September 29, 2021 – Good to Be Back, However Briefly – Brodhead Creek

A couple streamer fish before dark.

I worked until noon today, finishing up some grading and reading and writing, but I had nothing I had to do in the evening for once in what seems like a month or more.  I decided after lunch to take the rare evening trip, and I had one place calling to me.  I wanted to do a full day on the mighty Brodhead on Monday, but as I may have mentioned it was still over 200 CFS when I was investigating and making plans on Sunday.  Well, it was showing 178 on Tuesday night, so I had those good flows working on my head all this morning.  Not the best math, to drive 90 minutes to fish 3 hours, but then there was the possibility of moving a pig on a streamer at dusk or, despite the high flows, perhaps even a few risers to caddis.  I went out loaded for pork with my 10’6” 4 weight—now, thanks to Jay, equipped with a bonus fighting butt and weights to perfect the balance.  I rigged with 4X and big bugs, including on the point one of those new teardrop tungsten bomb jigs that I have experimented with in hopes of getting young Eric to embrace them for winter stoneflies and early spring flows.  They are not for every situation, but for the Brodhead in 175 CFS and pocket water, they do a good job of getting down.  I also used my old trick of adding a 3mm bead to a size 8 pheasant tail jig already with a 3mm bead, even with the streamer tonight, because the extra weight was needed to get below the bouncy surface in this stretch of the creek.  Sometime in August I also invested in another pair of Simms wading boots with felt soles for these very conditions, and I broke them in tonight too.  Even without any spikes in them yet, the fresh felt made me feel a bit Spidermanly.

Sexy crick.

I took the scenic route up, even stopping at two Delaware River tributaries that hold some wilds to assess the storm damage.  Once again, and not surprisingly, the smaller of the two was heavily impacted.  I did spy a small wild brown, though.  The stops had already subtracted time from my short fishing window, but they were part of the plan.  The closure of 611 below Easton was not part of that plan, however.  Speaking of damage from Ida!  After a long, scenic detour and an internal debate about fishing this closer area for the second time this week, I continued on to the ‘burg and my home away from home water.  It was a breezy and cool night, and the water looked sexy as hell, so I was not surprised when I landed two and dropped another in about the first five casts.  They were average fish, but all of them were pretty wild browns in pocket water.  Most of the fish came from edges, not from behind the boulders and other obstructions right in the current, which was strong enough to send a guy heels over head.  Regardless, I kept trying those spots looking for “the one,” while I continued to fish the pattern that resulted in average trout at the same time, alternating between the two approaches to be more precise.

About 9 or 10 on the teardrop bomb pt or the caddis pupa dropper.

I went out looking for one pig, I guess, but was pleasantly surprised by a dozen wild browns instead.  Put it this way, I caught as many fish, and all browns, today in three hours as I did in eight hours on Monday, so not a bad outing this evening.  I was thinking that is was almost good for me to have a set endpoint, which is about 7 PM at this time of year.  I put a good three hours in, moving with purpose to hit all the hot spots at least once, and I knew if it wasn’t happening before just before 7 PM it probably wasn’t happening.  While I had enough daylight, I went for broke and put on Sam’s roberdeau streamer with an additional 3mm tungsten bead for good measure.  I tried to fish behind those midstream obstructions in order to find big mama, but like nymphing tonight I had to be content with landing two and moving two other fish from the soft water on the opposite bank.  I had one rise up and swirl on the streamer during the swing, but the ones I landed, including the best of the night that was over 14 inches took the bug hopping in the far seam.

Even a couple smalls hit the streamer and the big bugs.

There were caddis flying upstream an hour before dark, larger bugs and not many of them, and swarms of midges, but while the water was plenty clear it may have been a bit pushy where I was to provide much opportunity for fish to rise off the bottom and contend with the current for a small meal.  I ran out of daylight before I reached the first consistent dry fly flat, so my timing or my choice to throw a streamer eliminated that option tonight.  I walked out in the dark, feeling the chill in the breeze now that the sun was gone, content that I had made a decent choice this evening.  It was not perfect, but it was a good way to reacquaint myself with an old friend and break in a few new toys that were acquired with this very creek in mind.  I may try a couple other spots if I can before the Commish does the fall stocking, or I may just embrace the bigger water next week and see if I can’t find one of those pre-spawn brutes.    

B-reel with a mouth full of the mighty Roberdeau.

