February 19, 2020 – Gimme Shelter – Berks County

Nice color and flows.  Small fish.

Another cold front came through early this morning, so by the time I got out of Montgomery County, the wind was blowing about 15 with gusts to 25.  I had a couple ideas about where to go this morning to take advantage of the last milder day until the weekend, but it eventually came down to selecting somewhere that might give me a place to hide from the wind.  I ended up at a favorite little tributary in Berks County, a creek about 15 feet wide with some cover, but even then it became clear that today was not a Czech nymphing kind day.  I was hoping to see signs of little black stoneflies, but besides an isolated BWO, it was all midges in the air today.  Using a pair of small bugs under an indicator was the way to go, and I ended up have a mildly successful day.  No real solid fish—a 10, an 11—and one of my go-to spots gave up nothing, but I landed at least a dozen wild browns and half a dozen fallfish in just under 4 hours on the water.  I was cursing the wind at times, and a bobber in the wind at times, but I made the most of a challenging day, even moving a good one and landing an average one on a streamer near the end of the afternoon.  I am sure I got some color from the wind and sun too.

I usually scare up a few more this size here, but the wind was brutal.

The wind was blowing when I arrived mid-morning, so I wished I had chosen a stretch of the creek with more twists and turns, but I also had confidence that I could make it work.  With the high sun and debris getting blown into the water, I figured fish would be spooky but less so than on a calm day.  Since this creek is mostly a freestoner, the flows and color were still good from the last rain events.  I bushwhacked my way below the first good hole and took my time creeping up to fish the deeper parts of the tailout.  Gusts of wind were having a time with my 3-weight floating line and the 10-foot wand in my hand, but at least I had little fear that an indicator splashdown would spook the fish.  Assuming that stoneflies had been crawling their way out for a few days, I had a dark size 16 CDC jig on the dropper above a sparse hot spot frenchie that would hopefully get both bugs down quickly, even in the wind.  I few tentative attempts to tightline an undercut bank before I got to the meat of this hole reaffirmed my assessment that it would be a bobber day.  It’s a catch 22, however.  Even a small bobber in the wind, the smallest Airlock, for example, can act like a balloon or kite and magnify tangles to epic proportions.  Get distracted for a second releasing a fish, and a spider web of 5X might await your return.  It happened twice today, and I almost switched to drop-shotting small bugs, but I can rig up fast enough (even in the frigging wind!) that I have learned to cut off the flies quickly and start fresh.

Little bugs.

My stealth and choice of bugs paid dividends at the first spot, and I landed three decent wild browns up to 10 inches and a couple wild fallfish on the dropper within the first 15 minutes on the water.  I had a heck of a time trying to fish the next usually productive spot on this beat, a deadfall with a deep pocket behind it.  Even without the indicator, the wind played havoc with my casts, which needed to be very precise to avoid branches above, below, and within.  I miffed one hookset trying to fish the bow in the line before a gust dragged the bugs out of the zone, and then I decided to move on to a big flat hole with plenty of room to cast.  I would actually catch a handful of fish here the first time through, and even two more to close out the trip (3 if you count an 11-inch fallfish) on the way back down.  I was a bit sheltered from the wind here too, so even though it was slow, watching-a-bobber-barely-move-on-a-take, kind of fishing, it was productive enough that I stuck with it for a while (twice).  

The average, but plenty of them today.

After cutting and retying following an epic tangle, I landed my best fish of the day at the next deep run.  I believe this fish took the grubby caddis that was my new point fly too.  After landing a bunch of 7 to 9 inchers, this 11-inch leaper was a welcomed addition.  I landed a few other fish here, including more chubs, but I had my eyes on the last two holes before the end of the line.  Before getting to these two plunge pools, I landed a couple little ones along a down tree—I landed one on the streamer in this same spot on the way back—and a couple more in a small pocket with an undercut bank nearby.  Now that I am doing math, I guess I landed more than a dozen fish!  Unfortunately, my penultimate hotspot had a new big branch spread across the head of the run, so it was not easy to get my bugs deep enough.  Once again, I missed a fish after removing the indicator and “tightlining” with the bow in the line.  The last stretch was a straight shot, so even with trees on both sides, there was nothing between me and a steady wind and gusts to 25 MPH.  If I did not have my eyes on my honey hole upstream, I may have turned back sooner to fish again the sheltered bend pool where I had the most consistent action.

One aggressive little fella.

I was disappointed in the last spot, especially since it is the place where I usually do the best, at least in terms of size.  It is a plunge pool below a place where two braids of the creek merge again.  Tightline nymphing is the call here usually because the bugs need to get deep quickly and a long drift usually means snag city on the rip rap and boulders.  Well, we established that this was not an easy proposition today.  After breaking a fish off on the CDC dropper, I tried to dropshot the caddis, but I eventually snagged and broke that off.  I tied on a black bugger, in part to have something on my line for the hook keeper on the walk downstream, but I did fish it a minute before turning back.  I had a bump on the swing and got a plump 12 incher to follow and almost commit, too!  Before ending the trip with a couple more at the bend pool, I did catch an aggressive 9 incher on the streamer, but he was the only one to eat, so it was hardly an emerging pattern.  Equal parts fun, frustrating, challenging, and disappointing today.  Fishing.