May 9, 2017 – A Quality Kind of Day – Northampton County Wild Browns and Wild-at-Heart Rainbows

An ornery 16 inch wild brown, the second quality fish of the morning.

I have been fishing close to home a lot over the last few weeks, but I had today to go on an adventure, and I made the most of it, hitting two streams and having success at both.  I considered the Lehigh River, but that would have taken some planning, and big blues are marauding the back bays, but they are not bass. As long as the spring weather persists, I still wake up thinking of trout on the fly rod, honestly, so I settled on a couple streams about an hour and change away.

First fish of the morning, a fat, acrobatic 15 incher.

I was up at 3:45 AM, hoping to arrive at creek one just around sunrise or false dawn.  I figured the creek would have good color, but it is small and recovers rather quickly from rain, so I also knew it would be back to low conditions.  If I wanted to fool some of the big wild browns that call the creek home, especially with a streamer, I would have to use the low light to help my cause.  I was going to stop here, toss the streamer rod, and then head further north, but I ended up staying at creek one until about 11:30 AM before hiking back downstream and taking a lunch break (peanuts and jerky, so not really lunch).  

Early morning on creek number one.

I got zero follows with the streamer, and the creek was only slightly stained, although the flow was good.  I switched over to a big brown stonefly as the anchor fly above a black speck of something, since I did see dark caddis and some midges as the sun rose, and I plumbed the depths of a deep dark run and hole.  Bang!  I set the hook on a 15 inch wild brown that ran all over the place, jumped no less than 4 times, and was still pissed off when I netted him a minute later.  Come to think of it, he shot back to the hole with a head of steam still.  He was not the 18 or 20 have tangled with in the past in this same stretch, but, man, was he a memorable fighter.  I will daydream about this fish all week!

A beauty of a third fish of the morning.

So pretty he got a close-up.

He really stirred up the joint, and I didn’t help by muddying the flow moving into a good spot to land and photograph him (mostly looking for good light in the low morning sun), so I was not surprised that I didn’t scare up another hit in this pool.  I moved upstream towards a few other nice pockets and runs, hoping to return to the hole before I left for the morning.  Well, I covered a lot of ground, plying a mayfly nymph with some yellow in anticipation of early sulfurs, but I also covered my bases with a small black dropper that was effective.  I landed two more nice fish, including the 16 incher pictured as the lead shot of this post.  This fish, and the pretty 12 incher a caught further upstream later on the sulfur nymph, were acrobats on par with the first fish of the morning.  It is funny how that varies creek to creek, strain to strain.  I only landed 3 nice browns before running into stocked rainbows in a popular hole, but the browns made my morning.  I am not complaining about the big bows that have been in since March either, though.  About 4 of them took the small black nymph, barely above a midge at size 18.  Content with numbers now, especially all quality fish, I hiked up to the road and headed back to my parking spot to rehydrate, lose a layer of clothes, and have the aforementioned “lunch.”

A few big stocker rainbows to finish up at creek number 1.

Pleased with the morning’s work, quality if not quantity, I drove back south instead of north.  I had a stretch of the Bushkill Creek in mind that I have not fished since the winter when Kenny and I suffered a skunk and a half.  It was on my way home, and it is a fun challenge or challenging fun.  Why do all my favorite creeks have the potential to be a bust on any given day?  Or is that everyone’s favorite creek?  

Creek two from a low angle.

Near a legal parking spot, I found about 3 recently stocked rainbows, who also took the semblance of a small black caddis larvae like one of the browns and all the bows from the morning.  I pressed further upstream.  I had in mind to target a certain hole you can probably take a high dive into, except for the random boulders and rock shelfs.  I kept the dropper on, but replaced the anchor fly with a heavy black stonefly and more split shot, when I could see that I needed to get down in the strike zone quickly.  I had a swipe at the flies right smack in the deep run, and I missed him, so I needed to slow the drift down.  As often happens when I get the right drift and the right weight (which go hand in hand) I caught a handful of gorgeous rainbows.  The one in the photo below was perfect, damn near wild in appearance, with full fins extended out and bright silver coloration.  All of them were strong, bulldog fighters too, including one that was too hot to handle, apparently.

Wild at heart, great fins and colors, and strong from hanging in pocket water = I'll take it!

While I know I will daydream about the hot brown I caught in the morning, I will also relive the one that got away here.  I hooked a freight train, in the mouth, I know, because I turned the fish just once before he took off downstream for a second time, peeling line.  I followed, and I thought I caught up with him, and I did… kind of.  He had used a boulder and one of the rocky shelves in the tailout of the pool as a potential refuge—under one and out, it appeared, before settling under a second rock.  Just like when they were cute baby parr, the adults still try to hide when scared.  Well, my line was under the shelf, and the fish was hunkered next to or under a big boulder in deep water, so I couldn’t net him and may have been swimming if I tried.  Believe me, I thought about finding the lower half of my leader and trying the handline him free.  I couldn’t reach it…  I could feel the pulse, pulse of the fish on the short line, despite half of my leader wedged under the rocky ledge.  I only felt him for exactly two seconds, however, once I decided the free the leader and hope for the best.  He was gone just like that.  I think it was a rainbow based on the silver and white I saw when I turned him in the depths the first time, but who knows.

My consolation prize after being owned by a beast: just a beautiful fish who deserves a better photo!

I caught one more nice fish, just to get over the disappointment before I left.  As a consolation prize, it was one of the prettiest rainbows I have caught in a while.  With the afternoon ending on a good note, just like the morning began on a good note, I was content to head home to get the boy from the bus.  I may have only landed a dozen fish in a full day of fishing at two different creeks, but the fish were good fish and exactly what I needed after spending so much time on the stockies close to home in recent days.  I have meetings all day on Wednesday, but Thursday sounds like it has potential…