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.