July 11, 2020 – Fay Saves the Day or You Went and Saved the Best for Last – SEPA Blueline

Fish two or three of the morning, and better things were to follow.

Eric has been jonesing to hit our secret spot one last time for a few weeks now, but it has been hot, and my experiences with other trout streams in SEPA have been mixed.  Having no summer or high water knowledge of this creek, I could offer no informed opinion on what conditions would be like following weeks of hot weather in addition to a tropical storm or two.  Thankfully, we had some boots on the ground.  I was happy to see a text chain of stream pictures on my phone on Friday evening, and I knew the creek immediately.  The fact that I could recognize it after nearly 3 inches of rain in the region was a good sign!  No gage on this creek, and no real comparable creeks on the USGS site, but Eric’s dad took a ride over and gave us real-time data!  We wanted to see how it handled a big rain, and it looked really good.  I knew this was a healthier overall watershed than some of the others in SEPA that I frequent, and I have yet to see any gut-wrenching farm practices either, so I guess I was more excited at the prospect of fishing than surprised.

Hazy sun by 10 AM, but some solid stolen hours before.

I joked that we need to give Eric’s dad a stream thermometer next time we see him, but the reality was that water temperature was still an unknown variable, and again neither of us had any summer experience on the creek.  I wanted to say Yes, let’s go for it, but I was also saying, This place it too special to mess with if marginal.  It is a relatively long ride to take just to drop a thermometer in a few times, but what else pressing was there to do for two married dudes with kids at 5 AM on a Saturday during quarantine?  I was already suited up to wet wade, so before fully committing we walked down to a convenient spot and dropped the thermometer.  Flows looked higher than we had ever experienced, but the creek was in its banks, and there was enough visibility to pick out bigger rocks and logs.  In the predawn hours, I could barely read the numbers, but with the assistance of Eric’s younger eyes, we could confirm that the water was hanging below 20 Celsius or 68 Fahrenheit in a sun-exposed, flat pool right near a road and warmer runoff. 

Often the spot but not today

We had Eric carry the thermometer the rest of the morning, and with that easy to read 20 C mark as a guide, we decided to give it one last go, possibly until the fall.  We took water temps several times this morning, and they never broke 68 before we quit.  Eric walked up a bigger tributary, as well, and that had the same temp.  At a couple of our honey holes where I was worried about lack of riparian buffer, some nearby spring influence and depth actually brought temps down a click or two.  Not that I think we will be back until late September, barring any major change in weather pattern, but we were impressed once again by the health and resilience of this little gem—yet another reason to leave it alone until the fall, I suppose.

The first of Eric's two good fish.

Once we starting picking up fish, we were even more encouraged that today could be a good one.  None of the fish needed reviving, but we played them and released them quickly, keeping them submerged in the net if we needed a photo—we needed a photo of a lot more than we actually took, honestly.  Eric landed two personal bests for this creek this morning, two fish up to 13 inches and a bunch more, and I landed about 20 trout, with a half dozen of them on both sides of 11 inches.  No hatches, but caddis remained in the vegetation on the banks, so hatches are still happening.  This creek has many, many craneflies too!  Without knowing that hatches would still be a factor, my gut was to throw attractors like weenies and terrestrials like drowned ants.  That said, I still rigged a buggy CDC tag jig on the anchor, which accounted for 90 percent of my fish and, after hanging a mop and a weenie in a wire that has eaten half a dozen of our flies and is cleverly hidden in plain sight, Eric also went with buggy CDC flies.  Fishing was over before 10 AM, so on the way back we actually retrieved two of the six hung-up flies with a long stick as part of our midmorning activities, really another win in itself. 

In there with my run of 9 fish from the same hole.

I landed a beauty, the one that opens this post, for my second or third fish of the morning, but most of the others that we landed on the walk upstream were small.  I lost another good one below the additional flow of a tributary, but Eric was up to bat when we reached the first of our two favorite bend pools.  Water temps were actually 67 degrees here at 9 AM, so something upstream besides farms is helping the cause, likely some springs.  The first pool did not disappoint (it rarely has) and Eric landed a gorgeous one about 13 inches long in the measure net.  We pulled a couple smaller ones out of there, I believe, before we moved to my favorite hole on this stretch of the creek.  We landed a handful of average fish out of here, too, taking turns until we each landed a large chub and thought it might be done. 

Some average and many small stream beauties in the mix.

As Eric moved upstream to address his small stream version of a white whale, a good fish he missed in a tricky log jam a few trips ago, I decided the fish every potential line in my honey hole here.  After landing nine fish, a couple more 11 inchers too, in this one hole, I started to feel like a heel and went to find Eric, who was actually bushwhacking back my way.  I confessed to my solo luck, and urged him to give a particular line or two a shot with his different bugs.  Premonition or guilt or both on my part, I am not sure, certainly not Guiding 101, but he stuck his second 13-inch fish of the morning on his second cast!  We were giggling like little kids!

Another, and bigger than the first one.

At this point, against all odd, this visit became the best of the best.  We had both numbers and size to eclipse most if not all of the previous visits.  Two small stream beauties nearly back to back didn’t hurt the voting either.  The hazy, verdant beauty of the summer woods was not a bad sideshow. We saw a snapping turtle make a move at some minnows, spooked a few deer, and I had to take a photo of the sun moving through a trio of spider webs, all full of craneflies, I bet.  The day of cooler temps on Friday and the lingering clouds this morning held off the heat until 10 AM before the sun started winning the day.  We decided to target only two spots on the way back, in addition to an attempt to fish some flies off a manmade nuisance ten feet over the creek.  I was lured into a third spot when I remembered that I had lost a good fish here earlier in the morning, so I stepped in and took another good 11 or 12 inch fish while Eric took a nearby trib’s temperature.

Bonus round fish.

A second stop did not pay off, but the final stop before retrieving flies also produced a nice fish in a plunge pool that only gave up dinks and snags the first time through, although it often holds a good one.  Double-bonus round now.  Even wet wading, I started to feel the heat as we got closer to the road, so we agreed not to visit a couple honey holes downstream.  The creek had provided enough unexpected success and fun this morning, and the rain and clouds had given us a good extra productive hour of fishing, at least.  Let’s not get greedy or irresponsible with such an awesome place.  We were really encouraged by the temps and how well it handled nearly 3 inches of rain. 

Another from that 9 fish run, I believe.

We have fished the creek during three of four seasons, so we are excited to get back this fall and see what a fourth holds.  Besides this, the only thing left on the list is to try and move some grandparents with a streamer.  We have not spooked any true beasts yet, but there are a couple likely spots to target with meat this fall.  I would just like to know.  We may have to take a walk without rods in late November and count redds, but first we have to get Eric’s dad an infrared thermometer so he can do drive-bys—a PA Dutch surf cam of sorts.

And we didn't even take a lot of pictures!