January 11 and 12, 2021 – A Couple Walks with a Fly Rod – SEPA Freestoners

A few on the bunny leech barely hopping.

I had only a half a day worth of work two days in a row, so what was a guy to do?  I was actually busy on the weekend getting ready for the start of my classes, but there is only so much computer time (or television) I can stomach.  My only fun on Saturday was visiting the fly shop and bringing home take-out for dinner.  Sunday, I was content taking a long walk to a local quarry and back, just to see water and waterfowl, I guess.  After working until after lunch on Monday, I at least had to bring a fly rod on my next walk.  I had sent Eric and Tom H. to a local stocked creek earlier in the winter, and they both had good trips on different days a couple weeks apart.  It was not as cold when they went, and there had been some rain to keep the flows normal, so I did not expect the same results for myself this week, but my plan was to get a good scouting walk in to see how of much of the creek had been stocked.  Someone told Eric that they had not reached some of my favorite holes a little off the beaten path, but I saw fish and landed three in one of those holes.  Granted, I didn’t see the shoals of stockies cruising gin clear pools all of 12 inches deep like I did downstream, but at least I confirmed there were fish further upstream.  I had neither the patience nor the desire to midge under a bobber, so I went the other direction and prospected with some big bugs, eventually tossing an olive bunny leach on 5X and just hopping it through a few holes in order to catch a few average rainbows.  Not great, but a nice brisk afternoon to be outdoors for a walk with a fly rod.  I was on the water from about 2 PM to 4:15 PM, so I got to see the start of the early winter sunset too.

Late winter afternoon light.

Today, I could not believe it was only Tuesday.  It is going to be a long week, though the warm up later on Thursday and Friday does have my wheels turning.  I again did more prospecting.  Like yesterday, I left the house sometime after lunch and stayed close to home, looking for more stockies in the local creeks.  I was not sure if this one got stocked this fall, and now I am pretty certain it did not.  Because the water was so clear and the sun so bright, I did see a couple trout but not enough to dispel the feeling that these were just some lucky holdovers.  It was a bit warmer than Monday today, but I only saw dog walkers and hikers out there.   I covered a lot of water quickly, nymphing upstream and tossing a bugger downstream.  I took the skunk with little fanfare.  Like yesterday, I had no desire to sit in a deep hole and midge, and if I did that I would not have covered enough ground to get in a walk and get enough intel, anyway.  Even if I did midge today, I am not sure I would have landed a fish!  I snuck up on two and sight fished them, but they both stayed tight to cover and moved away from not towards a gently presented soft hackle.

Just creek pics for Tuesday.

It looks like I may have to wait until the PFBC stocking in the early spring here if I want an afternoon break from work.  There is always Valley, but then there is always Valley, so I do look for a little variety close to home in the winter.  At least the creek on Monday is an option if we get a little more water in there or some midge hatches.  Besides another section of the creek where I caught micro-stockies late last month, there are two more creeks to try on the stockie front, but I think I am going to go for broke later in the week and fish a bigger NEPA freestoner for a post-spawn wild piggie.  I still have a handful of big golden stones, and I may even bribe Eric for a couple more.  As suspected, I am loaded with larger jigged pheasant tails and hares ears too, so I will definitely make do and hopefully scare up a couple decent fish.  If nothing else, I am going to sneak around a Lehigh Valley limestoner with more purpose than I carried with me so far this week.  At least I know where wild trout will be this time of year, and that goes a long way towards keeping my head in the game.  I dropped over 500 bucks on new waders on Saturday, so I hope they are not cursed or something!  At least I started the slow but certain process of wearing out the crotch this week, and I looked cool and professional as f$#& out there getting the finger from some sun-spooked stockies…