturday, a lot, so the creeks were up.  The gauges looked like they were coming down quickly, but when I saw the Wissy in person, it was a chocolate covered mess.  We had to slip and slide into the first spot on the creek, and all we had to show for it was a couple bluegills that hit a trout magnet in a bankside eddy.

A fat, feisty rainbow still alive and kicking in late June.

Trout haven’t been stocked since May, but with a very wet June, I knew they would still be around and possibly active in the high water if we could find them.  One can only do so much walking with a small boy in tow, however, so if my next choice of a spot didn’t work out, we would be changing gears and catching frogs and polliwogs in no time.  Luckily, the next stop was full of hungry fish.  

A pretty brown, too,

We landed 4 nice sized trout, a few more sunnies, and even a couple smallmouth bass in a productive 40 minutes or so.  The highlight for both of us, besides just having fun wet-wading in the muddy water, was my son reaching a new angling milestone.  Today, all own his own, he cast my spinning rod, with a Rapala CD3 (of course), hooked and played his own fish, a 10 inch smallie, which Dad happily netted for him.  He got to release the bass back in the water, though.  He usually nets and releases my fish too.  He also got a couple lollipops and still got to chase polliwogs and frogs in the little pond we pass on the walk back to the car.  It was a good day, the sort that gives me hope that he will start asking to go fishing more often and, like today, I will be in the right state of mind to enjoy it fully.  

Lollipops, polliwogs, and other adventures to make a boy and dad happy.

June 18, 2015 – The Benefits of Chasing Summer Storms – A Northampton County, PA Assortment of Trout

A fearless little wild brown trout.

With rain in the forecast for Thursday—a good rain, finally—Kenny and I were texting back and forth on Wednesday bemoaning the state of the local creeks and lakes.  Everything is hot and weeded up to the point of making fishing almost pointless, and it’s only June!  Even freestone streams in the Poconos are hitting 70+ by midday each day.  Knowing I love to fish during and after the rain (Kenny, not so much!) he asked where I would go fishing on Thursday.  I told him I would probably target a short list of limestoners within an hour’s drive for trout, knowing the water would be cool and the rain would make the usually finicky fish a little stupider.  At some point, I said if he could be at my house at 4:30 AM, I had a decent plan in mind for maybe 5 hours of fishing before going to work late, and he quickly yet reluctantly agreed.  The plan was to drive to a special regulations stretch that almost always has cold water and plenty of it.

Stained, good flow and good, cool temperatures.

I awoke at 3:45 AM on Thursday to the encouraging sound of heavy rain outside the window.  It was still raining steadily as Ken arrived at my house, and we began our 50 minute ride to a Northampton County limestoner.  I had dreams of hooking one of the shy monsters hiding in its deep pools, so I decided to throw a big Rapala CD 5 on the spinning rod.  I expected a learning curve, as I had not fished for trout with the spinning rod since Opening Day on the Brodhead.  To compound things, I had opted to leave the spool of Nanofil on my spinning combo of choice today, partly out of laziness and partly in the spirit of experimentation.  I have tried to throw plugs and spinners for trout with “superlines” in the past and ultimately didn’t like that the zero-stretch meant I felt every hit (good) and then set the hook too hard or fast, missing many fish (bad).  Monofilament and even the cast-able 100% fluorocarbon I have been throwing as of late are far more forgiving for my style of fishing, and today proved that again, perhaps. 

We arrived at the parking area at 5:30 AM.  I drove past it the first time thinking this can’t be it because it was paved and lined and landscaped since the last time I was here in probably February of 2014, but it was the place.  It’s amazing what cities and counties will do for access points when bikers, joggers, and strollers start using a park more than the lowly anglers.  The water looked great, just stained enough, and it was still drizzling and cloudy.  In fact, it stayed gray, humid, and misting all morning, so the pictures look terrible or ethereal, depending on your point of view.

A dreamy (or just hazy) rainbow shot?

