May 31, 2021 – Yay, Rain! Boo, Cold! Yay, Fish! - Northampton County Limestoner

A few decent nymph fish in the mix and a lovely morning to be out.

Instead of running out at the first sight of rain in some time, I took the old bull approach and waited a couple days.  I can’t say that I caught more as a result of my patience, but I caught fish.  My stream selection was spot on, at least, as this creek remained stained and about 10 CFS higher than normal.  That allowed me to sneak through pocket water without disturbing them too much, and I probably picked up 20 fish, mostly smalls and averages, between 6:30 AM and when I quit at noon.  The fish, they don’t love these big swings in temperatures/weather patterns, even if the pattern swings the way I want it to, as was the case this weekend towards cool (albeit 20 degrees cooler).  To go from mid-60’s to mid-50’s in water temps (more extreme in air temps) so quickly, that had them feeling a little off, I bet.  To that end, early in the morning I definitely chinned and even tail hooked a couple fish—often a sign they are feeling a little standoffish.  Things improved as it warmed up.

Round one, the green walts was high hook, along with the 18 riffle nymph.

Eventually, in my first walk, I put together a catch of over a dozen fish, and at least one over 12 inches, picking apart pockets and tucking small caddis larva and midge patterns under overhanging cover.  A couple of my favorite spots, a couple of them bigger fish spots, proved empty for me this morning, which was a little disappointing.  I also ran into one other pleasant fly guy, so we may have hopscotched each other without knowing.  He also caught some fish but was having a tougher time than me (the early bird old bull was me in this case).  There has been more pressure here from gear guys too as of late, so maybe the deep holes had been targeted by the young bulls in the rain this weekend.  Or the better fish might have just been feeling a little off, as I already speculated.  Smalls gotta eat; larger fish have the luxury of skipping a meal once in a while.

Pink blowtorch after I noticed a few caddis on the water.

After talking to dude around 10:30 AM, I was about to walk back and call it a morning, but I started seeing a smattering of caddis at the hole I fished before turning back.  I had some more smalls take a single pink tag fly, and even in the sun, I could see a stain remained in any water over a foot deep.  I decided to sneak that single pink tag fly through the pocket water I fished first thing in the morning, and I put together another decent run of small to average fish, maybe 6 or 7 more to add to the slowly and steadily growing total.  I even ended the morning with one more 12-13 inch fish to provide a bookend to the proceedings.  With the algae in full bloom on rocks, it is always a challenge to find the right sink rate on this creek.  I was changing flies all morning and still picking off gunk, but this final round was more enjoyable on that front.  I should have counted on fish looking up at a slower falling bug earlier in the morning perhaps, but with no bugs showing, it is not always that easy to call.

Some more of the better ones.

It felt great to fish until almost noon on the last day of the month!  For 20 some years, this used to be the start of my week in Canada, so I thought of the old man.  It’s funny how NBA playoffs and other random things that coincide with that trip bring back the memories!  Maybe I should catch a bass this week in his honor.  May has been so hot that I have been fishing like it is July, anyway—out at sunrise, done by 10:30 AM.  The heat returns this week, and I am a little busy with work and class, but I also see some rain late in the week, so who knows.  June is supposed to continue to be dry with above average temps, so this was an awesome little reprieve for which I was grateful. Perhaps my old bull approach will pay off as this shot of rain also makes its way through the larger creeks in NEPA?  I was actually considering a ride out to Central PA next week until I saw all the hot weather and no rain in the forecast.  Here’s hoping all the predictions about droughts and record highs this summer are wrong…

May 26, 2021 – A Tale of Two Fishes: How the Streak Ends – Brodhead Creek

Best wild one of the day landed.

I was expecting my run of piggies to end and was okay with it, but I didn’t want it to end the way it did today.  Believe it or not, I lost a massive wild brown this morning.  He was probably 22 or 23 inches and just a wide-bodied and kyped-up specimen.  With low water and hot weather, and the low expectations associated with them, I guess I just made a lazy move in the end that probably cost me a photo of this beast, but I will not soon forget the encounter.  After having a good morning with a mix of wild browns to 15 inches and some nicer rainbows too, I didn’t think the late morning was going to offer me another opportunity at a truly big fish.  I had been effectively working shallow pocket water and riffles since 6 AM, slowly working through every nook and cranny and picking up fish.  For the conditions a couple of the wild browns were pretty good fish, so I was content and having a blast landing them in challenging water on small bugs—mostly Eric’s bomb 16 walts and an 18 blowtorch on the dropper tag.

A good early start.