September 27, 2021 – First Full Week of Fall, First Full Day of Fishing Since June? – Northampton County

A pretty one that ate the jigged sculpin, perhaps carrying eggs too.

At about 12:45 PM today, I sat down on a log with my feet in the water and dropped the stream thermometer while I had a drink and checked my messages.  I had already fished one good stretch of water and had some success.  Nothing big but a half a dozen wild browns up to 15 inches between 7:30 and 11 AM.  I was going to head to the mighty Brodhead for first light today, but the flows were still just a tad high for my liking. It was even chilly in the morning just shy of there on a creek in Northampton County that sometimes recalls a baby Brodhead—nice gradient, those rolled boulders, freestone bugs like stoneflies, many dinkers and holdovers, large fish that are dickish most of the time—especially when it is pushing some good flows like now.  I am used to being done before 11 AM or sooner all summer, but after a good soak the thermometer came back with 60 degrees F.  With nothing pressing to do, I soldiered on and ended up fishing a full eight hours today.  I didn’t have nearly enough water or food, a couple clementines, a Cliff bar if I recall, and I hit some traffic on the way home, but it was an enjoyable early fall day.  I explored a lot more of this stop two, which is designated stocked water not wild trout water that I have only fished around the edges of in the past, and I put another half a dozen or more fish on the tally too, even three or four more wild browns to match the rainbow effort.

Some average browns and above average weather and surroundings.

I was suited up around 7:15 and had a couple little browns early in the morning.  Since I could see some size 18 to 20 caddis in the air, I had a small pupa on the dropper, and they both took that in pocket water.  But a pattern was not established by any means.  On my way up to a favorite hole, where in retrospect I should have started, I was high-holed by a mitch.  There was no way he didn’t see my ride parked downstream, or me in the water working upstream, and he would not look up when I walked above him and returned the favor.  Maybe he was going to hit one honey hole before work or something, and I was on my way there and therefore an inconvenience.  Anyway, I returned there before driving to the second spot, and I hooked and landed one well over 14 and a 13 on Eric’s jigged sculpin.  Oh yeah, small was not the call in this stretch of the creek.  Maybe they saw a thousand walts worms and pheasant tails on Saturday and Sunday.  As I noted, the better fish get spooky here after a lot of pressure.  I decided to change it up and make them an offer they could not refuse, and it worked (this time).  I returned to small bugs at the second stop, but it was nice to stick a couple decent fish on the bugger at 11 AM.  They would not chase but took the larger bug on a dead drift with a gentle hop once in a while.  The fish may have thought it was a stone or even one of their own, and that is why a small streamer is always part of my fall and winter collection and why I work through a variety of presentations if one does not work.

Mixed things up and landed a couple nicer fish, including this one about 13 inches.

Until I hung it and lost it, a sexy walts was favored by the rainbows at the second spot.  It was a charmed bug for the number of times I hung it.  Tired after, what, 6 hours of fishing, I even hung it on a branch across the creek and was able to remember to retrieve it 30 minutes later to tie on again.  As I noted above, this stretch is stocked, so it has more rainbows, but the four I caught looked good and fought well.  They are fun because they get in rainbow water—really bouncy stuff that browns only flirt with when actively feeding or when they spread all over creeks in June.  I think bows even like to rest up in those confused hydraulics of plunges and eddies and pockets.  I did catch three small browns here, however.  All were in back eddies at this hour of the day.  They were 8 or 9 inchers, like most of the browns from the morning.  I hooked and dropped some fish that were year 1 or year 0 fish, but I netted enough fish to not have to count them!   If I needed more web content today, I would have netted a couple and took pics for you, of course.

A handful of holdover rainbows, mostly on the sexy walts and in fun spots.

It got breezy after lunch, but with the hot sun, and some of the leaf cover down, I welcomed the cooling effects.  You may note that I have made no mention of storm damage yet?  Well, it was not too bad.  A few houses sit along the banks of this creek, and none of them had their belongings sitting out on the lawn to dry like I experienced in Berks last week, so maybe things were not bad.  This is a medium-sized creek and wooded.  It is the small crick, especially in farm country and the suburbs, that seems the most adversely affected right now.  If the rain on Tuesday is not out of hand and allows the NEPA creeks to settle, I may take another ride on Wednesday.  Or if the rain actually makes a dent on the local creeks, at least a short trip closer to home.  I can’t do these eight hour tours every day, that is for sure.  Although if fishing was as good as the weather and the scenery, I may have stuck around for the third shift today!

