January 25, 2017 – Has It Really Been 10 Days?? - A Successful Trip Close to Home Following the Nor'easter

The first of the day.

I guess I actually do work sometimes?  I saw that my last report was on January 15, so that means today was the first time I have fished in 10 days.  That is usually pretty normal, but this winter has been mild, and I have been fishing a lot, especially having nearly a month off at the holidays.  After a steady soaker, a true Nor’easter, earlier in the week, I figured the creeks would be in good shape today, so I was itching to get out.  The weather was beautiful, a high of 50 with sun and a light breeze, so I had to give it a shot somewhere.  I decided to stay close to home, maybe Valley, which fishes well after the rain.  Valley is always an option, though, even on the coldest day, so I opted for a nearby freestoner, Stony Creek, instead.  When I fished there earlier in the winter, I did pretty well, though the fish were very small.  I decided to throw my 8 foot 3 weight rod with midges and make a sport of the little fish that were 15 minutes from home.  As you can see from my new toy, a measure net that the boy and I purchased at the new Gander Mountain store up the road, a couple fish were over 10 inches and one maybe 11, but the average is still a fat 9.  I guess feeding them in the runs only added girth, as time alone can add the length...

You can't feed them to grow long, I guess, but fat, yes indeed....

I started at a deep, flat hole where I did not catch any fish the last time I was there.  Usually, the hole gets loaded up with fish, and other fish probably move up and down too over time since they don’t much like to hang in the riffles in the winter and need protection from raptors in clear winter water.  I could see a few bulges and vees once in a while, like fish were feeding or just tired of being bunched together and lashing out at each other.  There were also many midges dancing around.  I assumed the disturbances could be sunfish or chubs, especially since I took nothing out of this hole before, but it was definitely worth a shot.

Just a gorgeous day.

On the first cast, a fish made a move toward the midge not a second after it hit the water.  With clearer conditions, these fish will start taking dry flies, no doubt.  I landed a little 9 inch rainbow, average for this particular winter brood.  I thought it was going to be silly fishing, but after that one crazy fish, the rest took the midge like they usually do, a barely perceptible dip in the tiny indicator.  I pulled 8 or 9 fish out of this same hole before moving on.  I had a couple places to scout that I hadn’t worked up to in previous winter trips.  The rest of the roughly four hours I was on the water was steady, with one or two in each likely spot and a handful of dropped fish on barbless midges.  I stopped fishing at an even 20 fish to the net, just so I wasn’t too greedy!

7 + 4 = 11.  A monster for today!

I ran into two spin fishermen who were also taking advantage of the beautiful day, and they each released a couple fish.  The trout were definitely tuned into the midges, however.  I suspended a streamer for a while, just to change it up (and maybe find that elusive 12 incher) but nothing chased or moved.  The water was muddy but clearing, so visibility was not an issue for the fish, who had no problem finding a size 20 black zebra midge.  I also got an even number on an olive brassie that was probably smaller but had a larger hook, which meant fewer lost fish, and it sank more quickly in the spots where the water was moving a bit faster.

5 + 5 = 10, and that was 20 on the day.

After talking to my wife around 1:30 PM, I was ready to head back down to the Suburu, but she is always good luck when she calls.  I decided to try two more holes upstream and end on 15 fish for the day.  Well, by 2:45 PM I had 19 fish, so I now resigned to quit at 20.  I did turn back towards my parking spot, however, hoping to get that last one at a brief stop on the way back, perhaps one of the U-shaped holes that the club built to create some habitat.  By 3 PM, I had number 20, and he was actually a 10 inch monster, or at least he felt that way after all the 8 and 9 inchers (and a 3 weight rod helps too).  I probably would have caught some prettier, wilier fish at Valley today, but I was glad that I was able to take advantage of a nearby creek and have some fun on a perfect spring, I mean, winter day.  Cold is supposed to return by the weekend, but it doesn’t seem to last, so perhaps it won’t be 10 days until my next post?

January 15, 2017 – Squinting and More Squinting - Dry Fly Fishing in January Continues

Young E Love enjoying the morning.

The main reason for my visit to the creek I fished on Friday was to scout out a spot close to home where Eric and I could fish Sunday.  As I shared already, that trip became a very successful day with the Griffiths gnats and blue winged olives, a 20 fish day on dry flies in January.  Well, today was a different day, and we had every chance of it being slow and cold, but the fish did not disappoint again, and I was grateful.  

Bows still availing themselves of a plethora of mid-winter midges and the odd BWO.

