June 12, 2018 – The Day After the Day After All the Rain – Wissahickon Creek

Plenty of color but enough bugs and visibility to nymph with great results.

The Wissy in Philly was still running a little high and stained today, but there was at least a foot of visibility and plenty of bugs to make the fish active.  Midges were swarming (if you squint, you may see the trails of midges, caddis, and some olives in the photo above) and I even saw some splashy rises.  I targeted one hole that is deep and full of current, and in three hours of fishing, I landed and even 12 fish, not bad for mid-June in a creek that is characterized as marginal water.  If I had more time, there is more water that holds fish too!

Looking good for mid-June!

I started out catching fish on the same two flies I had rigged from an earlier Valley trip, a walts worm in size 18 and a larger Frenchie anchor, but I ended up drop-shotting two midges, when I saw the number of bugs coming off the water (Plus, I just have thing about throwing expensive tungsten flies at stockies, even on my favorite place to catch stockies).  I quit when I felt like I may have batted around, landing a brown—let’s call him No Pecs because he had no pectoral fins—that looked very familiar to one I landed early on in the morning.

No pecs...

I caught an even number of rainbows and browns, and surprisingly no bass or other panfish, who were likely smart enough to not hang in the current for their meals, as the eddies were probably full of spent midges too.   I don’t see this often on the Wissy, but a few fish were spitting up bugs and husks of aquatic worms and caddis larva.  I even saw a couple splashy rises, likely fish coming up for emerging caddis of which there were a few.  I know next year could be completely different, and I do recall that this year started out warm and mucky, but the creek seems to be doing very well over the last two years.  

White tips on the fins and great colors on this bow..

Unless we get a real warm up again, I should have a couple more weeks of fishing close to home, and I do appreciate a break from Valley in the early summer.  I took possession this week of the 7 weight line I had to replace, so when the river calms down again, a few smallmouth bass will help too.  I didn’t bring the fly rod to Canada this year because I destroyed the last 7 weight line on the beach last winter and had forgotten about replacing it until the day before we were leaving…

Fish are in the riffles and runs, but water temperature was 64 degrees at 11 AM even in the shallows here.

I have some grading to do on Tuesday night, and I still have to teach on Wednesday evening, but I am thinking about a trip to a favorite Berks County creek for a few hours between bus stop duties.  Tami gets home from seeing her mom on Thursday afternoon, so things will get back to normal for a little while at least.  I am thankful that the Wissy still provides a beautiful and productive outing fifteen minutes from home.

Day of midges....