April 25, 2020 – Must be the Season of the Mitch – SEPA Blueline

Some stealth paid dividends.

First the good stuff: Eric and I have fished more this year so far that most years, and I enjoy fishing with him a good deal.  We work well together and are not competitive, except with ourselves.  We also picked a perfect year to explore our new honey hole, a SEPA blueline that we, due to Eric’s connections, have been able to make our social distancing destination.  Three trips and nary a hiker.  One dude on an ATV today and a farmer on a tractor last visit.  Last time we caught numbers, with some good fish in the mix, but today with few exceptions we caught only decent fish—and a couple bonuses and surprises too.  I am not a religious man, but we have been granted access to this area because of Eric’s family’s long connections to a local church, and we even park on church property, so it is hard not to think that the universe provided this spring of all springs.  It was also a beautiful time to be outdoors.  I have mentioned how most of the riparian buffer of this creek is intact, and Eric was pointing out morel mushrooms and other treats in the valley.  It was a great day, and Eric did a good job of picking up my slack, having another good fishing day, catching fish on his own flies, too. 

Cold start, but midges, then caddis showed.

The bad stuff: I had a heck of start, and an equally middling ending to the day.  I caught some fish, a good amount of fish, at least equal to Eric, and yet I started out the morning hanging multiple sets of bugs out of reach.  By mid-day, I was dragging fifteen feet of 6X tippet through the woods, until Eric noticed some time later.  I dropped the fish of the day in the best hole on the creek.  No falls or anything major, but it was just an off day.  I was just tired, I guess, but I was also getting hot and hungry the last hour.  When you see the pictures, perhaps, you will think, wah, wah, looks awesome to me.  And it was!  I just knew I was not on my A game—I never nap after fishing anymore, but after eating dinner today, I napped for nearly two hours.  It was just one of those off days.  Okay, enough of that, and on with the story….

Like last time, we followed each other over to the creek.  We left a little later than last time, though, as midday has been good for bugs.  It was still a bit foggy and the woods were wet, but the creek was only a little stained.  The flows were only slightly higher and dirtier than last visit.  It took a while for caddis to show, but there were midges in the air for most of the morning.  I had already lost a pair of bugs and was busy retying when Eric landed his first of the morning.  He was super excited because not only was the fish a decent one but also because it ate his own hare’s ear.  Another upside of the quarantine that I did not mention above was that Eric’s mom found a bunch of his tying materials while cleaning her house.  He has been tying again and sending me pics of bugs for over a week now.  They look good, too!  This wild brownie certainly agreed.  Besides my mishaps, a second theme began to emerge.  Unlike last time, we did not pull multiple fish out of the prime spots, or at least it happened with far less frequency.  Instead, we seemed to pull an alpha out or two out of there, and then the hole was done, usually before I had to blow it up by stepping in to retrieve my bugs from trees and rocks…

My best of the day.  I know, wah....

We landed nothing else at this plunge pool, but I was on deck for the next prime spot, and it did not disappoint.  I took the largest fish of the day here (by a hair—see Eric’s quality fish below).  She was sitting right out in the current of a deep run taking nymphs, and she choked my little CDC jig on the dropper.  We notched our new creek record and were pretty excited to see the size of fish steadily climbing now with each visit.  I did not have the measure net today, but this fish was close to 13 inches and wide, just a gorgeous small stream fish.  I think Eric was able to hook one more fish in this spot before we moved on to the next hole.  Before that, however, I stopped at spot that looked too good not to hold fish last time, especially considering how many fish we tangled with last time.  While Eric was taking care of some business in the woods and tweaking his rig, I took a nice 9-inch fish out of this seemingly perfect spot—a deadfall with current sweeping under and a hole dug out behind it.  Today is not representative, as most spots gave up only one fish, as I have said, but I think this is a hole to give another shot on another day too!

Will spend more time here....

