December 18 to 22, 2016 – A Fishing Furlough – SEPA Trout Fishing

A very pretty stocked trout (?) on the white bugger.

My last day of work until January 9^th was Friday December 16^th.  That is a nice chunk of time off to spend with family (and fish, of course).  I had a lot of grading to do, a lot of papers, and shopping, and wrapping, and all that, but I did sneak out close to home for three trips.  The week started out rough, even though we had a warm rain.  Winter rain and fishing is hit or miss.  I have had good days later in February after a rain, but in December I think it messes fishing up for a bit.  The fish are still fat from the early fall, so they aren’t desperate kamikazes in high water like they will be later in the winter.

The Silver Fox in situ.

On Sunday, the boy and I met Tom over at the Pennypack for about 90 minutes of unsuccessful fishing.  The water looked fishable from afar, but up close it was high and had a gray, unnatural tint to it, perhaps salty run-off.  If the boy is to be trusted with my stream thermometer (he is) it was 43 degrees, which is not horrible.  We fished one 200 yard stretch before calling it, however.  The boy was ready with the net but had to settle for snacks and unlimited Nintendo DS time on the way home, plus lunch at the MacDonald’s.  We had to hoof it back to our cars when it got very dark and sounded like a freight train was coming.  An isolated storm must have touched down nearby, as evidenced by the branches on the road on the drive out.  At any rate, we survived, and it was good to see the Silver Fox in action even if the Penny was dead that day.

Flash forward to Tues, and even though it was frigid, I decided to try another freestoner that received a fall stocking.  The water at Stony was in better shape, but it was cold.  I had ice in my guides even at midday, and it never got warmer.  I missed one hit on a midge in a deep muddy flat, but it was too cold to just stand still and concentrate on subtle midge takes.  After about an hour, I took a nice walk and then headed home to warm up in front of the fireplace before getting the boy at the bus stop.

First of the morning,

After attending a funeral for my buddy’s dad and then having lunch with a couple old friends, I stopped by Kenny’s house on Wednesday to get him to sharpen our kitchen knives and hang out for a minute.  Even though he was needed at his brother-in-law’s place to help with a kitchen renovation, we decided to spin fish on Thursday, which was supposed to be in the high 40’s at least.  Kenny would drive his own Subaru and stop by the job after he’d caught a couple fish.  Ken was at my house before 9 AM for the 60 minute drive out to the Tulpehocken, but as we neared Morgantown on the Turnpike, I got a message.  Ken’s brother-in-law had called and was making a mess of the renovation (which we later learned he'd barely started).  Kenny can basically do anything with his hands (beside outfish me 👈👉) so he fielded the emergency call and left me to it alone.  At the last minute in the morning, I decided to throw my 9 foot 5 weight and sling pack in the ‘Ru too.  Maybe I knew Ken was going to get called away early?  Well, when I reached the Tully, it was in good shape for the long rod, so I started midging before switching to a white marabou bugger. 

Had to get my hand wet!

Dead drifting the streamer with a couple gentle snap-jigs was the right call, as it accounted for 5 fish on a winter day—not bad.  I had a streamer leader with a tiny, tiny barrel swivel, and to that I added a length of 4X.  In the deep holes, I had to put a couple BB size shot on above the swivel, but that scored the nicest fish of the day, the pretty brown pictured at the top of this post.  Obviously, the cold snap had stressed out some of the minnows because that rig is great for mimicking struggling baitfish (or just hungry, opportunistic stockies making me look smarter than I am).

Another on the dead drifting streamer.

When the sun was out, it was comfortable, but at times the clouds and wind picked up, obscuring the 45 degree fair weather.  It didn’t help that I almost took a dive and barely saved myself with one arm, which ended up drenched to the shoulder.  Good times!  There were a few guys out, as there always are on the Tully, but no one crowded anyone.  Strangely, I ran into two guys working downstream not up, but to each his own.  I had the most success fishing upstream into medium current and eddies.  I definitely missed at least two that I saw flash in the sun after my swing and a miss.

Kenny has every right to hate me for the last two of the day.

 About 2:30 PM, I was ready to quit, so I made my way back down to the car.  When I opened the hatch, I remembered I had two spinning rods and my other lumbar pack with me, full of plugs.  Why not?  It was the warmest part of the day, and the hole where I parked was in sunlight, so there was a chance that I could fool a couple more on the spinning rod.  Well, I did fool a couple more in the 15 minutes before I left.  I even hooked a monster that would not come up.  He hit behind a down tree, so there is a chance it was a bass or something else.  He pulled like a carp until he eventually pulled free.  Based on getting back a rear treble with one tine/hook missing, I am thinking the cold water and bouncing rocks had done a number on the plug, which had caught several fish this year already (charmed enough to replace hooks and throw again, no doubt).  After landing the one pictured above, I called it a day.  If the rain does not amount to much on Saturday, Eric and I might add one more day to my fishing furlough!  Not a banner week, by any means, but a relaxing and, eventually, successful late December.