November 9, 2017 - All’s Well That Ends Well – Brodhead Creek

A dreary, BWO kind of day, when I needed a streamer to catch fish....

I have written before, I know, that I am not really a dry fly fisherman.  I do not carry many with me, and even then, I carry a basic selection of different size classics like olives, caddis, midges, the odd Wulff or Adams (which I wish I had the right size of today).  I do like figuring out puzzles sometimes, and dry fly fishing can be a puzzle of size, color, approach, tippet size, tippet length, and so on.  Even then, however, if you don’t have what the fish want in your box of tricks and flies, sometimes it can be frustrating.  On the other hand, when you do get it right, it can be a lot of fun!  Today was not that day.  It did end well, though, and you know what Shakespeare said...

A beauty of 15 inches.

I packed up my Subaru around 8:30 AM after dropping the boy off at the bus stop, but I knew I had some work to do before fishing today.  I actually ended up doing quite a bit of work until about 11 AM, including a couple frustrating email exchanges, so when I talked to Tami around 10 AM, she could sense that I was pissy.  She offered to do pick up for the boy in the afternoon for me if I wanted to go fishing longer into the late afternoon.  I love that woman!  And I quickly took her up on the offer.

The big olive bugger rescued the afternoon.

When I arrived at the Brodhead, my intention was to target the fish that were stocked in October, but because the weather was a bit cold and wet, I walked into the tail end of an afternoon hatch of blue winged olives.  Fish were sipping everywhere, and a couple little guys were making splashy shows of enthusiasm too.  I was rigged up to nymph, so I had to take some time and re-rig with a 9 foot leader tapered down to 5X and dig around for some olive matches in size 18 to 20 (mostly 20’s).  There were about 6 fish working right out in the open, so I picked one and delivered my size 20 olive, which was ignored by this fish and a couple others.  I changed up to other patterns, sizes, and lengthened my leader with 6X.  I even added a dropper.  Nope.  One fish took a swipe at a bigger pattern but in the end didn’t like what he saw.  I even swung some wet flies before giving up on these finicky fish.

A couple pretty 12 inchers too.

I am glad I did not go home, however.  I spent the last hour of the afternoon chunking a big streamer and catching nothing but wild browns.  The biggest was a healthy 15 inches, and the skinnier one I landed before dark measured 14 inches.  I also landed two in the 12 inch range that fought well, as wild river fish do.  Besides landing those four beautiful fish, I moved a couple others, dropped one after a leap, and had a few other strong bumps—all part of the charm of streamer fishing, definitely less delicate and certainly more visceral than dry fly fishing.  I was surprised to find no stocked rainbows, which made up half of the earlier rising fish, but I was happy that these wild fish, often ghosts in a heavily-pressured, easily accessible section of the creek, came out to rescue my day.  The Brodhead continues to be a confounding and rewarding creek for me.  I would not have it any other way, I suppose.

A skinny 14 just before dark.

Low light early due to clouds and drizzle, but still colored up this time of year.