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| Just a perfect wild brown in a creek no more that 10 feet wide. |
I have not attempted to fish in exactly fifteen days,
which is a pretty long time for me. A
couple things have affected that. First
off, since I work at a college, as does my wife, things start to ramp up in
August. Fall sports teams arrive as early
as the first week of August, orientations begin, last minute hires need to be
interviewed, and so on. Also, the boy
goes to camp when Tami starts back to work for the semester, so I spent the first two
weeks in August doing pick-ups and drop-offs for camp. With this heat, and little rain, fishing
after a 9 AM camp drop-off did not seem like a good time. I tried it once early in the month and ended
up just exploring a new creek on the natural reproduction list. I got some cool photos and saw a few trout,
but they were all hiding in undercut banks and roots to escape the hot, late
morning sun. I will be back when the
days get shorter and leaves start to turn, though!
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| I'll be back... |
This week, I have been doing 9 AM drop-offs, and Tami has
been doing pick-ups, so I suppose I could have fished the evening some-where,
but it was so damn hot that I didn’t even bother. Last night and this morning, despite the
forecast to the contrary, I was greeted with periods of rather heavy rain. It drizzled all the way to the camp this
morning, poured once when I was running an errand for the boy’s birthday party
this weekend, and was still cloudy and misting when I got back home around 10
AM. I figured I could get some work done
later at home, and so I made an impulsive decision to throw a couple spinning rods in
the car and head to another spot I have been meaning to check out. If it held no fish, at least I would get in a
walk and a refreshing wet wade in a spring-fed creek.
I would also be a short distance from the Delaware, so I could maybe
scare up a few smallmouths if this new spot held no promise.
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| A little suburban Eden? |
Well, as you can see from my first pic of the post, the
creek held some trout, even at 1 PM in 80 degree heat and high sun. The rain helped put a little stain in the
water, and the flow was good and cold, reading between 63 and 65 every time I
checked. It was fed by some springs here
and there, and most of the streambed was very shaded. For a while, I forgot I was in SEPA suburbia,
especially when greeted with plunge pools and a few deep holes that made the
creek look like a freestoner not a limestoner.
I only caught 1 other small trout and a couple chubs, while tossing a
Rapala CD 1. I also had about 6 fish
swarm on a Dynamic Lures HD minnow but not commit. One particular fish followed the plug to the
tailout at least 3 times, one time following and examining the plug from the
side, as if to confirm his suspicions and to let me know he was too smart to
eat plastic. He may want an offering
from the fly box when the weather cools and there is more casting room as the
vegetation dies out this fall. Casting
was tight today! I was glad I didn’t
bring a fly rod, even my 6’6” 3 wt, because I would not have been able to do more
than crawl in briers and make bow and arrow casts.
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| A 21 incher on a 1 inch plug. |
Besides just getting
out for a couple hours, the highlight of the day was landing a 21 inch wild
brown on the plug. As I approached the
hole, stalking slowly and staying tight to the bankside greenery, I spooked a
pair of mergansers that I hadn’t seen on the inside of a bend at the head of
the pool. I was pissed because the hole
was deep and stained, looking like my best chance to catch a couple fish from
one spot, maybe even a big one. It was,
by far, the best hole I’d seen in half a mile of wading. Mergansers eat fish, and they make a ruckus
when they take off, so I was sure, they had blown my chances. I still took a cast towards the far bank,
away from the head of the pool from where they had taken off. Even from a crouch, I could see a pronounced V
coming at the little CD 1 from behind.
This monster grabbed the plug at the tail out of the deep pool in only
maybe 8 inches of water, and then made a leisurely turn back. I had no clue what it was until I stood up
and caught a glimpse of a fat brown trout bulldogging back upstream. I thought, “Oh, crap! Is my drag set? Why’d I leave the net in the garage? I am going to lose this thing the minute he
decides to run for cover!” You know,
positive self-talk. Thank god, there
were not many places for the fish to go, and he responded to side pressure a
couple times when I thought he might take me under the bank. I got my hand under him and snapped my
usually “fish with hand” shot, but it didn’t do the fish justice, and I didn’t
want to mess with setting the timer on such a big fish who fought well on a hot
day, so I put him in the grass with the rod beside him, and I took my trusty
hand-measurements. Over 20 inches, and
meaty, just a gorgeous wild brown living in someone’s back acre! Crazy, I tell you.
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| And the release... |
I took a minute to revive him, and he scooted off in good
shape. When I peeked into the hole,
there were a couple smaller fish in there, who’d been spooked, no doubt, so I
decided to call it an afternoon. I
climbed out through the briers, skulked along the back hedgerow of a beautiful
home, and took a hike down a quiet road to where I had parked the Subaru, satisfied
that I had such success on a new creek after being out of the game for too
long. I am hearing that cooler temps are
on the way next week, so maybe I will get out again before another 15 fishless
days go by. There will definitely be more posts once the boy starts school after Labor Day, I promise!
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| See you when the days get much shorter, the nights longer and cooler.... |
