July 8, 2022 – A July Window, Many Holdovers, and One Good Fish – Northampton County Limestoner

Sometimes just one (with an overbite).

I think the general consensus had been that most creeks were done for trout until the fall, but I know that the very early morning shift on spring creeks and spring-influenced creeks can be productive on the right days.  Today was one of those days.  No tricos today (but I did speak to a dude who saw a few this week) but small caddis larva, walts, and perdigons to mimic the size 16-20 caddis still around will do the trick.  Honestly, holdover bows—who are healthy and mean and rather fetching right now—are far more opportunistic.  To wit, I caught three on a micro-bugger right after sunrise, and a few more took a single pink tag fly in pocket water too—think in terms of even bouncier water than browns may be hanging this time of year, and you will find them.  I did land a few wild fish, however, and right in the stocked trout water.  A 9- and a 12-incher took my dropper tag fly, an 18 soft hackle, early in the morning, and another 10-incher and one a hair over 16 took a perdigon in pocket water right before quitting time around 11:30 AM.  This good fish was right in one of the most loved sections of the creek for gear guys chasing stockies but in big fish holding water not easy to fish effectively without something like a quick-sinking perdigon.

Fetching and cooperative.

Normally, about 10 AM or earlier is quitting time this month, but the moderate-to-cooler air temps this week and the clouds this morning extended that window a bit longer.  That and rain are supposed to continue this weekend, so Eric and I are hoping to hit our spot on Sunday before sunrise.  Today, I was also fishing below a major spring that feeds this creek, so that kept the water temps in the low-60s this morning, even at 11 AM.  One bigger rainbow got stressed out a bit, but a pause holding him in the current for 20 seconds, and he was off with a full head of steam.  After that, I did not try to hold them long, which benefitted us both.  Bows don’t have an off button like the smarter or lazier wild browns, who almost seem to enjoy mugging for the camera.  If you look at their eyes in photos sometimes, they seem to be checking you out too.  I do wonder if these magazine and social media shots of western rainbows come at a cost.  To get a good photoshoot of a bow that is magazine worthy must certainly take some “overhandling,” or at least a kung-fu grip no?  Anyway, I have no problem dumping the bows right out of the net if they don’t want to quit.  I think RR likes to look at them, though, so I did take a couple pics of cooperative ones ;)

More cooperative in the net sometimes.  Some crick pics.

As I noted, I started out tossing a micro-bugger to start, probably because that is what I had on this rig from my last trip, and it was early and cloudy out.  Eventually, I stopped getting swipes or bumps in the seasonally-normal and clear flows, so I rigged up a couple caddis imitations in two sizes to nymph a run of pocket water.  I would have been content to land the fat holdover bows that cooperated within the first 90 minutes of fishing, but I also landed the first two wild browns, including the 12-incher that I dropped trying to get a shot of his good side—by this time of year, some of the fish have been loved, and this poor guy had some gill plate damage.  This area of the crick has information signs about how to tell a wild fish from a stocker, and for good reason.  Not that they are going for powerbait, but the wild browns do like a Rapala or a spinner, of course.  Even the nice fish I landed later looked to have a pronounced overbite from some lip damage in his formative years.  I had to check the fin to know that he was actually a he, in fact.  

Not all bows: a couple more shots of the good fish, smallsie, a holdover brown too.

A random holdover brown appeared, along with a the steady pick of bows, some pushing that 15-16 inch mark and putting on a show in the cool water temps.  Nothing measured up to the fish I quit the day on, however.  This wild brown took the small bug in a deep bucket beside a plunge.  I knew from the heavy head shakes what it was right away, and I was profoundly grateful to the fish gods for giving me a good one after several days off the water.  He eventually started doing what bigger browns do, including a run downstream with me chasing through boulder-strewn and bouncy pocket water.  I knew he had a tiny perdigon in his top jaw that could come out at any time, but I guess I was ready when he hit and got a good hookset because he stayed on long enough for a net job.  After a couple pics in the net and one before the release, he hung in the shallows for a minute catching his breath and then moseyed off.  I took that as my cue to do the same.  It was still cool, especially wet wading, but there was no reason to be a glutton this morning.  Sometimes one good one is quite enough.

Pocket water window and maybe one more this weekend?