March 29, 2016 – Some Valley Creek Success on a Windy, Bluebird Day

Sneaking around paid off on a sunny, windy, chilly day.

I made yesterday’s Plan B into today’s Plan A and got out for about three hours before work this morning in the upper reaches of Valley.  The water clarity was good, maybe slightly stained but nothing like the larger creeks I crossed.  The air temperature was only about 46 when I started fishing, but the water temperature was a good 51 degrees in the sun.  

A lot of obstacles, but the hunt is part of the fun.

I did not see much bug life until about 1 PM when I was heading back to the Subaru, but at least a couple fish were rising at that time for olives.  The only other fisherman I saw said he got one decent fish to take a midge dry in a flat pool.  The wind was pretty strong by mid-morning, and it was having its way with my 3 wt line by the time I quit.  For me, nymphing in small, braided pockets close to cover was my ticket to 8 nice wild browns.

The last 3 fish of the day shot out from the roots to attack a sj worm.

I had early success with an 18 pheasant tail under a scud pattern, pulling three healthy little browns from under roots and down trees on the dropper.  The creek is, at best, only about 10 to 12 feet wide where I was, and the wind was kicking up at inopportune times, so every missed strike or freed snag had the potential for tree work.  Even though I landed at least 4 trout fishing this way, I got tired of pulling two flies and a tiny indicator out of overhanging limbs, bankside vegetation and my own waders and clothing.  I eventually simplified to a single mayfly nymph, and I ended the day catching at least 3 fat fish on a san juan worm, which, in my book, is not cheating on Valley Creek ;)

This one is eating well!

I saw a bunch of fish in the flat water, but many of them were unapproachable from the bank.  Walking in the water and sending a not so subtle wake at them was also not an option.  I had a lot of fun hunting though.  This kind of fishing involves some stealth, a lot of kneeling and using trees to hide, not to mention being aware of one’s shadow, especially on a cloudless day.  I am glad I decided to keep my plans to fish today, as it’s going down to 28 degrees tonight.  I hope the temps bounce back for Saturday’s Opening Day festivities.  I owe the boy a good day, so I don’t have to spring for lunch again.

A good fish on one of my last casts of the day.

March 28, 2016 – A Few Productive Stolen Hours on the Ridley Creek FFO

A very good looking stocked brown.

Even though I had to work today, anticipating a morning fishing trip on Tuesday (weather permitting) I threw my waders, boots, 4 weight, and pack in the Subaru today, just so I was ready.  As luck would have it, what was supposed to be an all-day professional development meeting knocked off at about 1:30 PM instead of 4:30 PM.  Can you blame me for taking a short ride to Ridley Creek’s Fly Fishing Only section, tucking my khakis into my "business socks," and suiting up to give it a go for a couple hours?

The creek was pretty muddy when I arrived, but it was fishable, especially with a streamer, so I rigged up a short leader and a tungsten muddler minnow.  I figured if the fish didn’t cooperate here, I could fish Valley Creek near the headwaters, which were probably pretty clear even before noon today.  I had a trout chase the streamer to the surface on my second or third cast, so I was encouraged.  I let the next cast swing closer to the bottom before slowly stripping it back and, bam, first fish of the afternoon.

A couple on the streamer and at least one miss, too.

I picked up one more on the streamer and lost another, and then I decided to try my luck nymphing slow and low in a few holes I knew downstream.  With the visibility next to nothing, I figured a dark fly would be the ticket, but I had little luck with a stonefly or a mayfly nymph, so I went in the completely opposite direction and tied on a bright tungsten beadhead green weenie.  It wasn’t long before I started getting into fish with the weenie.   The first that I caught with this fly, the one that opens this post, was a very pretty stockie, maybe a holdover from last year based on the good fins and good colors. 

Green weenie caught his eye in the muddy flow.

For whatever reason, I stopped taking pictures of fish—all stocked browns, anyway—after the first few, so it looks like they all hit a green weenie, but I had success on a variety of nymphs as the afternoon progressed and the water started clearing up a little bit (but not much!).  

All weenie shots...

I think I counted 10 trout in the roughly 3 hours I was on the water, and they hit the muddler, the weenie, a dark pheasant tail, a tungsten mayfly nymph, and even a jigged pt in the last very deep hole I targeted before quitting to go get the boy at school.   The wind began picking up around 4 PM too, and it was howling pretty strongly by 5 PM when I arrived at the school.  Tonight, it feels like the cold front is here, so I don’t know what I will do tomorrow morning.  I am grateful I got out this afternoon and had success, whatever happens.

March 26, 2016 – Mentored Youth Day: Right Day, Wrong County—Good Times, Anyway!

A dumb dad and a good sport (who is still a wise guy).

