November 26, 2019 – Working Hard in Late November – Brodhead Creek

Jay and I took advantage of a mild, sunny fall day to fish the mighty Brodhead.  With all the rain during much of the prime season, the creek had been blown out as often as it had it been fishable this year, it seemed.  In fact, I don’t think I have been to the Brodhead, one of my true favorite places, since the last time Jay and I were here in June.  I knew it would be challenging, as it often is this time of year: big water, cold water, tougher wading made more perilous with cold air and water, fewer hatches, and so on.  I also liked the prospect of good flows for fall and fishing the second of a two day warm up, however.  I guess I just wanted an excuse to visit a few favorite spots, and I was grateful Jay was up for an all-day adventure in NEPA, especially on a Tuesday. 

A couple smaller wild browns on the golden stonefly

I met Jay after 8 AM at his house, and he drove the rest of the way up.  We were suited up at the first spot and fishing before 11 AM, even with weekday morning traffic.  There was no wind and plenty of sun, until we got into the gorge, where it stayed shaded and cold for a good hour.  We were both nymphing to start with a combination that included some big stoneflies.   I had a size 10 pheasant tail as an anchor fly with a golden stone on the dropper.  After working some slower seams and getting some really great drifts in some slower pockets, I had to pop on a bobber and fish some much slower, deeper water to get my first fish of the morning, a wild brown about 10 inches long.  Not long after, Jay landed a better wild brown on a walt’s worm deep on a drop off that I had mined thoroughly with no results, so we were both on the board.  I would like to say that it got silly after that but, don’t let the warmer weather fool you, it was still late-November in the Poconos!  Fish were caught, though.

Jay's plump wild brown.

Keeping the indicator on and fishing a slower pocket behind a massive boulder, I landed another small wild brown and a decent size holdover rainbow, one on the stone, the other on the pheasant tail.  The sun had warmed the valley a little bit by now, and some small bugs were hatching, so I worked again the run where Jay had success, while he tried the walt’s in the deep hole where I landed two.  I came up dry, but he had another hooked before we hiked out of this first spot.  I promised myself that I would bounce around to different spots today and not spend too much time anywhere that was not productive.  We spent just short of two hours hiking into and fishing this spot, but we did move a handful of fish, so I don’t think we stayed too long.

Bobber bow on a big pheasant tail jig in a deep, deep hole.

Following some snacks and water at the parking spot, we took a little drive to another spot upstream that is often productive.  I was hoping that if the wild browns were not active we could at least get Jay hooked into one of the freight train rainbows that sometimes thrive in this stretch.  I have landed half a dozen in the 16 to 17 inch range here.  They are not wild, but they look like it: perfect fins, deep colors, football shaped.  I believe they move up from a stocked section downstream or from private clubs upstream and thrive in the better conditions in this stretch.  My first fish at spot two was not one of those fish.  Again with the indicator and the golden stone on the dropper, I was able to reach over some heavy current and dig a smaller bow out of a deep eddy.  While trying to duplicate my success, I lost both of my flies to a deep, unseen snag.  Instead of immediately rigging up to nymph again, I tied on a big olive bugger and decided to shake things up if I could. 

A nice little piggy (maybe 17" we guessed) on the big olive bugger.

After a couple bumps, I had confidence that this might work!  I worked to get the bugger deep, casting upstream at nearly 9 o’clock and stack mending or throwing a couple upstream mends before letting it swing and slowly pulsing it back to me.  Prepared to lose the bugger deep, instead I landed one of those aforementioned bows.  This was the fish I wanted Jay to experience but, full disclosure, after the big bow saw me and took a second drag-peeling run, I was selfishly happy to tangle with him myself.  Jay graciously took a few photos with his camera, so we actually have a face shot this year, I am afraid!  We could not duplicate the success here, though I did have another fish come at the streamer on two consecutive casts and not fully commit.  Jay even worked the same stretch with the nymphs, but the short spurt of action died out, and we decided to head to spot three.  This was the hail mary, our attempt to beat up on fall stockies in town.

A couple other rainbows, including one hail mary fall stocker on the bugger.

Besides one other fly guy, we had the stretch to ourselves, but neither of us could dig one up with the nymphs.  We lost the sunlight too quickly, I felt, so while Jay stuck with the bigger bugs on the tight line, I gave the streamer another shot before the sun set and managed one last rainbow for an even 6 fish for the day.  Just over a half a dozen fish between us does not make for a banner day, especially when we were on the water for at least 5 fishing hours, 6 with all the walking and driving, but it was not a bad day for this time of year on a freestoner.  I was grateful that Jay humored my need to visit the Brodhead at least one more time in 2019 (and he drove!), and we could not have asked for a finer weather day to be outdoors and fishing.  I do owe Jay an easy, perhaps even silly, fishing day in 2020, though!

Jay in action.