October 4, 2021 – Through the Fog, Signs of Fall – Northampton County Limestoner

Warm air, cold water.

I was on boy duty this morning, making sure he got up for school and bus on a Monday, so I got a late start for me.  No matter, as it was going to be cloudy, drizzly, and potentially stormy all day.  I experienced all three, along with fog, during the 4 hours and change I fished this morning.  I was walking to a specific spot by 8 AM, armed with one of Sam’s jigged streamers.  The flows were good, but the water was a little lower and clearer here than the morning I landed a 16 and a 20 on a nymph last month.  Still, with a stain and low light, and that fog, there was a good chance.  I was curious what else I might stir with a big meal in this particular stretch before I spent the rest of the morning nymphing pocket water.  As the spawn gets closer (note the colors on the males even this early in the season) the fish get more aggressive.  Still, even on a great day, my expectations with a streamer are .600, on an average day, a far poorer batting average.  The streamer game is often how many you see, move, get to roll on it, commit.  Like dry fly fishing in this one way, it is a visual treat—or it can break your heart because you are witness to what could have been.

Some pretty trout.

I could have posed in the fog for two hero selfies this morning if things had gone a little differently.  I had two, not just one, fish in that 20-inch range charge the streamer.  I actually thought I got the hook in one of them too.  I was throwing a jigged streamer on the mono rig I was going to nymph with later in the morning, and both fish hit below me on the swing, so maybe the additional stretch in the strip set?  Who knows?  Anyway, I moved these two, and I actually spooked another one later, so this area of the creek remains on my list, especially since summer pressure has shut down a couple of my old favorites, it seems.  I saw two different dudes chunking spinners today, on a Monday, so the nice weekend was likely busier.  The early experience definitely colored the later successes of the day, but in looking at the pics at home, I was impressed with the wide, healthy, colored-up males I did end up tangling with this morning.  Fishing was challenging, perhaps with the low pressure and slowly approaching front, but I managed to nymph up 6 or 7 more trout, with only one rainbow in the mix—an eleventh hour fish on a return visit to the honey hole and just before a torrential downpour and rumble of thunder that sent me packing.

Caddis pupa did the trick, but is was hardly on fire this morning.

It was humid, almost summer wet wading weather, despite the presence of fall leaves in the cold water and those higher spring flows.  I had to turn the waders inside out at home to de-swamp.  Getting caught in the rain does not help either.  I knew the chances of rain increased this afternoon, but I always push it.  I was not alone.  I watched a women suit up to take a power walk, only to power back home double time as the rain arrived.  Sprint workout instead of distance today.  I thought about waiting it out, knowing that with the ground pretty saturated, the water was probably already rising.  I actually had my actual streamer rod in the car, too!  Fishing was not good enough this morning to coax me to continue, however, now soaked to the ass and without a change of clothes.  I had spooked three pigs, so I had had my chances….  And those wide males in that 11 to 14 inch range, already beginning to sport fall colors, those were enough, albeit in retrospect.

Only one dinker brown and only one rainbow before the rains came.