November 30, 2021 – Still No Blitz for Me, but One Fish is Better than None – Ocean County Beaches

One....

Well, I did better than Sunday, but not by much.  I landed one 20-21 inch bass in the dark about 5:30 AM on a black SP Minnow, and then I fished until 9 AM without a touch.  I felt kind of bad landing one resident fish, probably out for his usual predawn constitutional, and apparently alone, but at least I am on the board for the Fall 2021 season.  It can only get better.  After first light and no birds or bait in sight, I continued to drive north and scope out three more beaches.  I should have gone south, but that is the game with peanut bunker and blitzes.  Shoulda woulda coulda.  While tossing a small shad at the final stop, just to stick maybe one more dink, I did finally see birds diving well south of me and way out there.  One of these days, I am going to walk into a blitz or get lucky with a move, but as a land-based angler, I will have to continue to drive around until that happens.   That is, unless the more consistent sandeel bite materializes—that is built for a guy like me who doesn’t mind getting up at 3 AM, driving 90 minutes, and fishing 3 hours for a short burst of fish.  Although, as I posted on Sunday, there are more skunks recorded when the bite is like this, but the good days can be epic.  Maybe tomorrow if I am up, but Sunday with Sandy Dunkin and Brady Windknots if nothing else.  Maybe I sleep in and catch a trout tomorrow instead…

A little more white water, but the dead sea (for me).  Probably awesome 5 miles to the south!

November 28, 2021 – I Think I Say This At the Start of Every Fall…. – Ocean County Beaches

A start.

…you have to start somewhere.  I was standing waist-deep at the end of a sandbar before sunrise today with peanut bunker swimming by my feet and birds hovering just out of reach, but I did not get a touch and no one on the crowded beaches behind me landed a fish.  The tide was not great, sure, and the seas were flat and the water ultraclean, but there was a chance for some fun if the bass got the memo.  Hovering birds, not diving birds.  It sounds like they were diving in the snottier weather earlier in the long weekend, but I was here today.  Peanut bunker blitzes are a bit harder to dial in than a consistent sandeel bite like we have had for the last few years, but there are also benefits to a peanut bite.  It’s been a while, maybe over 5 years, but it will come back to me. I do know that I used to love it when they were around late in the fall because sometimes they were gone, like mullet, before the migrating fish even got close to Ocean County. I am confident that one day in the upcoming week it will come together.  Peanuts are always on the move, and so are the bass, but not always south.  Sometimes they range along a barrier island for a few days, or sometimes the right wind and tide pushes them in close for some mayhem.  The sandeel bite is a 90 minute drive for two hours of good fishing around sunrise, whereas a bonkers peanut day could last all day if you are willing to hop around and follow the action.  I was technically solo today, but I was in contact with Pete at a couple scheduled times.  He was with another buddy a few miles away, and he was in contact with a dozen others, and no one in that circle caught this morning, despite all the bait!  Facebook, of course, will tell a different story, but there are a lot of rods on FB and a lot coastline in Jersey.  The thing with peanuts is you just have to be there (or be close and/or patient) when lightning strikes.  At least I shook off the cobwebs and my waders don’t leak.

November 24, 2021 – The Cold Day the Day before Thanksgiving Day with Jay – Little Schuylkill River

Jay's fish got the well-deserved full 30-second photo-shoot.

I hope that after a few middling-to-terrible days I finally delivered a memorable one for Jay today.  He had not been out in months, and he had this week off.  Monday (which was a perfect trout weather day) was the day after he had just done a long drive to State College and back, and Tuesday was not only frigid but blustery with wind chills in the 20’s.  With Thursday being Turkey Day, today was the day.  It was slated to be cold, but not windy, and so it was.  We fished the Tully this time last year on a beauty day, which was also Tully-crowded.  I like to stay off the wild creeks, especially the small ones, this time of year to give the fish, in whose continued abundance I have a vested interest, their privacy.  Others do the same, I know.  I knew every mook and mitch in SEPA would be off like us today, so I pitched a longshot to Jay.  I myself have never fished the Small Skuke at this time of year, but I have always wanted to investigate.  I know that the small number of wild browns continues to grow over the years, but I was really hoping to find a good number of holdovers.  We found more of the former than the latter, certainly not a bad thing, even a nice bonus fish for Jay, but it was a cold, slow four hours for a fun fifth.  We had the place to ourselves, however, and did not have to worry about fishing around spawning wild fish or dragging our feet through redds, as most reproduction here happens in the tributaries (or behind some islands) and what takes place in the river is surely easy to spot—I saw no redds today, in fact.

