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| Wet hand with fish minus the fish who probably slipped to stage left... |
There is an old saying about golf that also pertains to fishing, namely that it is a good walk
spoiled. That little nugget came to mind a couple times this week as I enjoyed mediocre fishing in beautiful places. Fishing conditions, especially at mid-day
when I had the chances to get out, were not great—low water, sunny, chilly
mornings—but for just hiking and enjoying the beautiful scenery within an hour
of my home, it was a perfect week. The
autumn air was crisp and clean, the trees were in late fall colors, and bugs
were actually hatching: olives, midges, and caddis on two of the three creeks I
visited. That said, I saw nary a riser
and caught most of my fish on a midge or a streamer—which are both still very fun, mind
you.
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| Buckets were chased... |
I started the week taking a peek at the Ridley Creek FFO,
which was pretty much a waste of time besides the return of fall weather.
It was the lowest and warmest creek, too, and it was crowded following the
recent stocking. To make matters worse, the fish were dumped in two holes right
above the bridge, perhaps to give them a chance to live until the next high
water event spreads them out, or perhaps because no one was around the
help. I hope it was the former. I walked away from the crowd to spots deeper
in the FFO section, but I saw no trout, so I honed my skills highsticking a few
chubs before taking a long walk upstream into the all tackle water. I saw a couple buckets dumped in slow deep
holes, but I had to walk a long while to find pocket water or runs to
fish. When I did, it was chub water. The long walk, however, was very
enjoyable. The state park here is a
beautiful place. Before I left, I decided to nudge my way into an open spot where there were fish (I landed one on a pheasant tail on the way upstream) and I tossed a black bugger with a hot bead. I managed to end with 3 or 4 fish in a short time, enough success to move on and go home.
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| A few recent stockies on the bugger and one on a nymph before calling it quits. |
Later in the week, I
took a ride to southern Lehigh County to a well-known Trophy Trout regulations
section of a limestoner. Here, bugs were
going crazy, perhaps the end of the tricos, but also swarms of BWOs and caddis
in all the streamside vegetation. The
only thing missing was fish—well, fish in the net, anyway. With low water, I did a lot of creeping
around, and I lost a few flies fishing under logs and undercut banks.
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| Hatches, hatches everywhere (click to enlarge), but no successful landings. |
Under one such log, I had one bang bang that
broke the 6X tippet holding a midge dropper, just two pumps—a tell for a violent
headshake sometimes. That didn’t bother
me as much as the second fish I lost, which looked to be a rainbow that washed
down from above the special regs, as it was really silver and wide-bodied. The thing was at least 24 inches—I fought her
into the shallow water below her downed tree lair for about 30 seconds, and I saw
the entire fish surface a couple times.
Just massive! At any rate, I
actually was a bit pissed off and surprised when I tried to turn the fish away
from tree branches and rip rap with side pressure, and the midge hook bent and
popped out! I rarely get emotional about
losing a fish, but this thing was like Pequest hatchery fish big, the kind of
healthy but outsized monsters New Jersey stocks in little creeks they call
rivers.
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| Massive stocked rainbow bent a hook on a midge, unknown piggie shook off 6X like it was a spider web.. |
Skip ahead to Friday,
and I only had a 2 hour window to fish with the boy having early dismissal from
school and band in the morning. Bad
math, again, but I took a 60 minute ride to fish 120 minutes before a 60 minute
ride home. I knew this creek would be
cold and have water in it, however, and it ended up being the most enjoyable
trip this week. I had been talking to
Kev about this section of one of my favorite creeks in Northampton County earlier
in the week, so I guess it was on my mind this morning. After taking the boy and a neighbor kid to
band practice, I hit the toll roads to make the trip as quickly as
possible. I fished from 10 AM to 12 noon
before taking another nice walk back to the ‘Ru.
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| Bad math, but good times: drive 120 to fish 120? |
In that short time, I
caught a gorgeous wild brown of 14 inches.
This fish took a size 20 caddis emerger dropped under a couple small
beaded midges of similar size and proceeded to jump three or four times. I caught a rainbow with the same set up a few
minutes later and then the bite shut off in this small, now thoroughly disturbed
hole. Time was running short, so I
decided to fish a streamer back down to the parking spot, and I had a ball, catching another rainbow on the mighty Roberdeau streamer. I also moved two other fish and hooked
another, watching the visual strikes in shallow braided water and whooping it
up too.
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| A 14 inch wild beauty was fought and released (finally!). |
My last walk of the week was more like a run, but I made
it to the car and home in time to take the boy to a haircut appointment and
some outdoor play. This was not the best
week of fishing, and I was not all that inspired to write until today, but it
was a good week to have some time outdoors, for sure. I am praying for rain, as I have penciled in
next Wednesday with Sam in State College area.
Streams are low out there also, so it's time for a rain dance!
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| Big streamers were slung with success. |
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| Pretty wild-at-heart rainbows helped salvage a good walk spoiled. |
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