October 20, 2021 – Had to Go Small Eventually – Brodhead Creek

Go big, but go small before heading for home.

I sort of went for it today and fished the bigger water below a major trib and closer to the Brodhead’s confluence with the Delaware.  I was hoping to find at least one nice fish to show for the effort.  It was not streamer conditions with clean water, the sun, and a cold start to the day, unless I was going to dead drift one under a bobber.  Instead, I fished big bugs deep and in big fish spots for the first few hours.  As a warm up, I fished some pocket water and scored some early rainbows that had been washed out of the stocked sections of the creek.  After that, I think I caught nothing but one hard-won 8-incher in three hours of tough wading.  The flow was up, and it took me until at least noon to start spotting some caddis, so the fish were stuck to the bottom.  This time of year, the sun takes until at least noon to strike the water’s surface in some long stretches, so the daily warm up takes a long time.  When the leaves are gone and, believe me, they are going fast, the lack of shade actually helps here some late fall and winter mornings.  As cold as it was today to start, I do know that this section of the Brodhead gets warm enough to support smallmouth in the summer, and the week of high 70s last week (and today) are not doing much to keep the temps cold.  Further upstream it’s been getting to the mid-50s at night, but probably not here yet.

Some bows that another angler had wrapped in tippet this week?

When big bugs and big fish decided not to converge this morning, I made the decision to retool for some action and some numbers.  I put on a reliable green caddis larva on the anchor fly and a size 18 riffle nymph on the dropper tag.  This is basically a flashy and sparse frenchie with a little CDC tail.  With small bugs on the menu, I put together a good run of average sized wild browns in the pocket water where I only found bows early.  The best was probably 11 inches and skinny, but it was a fun way to end the trip.  Because I was finally in the sun, it was comfortable too!  I even caught a couple more rainbows in the last hour, including one that looked way too familiar.  I noticed that the first fish I landed in morning had scars from a dropper tag or maybe the tell-tale lines that show she’d been wrapped up in tippet during someone’s former net job and landing.  It happens to everyone once in a while, so no aspersions cast.  The pictures show at least two fish with these markings, so someone else had been fishing this stretch recently.  I did see boot prints way down in a spot I rarely see them, which prompted me to go even further in, so I had a nice fall hike today, even if the plan did not amount to much.

Small bugs in pockets to start and end.

Counting the rainbows, I think I landed 9 trout in 5 hours of fishing, so I was happy for the rainbows and the little browns.  With the warm fall thus far, the spawn is some time off, so I will continue to look for the one when I have the time over the next few weeks.  I will have a short fall break, so I will try to plan something cool.  I am busy right now, but I think I can sneak a morning trip in on Saturday, so if I count Sunday that is three trips this week—yeah, really busy right?  This is trip 73 of the year, so I would have to work really hard to hit 100 this year.  It is not impossible however!  With surf fishing on the horizon, a potentially mild December, and a long winter break, never say never.

Not what I went out for but nice nevertheless.