Eric picked me up around 8:30 AM, so we were suited up and fishing by 9:15 AM.  It was cold and breezy, but we could tell it was going to be a pleasant day.  The sun was up, the freezing rain was melting steadily from the trees, and by 10 AM, the first signs of midging fish bulging the surface began in earnest.  I landed one fish early on with a pheasant tail and a hare’s ear dropper, but until the fish started actively feeding on or just below the surface film, it was a slow start.

Protect the ball pose or Orvis/LL Bean/Costa ad?

With fish still hunkered down on the bottom of the creek, Eric decided to take a scouting trip upstream, while I tied on a piece of 6X to my tippet ring and a size 18 gnat to await the hatch I just knew had to be coming.  It did, though not with much intensity until later.  With the quality of light today, I had a much easier time seeing fish rise to the dry than I did on Friday, but it is still a challenge to hook fish on such a tiny fly that basically rides in the film.  It didn’t take long to get a couple fish in the net, however.  I was curious if Eric was having similar success, so I took a walk up to see him and learned that he had landed one and missed a couple others on the dry, as well.  The funny thing is, when Eric went to the local Orvis shop on Saturday and bought a handful of Griffiths gnats, he got misguided grief from one of the sales guys.  We should send the mitch some pictures, I suppose….

Eric got in on the dry fly action, as well.

We fished together on a flat, moderately deep bend in the creek and hooked up with a couple others on our way to the next hole, but we could see that other fishermen were above us in the next two holes.  I left Eric to his piece of water and retreated back to the original hole where I had landed a few.  By the time I returned, I was glad I did, as the run was alive with bulging and rising fish, some chasing each other and jockeying for feeding lanes.  It was as fun to watch as it was to fish.

Bundled up Eric with an average one for the day

I landed two more and had refusals or hooked, lost, and, as a result, spooked a couple others.  The fish were feisty, though not as crazy as the previous warmer afternoon, though silly enough to disturb their feeding friends by running all over the hole and making a ruckus by taking to the air.  Tired of refusals, though, I tried a BWO in two different sizes, but either got ignored or refused, so I went back to the gnat, but this time added a size 18 pheasant tail dropper about two feet under the dry.  Eric had joined me again by then and witnessed me landing a couple more that way.  A pod of good sized rainbows were working different lanes near the tailout of the run, so I moved up and gave Eric a crack at them.  While I had a breakfast of venison Slim Jims care of Eric and his bow earlier this fall, it didn’t take long for the young buck to hook a couple on the dry while I watched and briefly rested.

Little footballs: what they haven't added in length, they sure have added in girth!

My seldom displayed “selflessness” was rewarded throughout the day with a mess of nice rainbows on the dry, and I bet I landed a dozen in addition to the other hook-ups and misses, but it was also good to see Eric hooked up.  He had a least 5 in my presence and a bunch of hook-ups too.  Dry fly fishing with such tiny flies is not easy, as I mentioned (especially for sworn nymph acolytes like me).  Tricos are that small, sure, but tricos are white and don’t have to float in the film (and it’s a lot warmer out in July)!  Eric has a little one and another baby due in May, whereas I have come off a month of fishing like it was my job, so I felt just as good about his success as my own, honestly.  I also thought of poor Kenny, whom I have tortured with difficult and nearly fishless days the last few times out.  I did send him a pic, though, which is only fair.  I did not further torture him by sending more pics after the first one, however, especially because he was delivering a Sleep Number mattress to my house, which I will likely need tonight after a day of fishing and a double date in the city with some friends tonight.  Off on Monday with the boy, so I can rest then, I hope.  

A dozen in the net and a lot more action than that.  Good day!

After moving upstream and running into some other fishermen, Eric and I decided to call it a day around 2:45 PM.  My fishing furlough is officially over on Tuesday, but I think I have mentioned how I could get used to this amount of free time!  If it is nice on Monday, I may convince my son to fish for a couple hours, but I won’t push it.  It has been a good run, and the PFBC trucks will be rolling in a couple weeks, at least to all the special regulations stretches in the area.  Crazy.  It will be spring in no time??  

One last pic for the Orvis clerk who scoffed at young Eric?

January 13, 2017 – Amazing Dry Fly Fishing in January!

Nearly 20 fish, most on the dry fly.  Friday the 13th is unlucky?

After the day Kenny and I had on Thursday, I felt like I had to do something to get some mojo back, especially since my semester starts next Tuesday and my fishing time will be limited again, at least until spring break time.  After putting a bit of work in, I headed to a nearby Delayed Harvest section that had been on my list to fish this week since I haven’t been there in several months.  This was also supposed to be a scouting trip for an upcoming fishing day with young Eric (I am sure he will want to go here again on Sunday!).  I began nymphing close to my parking spot, and I got one on a pheasant tail within five minutes of arriving, which certainly helped shake off the bad mojo.  All the fish I caught today were stocked rainbows, but they were hot fish, runners and jumpers that scoffed at the cold water.  The air stayed a mild mid-40s with sun and wind and the creek flows and visibility were perfect.  

