April 5, 2017 – I’m Walkin’ Here – A Stroll to the Wissahickon Creek

Pretty spot that actually held a couple fish.

I may have mentioned that I have a stretch of the Wissy that is literally right down the street and is stocked a couple times each spring.  It is not in the best shape: muddy, silted up, steep banks from constant flooding, but it is in a pretty, forested, suburban setting, loaded with deer and other wildlife, and only crowded for the first few days after a stocking.  The boy and I fished part of this section on Mentored Youth Day and did well, and Eric landed a pig breeder on the Sunday after Opening Day in another part (while also helping a bait guy land a huge palomino), but I had a couple other spots I wanted to try with the fly rod.

A black copper john was visible in the muddy water.

Unlike other creeks in the area like Valley, Pickering, the upper Penny, even the Wissy in Fairmount Park, the stretch does not clear up very quickly.  I didn’t take a walk down until after lunch, and even then it was muddied up.   The rain had stopped overnight sometime, so it should have bounced back more quickly.  I guess the ground is pretty saturated already.  Visibility in the deep holes was bad.  I should have thrown streamers, since fish were active enough to chase my indicator in a couple clearer runs (and my dad caught a mess with the Rapala at another area of the creek earlier in the day, I learned later), but I was set up and had the desire to nymph up some fish from deep holes in the midday sun with a host of junk flies (Black copper john?  Yellow mop fly? Check and check).

A little rough!  He came out of a small pocket where you would expect a trout to live, though.

I ended up catch 6 or 7 in a couple hours, nothing spectacular but still fun.  I even caught a couple in little holes that don’t always get stocked (and also no fish in spots that are usually loaded), but the variety was a bit more exciting than the usual.  Two memorable fish took the black copper john, like most fish today, in a small pocket under a tree, which was unexpected and kind of like real trout fishing…  It is great to be able to suit up in my garage and take a stroll down to the park for a couple productive hours, so I will not knock the Wissy in this area, although I think its days are numbered as an approved trout stream.  The water is already warming up, and all the development upstream is taking its toll on the health of an already storm damaged creek.  At least the boy and I are getting some use out of it now.