Well, I swore I read that the PFBC was stocking the Wissy in my neck of the woods before Mentored Youth Day, but no fish are being dumped until March 31.  Three generations of the family—the boy, Pop, and I—should have known when we had the creek to ourselves, with the exception of one other father/son team who had it wrong too.  I was trying to maximize convenience, so we started fishing about 500 yards from my house.  Once I realized the mistake, I knew if I took the ride down to the City where they did stock, I would have lost my son’s interest (and he had a play date with a bud at noon), so we took water temps, practiced casting, and basically had a nice walk in the woods on a crisp and sunny March morning.  If I actually brought bait, we may have landed a sucker or two, but hindsight is 20/20.  The boy was happy to be out with Dad and Pop, and he got a McDonald’s lunch and a lot of snacks out of me.  Ward and I are going to try it again with his girls on Opening Day, so let me know if I have the dates wrong…..  It is next week, right?  Yikes!

March 16, 2016 – East Branch Brandywine Creek DHALO on the Fly

A beauty on the conehead muddler.

I drove about 40 minutes west this morning to the East Branch of the Brandywine.  I have never fished the creek before, but I have been visiting a bunch of new creeks that are less than an hour from my house.  I landed about 10 trout, and only this one fish was anything remarkable, however.  I threw my 9 foot 5 wt today for something different, and it did make slinging a heavy streamer much easier.  But at this point in the season I have such a nymphing touch with my 4 wt set-up that I missed a few fish when I switched to nymphing around noon.  I got the hang of it with the bigger rod eventually, though.  It’s funny how the rod you use most of the time ends up feeling like an extension of your own arm.

No one else fishing, so first I took a walk

I arrived at the lower end of the special regulations stretch around 8:45 AM, and there were only joggers and dog walkers for the first hour.  By the time I left around 2 PM, I had run into about 4 other fisherman, two fly guys and a couple guys with spinners.  The creek was still a bit muddy in the deeper, slower sections, but the faster riffles were clearing up.   As the day progressed, the water got better and, subsequently, so did the fishing.  Not knowing the creek at all, I took a long walk when I first arrived.  With no one else fishing yet, there was no pressure to stake out a spot.

The lower end did not look all the fishy.  It had some deep slow holes and a few down trees and exposed roots.  The banks were muddy and wet from the rain, and plenty of sand was piled up from run-off.  I am sure when the water is clearer and fish are active on the surface that the long flats in between the upper and lower sections can be productive.  I actually caught quite few trout on the way back through this lower section while walking to my parking spot—and I also hooked a dozen or more chubs…  

My walk did reveal some nicer looking runs and rocky outcroppings, so I dropped into the creek and decided to swing a streamer downstream on my way back to some promising looking holes I scouted on the way upstream.

First fish of the day, swinging a streamer.

It didn’t take long to get a rainbow to hit the black and olive conehead muddler, and I moved a couple others before I hooked another one.  Some of the fish were tight against the banks or at the first drop off, probably because the rain yesterday had pushed them up, but also because a lot of the creek is on the shallow side, so overhanging limbs, roots, and ledges afford them protection not found out in the current, especially in lower flows, I assume.

Fish # 2

At the bottom of a rocky slide in a small pocket, I finally hooked into a big trout on the streamer.  He accounted well for himself, and I was glad I brought the net with me to help land him.  He was a healthy hookjawed 17 inches and arguably worth the trip.  I was now happy that I rigged up the 5 wt for some streamer fishing!

There were some black stoneflies coming off the water sporadically, and I saw one fish rise to one.  There were also a couple BWOs and midges.  When I switched to the nymph in a long deep stretch, I had success with a mayfly beadhead and a baetis emerger dropper.  The chubs tore the beadhead up, but I got a fair share of trout on it too.  An equal number took the BWO emerger, and some of the ones I missed while “relearning” my 9’ 5 wt no doubt took the size 18 emerger and spit it out before I could react.  In an effort to show them something different, I ended the day having success, including a decent, lightly colored brown, with a caddis nymph too.  I probably hooked 15 and landed 10.  I caught far too many chubs, a couple quite large, but it was a pretty good day despite the muddy water.  And I thought I was fishing a Keystone Select Creek all morning...  Oops.  At least I got one fish that would have qualified!

The only brown, a pale one who took a caddis pupa.

March 9, 2016 – A Lot of Driving, Walking, and Casting but not much Catching in NEPA

No fish to hand, so I had plenty of time to use my phone's camera timer.....

I wasn’t sure what to do with my day off today.  I only had to drop the boy off at the bus, and then get him around 5:30 PM after Library Club.  That is a good chunk of fishing time. I could hit another FFO or DHALO within 30 minutes of me, but I have had two 20+ fish days with stocked fish, so I was hoping to do something different.  I could also walk into a wild trout stream and have some fun with little browns and brookies.  I had too many choices on this 80 degree day in March!  I finally made a game day decision to do some exploring. 

I have been hearing about a new section of one of my favorite creeks that has recently been opened to the public.  The surrounding land used to be a resort, long deserted, and the creek there runs cold and fast, like one long riffle this time of year (well, most of the year in fact).  It is now a nature preserve, in theory, though the old resort buildings still stand, a window busted out here and there.  It is currently more of a golf course gone wild with a nice view to a nearly pristine piece of water.  I have heard that the PFBC has a stake in the stretch, but it is not sure what to do with it yet.  There are wild browns throughout the creek, but this stretch doesn’t seem to be good brown trout water, per se.  It is, however, great rainbow water.

