August 17, 2021 – Let’s Hear It for the Bows – Northampton County Limestoner

Let's hear it for those pretty bows.

I caught some browns today, at least two confirmed wild ones, a definite stocker or two (rare for me here) and one that, minus a blue eye spot, had all the right moves.  But without the rainbows, some of them feisty and pristine, it would have been just a decent morning.  With their help, though, I ended up having a lot of fun, mostly nymphing one small caddis larva, or pupa, or even a jigged sculpin for a couple.  I lost count around a dozen, so maybe 15 fish, and I lost my first and last fish of the day, too.  The weather cool down had me all excited, but I gave it a couple days to do its work on the creeks.  I can be certain the water temp was barely 64—I placed a thermometer in the creek after releasing a bigger rainbow that seemed a bit winded.  This bow had an atrophied peduncle and other signs that living has been tough.  She was in a tough spot in pocket water where I expected a wild brown to eat, so maybe she’s working too hard in there or spending too much time fighting the residents for this spot.  I forgot the thermometer, something I have done too many times to count, and continued fishing for another hour, I bet, before I wanted to take another reading.  Yeah, it was 300 yards downstream somewhere.

Doing a heck of a good job too, brownie...

I don’t always find them, so I always buy the cheap Angler’s Image type, just a glass thermometer in a protective metal tube, but I found this one—I guess the old brain still works sometimes.  After that soak, an hour later than when the poor bow swam off slowly, the water was 64 degrees.  Solid conditions for fish.  It was cloudy and drizzly, humid as hell, for humans, though.  Seeing the forecast for the morning lows, I was wearing waders, which needed to be dried hanging upside down with a fan blowing inside.  #schwampass.  When I arrived at 6 AM and suited up, it felt warm enough for just a t-shirt, and it was.  The creek was really low, but the gages will have to adjust from dam removals in progress, maybe, so it was not drought-conditions low.  Because of the clouds and slight limestone tint, I even caught a few in deeper slots well behind the plunge pools and riffles, although most had their noses right up in the whitewater or were sitting in mid-riffle soft spots.  By 9 AM, some size 16 caddis were popping, and by 11 AM when I quit, I even saw trico swarms at the second spot I visited.  No rising or nosing fish here, however.

Early start, smoke on the water, more wild brownie.

I was throwing my 10’6” rod with a mono rig to accommodate a small single bug, as I expected low water and spooky fish.  Adjusting to that slight change, I guess, I lost my first rainbow of the morning after I let it get below me in the riffles.  I was just happy to have a fish eat on an August morning after ten days or more of not fishing due to the fourth heat wave of the summer.  I landed plenty more after that.  It was just a steady pick until I got to a favorite deep hole, where the bows seemed stacked up.  I caught a few on the larva on the way up to this hole, and a couple in the hole, then after seeing adult caddis over the water, a few more on the pupa/emerger imitation—the trusty old CDC pink tag fly.  After realizing I’d left the thermometer downstream and taking a walk to retrieve it, I rigged with the sculpin and worked some of the same spots quickly on the way back upstream.  I moved a couple and landed a couple more hopping the sculpin in productive looking spots in the back of the holes where few had eaten the nymphs the first time through.

Eric's sculpin, caddis larva, some very nice-looking stocker browns.

As I neared the end of the productive line on this stretch, I landed another plump brown that was in great shape.  Probably a holdover, but not from this spring, with white-rimmed fins, a red adipose fin, plenty of orange spots, but just enough stocker features to make me think not wild—plus no eye spot, as I mentioned.  It was humid, but still cloudy and cool, so I decided to check out another spot before going home.  They are pulling down dams on this creek, so I wanted (not) to see one of them in person.  I have mixed feelings: I know the potential advantages if they do it right (they can do it wrong) but I also will miss the deep holding water that dams create in seasons, say, like summer or mid-winter.  I have landed some pigs in these deep holes, and they are a unique challenge to fish effectively.  The stretch below still had some additional silt in places, but it looked okay.  I did not fish immediately below the work on one dam, but I hooked, fought and lost my last fish of the morning just prospecting another stretch a little further downstream.  Another bow, go figure…. I will keep an open mind, but I was happy to see one of my other dams still intact for the time being.  I made a mental note that I may have to make a few final visits before that one too comes down.  Staying hopeful...

Scrawny peduncle and some cuter friends.