May 4, 2017 – The Fourth is Strong in This One – Wissahickon Creek with Joe

The kid's still got it.  Joe on his way to at least 15 on the (barbless) Rapala CD 3 this morning

My dad arrived at my house at 6:30 AM this morning and, after suiting up, we took a short ride into Philly to fish for the recently stocked and left behind.  Even before the stocking this week, I had a couple silly fishing mornings on the creek, so I was hoping that I could get my dad on a mess of fish.  Well, he’s still got, folks.  He caught at least 15 on the Rapala, along with a dozen bass, rock bass, and sunfish, and with only a boost here or a pull there, he traversed the mighty Wissahickon gorge dry, clean, and happy, I hope.

Silly fishing, but fun once in a while!

I also had a good day, losing count after 20 trout on the long rod.  Once again, we got mugged by a guy who caught “10 fish in the same hole last night” and must have thought this was the only place he could catch 10 more on a creek that has a dozen miles of stocked water.  My dad moved on to quieter water, but I stayed in the hole and caught an even 10 fish while my mugger caught nothing.  Evil?  Maybe, but maybe he’ll avoid me next time he sees me, especially if he’s with a buddy to whom he wants to brag about his prowess with the trout!  Speaking of bragging about prowess with the freshly stocked trout…. my dad and I could have stayed in that one stretch and caught 50 fish, but we took a walk to find some solitude instead.

He's out there somewhere in the gorge.

We didn’t catch 50 more, but we picked away at fish until we quit at 11 AM and hiked back to the ‘Ru.  The water temp bounced back after the rain too; it was back to 61 this morning, which means more fishing to come!  I had to report to the office for a meeting at 1:30 PM, so I needed another coffee, some lunch, and a shower.  What a beautiful spring day and a good morning out with one of my first fishing partners, who still can’t out fish his son but who can hold his own—in honor of May the Fourth (Be with You) let’s called it a reversal of the master/padawan relationship.... We will spend 5 days on a boat together in Canada later this month, so good thing we like each other and aren’t competitive!  I will just go on record saying that I have out fished him from the back of the bass boat every year since I was 20 or 21 years old….

Not a lot of browns, and his one had a run in with a bird of prey, I think.