I was not purposely avoiding a deep run downstream where I have tangled with a few good fish over the years, because I was catching fish doing what I was doing, but I was waiting for more caddis to show so that I would not have to plumb the 4 and 5 foot depths to get at the fish.  I kept sneaking prolonged looks, scanning for risers, so I intended to get down there eventually.  The water temperature was 64 degrees, which is a bit high for May, but it also means that resident fish probably felt good anywhere they wanted to be.  Some of the rainbows, who fight like madmen if they’ve been around for a year or more, were a bit stressed after release, which is what prompted me to take the water temp check to begin with—like it was friggin late June or something!  I am tired of the drought conditions, as I may have mentioned, but they have allowed me to get at some of these pigs in places that are sometimes treacherous to access until early summer and again in late fall.  

Early success with the waltz but the blowtorch worked once caddis started popping.

I have been experimenting with using nylon and copoly tippet again instead of fluoro, at least on bigger creeks or when visibility and sink rate for smaller bugs is not an issue, and because of that I was also experimenting today with a clinch knot, not an improved.  I have less fear of tippet slipping when it is not fluorocarbon, I suppose, and I read some article in a magazine where dude swore the improved did not improve the strength—or not all that much, anyway.  Well, dude is still right.  I did not have a clinch knot on a fly fail today on some decent fish in heavier current, including this huge brown, but I did lose the pig because I made a lazy move and added tippet with a blood knot.  I had been fishing shallow riffles, as I mentioned, so when I got to the deeper runs, I needed a lot more depth and bigger bugs to get deep.  Instead of wasting 4 feet of tippet, I just added a couple more feet for the deeper water, and it was that knot that failed me.  I landed a 15-incher with the same knot, as well as a couple other decent fish, but about 5 minutes into this battle, the big brown took a run for shallow rubble and was gone.

Some decent fish.

This was after he had already jumped twice and ranged all over the pool.  I could let him run and pull drag in the deeper water a couple times, but he finally decided to head for the other bank and try to drag his face or something sneaky, so I gave it just a bit too much pressure in an effort to turn him back.  Instead, I got back my original 4 feet of copoly with a squiggle at the end.  Freakin’ tragic.  Well, it had been a good run, you know?  With the water so low, this might have been the one that I lost in the winter.  He may have just move up into heavier water for cover or for those emerging bugs.  It was definitely bigger than the 20 I caught in April this year near the same 300 yards of riffle and run.  I was pissed at myself but shook it off long enough to rig to fish a bobber in the really deep spot before the tailout of this hole.  I landed a couple more bows, and then I had a monstrous golden rise up from the depths and follow my bugs on the swing before I lifted to recast.  He took the pink tag fly on the very next cast.  This was not the consolation prize I was looking for.  The thing fought like a Target bag, but when it came to the net it barely fit AND finally started fighting like he had been caught.  In fact, I dropped him in the sand at least twice trying to get you some content—he fought harder on land than in the water.  What a mess he was too—it looked like his face was rotting away, he might have been missing an eyeball, and when I let him go, he actually swam back to me and hung out at my feet like a loyal dog or a fish suffering the effects of Stockholm Syndrome.

Frankenfisch!  Not the consolation prize I was looking for....

After an adrenaline-fueled fight with the brown, this was just sad enough to make me head for home.  But just before I had made it back to the parking spot, I found some fish rising in a shady spot.  It was about 10:30 AM and getting damn hot now that the sun had burned off the early haze.  Humid too.  But standing waist deep in a flat, shaded bend pool, I gave these fish a go until, after landing three, I determined they were all likely rainbows.  It just felt too much like stocky bashing—which has its place, mind you—but after the previous tale of two fishes, I decided it was best to go home and write this up for some potential therapy.  So far it has not worked.  It was a good run that had to end tragically, I know, and at least I didn’t break a leg or a rod or one of a dozen other possibilities.  Some of them sound better right now than losing that fish though!

Cute mallards and those future fish-eating mergansers here too.  Plus some B-reel.

May 19, 2021 – I Guess the Streak Is Not Over Yet – Northampton County Limestoner

Like it was July or something, I fished today from about 6 AM to 10 AM before it felt too hot for me and maybe even the fish.  This creek is low, but like the other limestoners in the area, there is still a bit of a charge of water from the springs keeping it a little colored up.  And like at least one other nearby creek, the algae on the rocks is pretty frustrating already too.  I was up and out early.  The low sun and early morning shade helps fishing on days like this if I am aware of my long-ass shadows at all times.  I knew I would have a small window, and I actually had maybe two instead.  I landed a decent wild brown and maybe three other smaller fish in the first hour, and then I had a lull before that 9 AM hour, which has been a low-key magic hour for me this month.  I was throwing one of Eric’s natural walts worms and a perdigon on the dropper to start, but I ended up fishing a bomb size 18 walts and a pink bead pheasant tail, also 18, on the dropper to end the morning. 

May have tangled with the one on the right before early this spring.