Long lovely day with decent cooperation from the fish too.

September 21, 2021 – More Storm Damage Touring – Berks County

If there were trout to be seen, there's a good chance I would have seen them!

Having hit the wall with my Lehigh Valley limestoner visits, in my last post I mentioned that if we got a few cool days in a row I might visit more of my favorite creeks this week.  The damage to them and the possible impact on the fishing has been hit or miss during my in-person “surveys” thus far, but the smaller creeks with fewer places to hide, perhaps, seem to be the most impacted.  I hold out hope for this one, but it was pretty messed up in places.  A place where I fought and lost a 20 inch fish this late spring, for example, was nearly unrecognizable—no depth, wide and sandy, with channels spreading all through the woods.  This creek gets warm most years, very warm some years, and this year was warm despite good flows.  The high flows here in summer always raise the water temps if the gages are correct.  The limestone influence is minimal and limited mostly to tribs, so I hope that is where all the trout went because, with the exception of one tiny smallmouth, it was chublife today.  The water is high for this time of the season, but because it was crystal clear I would have seen at least a couple spooked trout.

#chublife but pretty out there.

I did not expect much, but there are a couple holes that often hold over fish, so I guess I was expecting at least a couple fish, even if they weren’t wild.  That is perhaps counter-intuitive, though.  Logic would say that the stockers would be the most impacted and the least adapted to survival in this watershed.  As I mentioned above, I believe the wild fish spread into this creek and retreat into the tributaries almost every year, and they probably know what to do in storms.  I will likely give the creek another shot in a month or so, but I won’t spend much time if I find the same lack of trout and the same concentration of ravenous chubs, who were feeling safe enough to rise to olives this morning!  I got two on the swing and a hundred on a size 16 frenchie.  Even my go-to caddis larva for this time of year could only manage the tiny bass you see pictured.  The tour continues this week, maybe Friday if we don’t get too much rain on Wednesday night into Thursday.

September 19, 2021 – The Weather and Conditions Were 4-Stars, the Fishing Maybe 2-Stars – Northampton County Limestoner

Looking really nice.

It looked to be a great morning on paper, and the weather was awesome for humans, but all but 6 of the fish in this particular stretch of this particular creek unfortunately had lockjaw.  The air and water temperatures were great, the water flow was still up for late summer/early fall, and it even had some slight color.  There were caddis in the air and the start of the leaf hatch on the water (at least sycamore leaves), so it felt like early fall.  There was a slight breeze (enough once in a while to send a cluster of walnuts my way with a threatening splash) and no humidity at all by 9 AM.  I started fishing around 6:45 AM, and I think the cold front came through just a little earlier in the morning, so the change in the weather today may have coincided too closely with my fishing hours.  Maybe I can get out Monday or Tuesday when the fish have adjusted?  It felt too good to be just mediocre.

...and the leaf hatch commences.

Because the water was higher but rather clear, I had some early success floating my sighter with one bug underneath.  This allows me to fish upstream and further away from the spooky fish.  The basic caddis larva is still working with the absence of hatches, but after sunrise I did began to see small adult caddis, about size 18 or 20.  I fished a pupa on the dropper for a while after that, but I could not even interest YOY in the small naturals.  It was odd not to get popped by the small fish in some spots, but the storms and/or the change in the weather had even them in hiding, pushed down into deeper holes still, or feeling a bit pressure sick.  Who knows?   The half a dozen fish I did land were in that 9 to 11 inch range, which is fun for a small creek, so I enjoyed what I did catch.  I only had one hit in a deep plunge on a jigged bugger that did not connect—the fish actually hit twice, and I still didn’t get a hook in it—so it was not like I did not make the most out of my limited opportunities this morning.

An especially pretty one.

I think I caught all female fish, so no males getting pretty for the ladies, but a couple of the hens too were beginning to color up and plump up.  The sight of those fall caddis and the leaves on the water had me anticipating fall fishing, but we may have a little while more of summer to endure.  The past week was hot, so the creek temperatures at a few of my fall favorites that I investigated on Saturday night were still best left alone.  I am hoping to return to some creeks outside my usual 4 or 5 summer spots, maybe even this week.  Last week was crazy busy, and I even have to work tonight for about four hours, but I have a nice lull this upcoming week that I will take advantage of if I am able.  More rain too late in the week, so things are taking shape even if they are not there yet.