First of the day, one of only a couple on the nymph.

After leaving the first hole without another fish, I moved up to another run and saw fish rising or at least chasing emergers.   I was rigged up to nymph with heavier weight, so my leader probably ended in 4X, so I added some lighter tippet and some midges, assuming whatever they were feasting on was small.  In the meantime, I got chatting with a fisherman new to the area who was just out for a walk scouting streams in the area.  Not focused, I missed one on a zebra midge, but I hooked him the next time and he and I put on a show for the spectator.  After a quick picture, I returned the fish to the water and resigned to re-rig and do this right.  After tying on a new leader, some 6X tippet, and a Griffiths Gnat, which I can’t see in the water half the time, I started connecting with fish on top, sometimes just reacting to a take near where I estimated my size 18 or 20 dry would be.

Average size fish.  A couple were bigger, but all were hot!

At one point, I tried rigging up a sighter fly about 6 inches ahead of the gnat, just to increase my chances of seeing the take in braided water, but that only led to refusals.  Back to squinting and reacting to rises as much as seeing them take the fly, I ended up getting 10 fish out of the run.  I had done no scouting, however, and my time was limited.  I decided to leave them feeding and see if the same was going on upstream, and it was, this time with a few BWOs mixed in with the midges.  I ended up getting a bunch more on the gnat and a Blue Winged Olive.  None of the fish were huge, but they were fat and strong 12 to 14 inch bows, and landing close to 20 fish of any size in January is okay in my book.  After such a crappy Thursday, my Friday the 13^th was ending up nothing short of phenomenal.  To add to the joy, only one other friendly and courteous angler was out.  He gave me plenty of room, and he ended up catching the hatch down in the run I left, landing at least 4 before I passed by, he said, also on the gnat!

A couple took a BWO, as well.

I certainly got Eric all excited about fishing on Sunday, so I hope it proves to be even half as good as today’s adventure.  I definitely felt lucky to enjoy such a beautiful day and such great fishing this early in the year.  This was also a welcomed end to my winter fishing furlough even if Sunday is terrible.  I could get used to retirement rather easily, I fear.  I hope I can rally and muster enough to get to work on Tuesday, since I have at least 20 years to go and a family depending on me…

January 13, 2017 – Deep Thoughts #5 – Fish Live in Water not Air

Kenny trying to keep his left foot warm (or was it the right?)

Kenny and I took a tremendous skunk yesterday fishing the Bushkill Creek.  We both hooked a fish or two that we didn’t come close to landing, and I saw a couple make a move for my Rapala CD 5 and refuse (one was a 16 inch wild brown that nipped the back hooks!), but that was it for at least 4 hours of fishing and another hour of walking and driving to another spot and so on.  On the way home, the air temperature hit 67 degrees, balmy on a mid-January day, but when I took a water temperature reading late in the afternoon, it read 42.  The Bushkill has some limestone influence that modulates the temps, so this is cold for fish who get accustomed to 50 to 65 degrees year-round.  Anyway, it occurred to me and Kenny on the ride home that 1) that was a lot of work for nothing but a nice walk in the woods and 2) fish live in water.

 

I have been fishing for a long time, but it is good to remember one of the most basic facts.  Fish live in water.  It is easy to get high expectations on a 70 degree day in the winter, and I fall into that trap every time, but the reality is that the water temperature is the key.  A couple more clicks yesterday, and it could have been game on, but with rapid snow melt and teens earlier in the week, the mild day (with no sun, mind you) did not do much to turn on the finicky, cold-blooded fish.  I wanted to walk and hunt with the plug like it was spring, but we both should have sat in a deep hole with midges and grinded it out.  Even then, we may have caught the skunk if the fish didn’t want to play.  Fish live in water.  Next time it snows, gets frigid, hits 100 degrees, cranks 30 knots, remember the fish may not even care.  Carry a thermometer, treat the fish with care (too hot or too cold, then keep them wet) dress well, bring extra clothes, don’t fall in (Peter), tell someone where you are fishing, enjoy the skunks when you can.  Fish live in water and probably take pride in humbling us every chance they get, especially when we air-dwellers think it’s a perfect day to fish.

Fish live in water not air.

January 11, 2017 – The Winter Fishing Continues – East Branch Brandywine Creek DHALO Section

My only competition today.