I got the first nicer brown on Eric’s fly on the point, and a couple smaller wild browns on the perdigon too.  Pinky did the most damage in terms of numbers for the day, including a few rainbows.  I don’t catch many rainbows here, but they are sometimes memorable.  One was the smallest stocker I have seen in a while; it almost looked like a fingerling.  That is not the kind of memorable I was looking for.  But two of them were hot bows that fought like crazy, taking major multiple leaps and long runs.  The largest was over 14 inches and looked almost wild.  I caught a similar sized fish in the same general vicinity one snowy early spring afternoon, so maybe it is my friend, and (s)he is doing well for himself/herself. 

Would have been content with these guys.

I thought that flurry of early morning fun was going to be enough, especially since a couple favorite holes gave up nothing, but around 9 AM a few caddis showed again.  I had a second run of at least 6 more wild browns in one deeper riffle and another acrobatic bow too.  After that success, I decided that I had to try two of my honey holes again with the bomb waltz, now even more fuzzed up from all the love it had received, and pinky on the dropper—that small buggy thing accounted for 5 of the 6 wild browns in the last run of fish.  I stayed out of the water as much as possible to avoid sending stain down that way.  With the sun up now, it was clear that the creek was, well, clear.  When I hooked what would be my final fish of the morning, I was excited because I knew it was a pig but a little disappointed thinking it was another rainbow.  This fish did not dig and bulldog at first; instead, it took a long run upstream, nearly into the next hole.  It acted nutty like a rainbow.  Until I saw the dropper and knew he had the walts on the anchor, I almost thought I had tail-hooked the little freight train.  Just before I got him to turn back downstream, he took a leap, and now I could clearly see it was a big wild brown trout.  I did not panic, just did my thing, excited that I had the chance to land another big brown.  Man, I guess my current hot streak is not over this month. 

Pretty fish and acted nuts.

I just wrote about how many fish have been wounded this year, and this one was no different.  Because of the crazy battle and the bird wound, I didn’t give him the full photoshoot on a warm day, opting instead for the classic net pics and a single lift before letting him go.  I would say over 18 inches, pushing 19, probably, and just a wide strong, mature fish.  I guess this hole, which sometimes gives up 3 and 4 fish, was quiet the first time through because this brute was out of hiding this morning.  Typically, I am not one to be a glutton, and I took this bonus round beauty as my cue to start walking back to the lot.  I had low expectations again when I began my day, and was happy with the first two hours on the water, but the last hour was pretty awesome and made me doubly grateful that I rolled out of bed this morning and took a drive.  Obviously, good fish can be had in these conditions, and I do this routine in July and sometimes August—at that time of the season the 5 AM to 9 AM shift—but May is supposed to be a little easier!  I will be exhausted with creeping around with small bugs on long, light tippets by July this year.  Come on rain!

Some creek pics and one more shot.

May 17, 2021 – Back to Work, Back to Reality (but a Fine Reality, at Least) – Northampton County Limestoner

Over 15 inches: Let me ease back into it.

My next set of classes starts on Tuesday, so my mini-vacation had to end today.  Actually, I started taking a class last week and was still grading papers from my job, so the vacation was more a reprieve from Zoom and a mental one than anything else, I suppose.  I made the most of it with some nice fish, but the streak ended today—sort of.  Water is still low and clear, with no rain in sight, but that can’t completely stop the bugs from hatching.  I ended up having a pretty good morning, over 4 hours on the water with over a dozen fish, an even mix of wild browns and holdover rainbows.  No 18 and 20 inchers this morning, but I landed a wild brown that was over 15 inches, so I inched back towards reality instead of experiencing the change all at once.  It was a beautiful fish, and the others were really pretty too, including some of the more pristine and wild at heart rainbows that this creek supports. 

Bow flex(ing).

Midges were out in force early.  I was fishing by 7 AM, maybe 7:15, after a slow wade into some harder to reach sections of this creek.  I had one of Eric’s walts and a size 18 france fly on the dropper to start, and I got a bunch of bows and a couple wild browns on both.  Around 9 AM, those dark sedges and larger tan caddis, even a couple sulfurs, started to show.  No risers, but I was able to dig the fish out of pocket water and riffles with the small bugs and had the novelty of catching at least 4 fish, and dropping a couple others, that eagerly took a soft hackle on the swing.  From about 10 to 11:30, on the way back downstream to where I parked, I decided to swing the soft hackle for some fish that were starting to show.  All but one of these fish taking emergers ended up being rainbows, but a few of these final rainbows were the ones that had been around for a long time based on their color and fins.

Like summer fishing already: early, small bugs, riffles and pocket water.

