May 3, 2020 – Tom and I Find Some More Elbow Room – SEPA Freestoner

A pretty and warm spring morning in the woods.

The Silver Fox has invited me out fishing for the last couple of weekends, and I either had fishing plans or was busy or didn’t want to mess with Valley Creek. We have not been out together since our early season Pocono trip, pre-Covid.  With my urging, because you know I am all about avoiding the crowds this season, we agreed to meet this morning at his favorite little brookie/brown Class A an hour and change from home, and we picked a pretty good day.  Tom loves to fish this spot with a dry dropper later in the spring and early summer, and we have had a couple good days doing that, but I convinced him that some bugs would show today and fish might even look up.  I lied, but not on purpose.  Perhaps because some light rain I did not expect overnight, plus more rain during the morning drive, gave them a good dousing, we did not see caddis or any mayflies moving about in the morning.  Midges, yes, gnats, yes.  I am not sure this is an extremely fertile creek, being a mountain freestoner for much of its length, but I did see caddis the last spring trip we made here.  Despite the absence of rising fish or visible bugs, fish were eating well though.  I fished a pair of tungsten bugs on a tight line and caught a mess of small brookies and browns, even a couple decent ones too.  Tom also got into the action in earnest once we stopped back at the parking spots for him to grab another rod.  He has been working with me and putting the time in alone tightline nymphing, and I have witnessed the development, but as you can see from the photos, this is a tight creek and a little “technical” as hip fly guys and YouTubers are wont to say.  Still, I saw him catch a dozen fish and miss/drop a couple beauties!

Tiny and tight SGL blueline.

Instead of heading right for a few of his go-to spots, we bushwhacked downstream a good distance to fish some water that I had never fished before.  While not posted, it is closer to some homes and farms, so while Tom has fished it before, it is not a stretch he has fished often.  We peeped some nice looking holes on the walk down, however.  They all produced too.  We had a good start to the morning, especially me, the guy with the tungsten bugs getting to the bottom of a couple good, deep holes and the heavier riffles near deep holes.  I landed the best brown of the day, and the best brookie too, within the first 45 minutes of fishing.  We caught a lot more fish right up until quitting time around 1:30 PM, but the size of the first few fish outclassed most of the others by far.  I was just tossing a pheasant tail with a pink bead on the dropper and a gingery brown sob larva on the anchor.  The brookies loved the pink bead, but I think the browns mostly ate the bottom roller.  I gave Tom a pinky to fish under his dry to start, and he fished it as one of his flies when he nymphed too, and he caught fish on it too. 

Beautiful colors.

After some early surprises, and Tom’s decision to retool before heading to his hot spots, we took a short break at the vehicles.  Tom rigged up his 9 footer to nymph and I, who had declined to use a rest stop on the way this morning, took some napkins and “sat down” al fresco.  It’s been a while, and Eric probably jinxed me by having to retire to the woods last week, but I would rather steer clear of rest stop bathrooms right now.  More fun times due to Covid concerns!  Now ready to commit to nymphing the slightly higher flows, we worked through some of Tom’s favorite spots along the creek.  In arguably the best hole in this stretch, he was at the plate and nearly landed the best brookie of the day.  It looked to be 9 or 10 inches.  He lost one more along the way that was also a beauty, and I lost a nicer one as well when the fish had the dropper but managed to snag my anchor fly on a mossy rock when he ran to shallower riffles.  There are a lot of variables to consider on a creek that is 10 feet wide with a birch canopy!   I would not have it any other way, however.  It makes you a better fisherman to target these little spots, especially in the category of awareness.  Not only do you have to weigh out how (or even if) you can make the cast, then you have to think where does the rod go for hookset, and finally can I land this thing and where.  As Tom said, it is also a team sport, your successes are shared because you take turns at spots, maybe even defer to your partner when you feel ill-equipped to address a particular spot or a particular spot at this particular time. 

Best brown, best brookie (landed, that is).

It was hot and humid for early May.  I was in a t-shirt for the second shift, and even that was getting damp from the uphill climb.  The final third of this beat is not as productive numbers wise, but Tom alone has pulled some better fish from the odd deep pocket or two, and I had a similar experience with him one summer in this stretch of the creek.  There was some storm damage in places, but also some new and newly scoured plunges below deadfalls.  A couple times I pulled half a dozen fish, mostly under 5 inches, out of these spots, but at a few memorable plunges, I also found a better brown or brookie in the mix.  We have landed browns to 11 inches on this creek, and brook trout to 10 as well, but today we had to be content for the most part with fat 6 to 8 inchers.  They have been eating well and will get longer by summer’s end.  Most were bulldogs digging for cover, but we had leapers too—rewards for the hard work of sneaking and sweating our way through the woods.

Pinky.

I promised to be home before 3 PM, so we quit at 1:30 PM, but not until after landing a couple more fish on a second visit on the hike back to a select few holes.  Folks were out walking, riding motorcycles, even giving the Clydesdales a trot, but we had a good quiet five hours on the water.  It was not the kind of success Tom was hoping for, that I had bribed him into expecting, but fish were eating well, so no complaints here.  In another month, I think Tom will get his wish for dry dropper conditions, and I hope he brings me along.  Even without the desire to fish spots off the beaten path multiplied by the current situation in the world, I still love to sneak around little creeks like this.  This will not be the last time this spring that you see a post about some small unnamed crick with pretty wild and native fish, that I can almost guarantee.  I have a lot of grading to get done this week, and a couple remaining work-related projects that must be completed, but I am hoping to get out at least once this week and once over the upcoming weekend.  Beaches are about to be in play soon.  I know they are open now, so water temps- and weather-permitting, I am itching to catch a bass or a racer blue in the surf, as well.

A pretty one to end on the sob larva anchor fly.