April 16, 2016 – NEPA Opening Day – And Then There Were Two (One and a Half?)

Joe bundled up on a beautiful stretch.  He got one good one today, at least.

Well, we kept a tradition alive, a couple of us anyway.  My dad and a cast of characters have been heading up to Monroe County for Opening Day for a long, long time.  Kenny had to bail when he realized he had a class on Saturday, Ward bailed mid-week due to the girls’ soccer schedule, my brother Steve just had another baby last week, so he was not even in the picture this year, and Eric bailed at 8:30 PM on Friday night, probably because he didn’t ask his wife until 8 PM.  That left the old man and me, which was fine with both of us, actually.  We have fished so long together that we have become the perfect fishing partners, and we’ve logged so much father/son time thanks to fishing that we don’t have to make it too “special.”  We ride up together, ride home together, sure, but we really just fish and do our own things when we arrive at the creek.  Even on a 17 foot boat together, we are so focused on fishing that lunch at the bar, or bullshitting, or anything not fishing related is rarely on the menu.

It was a chilly week and a chilly morning.  I took a water temp reading around 9 AM, and it was just 47 in a sunny shallow spot.  We were fishing sections of creek that don’t get stocked or only get fingerlings every couple of years. Although as the fish below illustrates, they dump them in when they have extras from downriver, it seems.  We drove past parking lots that looked like mall parking lots or concerts.  One such lot actually had guys in safety vests waving cars in to park (probably a kiddie derby), but where we were we only saw a handful of fly fishermen all morning.  That was sort of my plan…

One of my one and a half...

So we could fish together, I was throwing the spinning rod and plugs.  I missed a fish on the second cast, and turned one other in the first hour.  The fish were not chasing, really.  It’s a bit early for running and gunning with Rapalas and spinners when the night time temps still drop below freezing.  My dad was battling a virus or something for a week or more, so he was half the man he usually is.  He finally quit after I saw him sitting down for the second time.  He readily took the car keys and headed back to the parking lot to chill out by 9:30 AM, I bet.  Before he quit, I hooked a good fish in a fast, deep run and it popped off the minute it turned into the fast water below me.  He landed a good 13 inch holdover rainbow that accounted for itself well.

I took a walk and ran into a few more guys fishing.  As the sun got higher and it warmed up, I finally managed one oddly colored brown on a CD 5. I actually thought it was a tiger when I saw him fighting in the water.  I was back at the car by noon-ish after a nice long walk on a beautiful spring day.  Dad was relaxing in the car after a short walk and some small talk with the small group of anglers who had the same idea as me to beat the crowds today.  I guess it was better than sitting in a hole all morning with the PowerBait Guild, but I would have like the old man to feel better and for us both to catch more fish.  And as nice as it was today, the crowds at the crowded spots probably did well!  I have caught a lot of trout this winter and early spring, and will probably catch a lot more before I start chasing stripers and other species, so I was good with my one and half fish, one and a half men, and just keeping the tradition alive one more year.