It happens at this creek, and it sometimes works to salvage an otherwise mediocre day.  On days when the wild browns decide to be skittish, the bows take up the slack.  Today, the browns were out early and the rainbows filled in as the morning brightened.  It was not all rainbows, however.  I did land the best brown of the day, a beauty, closer to quitting time.  He was in a deep run next to a root ball where I have tangled with others.  It is one of those spots where there should be a dozen fish, but there never is.  Instead, there is one decent fish if any most visits.  Besides this fish, the only brown even close to letting himself be exposed had already paid for that exposure.  It was a good looking 12-inch fish, but with the absence of a blue eye spot I would have to say long time holdover brown, perhaps.  Like many of the fish I have caught this spring for some reason, he had a nice wound from a bird of prey.  

Mostly small browns, some unmarred by predators.  Another problem with low water?

Many of the Brodhead fish had different kinds of wounds, like chomps out of tails (maybe eagles and osprey), but this type of bite I see more often.  Besides eagles making a comeback, and the efficient blue herons, which I’ve been told will hit a fish they cannot pick up just for target practice, there is also a resurgence of mergansers.  On this creek in particular, I have seen a pair for several years that are pretty successful at the breeding thing—the Duggers of ducks.  On this same creek late last week, I saw a pair with maybe eight ducklings.  If it wasn’t hard enough for a wild fish in some of these recovering urban and industrial creeks, the birds add a new dimension.  It does make these fish tough survivors, and they fight like it.  So, yeah, back to reality this week, but I was able to ease into it with an enjoyable morning in a place that often amazes as often as it frustrates.

A final shot of my best wild brown, a lovely and healthy fish. 

That said, the geese are annoying AF right now, even after having their young.  I swear two of them were stalking me, going so far as to spy on me and yell at me from atop a bridge.  I do not expect a quiet morning now until they have moved on.  I do recall chasing tricos here in the summer and having to deal with the same noise, just part of this creek’s charm.  Not to be outdone by the Brodhead, Lack, or Lehigh, this creek also offered up a smashed fiberglass dinghy today.  So odd to see a sulfur hatch starting to return at the same time I see mattresses in trees, but I guess that is one of the reasons I love this particular creek.  If it does not rain soon, and I need to scratch an itch, at least I know the fish are cooperating early too.

Wild browns, sulfurs and a boat.  Goose spies, now?

May 13, 2021 – Got One of My White Whales to Pose with Me – Northampton County Limestoner

Second pig of the week

With low water, bright sun, and higher temps expected today, I did not go out with a plan to catch a big fish, especially after having a day of piggies on Tuesday.  Honestly, the cat somehow slept until 3 AM in the top shelf of my closet before lighting up the room with an unsuccessful attempt at entering my password on the laptop as she used my desk as an interim step to the floor.  Now up, I couldn’t fall back asleep for an hour, so I made coffee and made an impromptu plan.  I fish this creek a dozen times a year or more, but I had not been here yet this spring.  The USGS site is depressing right now, and even this creek was very low for this time of the year, but this is one of the larger creeks among my go-to’s closer to home, and I do have a white whale or two here.  The flow was about where it would be in midsummer and still had a little limestone tint, so it could have been worse conditions.  It was chilly, like 39 degrees on the drive up, and I even saw some frost on Bucks County lawns.  I took the scenic route up the river to give it time to warm up a little, and I watched an eagle fish while I took a piss break at a scenic overlook.  I was just in a relaxed mood, not expecting much and just set on enjoying the morning.

Pretty morning and a decent start.

There were some retired dog walkers out at 7 AM, and I ran into one spinner fisherman at around 11 AM when I was fixing to go home, adequately sated as I was.  The plan was to work some pocket water with perdigons, hoping for some holdover and spring stocked rainbows and at least a couple wild browns.  I hooked a bow on Eric’s quill perdigon early, followed by another bow and then a good wild brown over 13 inches.  I was already content with the choice of creek and my morning, but the flurry of activity gave me hope for an even better fishing trip than expected.  I had few half-hearted bumps in places where wild browns live, so the conditions had them feeling a little dicky.  Even to catch a half a dozen bows, I was using 6X and size 18 bugs.  Only midges were active even as the sun started to warm up the day quickly.

Eric's bug fooled a mess of bows and one decent brownie too.

Around 9:30 AM I did notice some caddis, so I thought it wise to stop the midge nonsense and rig up with 5X and a waltz on the point and a blowtorch on the dropper.  More bows as I worked my way quietly through a prime location where I have landed, hooked and lost, jumped, and/or broke off some big trout over the years.  I had one about 24 on the lip of an inadequate net before he just came off the barbless hook, and that was within recent memory.  That fish may no longer be with us, but one of his kin took the blowtorch in the head of a riffle.  I knew immediately by his behavior that he was a big brown, but I didn’t know how big.  He just did everything possible at first to stay in that riffle, so I took the opportunity to move down below him in anticipation of the fight eventually beginning.  It did, of course.  I had my 10’ 3-weight today, so I had my hands full, I guess, but I did at least have 5X and bigger bugs on now.  Instead of fluoro, I have been using the SA copoly tippet more these days too.  I had a couple nicer fish pull fluorocarbon knots, especially in the cold, so I have been shying away from it at times like these when I know a pig lives in the area.

