August 18, 2016 – Don’t Call it a Comeback – A Pig of a Late Summer Wild Brown

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!  

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.

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.

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.  

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!

See you when the days get much shorter, the nights longer and cooler....