After doing some work at home in the morning, and sitting through a two-hour online meeting, I had a couple hours to fish this afternoon, and it was going to be pretty warm, nearly 52 degrees.  I needed to get the boy at the bus stop at 4:15 PM, so I had to stay close.  I decided to give Valley a rest, and the fish at nearby Stony were very small, so I figured I would get on the road and choose between a couple Delayed Harvest sections of creeks in Chester County that both received an October stocking.  I ended up at the East Branch of the Brandywine around 1:30 and fished until 3:30-ish.  

Only landed one on the zebra midge, but I had a couple misses too.

I didn’t take a water temperature, but two little tributaries were iced over, and the main creek was rimmed with ice in spots, so I am sure it was very, very cold.  The rapidly melting snow probably didn’t help the cause, even with the mild temps.  Besides the heron and some walkers and joggers, I had the place to myself, which was nice.  No bug activity, but I was encouraged to see some fish moving around in the likely spots as I walked up to a good hole that I planned to target with midges.

A little fatter and feistier on the while bugger

The first hour was very slow, with a swing and a miss, a half-hearted hit on a red zebra midge that failed to connect.  I knew there had to be fish in this particular hole, so I changed up a bit.  With the second cast after replacing the red midge with a black, size 20 zebra midge and a heavier load of split shot, I finally hooked up with a decent little rainbow.  I worked the hole as long as I could stand it, waist deep in ice cold water.  Eventually, I had to take a walk upstream to warm the feet, as well as find a place to relieve my bladder (tough with so many moms and strollers out in the mild weather).  I worked some braided runs with a white bugger for a while, but with time being short, I headed back to the same hole where I found some success.  I landed one more better-sized bow on the white bugger here, dead drifted near the bottom.  He took a jump and decent run before coming to the net.  Happy to get a couple, and with the day off to fish with Kenny tomorrow, I called it an afternoon and headed for the bus stop.  We are probably going to take a longer adventure tomorrow, perhaps even with the spinning rods, but it is always good to get out and land fish in January, especially on the fly rod.

January 6, 2017 – First Snow of 2017 and First Snow Trout – Valley Creek

2017's first wild trout with snow with finger-less glove pic.

For a few years now, I have had the urge to fish after snowfalls, at least the ones that don’t lead right into bitter, windy, high pressure days.  Today was not one of those storms where the low stuck around for a while and kept it mild, but it also wasn’t 12 degrees out and blowing gale force, so after taking care of some business around the house and in town, and waiting for the thermometer to hit 33, I took a short trip to Valley, just to make the most of my last day of extended vacation (back to work on Monday) and maybe to get a snow trout photo op.  Fishing was pretty dead, but I did accomplish my goal of landing one in the snow today.  I concentrated on just two holes.  The first hole was a wash, but not because I spooked them by slipping down the bank or hanging the first cast in a tree (these things happen to all of us, but not today).  Dogs, again.  Some lady was running at least four big dogs off the leash in a public park.  Sporting dogs, too, so at least two saw me and decided to jump right into the water.  The Deep Thoughts about bad dog owners is coming soon!  

Probably 20 hibernating under there, but at least one came out to play.

Anyway, I kept my cool and moved to my next target.  Ice in the guides was a problem, but I managed to creep up and, in most cases, use what line was already out of the reel and iced into place at the rod tip, Tenkara-style, yo…  I missed a hit on a white bugger, so I knew someone was home.  I then tied on a caddis nymph and a red zebra midge dropper.  The caddis was really just for the tungsten, as this second hole is quite deep and flows under the roots of a large tree, but I am glad I chose the caddis because the fish hit it and not the zebra midge.  It took almost 45 minutes to catch one wild brown on a cold day, but I was happy to end my furlough with this year’s first trout-with-hand-with-snow-photograph.  I took a total skunk at three different muddy streams on Wednesday, so this was an improvement. Here’s hoping milder days return a few more times before the spring.  The high is supposed to be 24 degrees in SEPA tomorrow, so no snow trout shots for this storm....

January 3, 2017 - On the Board for 2017 - A Valley Creek Mission in the Rain

First of 2017

It was not the best day to fly fish, but it was over 40 degrees, so today was the day I set my sights on catching my first fish of the new year.  It was raining steadily for a couple days, the good kind of rain that takes its time flooding the creeks, but the accumulation of rain finally did spike the gauges.  Tomorrow will be a better day, I hope, but Valley was fishable today for a couple hours before it began to get muddy.  I started with midges, but the water was not clean enough to bother, so I tried a few different color buggers.  Eventually, I caught two fish on a green/chartreuse beadhead about size 10.  Both fish hit in faster but clearer water above a deep hole.  Last year, it took until January 7th or 8th to get on the board, so I will call today a success.  I will be back at it tomorrow somewhere....

A better shot of my first of the new year.