I had my first little wild brown, who hit a plug 1/3 his size, within 5 minutes of dropping into the creek, so I was feeling confident that I made the right call.  When I saw fish rising in the bend above us, I was happier still, despite second-guessing my choice to throw the spinning rod instead of the fly rod.  As I worked my way up to the deep pool at the first bend, I saw signs of many trout rising and quickly missed about 4 fish on the plug.  Nanofil casts a mile, which adds to stealth, but I was pulling the plug away from the fish, who as wild fish were already experts at avoiding being caught.  Eventually, I coached myself to ease up on the hookset, and I had my second, third and fourth brown trout in my new rubber basket, catch and release net.

Most fish hit the Rapala CD 5 and barely got hooked.  One of two hold-over browns we found living among the wild.

Ken too was learning that wild fish can hit something with 6 chemically sharpened hook points, and still manage to escape capture. In only waist-high waders, he was also trying to figure out how to navigate this challenging spot, but after a few swings and misses of his own he got on the board with a healthy rainbow that had made its way into unstocked waters.  He did well for the morning with soft plastics on a jighead in the deep runs and pocket water too.  Playing hopscotch, we pretty much kept pace of each other within a fish or two, each ending the morning close to double digits. We caught a mix of stocked and wild, rainbow, brook, and brown, and both missed as many as we landed, though his hook up ratio was much better than mine.  My most memorable fish was a big hold-over rainbow that I picked out of a small, swift pocket in a set of mild rapids.  

Despite sort of figuring how to hook fish with the superline, I missed a lot and even dropped 4 or more fish that were hooked, so I think I will be returning to mono and fluorocarbon after

A few brookies in the mix too.

this experiment.  Fly fishing so much this year probably didn’t help with my spinning gear proficiency either, but I have enjoyed that too much to change my current fishing direction!

I saw a couple decent sized trout follow the plug and not commit, but I didn’t see any of the monster wild browns I had hoped to see.  Ken, however, had a huge fish follow his jig at the base of the falls where the special regulations area ended.  I was content to land one of her little offspring here, another 10 inch wild brown.

Another healthy wild brown.

After climbing out of the creek and walking back along the road to the Subaru, we tried fishing the section below the car, a stocked section, with limited success.  Ken landed a nice brown below a falls, while I turned a couple small browns with a CD 1 in the shallower runs below.  We ended the day by dropping down to investigate one final deep hole close to our parking spot, where we both managed a nice, holdover rainbow a piece before heading for home by 10:30 AM.  It’s amazing what a little rain, a little black book of streams, and a commitment to getting up before the crack of dawn can do to improve summer fishing.  Let the storm chasing season begin…

June 6, 2015 – Chasing Wild Brown Trout in the PA State Game Lands

It's really a shame that the scenery is not more beautiful on this creek....

My wife and son had plans all day on Saturday, which gave me a good 8 hour window to have a fishing adventure.  Despite low water everywhere in NEPA, in looking at the stream gauges online, it looked like the Poconos got a little jolt of water during the week, and they even had a chance of rain on Friday night until 3 AM on Saturday.  After nearly a week of bass fishing, three men on a 17 foot boat, in Canada, I decided to go in an entirely different direction and hike in alone to one of my favorite little trickles in the Poconos.  The creek runs through SGL property for a few miles, and even though it’s public land not far from civilization, with turkey season over now, there was a good chance I would have little to no company.  The fish are small, but they are usually plentiful and challenging.

The morning's final destination, looking very different with very little water flowing through it.

