August 16, 2020 – No Set Plan and then a Predawn Change of Plans – Northampton County Limestoner

 

Okay, so I got up early and stood in the rain for a reason.  Now I see.  Future motivation.

The forecast for light rain today prompted me to load up the ‘Ru last night in case I felt the motivation to fish.  The handful of creeks within an hour of my house that I frequent, especially in the summer and winter when a shorter fishing window lends itself better to shorter drives, they were still in decent shape with all the rain last week.  Even much closer Valley Creek was up 10 CFS over normal for this time of year and looked like it had the potential to climb up a click more, but conditions were not sexy enough to get me excited.  When I set the alarm last night, I had a particular favorite creek in mind that I had not gotten to fish in a while, but I was still going to check gages when I got up and make a game day decision.  I woke up at 3:30 AM and learned that Tami had been up since 3 AM, so I ended up talking to her until well after 5 AM.  Once I got moving, instead of taking an hour and change ride, I opted for a 45-minute one instead.  I still rolled into the parking spot before official sunrise or darn close to it and was fishing by 6:30 AM.  I fished this creek with Eric just a week ago, and it fished really well for a couple hours that day with higher flows and a stain.  I think the light rain over night gave the creek a slight stain to start today, and flows were good for August, but conditions overall were rather normal.  I expected a normal day, but I was just happy to be out in the cool weather, alone on a usually pressured creek.  The average fly fisherman is pretty soft, maybe it’s the average age, so I did not expect to find anyone else fishing in the rain, even though it was a weekend.  Eric and I ran into a couple anglers last time, and one dude jumped right into a hole we were working our way up to, so I hit this spot first just in case, however.

On the board early

It was a good call, as a few fish were chasing emergers in a back eddy, and I quickly landed a rogue holdover rainbow and four wild browns.  I started out using a green caddis larva on the anchor and a small CDC tag fly on the dropper, and most appeared to eat the dropper.  I changed flies a lot today based on depth and conditions, but that size 16 CDC dropper probably accounted for the most fish, including some young of year that got active at 10 AM when everyone else seemed to go back to bed, plus a nice 12-inch range fish that I targeted at quitting time in a deep flat with a Palsa pinch-on indicator—about as stealthy as a dry dropper if you discount the hi-vis orange color!  I worked through some riffles where Eric and I moved some better fish, including a real pig, last time, but I did not expect to see that fish two weeks in a row, especially in pretty normal stream flows and color.

Sure are pretty

As I moved through the riffles, I landed a couple small fish in the deep sections, but I did not encounter any good fish.  I decided to fish a size 16 frenchie alone in the shallow head of two pocket pools, and I finally connected with a nice 14-inch wild brown, the one pictured in the net to open this post.  He was in no more than 8 inches of water, so the single small bug was the ticket.  I left it on and fished the hole where I started the morning, only this time I fished the back eddy with the light bug drifting upstream in the lighter current along the bank where a couple other fish were showing themselves.  I landed two this way, a couple feisty 10-inchers, and dropped another. 

Facing backwards and eating

I was hopeful that a favorite run of pocket water, though somewhat altered by Isaias, would produce better today than it did for Eric and me last weekend, but it really didn’t.  Instead, the only hits and connects I made were with a couple 8-inchers and at least four YOY.  They are barely 3 inches long right now, but pretty aggressive already.  Even though it was cloudy and rainy, with the exception of these ravenous little ones, the bite seemed to shut down around 9 AM, maybe a bit after.  I tried a couple really juicy attractors, like a latex-bodied caddis pupa, even snuck back with the bigger bugs to two spots that typically hold a good fish or two, but still nothing was happening.  Just when I was going to call it a day, I was encouraged to see a fish break the water in a flat pool up above me, likely chasing an emerger out of the water.  I also saw a couple other surface bulges as I got closer. 

Big meal next time?

 There was not a pod of active fish, but there seemed to be at least two who had not gone back to sleep.  In a last ditch effort to put one more decent fish in the net, I put a scud on the anchor and today’s hot CDC dropper back on under a Palsa indicator.  You have seen them, the little pinch-on foam buttons.  They don’t cast great, especially with competition nymphing line in a breeze, but they make very little disturbance when they land and are very sensitive to light takes in water where fish have all the time in the world to look at your bug and eat or refuse.  For me, they are more convenient than equally sensitive and quiet wool indicators, especially in situations like this when I want rig quickly to target a particular fish.  The fish did not rise again, but I thought I saw a flash of his side or opening mouth near the overhanging tree where I had placed him from afar.  It was him, or a cousin, because the indicator paused and slightly dipped.   It was a pretty nice fish too, a good 11 to 12 inch wild brown who decided to cooperate and give me a high point on which to end the morning.  High point would have taken on a totally different meaning had a 24-inch carp that showed interest in the scud on my last cast of the trip actually ate instead of spooking when he saw me.  August has been good to me so far, and I like the forecast for this week.  I will be busy with work and the boy’s birthday, but I cannot rule out another trip when all I see are highs in the 80s in mid-August.  Cicadas are staring to crash land, too....

Nice bonus fish.