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?