March 30, 2017 – Chasing Wild Browns and Native Brookies in NEPA—Plus a Bonus Piggy to End the Day

I could have led with the big fish pic, but this is what it's all about some mornings.

I had a vacation day planned today—my last one at my soon to be old job—because young Kenny and I were supposed to go out for smallmouth on the Susquehanna.  With all the rain and snow melt, the river is blown out, so Captain Chris called and postponed.  I decided to do something special, anyway.  I set the alarm for 4:30 AM and made plans to take advantage of good flows and do a tour of a few wild trout streams in the State Game Land and Delaware State Forrest land in NEPA.  I was up by 3:30 AM instead of 4:30 AM, so I had a couple cups of coffee and couple stops on the way, and yet I still arrived just before dawn.

The morning stats: pretty winter-like.

It was cold but clear with very little breeze early in the day.  Clouds increased throughout the morning, but it was really a beautiful day.  The fact that I caught a bunch of native brook trout and some wild browns, including a big, wide, hooked-jawed and toothy piggie of 19 inches, made it even more special.  My planned tour of a bunch of little streams never materialized, mainly because I caught over a dozen brook trout and a couple browns at creek #1, and so I felt no urge to leave—especially after I nearly landed about a 12 inch brown in a mountain creek barely 10 feet wide.  Heartbreaker—well, except for the fact that the fish gods smiled upon me at creek #2 later in the afternoon!

About 4 in the 8 to 9 inch range = not bad for brook trout

I thought I would fish a dry dropper at the first creek, but the water temperature was only 40 degrees and, even at noon, I saw only minimal bug life.  Plus, the flows were great with deep holes in spots where I usually have to sneak around and hide in the trees in order not to spook them.  I caught a couple on my walk in, but most came from the same wintering hole, probably 9 of them from the same spot over the course of an hour.  The first fish of the morning was a nice 8 or 9 inch brownie.  I catch browns here once in a while, but the majority of fish are brook trout, so it was good to see a couple better fish in the mix, though I am not sure if it’s good news that the biggest fish in the brookie hole is a brown.

I good brown for a tiny creek, but nothing compared to the big one that got away, of course.

After catching close to a dozen on caddis pupae as I worked my way up to shallower headwaters, I decided to try the honey hole one last time on my way back down, this time with some meat.  I dead drifted a purple bugger through the hole and thought I got a decent hook set on a good fish.  I saw a flash of yellow, so I doubt it was the biggest brookie in the creek, more likely a big brown (12 inches is huge here) who watched all his little friends get caught earlier and was waiting for a bigger meal.  He came off, but I had to laugh.  What could I do, complain?  I caught a dozen wild and native fish in beautiful surroundings—I had Eden to myself this morning too.

The honey hole for the day.  They were still in winter mode, stacked together.

Following a break at the Subaru to eat a Cliff bar and refill my water bottle, I debated taking a ride to another trickle about 30 minutes away.  It was close to 12:30 PM by the time I was ready to leave, I had to be home by 4 PM for the bus stop, and I was 2 hours from home, maybe more in traffic, so I retooled and headed to a much larger freestoner with wild fish.  This creek was only a few minutes away, and I had my 10 foot rod with me in case creek 2# made the cut today (and wasn’t blown out too).  I love this creek; it disappoints sometimes and other times it is truly amazing—difficult and amazing, the best kind of creek (especially after you caught a dozen already and are in the right frame of mind to take a skunk if need be).  It was high and stained, but certainly fishable visibility-wise.  It looked treacherous but great, which it often does in the spring.  I had a flashback to my Penns Creek trip earlier this winter, and so I rigged up a muddler in black and got my split shot handy in case the streamer was not heavy enough itself.

Running high and un-wadable, but I found one to make it worth the stop.

Just an absolute beauty.

