April 24, 2017 – Targeting Those Left Behind – Wissahickon Creek

A size 18 pt in the riffles scored a pretty little brown that is thriving for now....

If it does not rain too much tomorrow, I am definitely due for a real fishing trip on Wednesday, but for the time being, I am using what little free time I have to fish close to home, like 5 minutes from home.  I did okay a couple days last week on the Wissy in Montgo, but I had not fished the city in a while, so I took a drive a little deeper this morning.  I was rigged up to swing wets, and there were some BWO’s and caddis around, but with the showers yesterday, nothing was chasing them in the stained water, at least that early in the day.  I fished and walked from 9 to 10:30 AM and got a handful of fun fish in fun spots, covering in both directions barely 100 yards of faster water.  

Fun water and fun fish

I had decided to work pockets and riffles, not holes, which would surely be close to fished out (though I did get one in a very popular hole this morning that was tight to a down tree), at least until the next stock.  I hooked a feisty one in a small pocket by a tree root on one of my first casts.  I thought he was huge, but he must have hit the front fly, shook off that one, and got the rear wet fly stuck on his chin.  He definitely had the leverage in the fast water!  Where a few of these fish have taken up residence, I am sure they would hold-over deeper in the gorge, but instead of holding over here, closer to the warm Montgomery County waters, I think they will be left behind…  Every year, I say I will keep a couple for cut bait in the surf, and then I don’t end up bait fishing in the surf, choosing the plug instead.  Maybe this year, after the last stock of the spring? Then again, the eagles and hawks need to eat too.

It does not take long for them to color up and grow back some fin.

After releasing him, I swung wets through some shallow riffles and high-sticked the wet flies through some pockets with only one follow and one swing and a miss.  At the end of the riffles there is a deeper pool, so I slipped an indicator on and nymphed along a dead tree in the otherwise open pool.  I stuck a second rainbow here, and then targeted a palomino hanging tight to a lone overhanging limb, before landing another bow swinging the flies at the tail-out.  Running low on time, I popped the indicator back on, added one additional split shot, and fished back up through the fast water towards my parking spot.  I was able to stick one beautiful little brown in a perfect depression in the run behind a rock, right where he should have been, before heading for the showers.  Speaking of showers, if we get an inch of rain tonight and tomorrow, it may be streamer day on Wednesday.  Until then, I will be planning and watching the gauges.

Down and back up: a rather productive 100 yards of creek.