March 26, 2021 – At Least a Half-Dozen before the Big Blow – Northampton County Limestoner

Fun before the wind arrived.

I was probably a day and change late to the party, maybe twelve hours if I want to be kind to myself, but I did take advantage of the tail end of the last shot of rain and clouds before the crazy front moved in early this afternoon.  I told myself I might chuck a streamer on Thursday if I got up, but I was in Zoom meetings from 11 AM to 8 PM, so that would have taken more motivation than I had in me.  It had been a busy 8 to 10 days already.  On top of that, I was getting “Ready Montgo” emergency messages all Wednesday night.  The Wissy was in the roads everywhere around my house, so I assumed from the gage that Valley was too and just slept in.  Tom texted me in the morning when he saw Valley hanging around 60 CFS, which is pretty nice nymphing water even if the creek had cleared, but I just relaxed and mentally planned my Friday instead.  It has been hard to get me motivated to fish Valley this year with all the added pressure—and now with blue winged olives.  Instead, I put in an honest day of work and got up early today in order to hit a Lehigh Valley creek or two.

Good flows and a little stain; little bugs because BWO's were present early.

I ended up talking to the boy and then Tami, and then as I was leaving the neighborhood finally, I also ran into Eric.  We chatted for a good long while and made some tentative plans for next week while the kids are on spring break, so it was 9 AM before I even got on the road for real!  So much for early.  It was still cloudy on the drive up, and when I arrived I had a good 90 minutes of clouds and not wind before the front moved in.  Olives were hatching or had hatched, but some nice fish were still taking nymphs and emergers in the riffles and pocket water.  It was game on.  I landed a nice run of fish on an 18 olive perdigon, including two in the 14-15 inch range.  Expecting the wind, I was throwing my 10-foot 4 weight with a mono rig, which worked okay, but it is not my go-to small stream rod, so I dropped at least 3 fish today, even though I landed at least 6 or 7.  There was one slightly bigger than 14 that looked like a contender for fish of the day, but I missed him with the net.  It was just a combination of user error and small barbless bugs in fast pocket water, I guess, and the beginning of the blow.

A few nice small stream fish in the bunch.

I couldn’t complain, though I did when the wind gusts started coming more regularly.  I persisted for a while, timing my casts between gusts when I could, even popping on a bobber in two deep holes—that produced nothing, as fish were in the broken water eating at least until noon.  When the creek started filling with small branches that were breaking off the trees, I decided to call it a day.  Had I gotten out a little earlier, who knows?  But having not fished in over a week, I was happy for the fun flurry of activity and a few nice fish in the mix.  Not a bad three hours on the water.  Mentored Youth with the boy tomorrow, but maybe Sunday and definitely a couple days next week, as my work schedule is far more manageable then too—I even have off from my MFA class for an Easter break.  Zoom fatigue is real, but mornings like this help.

Hopefully less wind and even more bugs next week.