I only had about an hour to fish, I figured, so I walked and scouted a good, accessible spot for the current conditions instead of jumping right in anywhere.  There was no way to wade out safely in order reach slack water on the opposite bank, although I tried…  And even a good reach cast left the streamer in productive water for all of 5 seconds, provided it even got down.  I decided, instead, to fish the slack water on the near bank, which definitely involved some billygoating into place while trying not to spook everything within a mile with flailing arms out to balance and guard against tumbles. 

Like jetty fishing...

I dropped a nice cast in the relative slack water behind a boulder and highsticked the bugger downstream.  Bang!  I set the hook on a big fish, so big in this heavy current that he just started running downstream taking line.  I couldn’t get in the water, and even with a long rod, I was not sure I could keep him from ramming his nose into the bank and dislodging the hook, so I took off after him, jumping rock to rock, looking for whatever handholds I could find—saplings, logs, bushes, reed—all the while keeping the rod out of trees and the line tight. 

All of 19 inches and toothy.

After catching up to him a little, I got him turned back in towards the bank, so I was able to frantically reel in line and keep tension to insure he was tight.  I got a look of him from my perch, and he was a big wild brown, a big male with a mouth full of teeth.  There was nowhere to get in the water without ending up whitewater rafting in just waders, so I decided to use side pressure and get him close (and hope for the best).  I was using 4X, thank goodness, because I was able to turn him in the current, get his head out of the water, and glide him into the net.  Whew… I popped the streamer out of his mouth, took a measure on the measure-net, snapped a few quick photos with my phone, and eased him back into the creek.  I had already experienced a great morning, so this was just the kicker.  I didn’t think I could top it, so I put the fly in the hook keeper and walked back to the parking spot, but not before texting a couple pics to all my fishing buddies ;)  Despite terrible traffic on the way how, the whole day felt a bit charmed. 

The release.

March 26, 2017 – High, Cold Water but Success Down Deep – Tulpehocken DHALO

Keystone Select, TCO fingerling who's lived well, wild?  A 19 inch beauty of a brown.

I have been itching to test out my new 10 foot 4 weight rod an a big stream, so I packed up my stuff last night in case I felt motivated and rested enough to get up at 5 AM and drive out to the Tully.  I was up before the alarm, so it was a go.  I arrived about 6:40 AM, just before sunrise, and was suited up and making my first casts before 7 AM.  It was much colder than Saturday and getting colder because the wind pick up as the dawn broke.  The water temp was 42 degrees, likely from snow melt and excess water in the reservoir.  I checked gauges on Saturday night and, while high, the creek was not blown out.  It was chocolatey, but it was in its banks for the most part.

Sam's roberdeau strikes again

Even though the water was cold, I was rigged up to fish a streamer, so I started with that.  I had one come up and miss it near the end of my ten foot rod, but I got nothing but a splash for the effort.  I decided to dead drift the streamer instead, and not long after, I hooked a pig of 19 inches that was hot!  He jumped, ran, feigned like he was ready for landing twice, but he finally landed in my net.  I got a couple shots of the mighty roberdeau streamer in his jaws and let him go.  I am not sure if he was a Keystone Select fish, a “TCO Select” who’s grown up in the creek, or a wild one.  It was the kind of conditions where tricking a wild one was very possible, but I didn't look closely until I saw the pictures at home later, which are inconclusive...   A pretty fish at any rate and likely an old holdover.

This one is clearly a Keystone Select fish, a good 20 inches and close to 5 pounds, I bet!

About 10 minutes later, I sunk the hook into another fish, and this one was a 20 inch football.  This fish was undoubtedly a product of the Keystone Select program, an outsized, though pretty clean, breeder, half as wide as he was long.  He ate the streamer; just a few strands of flash were peeking out of his mouth.  He didn’t have the juice that the first one had, but on a 4 weight in fast water, it was a handful to land just on weight alone.  After letting this one go, and talking to young Eric for a bit on the phone, I kept working upstream.  I was shocked the next deep eddy and the seams around it did not produce.  I pushed the limits of the roberdeau’s depth seeking and hung it up, the only one like it I had with me…  Sam is sending more out soon, but today, I had to try a variety of buggers and muddlers.

