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| Fork-sticking and art. No fish. |
Yesterday afternoon was warm and sunny, so I took the boy
out for recess around 5 PM and spent an hour at the local pond. It was crowded, as expected. It seems like folks all get stir crazy at the
same time, like 3 PM when the kids have had enough of schoolwork, maybe. We looked, but the parking lot for the Wissy near
my house had no spots. Even if there
were one remaining spot, I would have driven on. Sad to say, I have not fished the Wissahickon
in 2020. I have logged enough trips for
a lifetime, but with the boy, and even Ward, wanting to fish, it would have
been nice to have a normal stocking year with fish spread out in my old
favorite runs and holes. We found
parking and a patch of open real estate at the pond, but we could not buy a hit
on the Rapalas. The PowerBait Guild was
catching for sure, but even if that were in my wheelhouse of skills anymore, I
would rather swim a plug and catch nothing, I think! The boy, well, I am sure he would just like
to catch a fish. I tried, though. We found someone’s leftover worms and, after
he made an art project (pictured above), the boy selected a few lively ones to
bait a trout magnet with. We soaked them
for 30 minutes without even a sunfish or carp bite, so recess was just casting
practice and art class this day.
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| Some fish very shallow. |
The end of my week and the weekend are really packed with
work, but I found myself caught up this afternoon. I decided to fish a local creek for a couple
hours with low expectations of finding real estate or even fish. I arrived around 4 PM and fished to 6 PM and,
happily, I found a parking spot (the last one) and no one fishing the riffles. Plenty of families were out walking and
fishing the holes. I even saw a little
girl reel one in, which is the upside of the pandemic upside-down world. Avoiding the obvious spots and fishing really
shallow, bouncy water, I ended up catching 9 trout in a couple hours. All but one took a size 16 pheasant tail with
a pink bead; the other took a size 16 tag fly I was using as the anchor. Hits were subtle, so the long time holdovers
may be keyed into small bugs. The Silver
Fox has been here in the evening when fish rise like crazy to midges, and Pete said
he caught some on a midge today, so I probably willed them to eat these bigger
bugs. Happy to do it, though! Better than a nap?
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| Some fall stockies with white tips, some spring stockies without, good flows, good times. |
An upside down world it is! I think it's tipping slightly back to center. (avoiding the word normal btw)
ReplyDeleteWell you got two quick trips in before the month ended and hopefully May will bring you luck.
On stocked streams, is this when you start looking to the bouncy water? I know the trout were probably dumped whole sale into deep bridge holes considering the state of things.
RR
Where I was fishing, RR, is catch and release, so they do spread out if given the chance. It also gets a fall stock, so a few of the fish I caught, all but one, I think, were definitely eating bugs or nothing since November. They had white tips on the fins and good color, which is a sign of a holdover. That is why they were in the riffles this time of year. The got smart. They will sink back to the holes when not eating until it gets too warm.
DeleteThankfully we have had a couple rain events that seemed to have spread the fish around. The stockies are taking a beating from the powerbait crew, however. On my lunchtime runs I will usually see at least half a dozen guys fishing. I am hoping my trip to central PA in 2 weeks does not have as much crowds.
ReplyDeleteA lot of guys fishing out there too, Pete! You tend to stay away from the big names though, so you should be good. You can use a bobber but no meal worms!
DeleteI plan on hitting a big name in the canyon one morning. Gonna make sure im there 30 min before sunup and ill be off the water before the fly guys even wake up. I might join them for an evening hatch on a big name that is about 20 min from my cabin in Huntington county.
DeleteBesides that ill be sticking to the tribs.