Had the place to ourselves, which was justified for most of the day!

We met about 9:40 AM and were fishing by about 10.  It was cold.  I did not drop a stream thermometer, but this is a freestone creek, so the water was cold too.  After a few days of low air temps and clear nights, I would assume 40 at best, likely high 30’s when we arrived. When wading too deep early, it was easy to start getting cold rather quickly, even in long johns and wool socks.  The river is mostly broad and shallow until it braids around islands or gets funneled through steeper terrain, so I tried to move quickly to high percentage late fall/winter holes.  Though the flows were between 80 and 100, the wading was rather easy.  We did spend a good while at the first deep section, in disbelief that it did not produce a fish.  I cycled through some bug options and presentations and finally got a half-hearted hit on two small larva under a bobber.  That was it for the first hour.  After spending time up a side channel, Jay and I lost each other for a while.  Of course, as we met again, I lost the only fish of the morning while talking.  It looked to be an average rainbow.  By now I was fishing a single caddis larva close to the bottom.

Pretty, cold day.

I quietly crossed the river below and fished this hole thoroughly without another bump, so we kept moving.  Jay caught a lost landing net hanging in a tree while I kept hoofing up to the next section of deeper water.  It was damn near 1:30 or 2 PM before our short spurt of afternoon action began.  After hanging some nymphs in the bottom on what felt like wood, I decided to rig a jigged streamer with an extra tungsten bead on 4X.  I had fished Eric’s thinner profile jigged bugger two other times today at prime locations, but this time I chose Sam’s bigger profile Roberdeau.  I had spooked a school of chubs earlier while sneaking around a deadfall, and they were bigger baitfish, but I think Sam’s bug also makes a nice crayfish or sculpin imitation too.  Well, it worked.  I finally landed an average wild brown on the bugger, followed by a plump and beautiful holdover rainbow that was probably 15 inches or more.  Jay took a seat and made the right move, tying on a black bugger and adding a little tungsten putty to get it down.  He worked through the same hole with the different color and profile and stuck himself a great brown buck within ten minutes of switching up.

Another shot of Jay's fish (in my cold hand).

The fish was just about 15 inches but broad, a perfect specimen of a post-spawn male, maybe an old mature fish from one of the tributaries that winters in the river—or maybe not.  There is plenty of forage and wood nearby, and it is dark and shaded in this section of the river much of the day.  I even saw some midges and caddis towards the end of the day, so life is good in these parts and fish have noticed.  Besides the bow, I landed two more wild browns out of this same hole, and Jay stuck another average wild brown here too before we moved on.  With bumps and follows, we interested a good number of fish in a short time period, and the hook-up average for bugger fishing was high, well over 80 percent.  The next deep hole did not duplicate that flurry of activity, but I dropped another average fish in a small wooded pocket on the way up there.  I did land two more little wild browns on the bugger at the last spot before we decided to turn back a little after 3 PM.

A sampling of my fish, including the sole holdover rainbow, the intended quarry.

We had at least a 15-minute walk back down to our vehicles, so we covered some ground today.  Sadly, much of it is a wasteland much of the year, just a lot of shallow wide flats that make good places to target stockies with dry flies, but there are pockets of promise throughout.  I guess that is why I dragged Jay here in mid-to-late-November, to see if the promising spots I had fished in the past would pay off.  I guess they did?  Close to 10 fish between us in a temperate hour?  Fishing on a cold day in November is hardly the right day to measure a creek’s potential, but I think the Little Skuke did alright today.  It certainly gave Jay and me a chance to catch up and catch some fish.  I think the descriptive word Jay used when he texted me a couple photos later in the afternoon was “satisfying.”  After some of the mediocre outings I worked him though in recent memory, I will certainly take it!

Some b-roll from a good November day.

November 17, 2021 – Apparently, It Is (even Was) That Time – Northampton County Limestoner

Through the polarized lens.....

I had a guy’s weekend in Asbury Park and didn’t even bring a rod this year, so it’s been a week since I last fished.  On Saturday, in snottier weather, the boats and birds were out in force, so the run is on.  I may go Friday if the weather looks right and Sandy Dunkin can get away from work.  Things have changed on my favorite wild trout streams too.  I noted that fish were looking and acting spawny in the Lehigh Valley last week, and today’s creek was already littered with mostly empty redds.  I saw one fish on a redd, but I noted about ten more that were recently used and likely abandoned, so a lot has indeed happened.  The 24-inch white sucker I battled to end the afternoon was probably looking for some eggs! I could have gone elsewhere, but I know where fish spawn on this creek.  I figured I would find similar conditions wherever I went nearby, so I decided to steer clear of tailouts and obvious redds, stay put, and target the heads of runs and a couple favorite eddies and pools.

