May 8, 2020 – Almost Alone with the Wild Browns – Northampton County Limestoner

Not the biggest of the day, but the prettiest (and one of the clearer shots in low light and drizzle).

Perhaps because I had a beer at 10:30 or 11 PM last night, my sleep pattern was off.  Instead of getting up to piss at 3 AM or later, I was up shortly after falling asleep, and one other time in the night.  I heard Tami, who never sleeps well, in the shower around 5:30 AM, so I walked to the powder room at that time and just stayed up.  I had the idea of fishing in the back of my mind, but no set plan.  After coffee, I decided to gamble on a small stream a little less than an hour from home.  I was on the road by 6:30 AM and fishing by 7:30 AM.  I probably had over a dozen fish in the first 90 minutes too, well over 20 by the time I quit at 11 AM.  I also had that first 90 minutes or more to myself.  I only saw one other dude out later in the morning, a spinner guy, and he kept his distance, but we were fishing the same general area, unfortunately.  I don’t think he jumped ahead of me—more likely that he was just fishing down while I was fishing up—but his presence did take away a couple undisturbed opportunities.  He was probably thinking the same thing about me.

They were lookers today!

The creek was stained with good flows, so I fished a bigger jig, a red tag fly in size 14, on the point and that little pink bead pt on the dropper—two tungsten bugs to get down quickly.  Instead of going right for my usual first stop, I decided to try another deep run downstream that does not always produce.  I am not always on this creek so early, at least not in the spring (summer for sure) so I thought I would see if that would make a difference.  I would like to tell you that I landed or even moved a piggy, but I can’t.  I did catch at least three fish in this run, however, including a couple 10 to 11 inchers with great, unique colors.  I also landed a couple equally beautiful small stream fish at the next hole while still avoiding my usual first spot.  Five fish in a very short time, especially before I had even reached my confidence spots, boded well for the morning.  There were no bugs visible, not even midges, so I had to dig the fish out of deeper and/or bouncier water, and that trend continued for the morning.  I did not even get a hit at the deep hole I had intentionally saved, and by the time I decided to fish it again before I left for home, the spinner dude had already fished it at least once, so I was happy that I took the early detour to confirm a hunch.

Parred up too?

I fished my next favorite run slowly and with intention.  I was disappointed, though not surprised, that the end of the run only produced a few very small trout.  Some days when bugs are hatching, the larger fish suspend up in the back of this run and some days when other bugs are hatching, the larger fish set up right in the shallow riffles closer to the head.  Today, they did neither.  Much like they would act on a warm summer morning, the two largest fish I landed here, the two largest of the day, in fact, were right up in the deep riffle using the depth and the soft edge of the plunge just to ride it out in ease and comfort.  When I got the bugs down close to the bottom, they did eat, but it took some work.  In fact, after landing maybe 5 fish here, I decided to hunt around for some split shot to see if I could find one of the good fish that sometimes show in this run.  I have caught them over 16 inches here in recent years.

Skinny hen, pinky, red tag.

With a large split shot on just above my point fly, I was basically drop-shotting the pinky fly for a few very fruitful casts.  The productive part of the drift consisted of all of two feet or two seconds, but the fish were there as I predicted.   I landed a skinny hen that was about 11 inches, and I had to delete blurry pictures of another fish over 12 inches.  But I did manage to capture two decent shots of the biggest fish of the day.  I would estimate he was 15 inches, which is a nice fish for this little creek.  He had a big old toothy head and fought like a tough guy too.  With all the overhanging trees and shrubs, I had to ease him back down into the hole in order to land him, and thank goodness I remembered to keep my legs closed because, sure enough, he gave that evasive maneuver a try too.  I was really happy about these fish, especially this last one, because I took the time to make needed adjustments to my presentation, and it paid dividends. 

A couple decent shots of the tough guy.

Some shallow riffles that often produce gave up nothing, but I did manage to land a brook trout in the flat hole above them.  I landed one smaller than this one a visit or two ago to this same creek, which is not stocked.  I believe they get in from a private club upstream or some local organization doing it on the sly like what happens on the Bushkill.  I have also landed a couple massive, tagged rainbows here, so I am leaning towards escapees, but I really don’t know.  It was a decent sized fish and was fun to catch.  I saw what I thought was a fish dimpling the surface a couple times as I approached the hole, so I clipped off my dropper and just tied on a small CDC jig.  I made a couple casts near where I thought I had seen the rise, and sure enough I landed this fish just using a slight pause in my leader as an indication that a fish had taken—the nymphing leader is more versatile than it often gets credit for; I have even landed fish on a dry fly without changing it out! 

Really tried to get a good shot of the better one!

I landed some more fish before I reached the place where I usually turn back, but I was seeing too much of the other dude.  He had gotten to the last spot I usually target before me and, while I did not see him land a fish, I could not coax anything larger than 8 or 9 inches out of there once he had fished it and continued walking downstream.   Like I said, he did his best to avoid, and I did the same, but I did not arrive at a couple favorite spots first this morning, and the first lure in the water was a big piece of metal not a dainty little pink bead.…  I had already landed over 20 fish, and I could see him stopping to make casts on his way down, so I figured this had to be good enough.  The rain had started by 10:45 AM, anyway, and I was not prepared—on purpose.  I figured I would quit once it started raining in earnest, so I ended just a bit sooner than planned, I guess, but not before having a pretty successful short trip.  Fittingly enough, my older neighbor needed room in his fridge for food, so he gave me about 12 more beers this afternoon.  Maybe I should have a couple and get up early to toss a streamer tomorrow?  I think I will just sleep in….

Targeted a riser and found this lost fella.