February 19 and 22, 2019 – Two Trips, One for Stockies, One for Wilds, Only One Fish – Montgomery and Northampton Counties

Stockie skunk?  It happens!

I finally took a long enough break this week to Aquaseal a pesky pin hole in the knee of my Simms G3s, which will save me a 6 to 8 week wait for a repair across the country in Washington.  Spring is too close to play that game again.  I did it last year, and I used my backup bootfoot waders on a trip to State College, which ended in a tumble in Fishing Creek in 35 degrees and snow, no less.  Keeping with that theme of maintenance, I guess, I tied up a couple leaders and then went on a Monday-Tuesday hunt for replacement spikes for a pair of my wading boots.  I hit a couple Dick’s, Orvis, and a local shop near Stony Creek—none of them had them in stock.  Orvis’s supplier has them backordered until the summer (?), and I resisted the urge to drive to the TCO shop for the 30-dollar official Simms replacements or similarly priced Chota and such.  I wanted 10 dollar Frog Toggs or Field and Stream or motocross spikes, you know?  They all fall out when you fish as much as I do!  I ended up having to use Amazon Prime for a two day delivery of some decent but cheap spikes, which I will sink and glue in place this upcoming weekend.  Since I was out in Norristown area on Tuesday to check a small shop for spikes, however, I poked around Stony looking for any Black Friday stockies that resisted the PowerBait and avoided the frying pan or eagle talons.  No dice, so I took a 90 minute walk in waders, basically.

A little off-color and very cold.

I worked late on Thursday, spending time on campus in the evening after class to finish 90% of my grading and prep work, because I wanted to take a “real” fishing trip on Friday.  Knowing full well the melt following the last snow storm was going to make things iffy yet again, I still decided to take my first trip to the Bushkill of 2019.  I almost didn’t suit up when I saw the color of the water from a bridge, but when I parked and took a closer look, the flow was normal-ish and the visibility in riffles was decent, so I gave it a shot with the streamer for an hour, hoping to move a good fish that needed to eat.  Wishful thinking, especially because a water temp check revealed 37 degrees.  Paired with gray snow melt water, and no visible bugs, conditions looked awfully tough.   After breaking off a bugger in some newly deposited and invisible debris, I walked back to my car to get my nymphing rod before heading upstream into a favorite hole that I was confident would at least net me a holdover rainbow or something.  I fished this hole thoroughly for a thorough skunk.  I got bounced once while standing waist-deep and reaching over heavy water to drop my big golden stone and sj worm dropper into a soft spot on the other side of the creek, but I did not connect on my hook set. 

The golden stone scared one up.

I started smelling cigarette smoke a while before I heard voices upstream. I figured it was workers on the adjacent property, as sometimes happens, but it ended up being two other fly guys also enjoying a Friday skunk.  They were nice guys and we talked for quite a bit about our favorite spots, including the mighty Brodhead.  When we passed again as they were packing up to go and I was planning my next move, I mentioned that I write this blog if they wanted to get in touch in the future.  The one dude knew about Sick Days Fishing, so I am famous to about 30 people in the world!  Funny, I will mention it to some guys or share a link to a post on the paflyfish site once in a while, but it is always funny to see where this message in a bottle lands.  I started writing it as a way to track, to log my trips, and share with my buddies and dad, maybe for an excuse to write more and take more photos while out.  In the true spirit of social media, however, I have met some nice folks over the years, and I even found a client for Sam Galt’s guiding this year, so it slowly grows each year into something I did not completely anticipate, which is cool.

The first of many good Bushkill wild browns for 2019, I hope.

I talked about going to Monocacy or even Martins while the day was still young, but instead I decided to nymph another hole that I only swung a bugger through in the morning.  Whether that was the right call or not, I did manage to land my first decent Bushkill wild brown of 2019 before I quit early.  The fish took the big golden stone at the beginning of the pool’s tailout, and he hit it with authority before taking two leaps too, so he was that one out there needing to eat today despite conditions.  I was happy to see him after the tough morning.  He was pushing 13 inches and not in any way stressed looking like some of the skinny fish I have caught this winter.  I worked a few soft pockets below this hole for another 30 minutes or so without even a bump, so I packed it in and beat early Friday traffic home.  Not a banner week, but I accomplished some necessary work and had a little reward at the end.