November 19 and 20, 2018 – Cold Snow Melt and Some Stockies During Cold and Flu Season – Bed, Bushkill Creek, and Pickering Creek

It even looks cold...

After getting out a couple days early in the month and having success, I had to take an unplanned break or two this November.  First, I got a nice case of the flu that knocked me out for a week, and then it worked its way through Tami and Lukas.  Since I work mostly from home, it was I who also had the boy home sick for a day while Tami toughed it out at work.  She too ended up taking a sick day one morning.  I also had an annual drinking and eating weekend with some old friends in there somewhere, and I didn’t even bring a rod this year since I was still recovering from the illness.  Oh, and then there were the early dismissals and late arrivals for the early snowstorm.  All that and more ended up adding up to two weeks off the water!  Honestly, I was so surprised to have a free day and feel good on Monday that I jumped the gun and headed to the Bushkill near Easton and tried to force a good day in high water and cold snow melt.  The results: my first skunk of 2018.  I jumped around to a couple spots, even threw midges under an indicator in some slow holes, but the fish were either in difficult spawning mode or just in shock from the shot of snow melt.  The water was cold and getting colder as the sun melted remaining snow all day long.  I should have gone to the beach and chased striped bass.

Nice fins on this one, who ate the walts worm.

Today, I lowered my expectations and headed to the Pickering to confirm a fall stocking.  I only fished from 1 to 3 PM, but I caught about 8 fish and dropped a few more—they were barely hitting.  Stocking confirmed (?), although a couple of the fish looked like they had been in there a while.  Two browns had great fins and fought 5 times better than the other fish, and one rainbow was at the other end of the spectrum with a sickly thin caudal peduncle and barely a fight in him.  I just nymphed on a short line with a couple tungsten jigs, mostly a sexy walts worm and a pheasant tail, although the pictures show that a grubby orange caddis pupa looked too good for a few of them to ignore.  It was good to get a few fish after Monday’s beating, but the cold water did not help the stocked fish fight any better than they normally do, which is often not well.  I guess my rather stellar October has spoiled me!

This guy needs to eat a lot of midges this winter in order to make it!

I saw one car with a fishing decal when I was leaving, but I encountered no fishermen while I was out.  Like a lot of the creeks in PA, Pickering certainly looks different in spots due to the flooding rains this year.  I am glad I have some nearby stocked creeks to target this winter, however.  The magic 10 to 2 hours of winter fishing does not always lend itself to long rides, and I think I have made it clear that I like Valley... like it.  Besides a trip or two to limestoners and spring creeks, maybe out to see Sam, and the Lehigh Valley forays that are hit or miss in the winter, I don’t mind chasing a stockie or twelve to quell the winter blues and give Valley a break.  I have done some work on my plug bag too, so it may be time to hit the surf before these cold snaps put an end to what run there is this year!

Another in good shape eating a caddis pupa.