Maybe early this week when fall officially begins?

September 13, 2021 – Still Pushing Some Water but Worth the Extra Effort – Northampton County Limestoner

The best of the morning.

The water from Ida is taking its time flushing out of the creeks and rivers.  This creek I nymphed this morning is probably considered a medium sized creek, but when the snow melts in March and the springs are fed, it stays pushy into June many years.  Despite wet wading today, I almost felt like I was fishing those early spring flows when the creek is regularly double its summer size.  The visibility was great, however, just a limestone tint at this point.  I ended up fishing two heavy larvae in order to get at the fish today.  With the water temps optimum, I guess they were not afraid to get in there and eat.  A green caddis larva in size 14 scored most of the fish, I believe, and the others took a bomb hare’s ear on the point or a frenchie, so larva and pupa on the menu.  It was a lot of work wading and fishing flows like this, especially after getting used to low summer flows, but I landed at least 10 fish and two of them were really quality browns.  After a slow start with only small fish to show for the effort, I was pumped to land a good 16-inch fish near the tailout of a deep run (you may notice all the pics below).  That is, until I landed one that was probably 20-inches long, a big old hen, not 15 minutes later.

Some smalls to start in pushy, cold flows still post-Ida.  That basic green larva.

I cut my own lawn and then my mom’s over the weekend, and I had Zoom class meetings every night since Thursday (including tonight) so between being mentally active into the early evening and the allergies, I slept like crap.  I set the alarm for 4:30 AM and ended up rolling over and sleeping for another hour.  I love to start early, as you may know, so I almost bagged this trip completely when I saw the time.  Instead, I got up and hung out with Tami and the boy until he had to stroll to the bus stop around 6:35 AM (cruel for high schoolers!).  I had one creek in mind, and actually started driving there, but subconsciously, I guess, I had packed my 10’6” 4 weight rod, so I was ready for a bigger creek and potentially bigger fish in bigger flows.  When I noticed the longer rod bouncing in my periphery, I decided to change plans (or stick with the subconscious one?) and head to this creek.  As I said, I figured it would be pushy, and in my current state, not my gung ho February or March state, it was a little intimidating, especially suited to wet wade.  I bit the bullet, and targeted softer runs and seams, and I caught fish, but once I retooled to fish heavier and deeper, after the short interim step of tossing a jigged bugger, I was definitely rewarded for embracing the conditions.

Proud to pose with bows like this!

I did not even target a favorite hole today because the wade to get there was too sketchy today, especially without a staff and not knowing how the creek had changed since Ida. I even picked up and tested a nice branch from all the deadfall before I changed my mind.  I was going to hoof it around the long way on dry land but instead took a walk downstream and explored some different runs and riffles after fishing bigger bugs deeper in some of my early morning spots.  The neglected hole will be visited plenty more this year, and it’s not like I missed out.  Both alternative choices were rewarding.  I caught a couple pristine rainbows where I caught nothing earlier in the morning, and then I hit the mother lode fishing the aforementioned tailout and softer edges of a deep, bouncy run.  I even pulled another rainbow and a couple small browns right out of the riffle at the head of the run.  I may have found a concentration, but more likely I found the perfect spot for fish to pick off caddis larva.  I actually saw the 16-inch fish give herself away making a swing for a live bug or other meal before I got her to take my bugs.  A flash of color and a wink of white mouth from a fish that looked much bigger based on just those visuals.  Not to worry, however.  As I worked my way upstream through this deep run, I found a few more browns, another bow with white-tipped translucent fins and great colors, and eventually a hen brown that I will have to say 20 inches based on my hand measure.

Happy to see this hen, so the photshoot was on, I guess!  None of the shots great...

