April 10, 2020 – A Good Friday: Nasty Weather Coaxed Us Out – Northampton County Limestoner

Pulled like a smallmouth but definitely not one to lip.

I am glad I did not roll over in bed this morning when I heard the wind already starting at 6:45 AM.  I hit the snooze once at 6:30 AM, but I could hear Tami up and about, so I decided to stay awake and make coffee first then decide if I was fishing later.  It was one of those cold front days, unsettled skies, winds gusting, but I got dressed anyway, and I was on the road by 8 AM with a sheltered destination in mind.  The stretch of water I was thinking about is not isolated, and access is good, but there is only one parking spot.  If no one else is there, and there usually isn't, especially on a day like today, then it’s game on.  I had not been out since Tuesday with the boy, and that was only for 90 minutes or less with the spinning rod, so I figured I would give it a shot before the forecasted gusts to 40 MPH arrived.  I would have been happy with a couple fish, and I was resigned to fish the bobber if I had to in order to have control in the wind, but I put together a solid three hours of nymphing with the mono-rig with fish up to 15 inches or more and only one dinker in the mix of close to a dozen wild browns and one rouge brook trout to round out the day.

A good start.

It was in the low- to mid-forties, windy, but somewhere between partly sunny and partly cloudy when I arrived.  The water still had a very slight stain, and flows were average.  Instead of fishing with my own mono-rig creation, today I was fishing with a Rio product.  TCO is making it convenient to shop small with free shipping, so when I ordered some 5X tippet last week, I also threw a tactical euro leader in the basket.  I figured I could copy the formula if I liked it.  I did, although I wish it were about 3 feet longer.  I may add the extra length or tie my own again this weekend.  The wind was pretty bad, but not steady, so I was able to time my casts around gusts.  I was somewhat sheltered and only popped on the indicator one time in a deep plunge when I was more exposed.  I caught a fish, a decent one with the bobber too.  In fact, I only caught one fish under 11 inches today, which is rare here.  I don’t know what it was, perhaps the fish had a sixth sense that the coming frost would shut down the bugs for a while, but the better fish were hungry today and seemed to have pushed the dinks out of the feeding lanes, at least earlier in the morning.

Fish three did not hesitate to eat the dropper.

I got bounced pretty hard at my first spot, a hole I usually fish first and last when I visit this stretch because I can regularly dig a fish out of there even if it is small, just to begin or end on a high note.  Because the water was stained, but not high, I was a bit heavy with my nymphs and had to play around with weight.  I ended up, even with the wind pulling some drifts downstream too fast, staying with small tungsten bugs.  The hot flies were a natural, flashback hare’s ear jig on the anchor, about a 16, and the little brown nothing hare’s ear on the dropper, a size 18.  That little dropper has become a confidence fly for me.  You can see from pics that it really is nothing tied on an oversized barbless competition hook, but it gets down quickly and looks buggy.  Confident now that I had good drifts, I moved up to the next favorite run.  Inching up, hugging the overhanging brush for cover, I quickly landed three decent fish in the deeper tail end of the run.

Two shots of the same nice hen.

I had a hunch they might be shallow, however, and I am glad I took my time and fished this entire run right up to the head, because I landed a beauty hen that was sitting in 10 inches of water.  She was about 15 inches, I would estimate, and fought really hard.  The fish have been eating well, so they have some weight to them.  The males especially are wide and muscular and can use that width in the current to hold until you trick or goad them into moving.  Speaking of males, the real battle of the morning came after I landed that nice female.  The male I landed after, the one that opens this post as well, was right at the head, probably riding it out under the bouncier water closer to the surface.  He too was only in a foot of water or less, but I had a heck of a time getting him to come out of the current, even when I used all my tricks to fool him into reacting to unexpected side pressure and such.  Only one fish jumped today, I believe, but they were feeling naughty in the cold water.  They just pulled like smallmouth bass today.  I could have quit after these two and been happy!  

