April 20, 2022 – A Pair of Productive Stolen Hours on my Work-filled Birthday – a Couple SEPA Limestoners

Almost clear on the first crick, but a stain in the holes.  Mostly dinkers.

Today is my 53^rd birthday, but unlike the last few years when I at least took a ride to NEPA for something a little special, I had to stay close today.  I had a final paper due this afternoon for my penultimate class towards my MFA and a couple things to work on in the morning for my courses.  I also had to teach a class at 6 PM, so the window was tight.  I didn’t feel bad about not heading somewhere more adventurous because most of the streams I would have fished were still close to blown out, especially early in the day, due to the most recent rains on top of already good flows.  I eventually got out of the house by about 11 AM.  I first targeted a couple holes on a tiny trickle that feeds another popular crick.  I started out with a dry dropper and landed a couple smalls, but because the flows were good and there was still a stain in the deeper holes, I also stuck a couple more with Eric’s jigged bugger.  The wind in the morning was starting to die down, so I decided to drop my 9 footer back at the car and pick up my nymphing rod for round two and creek two.  Not sure that was the call, as I ended up having the most success with the dry dropper again.   Around 1 PM, I experienced my first solid caddis hatch of the spring, so the mono-rig had to become a makeshift dry fly rig.

The bugger, the nymph, the dry, even a little storm remediation made for a good day.

With a heavy enough dropper it can be done.  Fish mostly hit the emergers during a caddis hatch anyway, so I had a blast catching a good number on the dropper, a brown hare’s ear, basically a size 16 little spot of nothing.  I did get at least two fish to take the dry, and I had one decent fish make a splashy refusal (or he took another emerger nearby).  The only steady action was at the start of my trip and during this flurry of activity, so it was a charmed hour before I quit.  I bet eight to ten fish were rising in this one spot, and I was lucky enough to land six of them in short order and mess with two others.  I am hoping Friday is the day I get to do something a bit more special, but for a trip close to home, this was a pretty good birthday present.  Now for some cake before my doctor tells me to cut it out at my age.