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.