May 21, 2020 – A 15 Hour Tour of NEPA Bookended by a Couple Piggies – Brodhead Creek

Bookend #1

Because I fished enough for three days today, and I had both Eric and Ward along for part of the day, I will try to break this one into three movements.  Movement one began when I met young Eric at the end of my driveway at 4:15 AM, and we caravanned to the Brodhead.  Ward was leaving home around 5:45 AM and was to meet up when he arrived around 7:15-ish.  In late spring, especially if like me you tend to focus on caddis and not the mayfly du jour, the fish can be quite active early in the morning.  I wanted to fish in the gorge today because the flows were uncharacteristically low for this time of the year.  The intersection of prime bug time and low flows so that moving around the mighty Brodhead was manageable?  I could barely sleep….  However, when I figured out that Ward would be coming a bit later, I suggested an easier meeting spot, a spot he and I fished last month that is criminally loaded with spring stockers.  Well, due to some phone problems that I won’t get into in detail, we had a miscommunication, and he ended up going to a meeting spot I had suggested near the gorge.  No biggie, as he caught me on the phone around 7:20 AM, and we all took a break at the “stocky lot” around 7:30 AM.  

Same fish.  No face, but Eric took my picture today!

Eric and I fished near this pressured access from 6 to 7:30 AM before Ward, or anyone else for that matter, arrived on the scene.  It was a party later, quite literally for a while when we tailgated with a couple other fly guys, but before others started disturbing the riffles and runs, Eric and I put together a decent 90 minutes.  The culmination was me landing a big old brown trout that took a small sexy walts in about two feet of water.  It looked really good too.  I can’t be 100 percent sure it’s wild, likely not, but it was a really strong, pretty fish.  If not wild, it may have been around for 10 years!  We caught probably 15 other stocked browns and bows between us before we hiked up to meet Ward.  Throughout the day, Eric and I were throwing many of Eric’s recent ties, from big old tungsten stoneflies, to his version of the pink bead attractor I have been using, to caddis larva and walt’s worms.  I caught many fish on his creations but, go figure, the two pigs I landed were on pricey store-bought tactical flies, two of my confidence patterns, a sob Czech larva and a little hot spot CDC jig—olives and caddis covered.…    

Not many stocked browns.

Honestly, there was no wrong pattern today—we saw two varieties of caddis, size 20 olives, a few monster stoneflies (maybe yellow sallies) a couple other varieties of mayfly, including the errant sulfur or three.  As my excited insomnia foreshadowed, it proved a good day to be on the Brodhead in other words.  I brought three combos, and I fished two of them.  I spent two-thirds of the day throwing a mono rig—even when I had to switch to a thingamabobber midday, which was not a great choice, especially when I could see my vehicle in the lot.  Using 20-pound, 15-pound, 12-pound Maxima to taper down to my sighter and tippet, however, I made it work.  I learned my lesson for the third shift and used my nymphing rod with a more traditional tightline leader, which is more nimble when switching between tightlining relatively close and popping on a bobber to reach further out on a big creek like the Brodhead.

Mostly blue skies and bows for round 2.

Eric walked down to fish one last favorite hole in this pressured stretch, while I hiked up to catch up with Ward.  While Ward suited and rigged up, I refilled my water and had some calories to keep me going.  I did not have a proper meal until 8 PM, but I did take pains to keep drinking and eating some nuts, Cliff bars, banana, an apple, etcetera throughout the long day.  I even packed an iced latte for the ride home!  It was like doing my one-day tour of State College, just with a much welcomed 90 fewer minutes driving on each end.  So that Ward could get into some fish, we stuck near the parking lot for the middle part of the day, and we all caught some stocked rainbows.  When Eric and I ventured a little farther upstream, we inevitably ran into more fisherman who accessed the creek from other places.  It was a nice day and flows were advantageous, so I was not surprised.  Still, I am still not used to Saturday crowds on a weekday, and I don’t want to know what these easily accessible spots do look like on an actual Saturday.  Damn you Covid 19, damn you to hell.  

Mitches catch fishes.

Besides turning up more dudes and more pressure, our excursions away from the main stocking point did not amount to much, a few more bows, plus a massive white sucker for Eric.  We ended up spending a lot of time, perhaps too much time for my liking, maybe all of our liking, fishing a massive pod of risers.  Around 12:30 or 1 PM, I took a walk back to find Ward, and I saw a dozen or more fish taking emerging caddis in a big deep riffle—there was a horde of small dark caddis, perhaps grannoms, that got the most attention.  The olives were pretty thick too, but they were a size 20, I bet.  Even though I had just crossed the mighty Brodhead, I crossed back and started picking up stocked rainbows that were suspended up taking bugs, at first nymphing them up but eventually hanging a couple bugs under a bobber.  Eric joined us a bit later, so we all fished this pod of fish for a good bit, and we landed many.  Eric caught on his stonefly and caddis larva, and nearly all of mine came on his green caddis larva, but any bug the right size at the right depth would get eaten because I also landed a couple on a walts when I eventually lost the caddis larva unwisely lipping a particularly reluctant and rambunctious one.

