April 8, 2019 – Joe Loses His Sole but Has Success Striking Out Alone – Pennypack Creek

Bugs easier to photograph than fish.

Today was one of those gorgeous days that I have recently bemoaned.  The thermometer peaked at around 80 degrees, and the old summer convection wind even kicked up around midday—it is early April, mind you.  It did rain about a quarter of an inch last night, so that was a good thing, staining the water and bringing lower flows up a bit, and I almost loaded up early after bus stop to take a ride to the Lehigh or Oley Valley or something.  Instead, after talking to my dad over the weekend about his highs and lows fly fishing alone, and a text exchange this morning with the Silver Fox about his Sunday exploits, I decided to give another local freestoner a shot and try to get my dad on some more fish.  On a nice day like today, this section had the possibility of being less crowded, and it was, and I knew there would be holdovers and more fresh stockies in the mix.  I picked up my dad around 10 AM, and after spending some time re-rigging his new 9’ 5 wt. rod, we took a short ride to the creek.  Well, neither one of us tore them up, but he did catch two and dropped another while fishing independently of me, out of view even.  I did a bit of waiting around for him, not knowing he had backtracked towards our parking spot, so I never made it to some spots that I thought would be prime in these stained, higher conditions.  In his defense, he was a bit hobbled, in the process of losing the felt sole of one of his wading boots.  My dad doesn’t carry his phone because he’s a septuagenarian, I guess.  If it makes him feel better, I ran into another retired guy and asked him if he’d seen a devastatingly handsome older gentleman carrying a fly rod.  He had, and he pointed me in the right direction, but he also revealed that he does not carry his phone either.  When I called to see where my dad had gotten to, I had a nice conversation with my mom, who picked up his phone at home.

Some bright, ornery fatties.

As my collage shows, there were bugs about, including midges and a few crane flies—bring those walt’s worms to the Pennypack, methinks.  I landed 4 fish, and I dropped one other before netting.  As the collage also shows, these bows, the ones that have been around all winter or longer, don’t like to get their pictures taken.  I sent Tom H, the aforementioned Zorro Plateado, an emptying hand picture, and he replied, “I know that fish!”  He, too, has almost given up on photographing these slippery little piggies.  My largest two fish were over 16 inches, probably 17 inches, with white-tipped fins, a sure sign of fin regrowth on holdover fish.  A couple others looked more freshly stocked, and I turned a couple on half-hearted hits that may have been more recent fish just picking at the foreign buffet.  I got 3 of them on a grubby hare's ear, nearly a walt's worm, and one on the tungsten sj worm anchor.  My dad reported that his fish, which took a hare’s ear (more crane larva lovers?) were on the smaller side, but they were in cleaner, faster water.  The creek was muddy, and more muddy in the holes, so I too caught fish in moving, shallower water.

Took an SJ worm.  The fins, a sign that she's been in there a while.

No shade to chill out in, but when I found my dad, he was sitting on a park bench waiting for me.  He had also borrowed a wire tie from some landscaper’s tree work to keep that felt sole on long enough to complete today’s mission.  I was happy that he had some action on his new rod.  The fishing is not spectacular yet, but these warm days ought to wake things up even more.  I obstinately stick to the euro-nymphing, my self-imposed stocked fish rules that I seldom break, so with the light bites this month, I hope that the repeated drills under tougher conditions will pay dividends later in the month and into the spring when water temps wake the fish up and takes are much easier to detect.  My dad is due for a double digit day, a confidence booster.  Today was not that day, but he does get better each time, so a good day anyway, I hope.