Say "cheese" not "shoot" next time?

I guess the lens on my phone’s selfie camera got wet, so I actually got a full definition selfie shot of this one.  I have to reconsider using the command “shoot” to get the camera to respond.  First of all, Eric thinks I am having troubles when I say it, and second of all, I notice the shot catches the tail end of my mouth making the command—hence all the mouth-breather shots.  I suppose I may look sexier if I use “cheese” instead?  I guess it’s hard not to look sexy to other trout fishermen while holding fat 20-inch wild brown, however.  Anyway, I got many shots, as you can see.  Where to go from there?  Well, I just finished out the run of water with more bows before a logical take-out point.  I walked back down toward the car and had some water before retrying one favorite plunge that only produced rainbows the first time through.  It produced nothing this time, but it was getting warm and sunny and even less buggy as lunch time approached.  I took some time to admire the gosling and the merganser ducklings in a shady spot, and I took a leisurely ride home and stopped by another creek to watch some wild browns rise and fight off pesky rainbows for the prime lanes. I was just curious what was happening here, but sated enough to resist suiting up again.  No rain in the 7-day at all, so not sure what next week holds, maybe the beach?

The insurance shot in case nothing else turned out or I dropped him...

May 11, 2021 – A “Selfish” Kind of Day – Brodhead Creek

A lot of selfies with fish = selfish.

Where to begin with this one?  I put in a good 9 hours of fishing today on my home away from home creek in NEPA, and I landed close to 40 trout, I bet.  Only half a dozen of those were rainbows, so the wild fish came out in force for the emerging caddis and the security from falling high water.  Somewhere in the mountains of NEPA and NY it must have rained a lot in the last week because my comments about low water have been on hold for a minute now.  I bagged a Brodhead or Lehigh trip last week during a surprise spike, and it was 250 cfs on the Analomink gage when I went to bed last night, so pretty normal to high spring flows.  Not a day to hunt my white whale or try to tangle with my last Brodhead piggie on the lower reaches of the river.  This was supposed to be a Jay day, but he had a last minute family issue and had to bail out.  Of course, then, this is the day my favorite creek that has thus far been kind to far too few buddies actually played nice.  Only for me though.  I saw no one else with a fishing rod all day.  Maybe it was a Tuesday, or maybe this kind of flow is not the kind of flow dry fly fishermen get excited about.  Me, I love 200 in the upper end because it pushes fish to the sides or behind boulders for shelter.  The wading is more difficult, but the fishing can be better, so the extra effort is worth it.  Just before I nodded off at 10:30 PM tonight, I felt a charlie horse coming on and took some preemptive measures to avoid waking up locked in pain—a lot of work and not enough water, I guess, but one sure sign of a full day of aerobic fishing.

A good start to a beautiful spring morning.

I started fishing at 7 AM, and it was chilly, calm, and beautiful outside.  The colors in the woods are bright and green, and the creek just looked sexy.  Until I got my sea legs, I took it easy with wading and fished the near seams and behind obstructions I could reach.  No wading staff needed, not even felt boots, which was a pleasant surprise, and as it brightened and warmed up I kept inching out deeper and into pushier water to reach better spots.   I landed about 5 fish in the first chilly hour, a couple smalls, but also two over 12 inches, so I had a feeling it could be a good day.  I started out with big stonefly imitations with a blowtorch, either pink or red, on the dropper, and I only caught one average wild brown on the golden stone before losing it to deep wood debris. 

The blowtorch or the "double bubble" larva.

Of the huge number of fish I landed today, an overwhelming majority took a pink CDC tag fly/blowtorch on the dropper, an effective emerging caddis imitation.  I also landed some, including the best of the day and maybe all the rainbows, on a caddis larva.  Both bugs were only size 12 or 14, but I used the double tungsten bead trick again on the point fly—I have had success getting smaller bugs deep on the Lehigh and Brodhead, for example, by substituting split shot for a 3.3 mm tungsten bead, which turns any bug into a “double trouble.”  The extra weight is easy to slide on, and the countersunk beads even slide over the clinch knot.  Doesn't cast too poorly either.

My NEPA happy place.