I think some rainbow fingerlings would find a nice home here.

I am not sure what the future holds for this section of the creek, but downstream a ways, the fish commission stocks rainbow fingerlings, and that seems like a good plan.  I saw one monstrous fish rise, and I broke off a nice one on a midge, but I don’t think the creek is loaded with a Class A population of wild browns, unless they are all hiding by the banks.  There was plenty of bug life rising all day, from midges to mayflies to stoneflies, but I only saw the one big trout rise to the hatches.  I am glad I saw the creek, and I will return again before I write it off, but today was heavy on driving, walking, and casting, not so much on catching.  At least it was a beautiful day to be on a beautiful piece of water, albeit a piece of water in transition.

March 8, 2016 – Nothing but Scuds and Midges on the West Valley DHALO

Day of the zebra midge

I headed to another Delayed Harvest Artificial Lures Only creek today for some stocked rainbows and browns.  I have never fished this Valley Creek, known on the maps as West Valley, and despite seeing DHALO signs below a long, curving, dark tunnel, I saw no signs of fish in the first stretch I explored.  I did see some nice stream improvements, so the local Trout Unlimited is doing good work. After catching a half a dozen chubs in some nice holes, I walked back to the Subaru and drove back through the creepy tunnel and upstream to find another spot.

Nothing below here this morning despite the DHALO postings.

I saw another pull-off about a half-mile from my original parking spot, and was encouraged to see another car there.  I only caught a glimpse of a guy throwing a plug above me, and one fly guy heading away from me.   That was it all day.  After more walking, from high on a bank I finally saw fish, including a huge rainbow surrounded by smaller trout, suckers, and chubs.  With high sun, they saw me, but at least I knew that there were fish around. 

A few, including this brown, took a scud.

I camped out in a deep hole with a scud and zebra midge as the dropper, and I finally had some fish.  Man, they were barely taking the midge.  Hits were very subtle, perhaps due to high sun and high pressure.  I caught 90% of the 18 or so trout I brought to hand in this 100 yard stretch on the size 20 zebra midge.  I also caught a sucker, a few rock bass, and my first smallmouth of the year, all on the midge.  The other 10% took the scud like the brown above.

First smallmouth of the year - caught chubs, suckers, and rock bass too...

I probably hooked half a dozen more that came off.  That will happen with a hook so small on a day when the fish were barely taking the fly.  My only regret is not landing for a photo op a pig of a rainbow that took the midge.  I carried my net on the first drop, but I left it in the 'Ru at the second parking spot because I didn’t think I’d catch fish, let along need to net an 18 inch rainbow.  I had a mix of bows and browns, my first stocked browns of the year.  Not a bad 3 hours on a new creek.

March 1, 2016 – A Crowded Pickering Creek DHALO

Sun and healthy rainbows.

I have gotten so used to not seeing a soul while fishing this winter that I was shocked to see close to 10 other guys on the Pickering Creek today.  Granted, the DHALO stretch was stocked on February 23 or thereabouts, and it was sunny and warm, but it was a Tuesday morning, man!  I was fooled into thinking I was alone because no one was parked at the end where I began fishing, and I had the first good hole to myself, but when I came around the bend, I saw anglers fishing and walking around in pairs, most of them not all that friendly because they probably thought THEY were going to have the place to themselves on a Tuesday morning.

Started with the tungsten green weenie.  Fish were not that active for the first hour, though I dredged up 5 or 6.

I landed a fish early at my first drop on a green weenie, and I would have stayed in that hole had I known I would encounter someone at all my favorite spots.  I picked up 5 or 6 rainbows, jumping around and giving the mix of fly fishermen and spinner fisherman as much space as I could.  The water temp was nearly 43 degrees, which was not bad, but the fish didn’t really turn on until about noon.  A blue winged olive or two came off, but nothing took notice.

One of many on a jigged hares ear.

The stocking crew did a good job of spreading the fish out, as I caught fish in little pockets here and there over a 400 yard stretch.  I didn’t do much walking because my early attempts led to more fishermen.  Not all the fish were spread out, though.  I found an untapped honey hole where I spent a good hour of the day.  I must have landed close to 15 trout from the same little run on a jigged hare’s ear.  I started by high sticking a couple out from a deep pocket, but by the end of the hour I was casting upstream and getting takes on every other cast.  A couple of the bows were hot!  I had two very nice fish about 14 inches long and fat take 3 and 4 leaps and good long runs, but all of the fish I caught were healthy and plenty green when I returned them to the creek.

A fat acrobat, probably one of the best of the day.

I knew I was running late for work, but I decided to quit when I reached an even 20 fish for the day—gluttonous, I know.  I reached that mark after about 3.5 hours of fishing, so I would say it was a good day, despite the surprise crowd.  I have enjoyed chasing wild browns all winter, and I know stockies are easy, but I still like to tangle with an angry 14-inch redband rainbow trout no matter where he was raised.