April 16 and 18, 2018 – A Lot of Rain - Putting the Social Net-Working in Social Networking – Reelin’ Ron Hits the Wissahickon with the Long Rod, Finally!

The Pride of Delco getting things accomplished with the tight line.

I fished with Ron for the first time today, but we actually hugged when we met at the stream this morning for a good day of chasing stockies on the Wissy.  I feel like I know the guy, and he probably feels the same way since he is undoubtedly one of the first followers of my blog here, and he predates that by a long time, as well.  We became acquainted through the Bass Barn, back when I was morphing once again from surf fisherman to trout fisherman to fly fisherman to surf fisherman to trout fisherman to fly fisherman, with detours in other species too.  I could just tell he was a good guy, and that was confirmed in person today.  He is recently retired as a middle school shop teacher, and has almost finished raising some adult kids, so he has more time on his hands now, which made it easier to finally meet and fish.  We are both educators who love to fish, and we both appreciate a good book—he is always quick with a nugget of fishing wisdom, knows A River Runs Through It is also a novel about addiction, for example—so what were the chances we would dislike each other, right?

Ron's stonefly worked as did the old tungsten pt and the walt's worm.

Based on the questions he has asked over the years, the right sort of questions that reveal experience on the water, I knew he could probably fish, and I was correct.  I took him for a walking tour of one of my favorite sections of my home creek, offered about 10 minutes total of advice on how to rig and fish a Czech nymphing system, and he quickly put some fish on the board.  He even caught all his fish on the flies he tied all winter, which is more than I can say for this lazy angler these days.  In addition to sharing a John Merwin edited collection of fishing quotations that will find a permanent home in my powder room, a place of respect, he even shared a couple of his streamers, made me a gourmet sandwich, and took a 5 wt combo off my hands to add to his arsenal of toys.

A handful of browns but mostly bows, 10 to 12 inches

I couldn’t accurately guess how many fish we caught, but it was a lot, especially a week after a stocking and another flood damaging storm, and I usually don’t take a lot of pictures when I am fishing with another angler, but it was a good day.  Ron has homework to do with his 10 foot 3 wt, but I think he left today with a lot more confidence in the tool, especially for the type of pocket water we targeted today, and I hope he gained a first-hand appreciation of the Mighty Wissy in Philadelphia, an oft-maligned and underappreciated crick that is at least a click or two above the average put and take urban stocked trout stream, at least on the beauty scale if not on the water quality meter! 

Valley was ugly, even on Monday afternoon....

After all that rain over the weekend, Valley was unfishable even at 3 PM the afternoon after (I did take a walk with the streamer rod on Monday, but knew it was a waste of time besides the walk in the woods, of course), but that also means flows should be good for a couple more days in the local creeks, and I will try again this week.  I also have tentative plans to fish the Lehigh River with another local guy, a new fishing contact, so I find myself very social these days?