While the smaller of the two good fish leaped twice, I knew the larger one was larger because she barely moved at first, just hung deep under the heavier flow above her.  She eventually took off on a couple runs, and with the flows up, I had to think hard about where to land this fish.  Luckily, and with some blind downstream hopping on my part, I was able to keep the fish above me and in control most of the time.  This was a thick healthy fish that went back with a strong kick despite a good fight in heavy current—granted, the current was more of a challenge for angler than fish.  I was grateful for another big fish for the year, which is only 60 percent complete, mind you.  We have surpassed luck.  I may have upped my fighting game, I suppose.  I have encountered plenty of big trout in my life, and have the receipts for the last 5 or 6 years of my fishing life logged here, but the big ones often get away.  And yet each one of those encounters, whether they end with a grip and grin or not, are instructive.  I only wish I’d been thusly educated while fighting a 24 incher from this same creek maybe five years ago!  And fighting a fish that size on the Lehigh or Brodhead or West Branch is an entirely different lesson plan.  Today was a good day that has me reinvigorated for the approaching fall weather and fishing.

More shots of the big old catch of the day.

September 8, 2021 – The Storm Damage Tour Continues – Northampton County Limestoner

A couple of average browns like this girl.

Only a few down trees along this creek, and many of the holes look like themselves, so I am hopeful about this one.  That is good because this is one I frequent up to 20 times a year, I bet, maybe a little less.  It holds up in winter and summer (most of both, at least) and it is a pretty easy drive—let’s call it my Valley NW, of which I have two.  I hope to see Valley NW 2 on Friday, maybe, as long as the rain on Thursday is not too bad and no one puts a meeting request on my calendar.  Whether the fish were shaken up by the Ida floods, or the barometric pressure of another approaching story had them feeling off, the fishing was tough this morning. 

A couple big trees down (and a zombie rainbow) but not in depressing shape here!

I landed two wild browns, dropped one other, and landed a zombie rainbow.  She looked pretty beat up.  I actually saw a random dead brown floating downstream too. I netted the fish and saw no visible foul play, so it could have gotten that way by natural causes or supernatural natural causes. I felt like the hits were off---again that sense that they were feeling a little pressure sick maybe—and the ones I did hook and/or land were average.  With no YOY harassment either and no bugs or risers, it was mostly a walk in the woods and water for me.  This is not an isolated trip when I feel like I am almost force-feeding them a well presented bug.  They were stuck on the bottom but would open their mouths for a bug that hit them on the nose—it happens pretty often on transitional days.  That said, I am hoping it was just the day and the lack of bug life that had this creek off this morning not the ravages of this wild late summer storm season.

September 3 and 5, 2021 – Some Small Stream Sneaking (and a Pig) Post-Ida – A Couple SEPA Cricks

Only 18+ inches long, but quite the porker, especially for a tiny freestone creek!

After the second flooding tropical storm in a very short span, I didn’t have many options on Friday—I guess I could have wet a line in the Vine Street Expressway in Philly, which had become a canal after the remnants of Ida.  A category 3 tornado ripped through my area, just two miles away.  We got the “take shelter” warnings and were hunkered in an interior hallway but were spared even a power outage this time.  My busy fall starts on September 7, so I wanted to use the time this week to fish, even reached out to Sam about meeting up in State College, but it was not in the cards.  Just to get out and enjoy the cool post-storm/fall-preview weather, I decided to fish a couple spots on Valley that are about at the upper reaches of fishable headwaters.  My expectations were low, and I was content to do some first-hand storm assessment instead.  I was not alone, spooking an owl, a big fox, and nearly stepping on a snapping turtle.  A spinner fisherman and I spooked each other.  Those creatures survived, so hopefully the fish did too. 

Hopefully, Valley can maintain its reputation for resilience.

I had an LDR (long-distance release) on two decent-sized trout, but I did not see many others.  The CDC jig I was throwing had a dull hook, I determined after the second one got off…  I had selected it from my working/drying box early in the morning and did not notice that it may have taken some abuse on my last trip.  I was not expecting much, anyway.  The creek is messed up bad between the headwaters and the sections fished most often.  Gravel and rubble is pushed into many of my favorite holes, scoured to the bedrock in some spots, banks compromised, and there are new long muddy straightaways.  We will need a few storms, normal ones, to clean out the muddy spots and maybe dig out some depth in the old holes that are filled with gravel and rubble.  I visited a second spot upstream and the creek was in better shape because the wetlands around the streambed absorbed a lot of the water.  It was late, maybe 11 AM when I stopped here, but I had two small browns poke a dry dropper, so there are confirmed survivors here too. 

Some rain and damage (not pictured) here too, but far better luck!