By 11:30 AM, I had worked my way up through a favorite stretch of pocket water and had landed probably 20 fish.  The timeline gets blurry without the order of the photos I took, but by the time I left the first spot I had landed 5 wild fish that were over 15 inches long, 6 if you count a long skinny rainbow hen too!  One, which I thought would be my best of the day, was 18 inches and beautiful.  I would actually eclipse that later in the day at a second stretch of the creek with a 20.  A couple of the big fish were in sketchy spots, like a slick behind a boulder on the other side of the creek with nothing but riffle between us, so I lot of fun to land.  Touch and go at times if not for the luxury of 4X or 5X mono and those bigger bugs snugly set in their mouths.  I did have to race downstream after the 18-incher, who was in one of those tricky spots 30 feet away when I set the hook.  And there are few things more exciting than seeing fish in the high-teens take to the air.  Even with all that, I think I only lost two fish all day—out of 35 or 40, so pretty good odds!  Like I said, big bugs and heavier tippet because of the heavier flows certainly helps too.  I have already written about the benefits I feel using the 4-weight blank on bigger water.  

A lot of nice fish today.

When I reached the end of the line before lunch, there was an even stronger presence of caddis in the air, coming in waves, and I even watched two risers, debating with myself about whether I end my day with a dry fly.  I had already had a day, so what else was left to do, I figured.  My 10’6” combo is rigged with one of those shorty euro-nymphing lines, only 20 feet plus another 11 or 12 of leader, so it only takes a few minutes to rig again with a shorter tapered leader on the WF floating line on the back of the reel for some dry fly or streamer fishing.  Instead, I walked back planning to take a lunch break, but the presence of the bugs, even some large mayflies in the air, made me fish back through the same run of water again.  Not a bad plan because I had not waded out too far the first time through and intentionally had not reached some prime lies on the other side of the creek.  I caught average and smaller fish earlier in the morning too, but now the larger fish seemed willing to play also.  I caught another dozen or more fish the second time through, including a couple good ones and a bigger rainbow that I turned with a hookset earlier in the day.  I probably could have fished through a third time with only slightly diminished returns on numbers and size, a lot of targets as far as cover here, but it was 1:30 by now and I did need food and water and to lose some layers of clothing.

Another Brodhead piggie this spring.

I drank some water and then an iced coffee before driving to another spot upstream.  I then sat in the second spot for a few minutes and checked some email and had a sandwich, an orange, and a seltzer—pretty civilized for me, and yet I still was worried about charlie horses at bed time.  Part of my relaxed posture stemmed from seeing no vehicles that looked like fishermen here.  Feeling further charmed, when I hiked down to the creek, I walked right in on the tail end of another nice caddis hatch.  At least three good fish were working the back of a deep run.  With my first cast, I landed a 20-incher, and with my second cast, I landed a 15-incher.  I think I got the third riser to swipe at my bugs on the swing too.  Not bad.  All that commotion did put them down though.  

So, I have never seen a sunken boat on the Lackawanna, so props to the Brodhead?

Oh, yeah, a second Brodhead 20-incher this spring!  It was a bulldog of a fight in a deep hole instead of the pocket water I had fished earlier in the day, thank goodness.  The fish had been around, and from the looks of him, his DNA is all over this stretch by now.  A chunk of tail missing, a wound on the side from a raptor, but a thick and otherwise healthy wild brown trout.  According to the Silver Fox, whom I had been harassing with texts all day (along with Eric, as well, though I did not bother Jay until I got home) I was destined to fall in, break a rod, lose 100 dollars’ worth of tungsten, something before this streak of good fortune ended.   Not today.  It just fizzled out with some wind, sunshowers, and a few more dinky wild trout before I called it quits at 4 PM.  I have had days like this before, maybe even days on the Brodhead like this, but it’s been a long time.  Pretty awesome.

A good day.

May 6, 2021 – The Kids Love Me, I Guess – Northampton County Limestoner

A really purdy (and perdi) day on the water, but dinky and weedy too.

Like Tuesday this week, the small fish were all over me today, but I had no small stream piggies to break it up, unless you count three fish between 11 and 12 inches.  I landed over a dozen dinkers for three decent fish, but I had action for four hours straight, I suppose, so I can’t complain.  I told Tami when I left the house around 8:45 AM this morning that I was just going to relax and enjoy a few hours on the water.  I carried that attitude for most of the day, though it was frustrating at times dealing with just how much gunk is on the rocks and free flowing in subsurface masses after the recent storms.  I went to this creek because it holds a charge longer than other nearby creeks, but the rain must have been quite heavy because it dislodged all kinds of algae—not enough yet in my opinion, as it was still on many of the rocks too!  We need another deluge or two to really clean things up.  The water was still stained when I arrived, and even at 2:30 PM there was some color in the deeper holes.  Fish were a bit picky or not interested in much, perhaps because of the high pressure.  The hits were light, and I dropped a bunch of dinks or chinned them, even got one in the tail, all signs they were not really feeling it.  It was a little breezy and cool, which was great weather for me, but not great trout weather.  The little guys have to eat, but the better fish were really not having it today.

