April 22, 2022 – First Full Day of Fishing this Year and It Did not Disappoint – Northampton County

Like two dozen hot bows to start the morning.

Still patiently waiting for the Brodhead to come down to fishable levels (well, productively fishable levels) I decided to fish a creek in the region I and some others I know like to think of as a baby Brodhead.  Unlike the bigger river, this one does have more limestone influence for a stretch or two, but that is the most popular stretch or two as well.  The rest is pretty much a mountain freestoner with some nice tumbling pocket water and deep cliff-side holes.  Knowing it was a Friday in April and just plain gorgeous (the Silver Fox told me Sue Serio gave it a 10/10 on the morning news) I had to think outside the box.  I decided to take a chance and explore some new waters in this watershed.  So many creeks I would have like to have fished were too high, and this one was high too, but it was very wadable and buggy too, and that always helps.  To start the morning, I fished the lower reaches, almost to the confluence.  I may have even fished all the way down had I not run into a pleasant enough dude looking for a place to shoot up, it seemed.  I let him be and headed back.

The jigged bugger to start but caddis for a while too.

He was the only person I saw on this lower stretch in 5+ hours, which was quite an accomplishment for a 70 degrees and sunny Friday this time of year!  I seemed to have stumbled into a locals-only stocking situation because there were far more bows than could have washed down or come up from other parts unknown.  I know at the right time of the year, there are pigs that move through this area, but I could not cut through the rainbows, some of them up to 17 inches long and none under 12, all of them strong leapers from the time they have spent, some multiple years, in this pushy and flood-prone waters.  A hatch of small black or dark olive sedges went off for a while, and I did nymph some fish up, but I had a blast with the heavy jigged bugger for most of my time here.  

Some flow and some deep holes with more hot bows and no browns to show for it.

When I quit that area unable to find a pig wild brown, which was the goal, and only finding these 20 to 25 hot and porky rainbows, some of them taking their big bodies to the air over and over again, I drove past at least 15 fishermen in the popular section to fish in near-solitude closer to the headwaters.  I had fished this area briefly some time ago, and it is pretty much (sub)urban fishing.  Since it was now after school, the only humans I saw here were teens trying to play grab-ass or smoke away from the parks and playgrounds.  Actually, just before quitting time, I saw too older dudes fishing bait for some stockers at an easy access point, but really that was it as far as human competition.

Seen enough fat stockies yet?  Finally some wild browns at stop two.

One of two slightly nicer small stream fish.

Me, well I found some stockers, but only 5 of them, I bet.  Instead, I stumbled into a caddis hatch and landed at least a dozen wild browns at this second stop.  Most were in the 8 to 11 inch range, but one was over 12, I bet.  He took the dropper tag, as most did during the hatch, so the anchor fly was stuck in the net and my picture of him went sideways as I was freeing the tangle—one blurry pic of his escape from the size 18 red tag fly dropper, which I will spare you.  If you know anything about hot rainbows, there were several discarded shots of them too continuing to battle me in the big net!  I did not completely have the right tool for the small stream job, as I was still throwing my 10’6” 4 weight in the sometimes-tight confines, but the fish fought so hard in the prime water temps that, besides one treeing that prompted me to call it a day, I hardly minded.  I brought my 8’3” 3 weight for some dry dropper or just plain dry fly fishing because I remembered this stretch being low and tight, but the heavier flows promptly me to keep fishing the long rod.  Besides the small blowtorch dropper, I did land a few on the CDC jig anchor too—during the height of the hatch, they would have taken anything looking like a swimming emerger, honestly.

Much smaller and clearer at spot two and still some bows.

When the hatch fizzled, I put a walts on the dropper and a green larva on the anchor and continue to catch fish, including two to end the afternoon that were nice fat 10-inchers in pocket water, so even more fun and feisty.  I had an iced coffee on the ride over to this second spot, and I even ate a little today, even had enough water, but I was so sated by catching tons of fish at both stops that I broke off the aforementioned snag, spoke to one of the bait guys for a piece, and then hiked back to the ‘Ru.  No pig brown for the effort, but it was by far the best day of 2022 so far, especially since I was fishing new waters.  The discovery is fun, but it is also rewarding to catch fish in new places that you haven’t had time to figure out.  I know I wrote this year already about growth and change and finding new spots after 2 years or more of staying closer to home and fishing the same four limestoners like it was my job.  That gave me the opportunity to crack the code on all of them and resulted in some pigs, an outsized number last year for sure, but I am not performing for the blog, just fishing.  It is good to remind myself of that and stretch out.  The greatest reward was seeing all the cars and trucks in the usual spots and me having a 40 fish day away from the maddening crowds.

Browns far outnumbered bows during my second caddis hatch of the day, tan this time.