June 8 and 9, 2017 – More Encounters with the Forgotten Ones – Wissahickon Creek

Not hard to find them if you look in the right places!

I spent about 2 hours on Thursday and again today, hunting down the trout that have been left behind, all but forgotten, in the Wissy.  Thankfully, there are many of them.  While 90 degree days are coming, I hear, the water temperature both days was under 65, and it was plenty cool in the shade.  I worked up a sweat climbing out of the gorge at 3 PM today, in the peak of heat, but otherwise it was a comfortable day.  I had only one brown yesterday that avoided a photograph, probably embarrassed that he ate a pink san juan worm dropper, but I tangled with a lot of rainbows that had good fin regrowth and fought well in the fast water where they are mostly holding now.  A few can still be had in deeper holes, but riffles must be nearby and shade or cover.  Many of the bigger fish are gone, of course, but I still had half a dozen that were over 12 inches, so plenty fun on light tackle in moving water.

Almost all rainbows, but all of them looking good and fighting well in 63-65 degree water.

I fished two different, though connected, sections, encompassing about a mile of stream maybe, and I found fish in most of my favorite spots.  Think deep holes, braided holes with stone around and, likely, cool water seeps.  I had a few pleasant surprises in some shallow riffles, although surprise is a bit strong since I did cast there thinking the spot would hold fish, after all J The park is alive with hikers and dog walkers (on leash and not) but I was the only fisherman that I saw, just the way I like it.

Prince nymph did well in the fast water, but a couple took the SJ worm dropper too.

Besides maybe 4 fish that I dredged up with an indicator from a deeper, calmer hole, the majority took a prince nymph as the anchor fly or either an sj worm dropper or something pheasant tail-ish serving the same role on a Czech nymph rig with a single dropper.  The sunfish also like the prince in fast water if they can catch it.  Usually, the panfish hang in the slower seams, where the trout would have been months ago, so I can usually avoid catching all but the sportiest sunnies by casting where they are not holding and, therefore, targeting trout.  Makes sense, yeah?  

Pretty fish and nice surroundings, all very close to home.  Love the translucent fins already!

Besides midges, whose imitations would get eaten by every little thing in the creek, there is not a lot of bug life in the Wissy right now.  However, I did see some tan caddis, about size 12, dancing around with only the aforementioned sunfish taking note.  If the next heat wave doesn’t end the party, I may take one more shot with some terrestrials in the near future.  Only 3 trips this week, so I am slowing down, but they were all enjoyable for different reasons.

A few fatties left behind