An unexpected small stream piggy.

Fishing is often tough when the creek is like this, so I was happy to catch three, including a small stream piggy about 17 inches.  The fish was still fat as can be, so maybe fixing to be a late spawner.  Based on the anal fin, I would say male fish, though the jaw was not all that pronounced even though he had the sharp male head.  Sitting in a deep eddy eating a size 18 perdigon, he actually may have already done his civic duty.  The other two fish were average 10-11-inchers.  I fished small bugs like an 18 walts and the perdigon because there were no bugs early, but later in the early afternoon some olives and caddis were around.  The olives even got a few dinks up rising for a minute.  I did swing a tiny soft hackle and got bumped once, but I did not commit to that game for long.  With the water pretty average to low, and the leaf litter, I did not even tie on a bugger today. I thought about it when it clouded up for about 30 minutes but never made the move.

A whopping total of three on the perdigon dropper tag.

The two smaller fish came from edges and eddies of deep plunge pools.  The big fish came from a big fish hole where I have landed a few over the years up to 20 inches.  The takes were so light that they all probably just stayed in their lanes and opened their mouths for the small bug.  The fights were better than the takes, however.  The big fish took me down into another pool with some wood in it.  I was throwing the 3 weight today, too!  I had to muscle him out from under a log before he got in too deep.  After a slow start with only two other fish before that, it was a welcomed and unexpected adventure.

Some sun, clouds, redds, ducks...

Early in the morning, I spotted two big shapes in a similar big fish hole.  It was too deep, a little bouncy, and way too cloudy at that time to confirm at least one was a trout.  At least I knew they were not spawing, so I went back before I left to get a better look.  When I hooked the mammoth sucker, I can confirm that he spooked at least one decent trout in this hole.  I had to be content to enjoy the brief sucker battle: an initial run or two that spooked the entire hole.  I did not get a net on this one before he shook the perdigon out of (or more likely off) his mouth, but it was well over 20 inches.  Maybe a pod of them were hanging around for trout eggs.  The trout will return the favor early in the new year, so all is fair.  Speaking of fair, this was a warm and successful fishing day during a time of year that I find tough as many days as not.  Thursday is supposed to get close to 70 degrees, but I have a couple meetings and class at night.  As I mentioned above, I may take my first surf trip on Friday if Jeff can get free.  If not, maybe a bigger creek where the fish tend to spawn in tribs or other obvious places will be on the dance card.

One more bonus shot.

November 10, 2021 – Getting to Be About That Time? – Northampton County Limestoner

I just like the colors on this buck + a bird wound too.

With the long warm spell in October, I was thinking that the brown trout might spawn a little later this year, but today I saw signs that things seem to be on track.  For one, I caught one male that was nearly in full spawning colors.  I also saw a fish try to swim up a low-head waterfall.  Twice.  I kid you not.  Out of the corner my eye, I thought I saw something swimming with everything it had.  I kept an eye out for a mink or some other critter, but I was lucky enough a few minutes later to see the fish try again.  I was so close I could identify not only that it was a wild brown, but also that it was likely a male about 13 inches long.  I guess the rut is not just for deer because this fella was acting a fool.  Maybe he heard they want to pull down the rest of the dams here and got overzealous? 

Another bluebird and breezy day + one of those bows!

After the beating on Monday, the three trout I caught today felt like a treat, especially because they were all at least 12 inches long and very spunky.  One fish was one of the holdover rainbows in this creek that I always welcome catching.  She’d been around a good while and was 16 inches and thick.  It was all muscle too, as I was shocked that I had such a time landing this fish on a 10’6” 4 weight with plenty of butt section.  Not difficult in a bad way like she was going to get off, just a show of will and solid strength.  The two browns were quality too and both leapers in the tight confines of shallow pocket water.  The male that opens this post went up four times, but the female, who was a bit bigger, also put on a nice acrobatic show.

The female on the small bomb walts.