Tom and I checked out another small creek further north and west this Sunday morning.  There was massive damage here too, and evidence of major flooding, but many fish were landed in the remaining, intact spots, including the pig that opens this blog post.  We got rained on for 5 hours straight with a weak cold front coming through, but the creek held its color enough to dry dropper them until mid-day, when they refused to rise anymore.  On a solo trip about 18 months ago to this creek, Tom’s old brookie trickle that has become more and more a brown trout creek over the years, he sent me blurry, incomplete photos of a big small stream brown that choked a chubby.   An elusive 12 inch brookie has not yet been located, but in the past we have found a couple 10 inchers.  Today, the best brook trout were a couple 7-7.5 inch hens full of future gemmies, but I got my own chance to land a small stream beast brown, a veritable unicorn in a creek this small.

We did it all for the brookie, the brookie...

The spawn is some time away, but the water was 58 degrees after the cold nights this week—pretty perfect brookie temps.  Browns liked them too, of course.  Before the whopper, Tom had an 10 inch hen brown miss the chubby, then take the dropper a cast later.  She was fat and perfect.  As I mentioned, the dry fly bite was on for about three hours of the five we fished.  Most took the big attractors we were tossing, especially if the first toss landed in the intended sweet spot—those soft spots close to current and cover.  After the dry fly bite slowed, a few ate my size 16 CDC red tag fly dropper.  I even tried a bugger for a while, and I think Tom did too.  With high flows, some of the plunges where we often land fish were not in dry dropper condition—too much white water.    There were places where this creek has spread into three and four sub-channels, which might be good for predators but probably not for the trout, so I hope they find their way back to these more consistent fish-holding spots as the waters recede.  I will probably grow tired of seeing all the alterations on all my fishing spots this month (and you may grow tired of me talking about them).  Popping the bugger through the heavy water into the deeper spots netted no fish today, but it was worth a try, as the fish probably pushed up close to these obstructions to ride out the storms.  

Over 7 inches in the measure net, which came out today.

Speaking of obstructions, onto the pig story: We have stopped at the spot where the pig came from a half a dozen times or more.  Never even a small fish despite being a prime lair, which can mean an especially big and mean one lives there, so I keep trying.  I have spots like this at every creek I frequent (and this one on Tom’s creek!) and I have had enough payoff on the right day and conditions to warrant always giving them an honest shot.  Tom was up to bat, but he said go for it today.  His reaction when I hooked the big male was, That’s my fish! not meaning, I should have caught that one, but meaning that’s the one I caught last year!  I dropped the dry fly in a soft spot to give the dropper a chance to sink before it got sucked into the swift current than runs by this deep, woody, and narrow plunge just above a culvert.  It was not his fish.  In fact his may have been a mature old female based on the photos he shared and re-shared yesterday, so there are at least a couple pigs in this tiny crick (it is not even a rod length wide in some spots, so truly tiny not hyperbole).

Some of the browns, including a couple shots of Tom's plump, healthy hen.

We don’t know from exactly where these fish move up, but there are a couple plausible theories.  The creek is not dammed and does join a larger creek.  There is also one deep spot that is impassable except in high, high water, like this week, so maybe this fish was new here or maybe he’s been here for years.  Tom’s was below this impoundment feature, so I am not sure they will make a love match unless we get a third superstorm this year.  Mine was a huge fish for being 18 inches long.  It was a big male that had probably reached his lateral growth potential.  I brought the measure net for shits and giggles, hoping to tape and quantify a big brookie.  It was not the tool to land such a beast in tight quarters, but I did get a measure on him!  I tied good knots and made no mistakes fighting the fish, but I got a little lucky, as I was fishing 6X on the dropper, my drag was not set for any runs, and the fish and I were between a mess of wood and the unknowns of the culvert but 10 feet downstream.  

A lot of pics in 60 seconds with two cameras going, I guess!

I just kept side pressure on him when he tried to bury himself in the wood he skulked out of to take the fly.  I stripped the fly line in until I had nothing but 9 feet of leader between us and just kept steady pressure with the line locked between my hand and the cork of the reel handle until I was able to slide him into the net—from the very culvert I was trying to keep him out of, of course!  I snapped a few shots, Tom took a few from higher on the opposite bank, and then I released him into a deep, quiet pocket above the culvert so he could rest up.  He sat there a minute while we watched him, and I guess the moment we stopped looking, he slid back under the bridge or back to his lair.  Just an awesome fish and a great morning.

The Silver Fox modeling wet garments for me.