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I hope I look as good at 70. I still out-fished him, though, just like I have since I was 10 years old. |
When I first fished the Little Skuke DHALO section in June of 2016, the lasting impression was that this would be a great place to
take my dad, Joe. At 70 years old, he
looks young and is very healthy, but he is 70 years old, so places like the
Lehigh or the Brodhead or the surf kick his butt sometimes, even though he
toughs it out. He is more at home on the
front of a bass boat these days, but he does like to trout fish, and he even
got out this winter on his own, which was impressive, as he is a mitch about
cold weather. The Little Skuke is easy
to wade, wide and open, and often productive.
Holdovers, stockies, and even a few wild fish can be found. No wild ones landed today, but I did the
brook, rainbow, brown hat trick, and I think I tangled with one little wild one
that got off. My dad had the tell-tale
one bump and gone hits on his CD 1, which are often signs of wild or long-time residents. Together, he with the plug, me with the fly
rod, accounted for at least 25 fish between us in roughly 5 hours of leisurely
fishing. Needless to say, it was a good day.
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Streamer and walt's worm accounted for about 15 trout of all varieties. |
When we arrived at about 10:30 AM, I had a feeling my dad
was going to have a good day throwing the plug.
The water was perfect for that: stained and a little bit high too. I had a streamer on my 5 wt from my trip with
Sam on Tuesday, so while Joe tossed a CD 1, I heaved a streamer. The wind was rough off and on all day, with
periods of high winds and falling sticks and branches, but there were also
periods of relative calm. I caught many fish on nymphs, and even though little black stoneflies were popping all
day, and a couple fish rose to them, I did not contend with the wind and a dry
fly, sticking to the streamer and the walt’s worm because they were working
well. It was good to see the holdovers
from last year rising to bugs though! I
will be back again on a less windy day with clearer water conditions. There were big splashy rises, and a couple
fish that showed themselves were also quite big.
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A nice brookie ate the Roberdeau, along with one bow and one brownie before I switched to nymphing. |
To add to the windy, high pressure conditions, the water
temperature was only 45 degrees around noon when I remembered to check, despite
the air getting up to around 63 by the time we left about 3:45 PM. Joe caught a small brown on his second cast,
but we only caught 4 other fish combined during the first hour to 90 minutes,
including a 13 inch brook trout that took the big streamer. My dad got another brown (he only caught
browns today, actually) and I stuck a bigger brown and a decent rainbow with
the streamer before switching to the double nymph rig. Two nymphs were not
necessary, as about 12 trout went for the walt’s worm and nothing took the
pheasant tail above it.
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One of Sam's walt's worms with the barbless tournament hooks took a dozen fish |
We only ran into two nice young guys fishing downstream
with spinners (and doing well, too) the entire day. They said the upper end nearer to town was
crowded, but we never saw anyone else since we didn’t have to go far, just
doing a loop around some islands and catching or moving a couple fish at each
likely spot—and some unlikely ones too.
The river is wide and mostly shallow, but fish were spread out very
well, so even some slightly deeper depressions or bank-side riffles held a
couple fish, and the 3 or 4 risers I saw were right out in the flats eating
size 12 stoneflies with relish.
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Wide and pretty shallow, also good wading for my old man who did very well tossing the Rapala plug all day. |
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One of a couple brookies, a bonus stocking this year. |
A couple times during the day, I tried to get my dad
hooked up with the fly rod, coaching from the sidelines, but even though the
fish were stockies, they were new to the creek, which was cold, so the hits
were tough, tentative. He got some good
drifts and even swung on a couple, but no luck today. If the water warms up, or I become a better
instructor, I have no doubt he can connect with a few this year. Well, true to form, Joe and I talked about stopping for lunch
and even visiting Cabela’s on the way home, but we ate nothing and fished right
up until it was best to hit the road in order to miss rush hour on 22 and the
PA Turnpike and be home for dinner. This is how we have fished together most of my life: 12 hours on a canoe or boat with maybe some water and peanut butter crackers. I
hope the old man had a good meal and sleeps well tonight.
The forecast is for snow tomorrow, so I will be sleeping in too. It was a great day with plenty of laughs and
highlights, and I have had a great week off, fishing and spending time with
friends and family. Joe is retired and
has been for 7 or 8 years, I think, and I am jealous. I would have retired at 30 and just read
books, listened to records, written a lot, and fished to my heart’s content, sort of like I did this week...
Lemme know when you get the PA grand slam: palomino, brown, rainbow, and brook. Oh and the only one that wasn't wild was the palomino. Btw I think I have seen that guy while fishing Alverthorpe for the spring and fall crappie bites.
ReplyDeleteHah, based on your criteria, frankenfish should not really count for anything. How about, white crappie, bass, chub, brook, bow, brown, tree, rock, back of waders?
ReplyDeleteI did a smallmouth bass,largemouth bass, rock bass, sunfish, brown trout, brook trout, and rainbow in the Pennypack trust one day. Of course no wild trout there and no crappie. Most of my Pennypack crappie have been further downstream.
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