May 29, 2019 – Certainly not Canada, but Still Some Time Out of Doors – Wissahickon Creek

Some weekend mornings in the woods.

Kenny reminded me over the weekend that most years I would have been in Canada bass fishing for a week starting Memorial Day weekend.  I opted not to go this year, which I may have explained here before.  Besides experiencing diminishing returns over the last few years, my new job affords me a lot of unstructured time to fish, as you may have noticed, but often not 5 days in a row, at least not until I am released for the summer after graduation in early June.  As the boy get older too, it’s also nice to have a little more cash in hand for family trips.  I will get out for bass, for sure, perhaps even with Young Kenny the next time our schedules mesh—I was invited on June 3, but I am, god help me, chaperoning the sixth grade school trip to Dorney Park (at least I will see trout in Cedar, right?).  It was too hot to trout fish most of the weekend, and the weather was very unsettled.  Tornadoes touched down in Berks County just last night.  I did get the boy out in the woods at least three mornings over the weekend.  We just hiked before it got hot(er), tracked a deer or two, hunted for tadpoles, and dug worms to feed to the prespawn sunfish.  We even witnessed two good smallmouth playing “finsie” in the downtown Ambler stretch of the Wissahickon Creek on one particular walk.

Not a chalkstream, just spooky City runoff.

I thought I might meet Hus on the creek today to give him the fishing gear we collected for his students, but they are off to go camping until Friday.  Cool school or what?  Instead, I actually met my parents out for a walk along Forbidden Drive.  I had some flies for my dad, so I invited him out fishing, but he had plans to walk with Mom, it appears.  The creek was not on fire, by any means, but I caught a half a dozen panfish and one rainbow so that I could quit.  I fished for my parents’ benefit for a few minutes while we talked, but of course I landed the only trout of the short trip as they were walking back away from the creek towards the path.   I stuck to two holes because it was already too hot at 10:30 AM for me to even consider hoofing it down to a couple other spots.  If this heat remains in place, the game might be over much sooner this year than the last couple.  I did not take a temp reading today, but the gage in my neighborhood is hitting 70 degrees almost daily now.  Even in the shade and better holding water in the City, the end is near or already upon us.  Tom H. and I are going to try and stay cool tomorrow and chase brookies for a few hours, and my dad wants to hit the Poconos, so more fishing to come in the next few days, I hope.  A cool down after one of these storms would be nice!  I seem to remember that is how it is supposed to work?