Just some flash sticking out of his mouth.

I had no love shown to the other steamers, even when adding a big shot to get them down, so I took a break at my vehicle, and re-rigged to nymph, the true test of the new rod.  I also found my fingerless gloves and a warmer buff.  It was getting colder as the day progressed!  Slowly but surely, I was joined by the usual heavy traffic that is customary for the Tully on a weekend, but I managed to sneak into the some good nymphing water to finish out the day with 4 or 5 more, including a hot, 15 inch rainbow and another little brown.  I had to use a lot of weight in addition to a mop fly as the anchor, but I was able to get a soft hackle pheasant tail down in the strike zone.  I even put the 10 foot to work and hooked two way out near the other bank, just because I could…  I think I am going to like the extra foot, especially on the Tully, the Lehigh, the Brodhead, not to mention Penns and the Pine!  This is not solely a Czech nymphing rod, so it was crisp enough to heave a streamer and a heavy nymph rig with ease.  I would say it passed its first tests with at least and B+/A-, especially for a 200 dollar rod.

And a 15 inch rainbow to end a good, but chilly morning.

March 25, 2017 – Mentored Youth Day with the Boy – Wissahickon Creek

He is getting good!

I totally forgot that today was Mentored Youth Day in SEPA, that is until last night about 9 PM.  Without even clearing it with the boy, who was already in bed, I decided to go online and get a permit for the day, just in case.  I had a busy Saturday planned for me, but the stocking date for the Wissy down the street had been bumped up from March 28 to March 21, so even an open hour would be worth taking a walk if the opportunity presented itself.  In the morning, I had to drag my dad down to Kensington to pick up some refinished furniture that Tami purchased last week, and we were all planning to go to a birthday gathering for one of my nephews in the afternoon too.  Still, the boy and I were home by 1 PM (after I stopped for bánh mì, my new food obsession), and he was willing, so we took a short ride to the creek with the fly rod and the spinning rod and some water and Tic Tacs.

A  16 inch rainbow.

We only encountered one other dad and his two kids, who arrived at the same kid-friendly hole at the same time we did.  Before that, the boy tried to throw a Rapala in a hole closer to the parking spot, but he hung it in a tree.  I decided to put an olive bugger on the spinning rod with one split shot on the leader, and he had a lot of success in a short time.  I took the first cast in the honey hole while he was still coming down the muddy bank, and I hooked one immediately.  I handed him the rod, and he was on the board for Mentored Youth Day 2017.  After that, I stepped back and let him do his thing.  He is getting much better at casting and figuring out the right retrieve speed to keep the lures close enough to the bottom to get strikes. He's also getting the idea that a lure is supposed to look alive in the water.  He even remembers things we've talked about years ago, like how trout like the seams a lot of the time not the fast water and that they hang out around snags sometimes, so it's okay to get hung up once in a while.

14 inch bow on the bugger.

Before it started to rain, he picked up two more trout on the bugger, including a rainbow that was over 16 inches long!  After I got a snag out for him, I took one cast myself and hooked another one.  I handed him the rod, and he landed another nice fish of 14 inches or more.  After another minor snag, I asked to take another cast, and I was allowed to land a little smallmouth bass, which means water is already getting warmer than it usually is in late March.  By now the threatened rain started to come down, not heavy but enough make it less fun, so we ended the afternoon with 4 trout and a bass in an hour of fishing and walking.  I hope he realizes that it’s not always as easy as it has been the last two times we got out, but I am happy that we had success and proud that he was able to catch two fish completely on his own.  I am even proud of my recent ability to end the trip before I push the limits of his patience and our good times, important developments for both of us!

March 20, 2017 – Fishing the Cold Snow Melt on a Mild Day - Ridley Creek FFO

At least 7 + 7, but probably closer to 15 inches.