Bow while the sun was low.

Ward caught one before we got on the scene and a few others after Eric and I got there, but he had a slower start, so it was he who first invoked the old, “I am good, let’s get out of here” once he had some success.  It was Eric, however, who made the first move to the parking lot, luring me with the promise of a cold(ish) beer, and Ward followed shortly thereafter.  We sat in the afternoon sun and shot the breeze for a while, eventually adding two other dudes to our social distancing party.  As the party broke up, I decided to fish some more on my own.  I had a hankering for not only trees and shade but also wild fish.  I ended up fishing for two more hours, but I only intended to target one favorite spot that is relatively easy to access but not often easy to fish in even average flows—it is an early summer and late fall spot for me, mostly, because lower flows greatly assist the success rate and—if you omit the prospect of waking the homeless residents of a tent city or two—the safety quotient. 

Trees and shade at last!

 As I mentioned above, I switched combos for this third shift, fishing my usual 10-foot three weight rigged with a more conventional euro leader.  I was excited when I saw the flows—the creek picks up the volume of two significant tributaries between here and where we fished earlier in the day, so I needed to see it to believe it—and there were still some active caddis to help the cause potentially.  I made a concerted effort here to fish some of the bugs that Eric gave me this week.  Besides fishing his green caddis larva, I also fished his golden stone.  I caught at least 4 smaller wild browns on his caddis.  I also landed a solid holdover brown and rainbow on what I call Eric’s pink bomb, his version of the pink bead pheasant tail I have been throwing with success, only his has an outsized bead.  I really love small flies that get as deep as big flies, and this fits the bill—he even puts some wraps of wire under the dubbing!   Sam would be proud because it fishes in heavier current as well as his own bottom roller caddis.  

Not wild, but a start on the pink bomb.

The flows were not high enough to give the stonefly a workout, but the two larva produced for a good hour.  Before leaving, I decided to fish some much shallower pocket water and riffles.  Over the years I have landed a few good fish on the Brodhead in these little spots that many if not most fishermen overlook.  A good, maybe twelve-inch wild brown showed himself taking an emerger in one small pocket in about a foot of water, so I switch out the pink bomb for something lighter and buggier.  I hooked and lost this fish or a neighbor on the little CDC jig I had tied on to imitate the emergers, but I did not miss the next fish who ate.  In shallow water, this pig thought he had nowhere to go but up in the air at first.  He got his big body out of the water three times in short succession.  

Small wild browns on Eric's caddis larva.

I almost pooped my pants, when he figured out that he could also make a run for it.  I was out in the middle of the creek, in current, so he had the upper hand.  He ranged around one side of the creek and then the other, and I had to chase him downstream a good thirty feet while trying not to fall and while dragging a prematurely detached landing net, but it all worked out.  What better way to end a marathon than with a strong kick, you know?  I was in no position to move around too much or wade to shore dragging the fish in the net, plus it was a longer fight, so I did not measure and instead did my best to get a quick release.  I would not venture 20, but it was well over 18 based on my experience, and it was a fish that lives in big water most of the year, so he was broad, heavy, and strong.  I wish he had eaten one of Eric’s bugs, but I fell back on a confidence fly and for good reason, obviously.  It was probably 5:30 PM by now so, while the temptation to keep fishing was there, I was also realistically thinking that the odds of it getting better than this were slim.  In addition to this fish, I had landed 7 or 8 fish during the third shift, so the numbers were there too.  Anything else would be silly or selfish or something. 

Worth clocking in for a third shift!

I had to do more wading and bushwhacking through knotweed and floodwater-deposited timber to find a path out, and on the walk out I found yet another net on the Brodhead.  This is the third landing net that I have scavenged from this watershed.  Two of them are actually in rotation too!  I posted about all of them on the fly fish forum, and someone found one through this blog, in fact, but unlike the other nets this one looks to be a bit more special to someone, maybe even handmade or artisan made.  If no one claims it, I may have to replace the basket and work this one into the mix.  Watch your nets because the Brodhead likes to steal and hide them from you, apparently.   I made it back to the ‘Ru in one piece with my new net and, after drinking a can of caffeine and drinking what little water I had left, I ended my 15 hour tour of NEPA with a quiet ride home and the realization that, despite not taking a lot of pictures, this was going to be one long blog post….

Another shot of bookend #2