More snags and retying for me at the next hole, a really productive one last visit, but we each pulled a couple fish out of here.  A couple 10-inch fish reminded me just how much I love wild trout.  This hole is a deep bend with an undercut and a huge tree in it.  When the fish hit, they head right for cover, and you can’t tell how big they are until you see them.  They are just so strong.  I love it.  In an effort to reverse the bad mojo, Eric assisted me in getting two of my bugs out of a tree after we were convinced we had blown up the hole.  I would like to say it changed the trend for good, but I can say it helped for a while.  When we hit a tributary that we debated exploring the last two times, I just went for it.  The mouth of the creek was deceptively small, but when I turned the corner I could see it opened up into at least three good holes.  Before Eric caught up to me, I got bounced in a small hole with a rake of branches over it.  I used that good mojo to sneak a cast under the rake and land a monster brook trout by the time he caught up to me.  The fish was big, like 13+ inches, and beautiful.  I always assume stocked fish when I run into a bonus fish like this, even in the middle of nowhere.  I am seldom amazed at where stockies end up and, since there was a farm within a hundred yards, I will assume someone placed it here. 

Beautiful.

Man, I was hoping wild, and I may be wrong about it being a long-time holdover, but we saw a dead one slightly smaller in the next hole upstream.  This was a big, deep hole that could be someone’s private spot, or swimming hole, but I caught two more wild browns out of the area and no more stockers, so who knows.  I am no expert in identifying native vs stocked brookies, but the pictures reveal some possible fin regrowth on the tail and even the adipose.  If this thing is wild, well then I won PA brook trout fishing for the year.  Either way, it was a fun surprise.  As I mentioned, I spent a little time on this deep hole while Eric explored upstream.  I had a couple hits while suspending the bugs under a bobber, and I landed a small wild brown that way.  I also nymphed one out of the head of the pool on the tightline too.  Eric’s recon was short-lived, as he found that the creek came very close to a meadow used by livestock.  Still, we found three more holes to visit on this tributary the next time we come to this watershed, so it was not all bad news.  Eric was also trying to map in his head where we might legally park for access to this secondary creek too, so perhaps there will be more to come.  I do know that this creek has made the wild reproduction list and has been assessed in the last decade, assessed again today by us….  

One last shot.  Man, if it is not a stockie, then it is something else!

Part of the reason that we did not dally too long was because we had yet to reach the two best holes we discovered last time we fished here.  I mentioned in my previous post about this creek two adjacent bend pools where we have turned back because, after these two, we encroach on obvious private property with little cover.  Eric was batter up for the first of the two, and it did not disappoint.  I hung way back, and he actually stayed on the bank and kneeled.  Just when we began to doubt our one good fish per one good hole metric here, sure enough, he got bounced by a little piggy.  It was close if not the same size as my good fish earlier in the day.  Looking at the pictures it is especially hard to say!  At the time, we thought it might be second place, but it almost looks like a tie.  It was a beauty and a brawler.  Determined to get a good pic, I helped with the net job, and even with my track record today, I did not mess it up for him.  This was a male and another gorgeous small stream trout.

So nice, I shared it twice.  Eric's small stream beauty.

As luck would have it, I was up next, and the hole I got to try first was by far the silliest last visit.  Unlike last time, there were no rising fish or bugs present.  I just made my first cast count, aiming for the best line that I knew would take my nymphs along a sunken log in the depths of the hole.  I got bounced lightly, almost as if I had rubbed along the log, but I set the hook anyway and turned a big fish.  I guessed 14 or 15 inches, and Eric later said something to the effect of: Not to make it worse, but I saw that fish flash when you set the hook, and it was big….  After about two head shakes, both my flies ended up high in the branches above us.  I should have expected as much today!  I probably should have let Eric have first crack!  We could raise no other fish out of this hole—also par for the course today—nor could I get another fish out of the hole from which Eric took his good one.  It took a few minutes to shake it off as we walked back downstream, but I knew that once I looked at the pictures on my phone later today that I would be grateful for such an awesome day.  Following the theme of Eric making up for my lost mojo today, it was he who landed fish on the way back down to the vehicles too, which was a fitting end to the day.  We have had a different day each time we’ve been here, but each time has been rewarding.  A rougher day for me physically, maybe mentally, but after my rare afternoon nap, I woke refreshed and grateful again that Eric and I have been able to fish this little oasis this year.

So very strong for their size.  Respect.