April 15 and 18, 2020 – Blue-Lining with the Boy and a Cool, Wet Saturday Morning – SEPA Limestoners

High sun and stained water = not good.

I had another one of those busy weeks this week, and it is not over until this Sunday night when I have one final online meeting with about 12 of my students.  I did get outdoors for a while between meetings, writing, and grading, however.  Nothing too spectacular, but a bit of fun with the boy on Wednesday afternoon and a morning of relative solitude today on a usually pressured creek.  My intention on Wednesday was to head to some stocked sections of the Bushkill with the boy and the spinning rods, but on the way, I decided to take the scenic route, and so we never made it there.  Instead, we bushwhacked into two little blue lines near the Bucks County/Northampton County border.  I had not been to the first creek in over 5 years, I bet, and no doubt things have changed.  The water was a bit high with a stain, but we could not even get a fish to follow the Rapala CD5 in a couple prime holes where I once landed fish to 20 inches.  This, of course, was before all the lists of wild streams were so readily available online, so any of the short sections of unposted water probably have had a few more explorers since then.  We tried a second spot on the same creek, but without waders only had a short stretch where productive casts were even an option.  We turned over a lot of rocks and saw only a few small bugs, too, so that might help explain things as well.  Again, no waders to get out there in the riffles and really look for caddis, but I did recall more bugs here even just five years ago.  My buddy Aaron, who digs up old privies for antique bottles, would have been jealous though.  Lukas and I found some treasures under the root balls of some old upended trees, but we left them there for the ghosts to have.

Nature class.  March brown?

The second spot we visited is a very small limestoner that has close to a Class A population some years.  I also caught a 20-inch wild fish here some years ago on a Rapala CD1!  Turning rocks here, we did find more bugs, and I even moved a small stream little piggy about 13 inches long.  The fish followed a small X-Rap out of its hiding spot twice but turned back twice without eating.  The creek had no residual stain from the rains earlier in the week, and the sun was high, so I was not surprised to catch nothing here.  I just wanted the boy to see wild trout in a creek that is probably 8 feet wide at best.  We jumped on the undercut bank where that bigger fish lives, and I saw 5 or 6 more smaller fish dart upstream.  Lukas, who was looking downstream for them to scatter, saw nothing, of course!  It was still good to get outside and take a longer ride.  He got to play extra video games, and I got to listen to music a little loud.  We both got a few memorable views of the mighty Delaware River on the scenic route home too.

Good flows, cold, damp.

It has been colder and unsettled, but I saw the overnight temps were not going to dip into freezing again on Friday night, though there is a chance again tonight, so I set the alarm for 6:30 AM in case I was in the mood to fish for a little while this morning.  It was lightly raining off and on, so I knew it would keep down the crowds in the morning.  I was not wrong; I only saw one other fisherman way upstream of me at about noon when I was packing it in.  Before that I saw a few dog walkers and one dude who made the bank at a picturesque spot his home gym.  I thought it was a homeless man or something, because I do see I couple guys here when it gets warmer, but he had a mountain bike and some workout bands around trees and was making stuff happen…. 

Caught recently and probably not by a fly!

The only fish I saw before 10:30 AM was a rouge golden rainbow about 20 inches long that had already vacated the stocked waters upstream or got bucketed down here by some creative angler.  He was agitated but not eating, probably being chased around by the locals, who were also agitated now and not eating.  In the last two hours on the water, I did land 7 wild browns.  They were small, all of them 10 inches or under, but I was happy to see them after the slow start.  I had one decent one take a swipe at the pink tag fly I was using as a heavier anchor in higher flows.  He took it on the swing, and I did see a few risers in a flat hole, but I was still using a modified mono rig, and I did not feel the urge to re-rig today.  Either because of cold or high pressure, the fish were suffering from lockjaw.  Even the little ones I landed barely touched the flies on the take.  I think the brown hare’s ear was the most productive fly, but I did hook a couple others on the anchor fly too. 

The same little brown hare's ear nothing fly.

In hindsight, I should have slept in and fished when the weather had settled (or tomorrow) but this was the window I had for the most part (I have to work Sunday morning again), and I was hoping to avoid other anglers, too.  One decent fish would have changed things, of course.  It was not streamer conditions, though I did bring that rod and strongly considered a change when the first couple of hours were so dead.  There were caddis present as the day progressed, but not in any great numbers by the time I decided to quit.  This creek can be a puzzler, and it can get pounded, so I was not surprised that fishing was not awesome.  I was happy to tangle with a few fish, even if they were smaller than what I have come to expect this year.  It is good to see another year class with good numbers too.  With the warm winter, and a few days here where the average was close to twelve inches, I was wondering if they were all supersizing.  But, no, there are a bunch of 8 to 10 inches willing to eat too.  I am hoping that next week is a bit more free, and I only have just over two weeks before my spring classes all conclude, so I am staying patient and hopeful for a return to more normal spring fishing.

The future:  A different year class was active this morning.