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| A rainy May Day, but not a bad day to fish. |
Eric had the morning free to fish today, so despite the rainy forecast, we kept our plans to get out. He had to stay close to home too, so we considered the Wissy, the Penny, Valley, and settled on Pickering, which was supposed to have gotten its last stocking on April 27. When we arrived, the creek was only a little stained, but it was getting muddier by the time we quit at 11:30 AM. We got 3 hours in, with not another soul on the creek, and had some success on midges and small prince nymphs. I think we each had 5 fish a piece and had some drops on the tiny flies we had to throw to get any love.
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| Eric got a bow to pose for a shot. |
I am not sure how
many fish they stocked or where because half the fish we caught were holdovers,
but at least a couple holes yielded multiple fish. One in particular was productive enough for
us to both hang there for a while and fish together. We could see fish chasing emergers, most
likely midges, because nothing much was coming off the water. I caught the only brown at this hole, a fish
who accounted well for himself.
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| A feisty brown, the only brown of the morning. |
I botched the photo on my best fish of the day, a
rainbow that was hiding in a small pocket in a bankside riffle, with
overhanging bushes and sticks for protection.
All he wanted to do was get back under his lair, and I could barely turn
him even with side pressure. I
eventually landed him in the net and snapped a shot. Swampy, due to the humidity and rain, the
lens was fogged on my phone, so the bow looked more like modern art than
anything else. We were back on the road by noon, satisfied
that we got one in on a day when a lot of guys probably stayed home.
Went out at 3:00 to a Delco stream that was low and clear 10 days ago and it was a little stained today and I got 4 on the spinning rod.
ReplyDeleteI am looking at the pic of Eric and I see fly line beyond his fly rod. Does that mean you are not "tight lining"? Been doing some web search on that technique and I see some guys use 20 feet of leader. What would your leader/tippet set up be for your tight line if you don't mind sharing?
RR
I don't know if he was fishing then or zipping up after adding some split shot. In the creeks around here, where the holes may only be 4 feet deep max, a nine foot 5 x leader should do fine, Ron. A long rod makes tight line nymphing a lot easier. We were just talking about that today. This creek is pretty shallow so we were both using really small indicators and 9 ft leaders, casting upstream but not too far up stream to have the line pass over the fish before the fly gets to them, if that makes sense. 45 degree angle upstream.
ReplyDeleteSaving my money for a 10 ft 4 or 5 weight for nymphing the Brodhead, Lehigh River, Penns Creek, Big Pine, etc. Don't tell my wife...
DeleteMy longest fly rod is junk I bought way back when...........I might be saving for a new one too. On my last trip before this rain I saw tons of trout that wouldn't even sniff my spinning stuff. Came home an read your post from the "burbs" and the little wheels started whirling. :)
ReplyDeleteYou can get a really solid package for under 200 bucks now, Ron. An 8'6" 4 weight is perfect for most of the fishing around here. Buy yourself a nice retirement gift when the time comes!
ReplyDelete