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.