I set the alarm for 3 AM, anticipating a 2 hour drive.  I had an unexpected bathroom stop (not a good sign when facing a 3-6 mile hike in and out) and had to stop for gas, so it was about 5:45 AM when I pulled into the gravel lot at the lower end of the SGL.  Much to my surprise, a young couple was suiting up to take a hike in and fish the same water.  Instead of leaving for a different spot in the area, I asked the nice young guy what his plans were, and I shared mine, and together we hatched a workable solution.  He would take his wife up to the brook trout water, above the set of falls a couple miles from the lot, and I would try my luck with the wild brownies, ending my hike at the falls.   He and I were happy, and his wife, who had never been here before, would get to see the most scenic part of the hike.  I appreciate a fisherman, even with a partner along with him, who knows how to play nice and appreciates the relative solitude that hiking into unstocked waters gives you.  I have played hopscotch all morning with others in similar situations, and the fishing and the good times suffer for all involved.

It was hot and humid with the promise of mosquitoes as I made my way down to the stream.  I was rigged up with two nymphs on my 3 wt 8-footer, but when I saw how low the creek was, I knew it would probably be a dry-dropper day.  I anticipated having to pick apart each remaining pocket of water deep enough to hold a trout who would not spook the moment I came within 10 yards of his lair.  Even sneaking around as much as one can sneak on a boulder- and moss-strewn uphill mountain hike, I did spook many fish before I was in casting distance.  This is par for the course with these wary and wily wild browns.  A good rain is the only way to catch many of them off guard.  A heavier flow and a bit of a stain do wonders.  Today, I would do my best to be stealthy and enjoy the walk in beautiful country (reapplying bug spray liberally and often).  I decided to wet wade, donning just my wading boots and some quick drying pants.  The hike to the falls is steep enough, with plenty of down trees and rocky outcroppings to skirt around or climb over without the added discomfort of chest waders (though I welcome them here in the winter!).

Some ruins hiding one of the few deep holes.

To give the couple a head start upstream, I sneaked down to a some favorite spots below the drop-in point.  One spot is a pocket about the size of a manhole cover at the base of a plunge.  I landed my first wild brownie of the day here, all of 6 inches long and darkly colored from the summer moss and plant growth in the creek, whose water temperature was reading a good 56 degrees.  The next likely spot surprisingly held not one fish for me.  It is by far the deepest spot on the lower section of the creek, running under an old ruin of an aqueduct, but it has a deep plunge pool and competing currents, not to mention a good overhanging tree (today with the added challenge of a bee hive dangling not 8 feet above the water).

I started hiking upstream and found a lot of low water where I usually find fishable, albeit small, pockets to target.  I did more hiking than casting as I had to limit my fishing to the deepest plunge pools and log jams.  I caught a handful of fish during the cloudy morning on nymphs until it started to brighten and I could see a size 14 elk hair caddis, which another handful of fish jumped on readily.

A typical wild brown in this creek.  They were looking drab with the amount moss growth in the creek this time of year.

A good number aggressively took the caddis dry fly.

At most of the likely spots, I a) swung and a missed, b) spooked a fish, or c) caught one.  I counted 12 small browns that came to hand, but just as many fell into category a) and b) too. As I got closer to the falls it became obvious that the young couple had been at some of the good holes, and fishing slowed to nothing, so I turned back and quickly fished an Ausable Wulff in a few spots where I had nymphed successfully.  I caught a couple more small browns skating the high floating dry over bankside slower pockets, but not as many or as large as I would have liked.  

A plump one who ate the dry fly during my return downstream.

I was determined to catch a couple fish out of the aqueduct hole below the parking lot, so that was the final destination on my mind.  By about 12:30 PM, I was standing back under the beehive and the ruin, this time with a tungsten bead caddis nymph and some split shot.  Finally, as the indicator drifted back into the plunging white water, I hooked my last fish of the day.  It was not the 12 incher I was sure had to be lurking in this prime spot, but it was a solid, dark and lovely wild brown who accounted well for himself on my light gear in the deep hole.  Badly in need of hydration, I hiked back to the car, but not before spooking a lone whitetail fawn into the ferns.  Missing the chance to snap a picture, I once again covered a, b, and c with this opportunity, but I didn’t mind.  It was a memorable way to end a good day.

A dark and lovely one to end a good day.

