September 1, 2018 – Some Success on the Rare, Impromptu Afternoon Trip – Oley Valley

Stained and high, like most of the summer...

The creeks in SEPA got yet another shot of water overnight, but nothing that caused them to rise totally out of the banks, at least not for long.  I got up too late on a weekend to sneak around Valley before everyone else did, and I had to cut the lawn before risking the growth spurt after another ample soaking (I don’t remember my lawn staying this green through August in years—that is, without the help of sprinklers), but I got the urge around 3:30 PM today to take a ride, perhaps under an hour, and find some trout.  Tami and the boy had been out since noon-ish, so instead of napping after doing the yard work, I took a quick shower, loaded up my pack and rod and some boots for wet wading, and just pointed the Subaru towards the west.  I didn’t expect much, but I was hopeful that I could find some hold-overs, maybe even a wild one or two, at a creek in the Oley Valley that has some limestone influence and stays pretty cool in the summer.  After navigating car shows and the early bird special crowds and other Labor Day events, I arrived at the creek around 4:30 PM only to find a couple cars at two of my go-to spots.  Instead of wedging my way in, I decided to try a new spot that I have not fished before, figuring I could learn a new stretch of the creek if nothing else.  Well, if you have ever visited a creek for the first time while it is high and stained, then you know it is not so easy to get a lay of the land…  At least there were no other fishermen here.  There were plenty of mosquitoes to keep me company, however.

Fish #2 looking a bit sad.

After taking a break to dig in my pack for some bug juice, I found some deep water, but only chubs were interested in my pair of nymphs, a pheasant tail and a hare’s ear with a hot spot.  I decided to take a longer walk, and before running into posted signs, I found a decent decline that prompted a stretch of riffles and pocket water.  My intention was to start downstream and work my way up through this cleaner and more oxygen-rich water before moving on to another spot.  Well, after a couple more chubs, I was half-surprised to stick a decent brown trout on my anchor fly in a deeper seam within the first riffle.  It’s been a while, you know, me fishing, so I was not all that skilled, surely not enough to land the fish, take a picture, and quickly release it unharmed in mid-60’s water temps.  I was wet wading, so keys, phone, all the essentials, were in my pack, so the first fish in weeks got to swim away without even a blurry photo.  At least I caught a pretty sad-looking rainbow a little further upstream, and this time I had my net and phone game situated.   Upstream from where I accessed the creek didn’t look all the promising for in-stream wading on a muddy, high water day, and the path ended quickly, so I headed back to the parking spot, and made the decision to return to the first couple of areas and see if anyone had quit yet.

It's alive: a couple pretty browns in the mix.

One of the cars was still there, but the two young guys had locked themselves out and were in the process of trying to get in!  They had a wire hanger, but I dug around for a screw driver (one I primarily use to release frozen or mucked-shut boa releases on wading boots when I wear boa-release boots like today) so they could try to pry and wedge the door open enough to fish for the handle or the lock.  Besides a third set of eyes to guide the wire, I was no use to them beyond my screw driver and an ice scraper they also grabbed as a wedge, so eventually I went fishing and told them I would listen for a yell of success or failure.  About fifteen minutes later, I did hear a car alarm, which probably meant success, followed by a brief silence then a whoop that likely meant they got the keys in the ignition to shut off the alarm and start the car.  When I returned to go home, they had placed the ice scraper and the screw driver, which I did need to get the old boots off, on the windshield of the ‘Ru. Nice catch, fellas.

Nice, bright and healthy rainbow too.

With the hour approaching 6:30 PM or later, I stuck pretty close to the pull-off, knowing full well that the two other parties probably fished a couple of the holes I was going to fish, but it all worked out in the end.  I added three more decent fish to my tally, and I got bounced one other time and lost him when I sent my rod tip into some low-hanging trees on the hook-set.  By 7:30 PM it was getting too dark to see my sighter line, and it was too muddy for risers to the sparse bug population taking flight here and there—very small caddis and maybe an isonychia (?) or two—but three more fish in the last hour was good for the first trip out in a long while.  Besides a couple minor mishaps with photos and hook-sets, and the diversion of the locked out dudes, I probably did lose a couple more flies than normal, but I wasn’t a total wreck.  Two of the five fish I landed also appeared to be wild browns, so I had that going for me, I suppose, and the rainbow I caught at this spot was healthy and bright with white-tipped fins—all good.  I am hoping that I can get out next week again, as the boy starts school on Tuesday, and I am in “syllabus week” for the fall semester with no other meetings or commitments yet.  Last September, I did a little bass fishing with the fly rod, but the rivers are so high right now that I may stick with trout and visit a few Lehigh Valley creeks for the time being.  A short one today, but it was good to be back…