October 25, 2017 – What’s with All the Rainbows, Sam? – Centre County Tour

Cloudy and cool in Central PA

I had been trying to plan a of day fishing with Sam for a couple weeks, but Central Pennsylvania needed a shot of rain as much as my area did, so when the forecast called for storms on Monday into Tuesday, we penciled in today as a go.  Sam ended up taking Tuesday off from his 12 jobs, including guiding and working at the TCO shop in State College, so he was on day two of the post rain holiday.  Like closer to home, however, the rains here were not exactly what the fish gods ordered, but they certainly stained the water, which always helps, and the clouds and cool weather (39 degrees to start!) today brought out the blue winged olives too—mostly ignored by two nymph fishermen, mind you, but they and the persistent tan caddis did make the fish active above and below for much of the day.  We stayed within a 20 mile radius of State College today, but we took a tour of a lot of Sam’s favorites close to home.  As always, it was a long, fun day with good company.

The exhibitionist stole the show.

The story today, for better or for worse, will be of the pig rainbow that I landed with Sam’s netting help (when I finally gave up chasing the beast around with my little measure-net) in public waters.  This was likely an “exhibition” fish that washed down from downtown Bellefonte, but based on the shape of this fish and the fight he put up, he’d been around a while.  I know Jimmy Carter probably paid to catch fish like this on some private lodge on Spruce Creek, but I saw this as a fun novelty and a good photo op.  While making our way towards somewhere to take a lunch break, we spied a posse of big fish looking to get active, so we both tied on streamers quickly.  I didn’t even take off the caddis dropper, which the fish ate, of course..  Thankfully, my dropper knot held and, along with Sam’s big FishPond net, we have it to thank for the photo above.

The contender, a good 16 or 17 inch brown in all his fall splendor.

If not for the big rainbow, the most memorable fish would surely be the muscular 16 to 17 inch brown Sam let me have at our first creek of the morning.  He called this one, knowing this particular pocket in a riffle very well—one of many 5 x 5 foot pockets, tree limbs, and root balls he has in a mental Rolodex of Central PA spots culled from many hours on the water.  He actually guaranteed a fish—no a good fish—and thankfully I didn’t let him down when opportunity thump thumped, landing a gorgeous bruiser in great, moderately heavy water.  The cocky bastard (Sam, not the fish) called a couple other spots too, and he was mostly right.  I totally understand the pride and satisfaction of taking a buddy to one of your spots and saying, There’s one here, so don’t eff it up, and it’s not like I stuck one of his 23 inch pets, so I appreciated the selflessness.  He stepped in and cleaned up at few runs too, and I had the “opportunity” to fish behind him a few times too.  Let’s just say that one should not be surprised that I caught the bows after he stuck all the browns!

Another tough guy.

That said, a couple of the rainbows I tussled with were pretty pristine, probably stocked as fingerlings, white tipped fins, and great colors.  One memorable one pictured above may have even been a strain that spawns in the fall instead of the spring.  I also landed some feisty 12 inch wild browns and one big sucker that dug for the roots of a sycamore like a big brown, convincing enough that Sam started coming down to help before I got a look at the ugly thing and called off the assist.

I was king of the rainbows, but a few were really nice fish.

I kept talking about chunking a streamer, but the nymphing was so consistent that I never re-rigged.  Hell, I think I only retied twice, once when a hook set hung my pair of tungsten beauties in a tree limb Sam and I had taken painstaking care to avoid for the ten minutes prior.  After landing a nice little brown in a perfect, complex hole, I guess I got excited when another fish popped my rig as the bugs were still falling in an eddy.

The kind of place that eats flies but hold nice fish!  Love it!

Fish took a pheasant tail on a jig, as well as a purple pt with a silver tungsten bead, but the morning was ruled by the same little weightless caddis dropper that fooled the pig rainbow and a lot of his friends.  We really only fished riffles, pockets and bankside runs, so it was a Czech nymphing day, all day long.  Maybe Sam caught the browns because they liked his new tie better.  I am looking forward to using a new creation he is tying now, a simple hot spot mayfly nymph with another pop of color on the tag too.  He gave me a couple even before I bucked up at the end of the day for my next fly order, but I never really felt the need to re-rig, as fishing was consistent all day on the bugs that I already had tied on.

Sam did let me catch some browns, though.

We called it a day a little before 6 PM instead of driving to one more spot and fishing a mere 15 or 20 minutes more.  I was on the road and home in just over three hours of driving, and while I am writing this at 5 AM on Thursday, the day after, I was able to fall asleep pretty early, despite living on caffeine, Slim Jims, and Sheetz Shamwichez.  Sam offers a sleeping bag on the floor but, so far, I am still good with these long drives at my “young” age.  Because it was cool and I stayed pretty hydrated all day, I feel good, but I will need a nap later.  I have a lot of work to do Thursday, but perhaps Friday will be my third fishing day this week?  I am heartened that rain is supposed to arrive again this weekend.  I think I need to get young Eric out fishing now that he has killed a deer with the bow and is no longer content to be mere spectator (I tortured him with pics all day).  Maybe, inspired by Sam, I will even say, There is a good fish there, so don’t eff it up, and let a mitch have first crack at it. 

Another memorable day in Central PA.