I fished a couple deep holes looking for a piggy with first a streamer and then some bigger bugs, but I did not even move a fish in the high sun and that damn wind again.  I saw some olives and very small caddis, but could not tempt any fish with the likely choices on the dropper, but a single size 18 bomb walts gave me what I was looking for, a nice spurt of activity on which to end the short trip.  Had I been able to fish longer, I may have gotten a few more fishing through spots where I had been ignored earlier in the day.  There were not a lot of bugs in the air, but the warm up had coaxed a few to go shallow and actively eat for a while.  Fall fishing can start getting tough as the spawn approaches, at least for the larger trout, but I will take 12-inchers all day (10-inchers too!).  It is not time to quit targeting browns altogether, but I will certainly have my eyes peeled next week for fish making redds in the Lehigh Valley and points north.  The surf crew is testing the waters, breaking in that beach buggy tag, and chomping at the bit for it to go off, and Jay wants to do the Tully or something like that around Thanksgiving, so plenty of fishing in November remains on the table once it does begin.

November 8, 2021 – A Fool’s Errand in 1100 CFS – Lehigh River

Pretty big water...

I could not confirm with the Army Corp of Engineers website, but based on the shape of the gage, it looks like there must of have been a bottom release from the dam a few days ago.  It may have been unplanned in order to let some rainwater go.  I can confirm that the only fish I caught in four hours of fishing at two spots, another hour of walking and driving in between, felt like it had been on ice.  I was in long johns and a base layer all day, even though the air got to the mid-60’s by quitting time, so the water was certainly cold.  I guess I wanted a change of pace after three trips in a row on creeks I can jump across, and I have seen plenty of the Brodhead this fall thus far, so I headed up the Northeast Extension to the Lehigh.  The gage at Lehighton was close to 1100 CFS, but coming down.  Flows like this push fish to the sides, and I had some spots in mind where I wanted to hunt for a piggy with a jigged streamer or big bugs. 

A lot of driving, hiking, casting for one average fish on ice.

I stuck with the plan at the first spot, which was too high to wade out much over my knees even in spikes and felt, for a good 2 hours.  Not a touch, even when I went smaller and fished soft edges with a bobber.  The only highlight besides big sky and water shots was an encounter with a mink carrying a fresh kill, likely a mole or vole.  No fish for him either today.  The wind pretty much sucked too.  I thought the pattern was changing today, and it did after 1 PM, but the morning was still breezy enough to make casting and mending a chore.  After lunch, I debated just going to the Po, but I drove upstream about 40 minutes and fished another section of the river and finally stuck a wild brown on a caddis larva with an added tungsten bead to get down to them.  I know I missed two others fishing with a bobber big enough to float a lot of weight, and on a mono rig!  The plan was to hunt for a big fish, so I did not pack another rod with me.  Had I done that, I may have fished a couple tribs instead.  A lot of driving, walking, and casting for one fish, but I had (perhaps foolishly) committed to this path today.

November 3 and 5, 2021 – A First but Not a Welcomed One + Low, Clear, Windy, and Cool, but Almost Very Cool – Berks County

Def a first for me.

I can’t remember if I ever snagged a lost stringer back in the day when I fished with bait and spinners for stocked trout all over the state, but I am sure I would remember if I ever caught a trout with a makeshift stringer made from a bootlace before.  That happened early this Wednesday afternoon!  One fly was in the mouth and the dropper was hooked to what I swear was a Simms wading boot shoelace.  I guess someone wanted to keep this one for a meal.  I am pretty sure it was a wild brown and, for this very small freestoner, it was a pretty decent fish.  Thankfully, the knot tied through the unfortunate fish’s jaw was no better tied than the other one that was tied to the bank or a wading belt.  Perhaps she had not been dragging this three feet of polyester around for long because the fish swam off just fine and might even make it.  No damage to the gills yet that I could see, so I hope she was fortunate she met me today and makes it this winter.

Broke out the fingerless gloves early!

I don’t know if it was that the flows were up on the bigger creeks or, having fished a small creek with Eric on Sunday, I wanted to sneak around some more trickles this week.  It was cold too, the first frosts of the year this week, so the idea of sheltered woods probably felt right.  A lot of leaves are gone, so neither creek was as sheltered as I would have liked.  I was in no rush and let the morning warm up both days.  It was only going up to the low 50’s, so 10 degrees below normal, and I had to quit by 1:30 PM or 2 PM both days, so I was going to be fishing in the low 40’s most of the trip, anyway.  No jacket required, but I did bust out the base layers and the even the fingerless gloves, at least for the first hour on Wednesday morning.

She might even make it (same bootlace fish now free).