It was just below freezing last night, but the air temperature was supposed to get close to 50 degrees, so I gave the morning some time to warm up and then took a short trip to Ridley Creek this afternoon.  Only one other guy was fishing right at the bridge when I arrived, and he left quickly thereafter, so I had the place to myself for about 3 hours.  The water was high and stained due to the quickly melting snow over the last couple of days.  Normally, in high water from rain, I could coax a few fish to chase a streamer, but this high water was gray, icy high water, so the streamer was shown no love on this sunny, mild day.

The snow was quickly melting away.

I did some exploring after sticking 3 fish on a walt’s worm in some pocket water, but the further I moved downstream, the muddier and colder the water got.   I tied on the streamer for my upstream walk, deciding to swing a muddler in the hole that gets loaded above the bridge, but a last minute decision to re-rig up with a heavy tungsten pheasant tail and a soft hackle dropper proved to be the right call.  Instead of swinging a streamer in the bridge hole, I returned to the pocket where I landed three fish earlier, and proceeded to catch 5 more in about a half hour.  If I got the right drift, right on the seam, one that got deep enough quickly enough, and moved slightly slower than the quick current, I hooked a fish.  A couple fought very well, too, despite the chilly water.  The biggest was roughly 15 inches, and they were all rainbows.  I was hoping to find some of the brookies or browns, as well, but I was happy to have some success in the tough conditions today.

Another healthy-sized rainbow.

When I got home, I had two new toys (well, one toy, and one necessity) waiting at the door from the UPS man: studded felt soles for my Korkers wading boots, just in time for the treacherous wading of early spring, and a new 10 foot 4 wt rod, which is just aching to get out on a big creek in the coming weeks.  I may break it in at the Tully later in the week if I can get the time.  I technically have two full time jobs until the end of the month, although I always seem to find a bit of time to fish, so who knows.

Had to go slow and low, but managed 8 fish, so a good, short trip.

March 19, 2017 – Take a Young Boy Fishing – Pickering DHALO with my Son

The mitch-ling scores with midges.

A surefire way to get the boy to agree to do anything outside these days is to promise him additional time on his Nintendo 3DS for every hour he spends in the great out of doors.  We have also had a standing bet that he could earn an hour per fish, up to three hours, if he was able to hook and land his own trout on the fly rod.  Well, he came close to both today.  He delivered a couple decent roll casts from the bank, even swung on a couple hits, and he definitely landed two fish that dad hooked for him.  Because he netted a few more for me, and lost two others at our waderless feet, I gave him the benefit of the doubt!  With waders, I think he could actually do it this year.

A few hot ones too that the boy netted for me and I for him.

After a pizza lunch, we hiked in the melting snow to a couple spots where I have been finding rising fish all winter.  With the run off, the flow was up and the water was pleasantly stained, so a couple fish chased stoneflies, but most were still taking midges below the surface.  Because the water was not as clear as it usually is, fish were not shy about taking midges under an indicator, even a caddis larvae under a bigger thingamabobber was successful on the typically spooky fish of low winter water conditions.

Even wore a buff today...

In an hour of fishing, we had 3 or 4 in the net, hooked a few more, and dropped at least 4 well-played fish as we tried to net them from the bank without getting soaked.  The boy just knows strip! strip! strip! not so much of let the fish take a run if it needs to, so those odds were pretty good, especially with some hot leapers on the line!  The fished stocked in the fall are especially feisty and fat these days.  The best part of the afternoon, however, was that I was able to quit when I promised I would, and he had fun because we ended on a high note and I didn’t push the limits of a good time selfishly trying to catch a dozen more.  The boy also got chocolate milk and candy from the Wawa on the way home.  Bribes?  You bet.  And worth every penny..  

March 13, 2017 – Had to Sneak One (Okay, Two) in Before the Blizzard of 2017 – French Creek FFO and Pickering Creek DHALO

French Creek FFO in the residual snow (soon to be covered in a lot more).