Not all dinks.

Early on, there was close to zero bug activity, which I found strange for this time of the year.  Eventually, midges got active, and there were adult caddis in the streamside vegetation from a recent hatch or two.  I caught many fish on Eric’s perdigon, but nothing on any of his caddis larva or walts creations.  Later in the early afternoon, I had a nice run of smalls on a natural walts, one of my go-to bugs in this creek.  Even though there were signs midday of the dark sedges here too, I could not get anything besides more dinks to commit to any imitations of that bug.  The dark caddis were smaller here, closer to midges, so maybe a later brood or something.  As a result, maybe, the fish would take the size 18 perdigon.  They also ate with a little more enthusiasm the walts, which may have done a good job of looking like a scud or sow bug, of which there were many in the dislodged weeds.  The creek was far from on fire, even though it looked sexy as hell as the water cleared up.  Some days the fish are just not having it.  I talked to a landowner cutting his lawn, and he confirmed that pressure, while not high here, has been up quite a bit this year, especially with gear guys.  I saw a few spinners in trees to confirm.  I find that I have to be first through this stretch, sometimes the first one through in a few days to have a banner day, which does happen and has happened this time of year.  Perhaps next time the adults in the creek will take a shine to me.  Convinced that I had given it my best possible shot, I eventually got tired of picking gunk off my hooks and called it a day.

That little perdigon didn't spook them today, I guess.

May 4, 2021 – Able to Recapture a Small Percentage of the Old Magic – Northampton County Limestoner

Not a streamer piggy but a solid fish close to 17.

It’s been a weird spring even by the new normal standards.  I am almost used to it getting warmer much sooner than it once did and the hatches being weeks ahead of schedule at times, but this no rain thing in April is not great.  Trying to see the bright side, I have been taking advantage of the low water by going to sections of the Lehigh River and the Brodhead that I usually fish in late spring and early summer—I even thought about the West Branch this week!  Imagine waking at 4 AM this morning, then, and realizing that the Brodhead had doubled in flow.  I was all out of whack with my plans for today, as a result.  The storms must have been localized because I thought about Bushkill, but that had not moved, nor had other creeks in the Lehigh Valley, though storms were still moving through.  I just headed north when I left the house around 5:15 AM this morning.  When I got about 45 minutes into the ride, figuring I might just do a tour of three or four creeks within an hour of home, the skies opened up again.  Maybe it was the rain that made me think of some glory days on a particular creek that used to respond to rain in magical ways.  If nothing else, the memories made me excited enough to have a real plan in place now, at least to start, and I kept on driving.

A little muddy to start.

When I arrived at the creek, it was muddy and high, but not so high that it should have been this muddy.  It used to take a lot more rain to give this creek any more than a productive stain, but changes upstream are to blame.  I think they are temporary and might work themselves out over time if I am working with a half-full glass.  To that end, I caught a mess of fish here today, mostly one or two years old, so brighter days are ahead if the fishing pressure normalizes post-pandemic.  New homemade DHALO signs have gone up with the “Do Not Litter” signs posted by gracious landowners, which may be a sign of the pressure and a good reaction to it, as well.  DIY DHALO?  Along with another fly guy he encountered the same day, I helped convince a worm fisherman to release of 20-inch wild brown several years ago that was destined for the smoker.  I have caught many big fish here on streamers after the rain, but not in a few years.  I did land a 16-incher in early March here, but it was one of only a couple fish, I believe.  The new signs had gone up after that time, so pressure so far may have been silly this warm spring.

Eric's small sculpin bite

I was rigged up with junk flies to fish the post rain water, but until it got a little lighter out and I could see just how stained the creek was, I was not committed to staying.  It did not look like nymphing conditions in low light and clouds of 6:30 AM.  I decided that a streamer against the banks and in the eddies was my best bet, so I rigged one of Eric’s new micro-sculpins on the point and a black bunny leech on the dropper.  It took 30 minutes to move a fish that I did not see, just a surface splash as I lifted to cast again, but I did eventually land a 12-inch fish on the sculpin as it swung in the back of a deep eddy—a little validation that fishing might happen today, so I decided to stay for a while.  I at least had to work my way through a few big fish holes (well former big fish holes, at least) before I decided on my next destination. 

Long and skinny but delivered on hope.

