May 17, 2020 – A Glorious Morning of Solitude and Fish – Berks County Limestoner

Just a lot of small wild fish this morning.....

I was on the road before 5 AM this morning, hoping to find some space for myself on a Berks County limestone-influenced creek that I have not visited since January of this year.  I arrived right at sunrise and was a bit disappointed for a moment when a young guy pulled into a spot along the road behind me, but I quickly learned he had spinning gear and shorts on and, like most visitors to this spot, he headed right for the most convenient hole.  While I respected his commitment to the early morning bite following yesterday’s heat, he was not heading where I was heading.   This creek is stocked each spring, but without any assistance from the public this year, I had my suspicions that a load of them were just dumped at the bridge.  I was looking for wild fish and holdovers away from the access point, anyway, and I was actually expecting that some favorite holes did not get stocked this year and hoping that wild fish and/or survivors had taken up residence instead.  I do well with wild fish in the fall and winter here sometimes, but the creek does have decent spring hatches too.  No risers this morning, but a caddis emergence did turn on some good fishing.  The biggest fish were the holdovers, by far, but I must have landed close to 30 wild browns up to 11 inches in addition to the 3 or 4 holdovers.  I was using the mono rig again with rather small bugs, a sob Czech larva on the point and pinky, a little pt/hares ear combo with the pink tungsten bead, on the dropper, both size 16.  In a couple particularly deep holes, I used an equally heavy larva on the dropper, just in a brown or more ginger color—all pretty simple bugs (well, short of that pink bead).

There's this guy I know who complains when I don't post creek pics....

I caught a small wild brown right near my parking spot on one of my first casts, followed by a chub, one of a handful of those today.  I was fishing a mono rig on my 10-foot 4 weight rod, which I have not fished much this year (yet) so I just wanted to get the kinks out before moving upstream.  I like to throw the 4 weight on the larger NEPA rivers, so I wanted to give that set up some reps before I use it on potentially larger wild fish on bigger water.  I know my 3 weight nymphing rod can handle quite a bit, even dries, but it probably shouldn’t throw a streamer—or stoneflies under a big old bobber either, for that matter.   I doubt I lost any ground by switching rods.  For one, I used this rod for probably 4 years of seventy or eighty trips and did just fine.  It has a slower action too, which may have even been better for the more delicate mono rig. 

A more recent stocker (though white tips on fins already).

The flows were good this morning, and the weather was warm but cooler than the previous two days.  Still, I had a feeling that fish would be active early with how hot it got on Saturday and the relatively mild overnight temps.  Small caddis were around too, and they got more active as the morning progressed.  Still pretty close to the ‘Ru, but fishing “for real” now, I hooked the only brown of the day that looked like a spring stocker.  He was already using wood for cover, so I may see him again this year, maybe next!  After a couple more small wild browns, I hooked into a hot fish in a narrow, deeper run.  She fought like a wild one, but even though she looked great, there were several signs she was a longer-term holdover: no eye spot, too many fused black spots on the body, etc.  Still, with all the little guys I landed today, it was nice to hook into a porkier holdover once in a while.  In fact, I was disappointed that a few favorite holes that usually hold fish for a long while gave up nothing today.  Many boot prints at a couple of them was a dead giveaway.  I just worry that since no fresh stockies were placed in a couple of them that dudes were keeping long time holdovers or, far worse, wild ones for the table!  I have seen it here before.  The shear number of wild trout, though small, made up for any minor disappointments today, however.

Been around a while....

There was a lot storm damage, some new since I was last here in January, I believe, but the added deadfalls and scours added some new spots or reestablished some old favorites.  I caught wild fish in places I had not in the past, so I look forward to what the fall holds for this creek once they grow a bit more.  I did land some decent ones, however, like the one that opens this post and the long skinny one below.  The creek can be sandy, so the fish don’t always have the most remarkable colors, but a couple of them were damn cute today.  I did not take a lot of fish pictures, just a few representative shots of size categories or a particular pretty one.  I did not get a shot of the likely best wild brown I tangled with—I dropped that at the net after a really fun battle in a deep hole—but it was twelve inches at best.  It made the battle of the stocker I caught in the same hole minutes earlier embarrassing! 

Darn cute for this creek.

I got to play around in some challenging spots, tucking flies under overhanging trees and over logs, but I only lost one set of flies in a tree when that better wild one popped off under tension.  I even caught a few on the swing when the swing was the only way to get my bugs into likely holding water.  The only way they could have been more cooperative would have been by showing themselves with a rise form once in a while.  I did land a smallmouth, my first of 2020, however, after he showed himself with a rise.  The hole where he came up was flatter and deeper, so I popped on a bobber, and he tried to eat that.  I landed him on the next cast on a size 16 sob larva, so he was hungry.  Man, just like the wild browns, even a 12-inch specimen of smallmouth can pull! 

Wanted the bobber but settled for a larva.

I ran into expected posted signs shortly after landing this novelty, so I started heading back.  It was the second stop at a particularly deep run and hole, one where I had already landed at least 5 smaller wild browns, where I messed with another stocker and the aforementioned better wild fish.  I also landed another plump little guy in the same hole, so this was a hot hole that gave up like 8 fish!  I also landed multiple fish at a second stop to fish another hole that had already produced.  I was holding out hope for a good one, another good one that I could photograph, so I stopped at one last favorite spot that was disappointing the first time through but often gives up a decent fish.  No dice this time either.  I really could not complain, though.  I messed with a lot of fish in under 5 hours of fishing, and 85 percent of them were wild.  Instead of fishing my way back, I decided at about 11 AM to just hike on back with my bugs in the hook keeper.

Some plumpers of different origins

I can’t tell yet if the forecasted rain will present opportunities this week or ruin them.  It appears that it could just be cloudy with some showers, so little impact at all.  I am tied up all day on Tuesday and Wednesday with work, but I am thinking about Thursday already.  Eric has been tying like a fiend and wants to revisit our spot, and Wardman, who had success on his own with a new combo last week, also wants to get out again.   In other words, more fishing will happen this week, busy, rainy, or not.  I don’t mind the company, but it was therapeutic to get a quiet, successful trip alone today, especially on a weekend.  

Did I mention a lot of  small wild browns?