With the approaching weather, our first double digits snow fall of this winter, which is quickly becoming spring despite the white stuff still around, I had to catch a few today.  I may not only be stuck indoors for the next two days, or sledding with a boy, but I may also be splitting time between two colleges.  I now officially have two jobs until the end of the month, so I am going to be busy, except for on the weekends, and I hate crowds!  I decided to try French Creek’s Fly Fishing Only (FFO) section late this morning.  It is a creek I have never fished before, at least not in the FFO section.  I saw plenty of fish, and I caught at least 6 or 7, but with low water, there was not a lot of great habitat, at least on the lower stretch of the special regs section.  I ended up finding two pods of skittish fish, hanging in the deepest water they could find, actually using the ice fringe of the creek for cover at one location and an undercut bank and some bankside vegetation at another.  The water temp was barely 36 degrees, and ice in the guides was a factor even while applying Chapstick.  My net, which I must have lost later on Pickering (a “measure net” with a magnet attached. If anyone finds it, use it well...) was also frozen solid after netting my first fish of the morning.  The upside, besides catching half a dozen on a new creek, was that I had the place to myself. 

Average for French Creek today, but I did turn a 20 incher on a size 20 fly, much to my surprise and his.

Because the creek was so cold, low and, clear, I used a dry dropper with a variety of midges (zebra, brassie, weightless pheasant tail) on a long leader, at least 36 inches.  The fish still spooked once in a while when the size 18 wullf touched down.  The takes were tentative, and the battles were short and lackluster.  I came close to tangling with an outsized rainbow of 20 inches or more, but all I caught was a glimpse of his big white mouth and the flash of his side as he took off upstream without the pt nymph in his mouth.  I was throwing my 3 wt, so it was probably for the best…  I made a cast that managed to hit the best lane, the one running right under a bank and some overhanging bushes, and the dry fly went down, I set the hook, and was surprised that it was the piggie who had taken the dropper.  Go figure.  Ten smaller fish around, and I tangle with the biggest one—and fail.

Pickering looking lovely (and cold).

After a break to check emails and return a phone call from a student, I decided to head home and get the boy at the bus stop, but it was Tami’s day, and she wanted to get him (and leave early on a Monday!) so I decided to try Pickering on the way home.  By the time I arrived, there were fishermen everywhere.  They all had the same idea, I guess: Get an afternoon in before this snow!  I had to take a phone call, which lasted way too long, but I eventually got to fishing.  I stuck one right down the hill from the Subaru, but they did not all come that easily or quickly.  I saw some risers in a flat hole, which incidentally had a young bull throwing a spinner or jig at them to no avail, so I kept moving but hoped to return on the way back to the parking spot.  I made my way to another hole that often has rising fish, and they were there, only they were popping midges in the foam in front of a log.  Hmm…  I have seen this many times before, and I usually go after them with a nymph instead of floating a dry into the muck.  This time, I just decided to try the back of the same stick up, and I landed my second Pickering bow of the afternoon.  

The midge: back to winter fishing for a spell.

Since time was running out, I decided to head back to the other pod of risers, hoping the two guys fishing up there had quit by now.  I was right, and the fish were still bulging the surface chasing emergers that were two small to see.  No worries.  Even though a couple different dry flies, including a size 20 griffith’s gnat and a smaller wisp of hair, about 22 (how small do you want it, you uppity stockies??), were all refused, at least 5 more, including some brown trout, took the dropper before I had to head for home.  A couple took a size 20 zebra midge in red, and a couple took a 20 brassie too. I would have liked to have fooled one on top, but I was happy to add to my total.  A couple of these fish, likely fall stocked fish, actually fought.  It was nearly 39 degrees outside by then, so that might have helped the water temp a little bit too.

A few browns too, also on the midge.

As nice as it was to have such a mild winter, it sort of robbed me of much of my actual winter fishing, which is a different game.  Today was more like those typical mid-January trips, and it was a welcomed change, believe it or not.  I am not looking forward to snow, but the day off will be nice, and I don’t want it to get too warm too fast, either.  I already have snow on my blooming forsythias at my house, but we need the precipitation in any form we can get.  I hope the roads are passable enough by Wednesday, so I can get a new net too.  My old one, which was not that old, is probably frozen solid, hanging from some brambles right now, but at least it smells of fish.