As it got brighter out, I could see that the creek was indeed pretty muddy, and I only moved two other fish with the sculpin in the next 30 minutes or more.  Fish might be in the riffles where visibility is better, I thought, so I took the time to rig up some bugs that might fool a caddis eater or two.  That is when the dink fest began, but because I landed some fish, I decided that things might only get better as the water cleared and hatches began, so I planned to stay and try to relive some better times.  At around 11 AM, I needed to lose some clothing layers and get a little food in me, so I hit pause and moved to another parking spot further upstream too.  With sun and clouds, I could see that the creek was starting to look productive, but undecided about which way to proceed, I did something I rarely do: both.  No I didn’t both stay and leave, but I did decide to carry the streamer rod AND the nymphing rod for my second shift.

Dinks on larger caddis larva; turtle enjoying the clearing shallows too.

I could only see midges flying over the water in the morning, with an isolated larger tan caddis, but eventually I caught on that the real menu item was likely the hundreds of little dark sedges that were all over the place.  I think one landed on my neck, so don’t be quick to congratulate me on how perceptive I was this morning!  Instead of an 18 soft hackle pt or something, my eyes caught sight of a few of Eric’s small black stonefly ties.  We never got to fish the early black stonefly emergence with them this February or March, but they look damn sexy—the one I decided on even had a black bead and some rubber legs.  That made the dink fest go into full swing, but I also landed a beauty over 13 inches shortly after making the change.  From up on the bank, I swore I saw a couple fish flashing for emergers, and one looked like a good trout.  They were in a riffle all of 12 inches deep, so I crept in behind them and took two little ones before hooking this wide, leaping male.  Now I was excited and made my decision to stay and fish through the emergence and clearing water.

Sometimes you can bring a stonefly to a caddis fight.

The only fish I landed with the streamer rod, which I continued to carry along and tried not to lose in the knotweed each time I made the switch from nymphing rod to streamer rod, streamer rod to nymphing rod, were rainbows, which liked Sam’s roberdeau.   I caught a few stocker bows on the black nymph too, including one that looked wild.  The fish hold over in this creek for a long time before getting too big and moving to the river or the dinner table, but once in a while I catch small ones that look way too good.  The fins on this one were translucent and white-tipped, and for an adult fish well out of parr marks it was way colored up too.  I have caught a couple sub-legal bows in this general area too, which only adds to or confirms the mystery.  This is SEPA (or this is PA) so I am never amazed at where stocked fish, even stocked fingerlings, might end up.  It may simply be a great diet in a healthy creek, as well.  Besides the novelty of some bows, the sheer number of dink wild browns made me feel good about the future of this gem of a creek, even if I missed the past.  I had landed at least 25 fish by 3 PM, but the best were only 12+ and 13+ inches, respectively, which is a bit like the fluke fishing in Jersey back bays....  

A mid-afternoon rainbow interlude.

I was not done yet, however.  Before walking back to the ‘Ru, I decided to fish two riffles with some decent depth but better structure in the form of undercuts, roots, and overhanging trees.  I usually pull something out of one of these, and several dinks came from holes like this during the day, but neither of these prime lies gave up a thing earlier.  That could mean a lot of things, but sometimes it means a better but inactive fish has taken hold in there.  I expected the second such spot to hold a better fish, but it only yielded my last dinker of the day, but a good fish close to 17 inches surprised me in the first.  I was not so surprised that I was not ready with a good hookset—catching 20-some fish in a day will sharpen that skill too—but I was excited when I saw this one take to the air.  In shallow riffles, some 4 to 8 inches deep at best, he put on a show for anyone watching.  It was part comedy if you concentrated solely on me, I bet, as I stayed focused on the fish and keeping him above me while I stumbled through riffles and fumbled for the net.  

Took a lot of pics of this pretty fish.

There was no perfect place in sight to land him, and I missed the first decent opportunity to net him, but I did get him eventually.  It was not a ghost of the 18- to 20-inchers from the past, but it was a solid, sexually-mature fish, like the first buck I caught today only bigger, so hope remains for this crick.  All those fish from the previous year class and a few remaining good fish that look healthy as can be?  If folks would just go back to work and school this fall, this old favorite might have a chance, especially if I see YOY this fall in the same numbers as the previous class.  Fingers crossed.

Clearing water and the little black sedge proxy made for a fun afternoon.

I hadn’t much noticed how clear the creek had become by now, but I had noticed the sun and heat.  I was out of productive, unposted water here, so I told Tami via text that I might take a look at one more stretch.   If occupied with cars and trucks, I would head home.  If not, I would try to pick through some bows for another good fish eating those small dark caddis.  Well, now that it was 4 PM, dudes were in both sidings upstream suiting up, so I found another place to park and change for the ride home.  There would be no 12 hour tour this particular Tuesday, although the mighty Delaware was looking very fishable on the way home.  More rain on Wednesday, so maybe another adventure on Thursday this week, or at least a shot at some locals in stained water?  We shall see.  The upcoming week looks “normal,” at least.