5/30 to 6/3 - Rideau Lakes Region, Ontario

Meet Square Bill - star of the week.  I had one day where I caught 50+ smallmouths with this same lure (and the wear and tear shows, poor little guy)

After taking a year off due to starting a new job last summer, I resumed my annual trip to Ontario, Canada with my dad this year.  I don’t know how long the tradition has lasted, but it is over 25 years on the same lake, I bet.  Joining us was Kenny, who started going a few years ago.  Thankfully, he could drive up with my old man last year when I couldn’t.  This 5 to 7 days each year is the highlight of my father’s year, his Christmas, as he calls it.  Me, I don’t bass fish much anymore, so it ends up being close to the sum of my smallmouth and largemouth quota each year, and so I also look forward to it, especially chasing smallmouths, one of my favorite fish.  Fishing at this lake is always good compared to home in Pennsylvania, with some years being better than others, but this year the stars aligned for an exceptional year, as we fished a new lake too.  We used to stay in lodges with three square meals a day, but the US dollar isn’t doing what it used to with respect to the Canadian dollar, so we started renting cottages with boat slips a few years ago.  This year we stayed on a new lake on the Rideau chain of lakes, and it was a good one.  We still trailered the boat to our old lake for a few days, too.

Joe was there.

The cottage we rented was dirty, small, and dirty.  It had two beds for 3 guys, so someone had to have the couch (me one night, Ken the others by choice, I hope).  The landlords were nice enough Canucks—they even let me use their free WIFI (while sitting in their dairy farm’s driveway with my phone) and let me make a free long distance call or two also—but they had just taken possession of this home improvement project over the winter, and really had no business charging anyone to stay in it until they cleaned and repaired it.  After a sleepless night for Ken and I, we figured out a way to survive, eat and sleep.  But mostly, we fished.

There were too many fishing highlights and not enough pictures due to crappy weather and just being used to big fish during this trip.  My dad won’t take a picture with a fish if it isn’t 6 or 8 pounds, and even then it’s like pulling teeth.  I will let the pictures I did take tell the story.

May 30, 2015 - Checking out the new lake.

We dropped the boat in at the ramp down the dirt road from the cottage.  It was windy and warm, too windy to fish anything but crankbaits and spinnerbaits.  This was the first day that the old square bill crankbait tore the fish up. 

Another healthy smallie.

Bowfin too.

After dinner on the first night, Ken saw this guy prowling around the dock looking to eat some bass fry while the proud papa bass was distracted.  We fished from the dock most nights to unwind and did well.  I even got a mess of crappie on the fly rod.  

Ken caught everything from rock bass and perch to 2 pound bass and a pike right from the dock while we were just "playing" after dinner.

May 31, 2015 - Rain gear all day, and no one thought to take a picture, but the fish cooperated, which is all that matters.

The view from the cottage was certainly nicer than the cottage itself.

June 1, 2015 - Cold front day after the rain on Sunday.  

We used the oven for heat in the cottage in the morning.  We trailered the boat to our lake of 20+ years, and did very well on largemouth in the foot of the lake. We even caught a few pike throwing cranks and spinnerbaits.

A good bass on a cold, cloudy Monday.

Drop shots, tubes and jigs fished along the deeper drop offs did the trick.

June 2, 2015 - A banner smallmouth day on the "big water"

Mostly big males, staging before the spawn.  I caught more fish than
I could count this day.

Ken found a nice largemouth in the wind.

June 3, 2015 - My last morning.  

At first we didn't get a lot of fish at the new lake (although Ken and my dad killed them the afternoon I left for home and the morning after!) , but the average size was much larger than our old lake.

Ken with a good one from the new lake.

As I drove home on Wednesday afternoon, the boys killed the fish before the next set of cold fronts came through.  I made great time and wasn't too tired for a meeting on Thursday at work.  Despite bad weather and less than optimum accommodations, the fishing and the company made for a good 5 days of fishing.