February 10, 2022 – Again the Relaxed Attitude towards Life Does not Serve Me Well – Northampton County

Many weather conditions in a short time.

Even though I wanted to fish at least half a day today since it was my only free day during this first mild week in a while, I was up late on Wednesday night and slept in a little this morning.  I guess it did not register that half the state would be weighing the options of playing hooky today.  I thought enough about it to avoid Valley or any local stocked waters in my planning, but even taking a longer ride to NEPA I could not avoid a bit of a crowd.  It was partially my fault, of course.  Had I been fishing at 7 AM, I may have been the first mitch through the prime spots, but I guess I am out of practice.  I have been busy.  My MFA program is nearly complete, so I am starting to piece together a thesis.  I am also redesigning two courses and serving on a new committee or two at work.  My motivation is to graduate with this degree by the summer and get back some of my fishing time (a raise and promotion in rank will not hurt either).  I needed to get out this week, busy or not.  I was actually warming up my car to go fishing last Thursday, and I saw Tami's front tire was completely flat.  I located the screw, and thankfully it was repairable and not in a sidewall, but no fishing that day....

Bows.

I did not catch the part of the forecast for today where it was going to blow 15-20 and drizzle some possibly-frozen precip for a couple hours.  I just heard sunny and mild.  I knew something was up when I saw ominous clouds gathering over the mountains on my drive up.  With sun in half the sky striking the white wings of snow geese, and the other half in gray and purple with moisture falling short of the ground, it was quite a sight. I was expecting to see a twister before I arrived at the creek. From about 12 to 2, maybe later, it was challenging conditions out there.  I was barely dressed enough, and certainly not dressed enough to stand still too long.  With the wind, the best bet was to toss a jigged streamer or a big stonefly—or a spinner!  I spoke to a nice gear guy who landed a few before the front came through.  I ran into a few guys today, actually, and that definitely cramped my style.  It’s not like fish are everywhere when the water is 38 degrees.   I moved nothing on a bugger, but once I talked to dude and learned he had fished downstream, I was not surprised.  I did land one rainbow on like my third cast—on a Pat’s rubberleg, a pretty massive bug that helped keep a tight line in the wind. Flows were decent but clear, so I would have seen any more follows on the bugger I tied on a little later. 

A couple were in fantastic condition, however.

I made a move after running into another dude working downstream with midges under a bobber, it appeared.  He might have been the third dude, actually.  I saw no cars when I drove the road along the creek, so a couple of these clowns saw my car and probably saw me working upstream.  Fishing etiquette is in decline, as we know, but it has gotten pretty bad on this creek.  With the pressure and postings, I have tried to write this one off a few times, but I have had so many good days for over a decade that it is hard to give it up, I guess.  I have found that when fishing pressure is high, and not just here, the browns are hard to come by, but the rainbows must feel emboldened because the browns go into hiding.  This is not the only creek where this happens.  All bows today, as a result.  All bows?!  Sounds like more than there actually were.  More like all four of them in five hours of fishing!

An 18 walts on the dropper, so they were off the bottom for a couple hours today.

From 3 to 5 PM, I nymphed pocket water—really rainbow water this time of year not brown trout water—and I did land three more decent bows for the effort.  Again, I had a dude sneak below me and fish a hole I intended to fish eventually, but at least he assumed I was moving upstream and gave me space below.  I also spoke to another fly guy who had some success around the same window of time, but also long before I got there.  He had a decent morning, and then experienced the same ill-tempered weather that shut down the bite midday.  Around 3 PM the day turned out the way it was forecasted, and bugs even started hatching.  No rises to the midges, but my last three fish took a small bug on the dropper tag, which indicates that they were up off the bottom and taking emergers.  It is nice that the sun does not set until 5:30 PM these days, and I didn’t have to be home for the boy, so I fished until 5 and then took a nice stroll in the woods back to the ‘Ru.  Hopefully, with the longer days and more active fish, or more active feeding windows each day, at least, I will find the missing motivation to get up next time I get a chance to get out!

Small enough to be wild, especially given the time of year, but, you know...