There has been a persistent North wind this week and, with the clear skies, no heat staying put overnight even though the sun is still warm each afternoon.  Both Wednesday and Friday were challenging because of this moderate wind and the need to use small bugs in that wind in order not to spook fish.  These two stops were part of the storm damage tour too, I suppose, as I have not been back to either since very early in the spring.  I am used to the filled-in holes, but the new challenge is fishing the 4-foot holes left behind, mostly sandy, that pop up once in a while after fishing 8- to 12-inch runs for long stretches at a time.  In the bright sun, I saw many fish that spooked at both creeks, and even the mostly dinkers I caught Wednesday required steady, quiet movement and some low creeping.  Even the chubs took some work.  I bet I landed 15 fish, but as you can see from the collage, they were smalls.  This is a tiny creek, as was Friday’s choice, so to be expected, but I did have a couple surprises on Friday that were good ones—not bad ones like wader laces in trout jaws, for example.

A sampling of the rest of Wednesday's haul of small.

On Friday, I fished from about 10:30 AM to 2 PM at a favorite little creek that has a trace of limestone influence but, like the creek earlier in the week, is pretty much a rocky freestoner with pocket water and plunges galore.  I don’t fish this one much, even though I have had some awesome days here.  I guess, I don’t want to spoil it or something.  It is about 2 hours of fishing, maybe 3 if I drive to one other section with some unposted access, so the ride is half as long as the time spent fishing, especially on days like today when water is low.  Unless the water is high and stained, I move pretty quickly through a handful of deeper holes and especially plunges that might better hide my approach.  Even sneaking today, I spooked two big old pre-spawners!  One looked close to 18 inches, maybe bigger.  I think these fish are slightly migratory, as in they cover some mileage in the watershed when it comes time to spawn.  Even though I don’t overdo it at this creek, these fish were big enough that I am seriously considering a trip back next week or the following before they actually start settling down to begin making redds.

Pretty freestoner.

Unaware that the first hole close to parking had changed significantly, I walked up and cast a shadow over a mess of chubs and one 12-inch trout right away!  My second favorite spot was still a deep hole, but due to a major split in the current, it was barely pushing any water through it—basically chub water today.  I did not even spook any trout here when I finally stood up straight and continued my walk upstream.  Apparently, the trout had moved up to the next hole, where try as I might to be stealthy I eventually spooked two pig wild browns after landing a small on a caddis larva.  I knew now just how stealthy I was going to have to be on the last hole in this stretch, which is often my honey hole.  I took one average fish out of the back of this long, usually more bouncy run, but he did not blow up the hole, apparently.  I saw midges in the air, so I rested the spot and added a dropper with a size 18 riffle nymph while I waited.

More storm damage tour and new white whales, the parents of all the dinkers!

I continued to move slowly and obsessively watch my shadow as I made my way upstream another few feet.  Crouching behind a big root ball, I delivered the bugs into the sweet spot in the hole during a brief break in the breeze, and I had a very light take.  I set the hook, and a small stream pig took to the air immediately!  This beauty, probably 17 inches and a pre-spawn male, jumped no less than three more times.  I guess he had nowhere else to go in such tight confines.  This would have been a personal best for this creek by a couple inches at least, but I did not stick the landing and get a photo.  While I was retreating back downstream to a safe spot to net him, he jumped one last time and was gone.  Of course he took the little size 18 bug on the dropper, so that did not help!  Sadly, in these conditions I did not expect another fish out of this hole for a while, so I made my return trip downstream.  I think I was just happy to stick this fish on such a day in such conditions, so it was easier to shake off.  I even rigged a dry dropper on the way back down, convinced I might fool one of the pigs I had spooked on the way up with a stealthier approach, but not a chance today.  I had the same results at the first hole where I spooked a couple with my shadow when I first arrived.

A little better collection of small stream fish on Friday.

I decided that I had enough time to drive to the other accessible spot, and I am glad I did because I actually landed a few more fish there before I had to head for home.  I spooked another one over 12 inches that I had stalked after watching him in the current. I just slipped on a big slick rock and must have waved my rod or arms too much trying to steady, and he was gone before I could make a second cast at him.  At least I was able to dig a few respectable fish out the same hole before I had to hike back to the ‘Ru and start the drive home.  No hero shots this challenging week of challenging conditions, but I did enjoy a change of pace on some trickles, and I did encounter a couple more white whales.  I do wish I had a photo the pig today, more for you than me, as I am sure I will dream about this one for a few days.  I am good as far as memories, I think.