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| Fall colors. |
There was a moment this summer where I grew tired of
typing the words Northampton County limestoner, but today was not one of those moments. I finally had enough work completed that I
could get out for a few hours without guilt, so I was just happy that I could
take a relatively short drive and get into some fish. Twice in the last week or so I thought a
little rain would give Valley enough of a bump to nudge me away from my
grading, reading, and writing for a couple hours, but the gages were quickly back
down to 20 CFS, so I just kept working. I
don’t like to be this busy or productive, but I knew it was coming once I
started another graduate program while holding down a full time job. I am also on a working group for an accreditation
process at my school—an honor I suppose for a junior faculty member, but I like
my fishing time! I still wrote a very rough
draft of a paper due on Monday night before I left the house this morning
around 10 AM, so I was not fishing until 11 AM, but the creek I chose was in
average shape for this time of year with enough water to work with even in
sunny conditions. It is also small, so I
didn’t have to worry about a wet crotch.
My new waders have since arrived late today, but this morning I was
still working with my Simms that are in desperate need of a repair trip to
Washington. As long as I stayed
thigh-deep, I was good, so lower flows came in handy for once.
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| Umm, fall colors. |
I did notice some small bugs in the air when I arrived
and walked down to the creek. They may
have been olives smaller than size 20. I
also saw an isolated caddis or two, so I had a size 18 pheasant tail jig on the
anchor and a weightless caddis soft hackle on the dropper. Not one fish took the dropper, so it was just
window dressing. I thought of dropping a
midge, but the pheasant tail, really more of a pt version of a walts worm,
perhaps even a bottom rolling caddis imitation, picked up several fish in the
pocket water I targeted, so I just fished instead of tying and retying and experimenting further. I think I landed 8 fish and missed one with
the net in well under three hours of fishing, so it was a fine day on the water.
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| Measure net got out today. |
I landed a handful of typical small stream fish, 9 or 10
inch beauties, but I also landed one over 12, one over 13, and a solid 16 inch
fish too. A couple of the males were
looking ready for love, getting those deeper, darker fall colors. The largest fish was a mystery fish. It was in good shape and fought well, but even
as I fought it I thought in real time that is was not battling as well as a
wild fish of a similar size would. My
educated guess would be stocker despite a blush of blue on the cheek and some
good colors. The tail and one of the
fins did not seem right. I have also
caught many fish from this creek, and none of them have had this look; it did
not have a mess of fused spots or anything, but it was just too spotted and too
pale. The creek does not get stocked in
this area, and the only escapees I have tangled with have been club stocked
rainbows that travelled miles. In other
words, I am NOT going on record saying I landed a 16+ inch wild brown today! I enjoyed catching him nonetheless. It's been a while since I have had that kind of bend in the rod.
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| Another one colored up pre-spawn. |
Because I had to target riffles and runs with some depth
to them, I ran out of water more quickly than normal along this stretch. I was spoiled by the higher water all summer
that allowed fish to spread out more.
Before quitting, I dropped into a high percentage hole that only gave up
an 8 inch fish the first time through, and this time I managed to hook and
almost net a nicer fish in the 11 or 12 inch range—that would have been 9
fish. I had one more potential spot in
mind, so I checked my phone for the time.
It was just past 1 PM, so I figured I would try this last spot and call
it good.
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| A pair pretty of ones. |
As I was slowly working my way into position, I thought I
heard something big in the woods, so I stopped and looked around for someone’s
dog behind me. There was nothing behind
me, but across the creek from me was a massive whitetail. I told a couple of my buddies later today that
it looked big enough to pull Santa’s sled, and it had at least 10 points
too. I tried to take half a dozen
pictures with my phone, but none of them were worth posting here,
unfortunately. On the walk out, I also
spooked another smaller buck, so they added a little excitement to the final
fishless half an hour. Like I said
above, if you had told me I would be happy to type Northampton County limestoner
again this year, I would have called you a liar. But after a mere 45 to 50 minute ride home, I
was grateful for a few stolen—well, earned—hours of fishing today, regardless
of where I was.
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| Stocker a long way from home. |
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