September 6, 2019 – A Little Low, a Little Slow, and then a Little Whoa! – Bushkill Creek

A good way to end the day and begin my September fishing.

Fall has been slowly making its way here with longer nights and cooler days, and this morning the outer bands of Dorian brought clouds, breezes, and eventually some steady rain by later afternoon.  I finished fishing well before the rain arrived, so the Bushkill near Easton was about as low and clear as I have seen it in some time.  I spent just about 4 hours nymphing, and I eventually put together a good day ( trip 61 of 2019!) after digging into my bag of small stream tricks, like making risky casts under deadfalls and targeting deep pockets in riffles, even those cushions in front of larger boulders within what deeper runs still remained.  To begin the day, the only thing working for me, besides the clouds and perhaps the beginnings of the autumn leaf hatch—which in small doses offers some surface disturbance and cover for my own skinny water intrusions—was the ability to wade into spots that are usually off limits or at least require difficult, over-the-waist wading.  I knew the creek would be low and challenging today, but I chose rather wisely based on the flows of other creeks within an hour and change of home.  I landed five hold-over rainbows and five wild browns, the final wild brown and my final fish of the day a beautiful porker that gave me quite the tussle.

Perdigon, drowned ant, pink tag fly.

I sometimes fish slowly when the water is higher, but today I fished pretty quickly unless I knew I was in a spot (like one of the few braided deep holes) that had to hold fish.  Runs that I usually take my time picking apart were not worth the effort with a nymph, so my approach soon became fishing high percentage spots and difficult spots.  This creek gets hammered, and the fish can be dickish, as I may have mentioned on occasion, so I decided to do it right and risk flies, move quickly to the right targets, make my casts to the right spots count, and do everything I could to fish well so that I didn’t miss any opportunities.  That plan seemed to work because I was bounced only two times where I did not come tight to a fish, and one of those times I may have gotten a rainbow to hit a second time on my very next cast.  I only moved once with the car, but I did cover a good bit of the high percentage water at the two spots on which I concentrated my time and effort.  I also had the place to myself, which contributed to my ability to cover some ground, I suppose. 

Not large, the other 4, but healthy and feisty.

I am back to bus stop duty, so I didn’t leave the house until 7:30 AM, but I was suited up and fishing by 9 AM even with rush hour traffic.  The clouds no doubt juiced the success rate of my late start for this time of year. Had the rain arrived before 2 PM when I was already home, who knows how good it could have been!  My first fish was a plump 10 or 11 inch wild brown who took a perdigon.  I also landed a rainbow and another smaller brown on the perdigon until I hung it up one too many times and had to re-tie.  I rigged up with a size 14 pink tag fly on the anchor and a drowned ant on the dropper and managed one rainbow on the ant and the rest on the tag fly before I quit the first spot right around noon.  I counted 8 fish at this point, 5 bows and 3 browns, so I considered getting an early start home.  I was happy that I took a ride and fished another 45 minutes on another stretch before calling it a day, however.

Pretty bow.

The first browns were small but plump and healthy, even leapers, but I think the hot spells and the lack of survival skills had an effect on a couple of the rainbows, though certainly not all.  One in particular looked very skinny and the peduncle before the caudal fin was atrophied.  This is a stream with limestone influence, so the living is usually easy for the stocked fish.  Many years, the bows that survive hold-over several years and even get brutish at times.  I did not find any of those today, as I did earlier in the summer in another stretch while chunking a streamer. I did dig a hot one out from under a rake of branches hanging over a pocket in the riffles, but the browns still fought far better.  The water temp was great today, but before this cool down and the one before, things may have been tough and made tougher with low flows.  The second stretch I wanted to fish does not see stocked fish unless the local TU has leftover brookies, so that influenced my decision to give it a shot—the chance at wild browns without having to pick through the more desperate bows, not the brookies, I mean, although on particularly tough days I have been happy to see the stocked gemmies too!

Not as pretty as this though.

At the second spot, I made a few casts in an often productive deep hole, but I did not have much faith at 12:15 PM in ultra clear water.  I did wade deep to drop a couple nymphs close to cover, but I soon found myself double-timing it to the next set of riffles.  The riffle and run I thought might hold a fish for me today were disappointing, but there were two last pockets just above this spot.   The one pocket that sits under a catalpa tree with big shade-providing leaves was a bust, maybe because shade was not in demand today. But the final pocket, which is a bank side eddy behind some deadfall and rip rap, was a winner, giving up from the back of the eddy another plump 10 inch wild fish.

Got 80% in the shot and in focus?

I thought that might be it, and I was happy that the second short stop yielded another fish, especially this time of the afternoon, but I had to drop another, better cast into the head of this same feature, perhaps even chance a swing under the branches.  The eddy was not large in the lower flows, all of 8 feet long and 3 feet wide, so I knew the minute I hooked and turned this big trout that he was either going to dive deep into the branches or make a run for it in the shallow riffles all around me, above and below.  He bulldogged for a second and did try to dig deeper into the cover, but once I turned him away the first time, he took off downstream.  I did my best to stay above him and turn him towards calmer water, but this was a big, strong fish.  I should have lost him when he went over the rocks on the shallow lip at the tailout and into the next piece of water.  I cringed when I watched this fish basically go over a very low waterfall and into the next run, but I too followed over the lip and kept him on.  After one shorter run towards the other bank, I was able to take control and get him above me and into the net.  We were now, of course, 50 or 60 feet downstream from where we both began…

A couple shots taken in the big net in case he didn't want to be handled...

I had the big net today, so I kept him wet while I took the pink tag fly out of his jaw and snapped the mediocre photos included here.  I also did a hand measure of 18 and change, and I know how large the bottom basket of the net is too, so I did not dig around for the tape.  After the fight he gave, it was probably a good call.  He squirmed out of my hand after the one release shot where I got 80% of him almost in focus and just sat there a couple feet upstream from me in shin deep water for a few minutes under my watchful eyes.  Eventually, I took a few steps upstream to retrieve my rod, which I had tossed in the knotweed after unhooking the fish, and he darted off for deeper water, perhaps to where I mistakenly thought a good fish might be today.  What an exceptional and exciting ending to an otherwise merely decent day on the water!