October 3, 2019 – Rain Gear Was Donned, Fish Were Caught – Northampton County Limestoner

Still finding a few as the tougher conditions continue.

With Valley Creek so low and rain events so few and far, two or three creeks just under an hour from home have become my new Valleys this late summer and early fall.  On days when I only have a few hours to travel and fish—like today, when I had to be on an online conference at 3 PM and teach a class starting at 5:30 PM in the City—these creeks have filled a niche.  Granted, these are creeks I do normally fish several times a year, but I usually would not count them as places for short, “local” trips.  Case in point, I drove 45 minutes today to fish 3 hours, and then drove 45 minutes home.  The medium-sized limestoners in the Lehigh Valley, like this one, are holding up, even though they are far too low to be optimal, and I haven’t caught a fish over 12 inches since the good one from the Bushkill in September, I bet.  I have put a lot of stealth and gamesmanship into fooling some dink wild browns and some slightly less wary holdovers, so I was hoping to get a shot of rain today to make things easier, but although it was cloudy and drizzling, the conditions were not unlike the last few outings.  

A couple on the dropper, a couple on the point fly, none over 11 inches.

There was a chance that we could get .25 inches of rain or .10 inches of rain, but it seemed like we barely split the difference.  Friday may be better, but I have meetings all day, so good luck to those who can take advantage if the creeks get a little bump from any rain over night.  Valley went up all of 5 CFS and is back down as I write, so this was not the front to make an impact.  Hopeful but realistic, I was back to long leader, small bugs, and small stream sneaking again today.  I was throwing a size 18 jig with a purple hot spot on the anchor, and a couple fish took that, the others ate either of grubby hare’s ear or pheasant tail on the dropper, also size 18-ish.  No tricos today, not that I expected them, but I was hoping to step into a hatch of olives or midges.  It was rather dead on the bug front, unfortunately, so the fish I caught came from pockets, deep in the riffles, as they did the last time I was out.  This time, however, they were barely taking the flies, and I got hit without hooking up and lost a couple fish that were noncommittal, ironically, something that did not happen when I encountered hatches and bugs while out in high sun last week.

Only one bow today.

I planned to move through some riffles and runs rather quickly and maybe take a short drive to another creek if this one was dead, but when no rain of note fell while I was out, I just stuck around and worked the entire usually productive stretch.  I landed an 8 inch brown in the first half hour, and then I had a very quiet hour with maybe one half-assed hit.  I finally landed a couple 10 to 11 inch browns, and then a holdover rainbow, and then at least one more brown.  I counted 5 fish that actually made it to the net, but I lost at least one other small fish and, as I stated above, had a handful of frustratingly light hits.  On the walk back to the ‘Ru, I stopped at a favorite hole, much like I did last week, and fished it from a different bank and angle, but this time the plan did not add any more fish to the tally.  The time was approaching 12:30 PM, and I wanted to be on the road around 1 PM or sooner, so I just called it good—well, half-decent.   This week was really busy, I even had the boy home on Monday (and next Wednesday too), so I was content with just getting a fishing day on the books.  I hope that the weather pattern has changed for good now and that the rest of October is more eventful!  Man, at least this man, cannot live on Northampton County limestoners alone.

A pretty little thing.