Another shot of the same fish that opens this post.

I did not quit of course.  Instead of fishing a deeper but quieter section of the creek, I decided to take a little walk to warm up and headed straight to a section of pocket water upstream.  I do well in this particular stretch when the fish are feeding shallow, but I only took one from this area today, most likely because the flows were normal and the water a bit shallower than prime.  It was a decent fish, though, another male over 12 inches long.  When I hit the long deep hole where I usually turn around, I ended up landing the only little fish of the day, followed by two more solid fish.  I landed one tightlining, another good fish, but in order to reach a far seam without wading too deep, I popped on an indicator.  Trying to fish both sides of a submerged log that usually holds a fish, I snagged and lost the dropper.  Lazy, or not too keen to retie while this exposed to the wind, I trimmed the tag and added an Airlock indicator for a couple casts.  A nice 12-inch brown ate the anchor fly and buried the bobber. 

The bugs that they ate.

I waded deep for a few cold minutes to see if I could dig another out of this spot, but eventually I needed to stand in the sun on the bank and warm up.  With the wind getting more constant, it was cold.  The top half of me was dressed for winter, but I did not put on the long johns this morning. I took the opportunity to tie on another dropper, that same brown hare’s ear grub.  Since I lost a fish at my first spot, I decided a little walk in the sun back there would help.  I texted back and forth with Tami.  It was about 11 AM, and the boy was still sleeping, so she gave me the go ahead to stay out longer if I wanted, but it was getting bright and windier, so I did not think the next hour would be great.  It was good, however!  I landed two more fish in the deeper hole where I began the morning, and one was a great fish, another one over 12 inches and strong.  He took that little dropper fly, so I was glad I took a minute in the sun to locate another and retie the dropper.  These two fish were not as shallow as those I landed an hour earlier, so I didn’t have high expectations for the last little stretch of pocket water I had in mind to fish.  

Another toothy beauty.

A run that sometimes looks too good to be true, and sometimes is, produced nothing.  I probably spooked it with all my moving around upstream earlier in the day, but with the high sun I could also see almost to the bottom now in three feet of water.  The creek was clearing up, or it was clearer than I perceived it to be all along, I don’t know.  The morning clouds certainly helped the cause, that is for sure.  Staying out of the water and doing my best not to cast shadows or snap branches, I stalked down to one last patch of pocket water hemmed in with some cover from bushes and trees.  I got bounced once targeting dark patches in the otherwise clear, shallow riffles, but I did not connect.  I did manage to land a brook trout from deep under an overhanging shrub, though.  I don’t know where he came from, but like the rare rainbow I catch in this unstocked stretch of creek, he may have washed down from club stockings upstream.  I knew immediately after the take that it was not a brown trout because it was so bright and more panicked than the bulldogs I landed in the morning.  I thought maybe rainbow, but it was a ten-inch brookie who ate the dropper.  It was not the last fish I wanted to land, but I figured it could serve as an endpoint for the surprisingly good fishing day I had experienced up to this point.

Where'd you come from?

It was after 12 PM now, and I had another text from Tami asking me to bring home lunch.  She had struck out at a place she had in mind while out in the morning doing our bi-weekly supply run.  I had no confidence that this morning’s fishing was going to be good, but I had even less confidence that the current conditions were conducive to my short, magical window extending into the afternoon, so I decided to head for home and become pizza man.  I had the mask and hand sanitizer in the car, and it was nice to have a bit of a normal take-out experience.  It was a good pie, too!  I even treated myself to a side of homemade meatballs.  A little normalcy goes a long way.  I have to pick Sam’s brain as to why, of all days, the fish decided to eat so well today.  I have my theories about the imminent frost warnings and more unsettled weather coming this weekend that are probably not off the mark.  It was too windy to see bugs hatching, but based on the time of day when the fish were shallow, and the flies they willingly ate, I will assume caddis helped my cause.  Whatever the case, it was a good Friday morning.

For RR: I didn't forget to look up.