January 8, 2016 – More SEPA Wild Browns on the Fly

Size 22 zebra midge did the trick on a dozen or more pretty wild browns.

I learned my lesson about ice yesterday and targeted a popular southeastern Pennsylvania limestoner for a productive 3 hours today.  After doing some work at home and running a couple errands, I arrived on the stream about 12 PM and fished until 3 PM.  The air got as warm as 46 degrees according to the Subaru’s display (and a couple banks I passed on the way home) and the water was a great 48 degrees, which was quite an improvement over yesterday.   

No signs of ice today.  Water was a good 48 degrees.

The fish were still small, as they often are on this creek, but a couple were decent, including the one who hit a streamer and got away from the camera.  Ward teased me yesterday that I should be chasing chubs at the creek we used to hand-line for bait (and just for fun) when we were kids, implying correctly that my first fish of the year were tiny.  I had the last laugh (he was working!) when I sent him a pic of my biggest fish of the day, a huge chub .

For Wardman...

My only company was some deer and some dog walkers.  One crazy lab took a quiet bath across the creek from me at one point.  He was more courteous than some fisherman, though, just gently sitting down in a shallow pool, so I didn't have the heart to shoo him away.  I ended the day with at least a dozen little browns in a couple deep winter holes, most on the 18 or 20 zebra midge.  One decent one ate a stripped bugger by an undercut bank, and one other took a slightly larger pheasant tail from which I had dropped the zebra midge.

Nice colors on this little guy.

I caught a few fish gently snap-jigging the nymphs, which was interesting.  I guess the bigger pheasant tail got their attention, and then they took the easy meal of the midge when they swam over to investigate.  Or, I was successfully making it look like a midge hatching....  The fish were active for a while, revealing themselves with flashes close to the bottom, though that could have been the chubs, which I caught a bunch of too. 

Today's average size.

After exploring a bit and finding another couple of deep holes to target later this winter, I called it quits after landing one more colorful wild brown, the smallest of the day and probably only last year's brood.  All in all, it was a great day despite the lack of size.  What they lacked in size they made up for with beauty and, more importantly, a willingness to cooperate with me on a winter weekday!

Ended with the smallest of the day.