June 4, 2019 – Working with Borrowed Time – Wissahickon Creek

Cool temps, cool shirt?

I spent Monday in the Lehigh Valley at Dorney Park chaperoning the boy’s class trip, and it was pretty chilly!  One of the kids in my group was shivering in the morning, in fact.  Even though I was tied up, I made a mental note that Mother Nature may have handed my dad a couple more days of Wissahickon fly fishing lessons.  I texted him when I got home and said if he wanted to fish to be at my house at 7:30 AM.  Punctual, as usual, he pulled in front of my house this morning, and together we took the short ride to the Wissy to give the remaining fish a shot.  The USGS gage in my neighborhood actually has a temperature reading, and it hasn’t been promising.  It is hovering around 70 every afternoon, which means it’s over here, but the water in the city stays cooler longer.  The fish we caught were in good shape early in the morning, but we quit shortly after I took a water temperature around noon that was 69 degrees.  There are plenty of fish left, however, and if cooler nights prevail, there may be a few more chances to get at them, especially early in the morning. We caught close to 20 trout in a few hours, mostly on a tungsten Frenchie or a CDC jig with a red tag, a couple on the hare's ear dropper, deep in the braided holes or in oxygen rich pocket water.

Some nice, healthy (for now) fish left in there.

The water was stained and a bit high, so nearly perfect conditions minus the temperature concerns.  Sunfish and bass are fully engaged at this point, so there was plenty of action.  My dad’s goal today was to go bobber free, and he did catch a couple fish this way, but he earned them.  Without the bug life that was present last time we fished the creek, the trout were not nearly as active.  I actually dug 7 or 8 fish out of deep runs with a drop shot rig because the fish, especially browns, were in the heavier water and deep, not up off the bottom actively feeding.  I tried to let my dad just put in his time alone today, as I know the time I spent over the years figuring out new fishing methods alone was often as beneficial as the time I spent with patient tutors.  I did want him to have some success, though, so I eventually intervened when it appeared he'd had enough solo time.

Took a while to find them, weeding through mostly rainbows for the first hour.

Always wonder how they escape capture...

When I caught 6 in a row, including 4 browns, while he was retying on the bank, I decided to spend the remainder of the morning working more directly with him.  Once he got the monkey off his back with a fish on the indictor and a mess of sunfish, I fished again for a while.  I landed one of those gold fish and a few more browns and rainbows at our last stop, but like last time we were here, the slow walk back upstream working pocket water and riffles was the most fun.  We took turns with my rod and pulled three more fish, a couple of them pushing 12 inches, out of small hideaways.  These are the fish with the best chances of surviving the hot but likely wet summer we have in store.  Unless we get some more cool mornings again this month, I will likely give them a better shot at survival by leaving them alone.  NEPA calls and some journeys west in July too.

Some decent browns too, mostly in spots that might hold them over if they are lucky (and I leave them alone).