October 14, 2022 – A Misstep in Stream Section Selection Corrected Leads to a Late Morning Better than Expected – Brodhead Creek

A long hen and smiley guy.

Like all of us, I sometimes make the wrong decision about where to fish.  I believe it is often based on what I want not what I am given to work with, and I think that was in part the case today.  I knew I had to head north of the Lehigh Valley to get past the places that received real soakers, and I have no problem doing the Brodhead trip, even if I only have 4 or 5 hours to fish, so that was not the bad decision.  I just got lazy and looked at a gage upstream and not one closer to the river.  Had I looked at the lower gage, I may still have done the same thing because I wanted to move a piggy or two!  My mistake for the first two hours this morning was not leaving when I saw that the creek was a bit too high to navigate.  Instead, I fished some sweet spots from the bank and then took a long walk further into the gorge, as if I would find more wadable places.  Yeah, right….  It was a nice aerobic walk in the woods and plenty of bushwhacking on steep inclines, but probably 10 casts.  Bad decisions.  Wisely, I corrected before the window for a possible hatch or two and arrived at a section with prime conditions.  After that move, I had three hours of great nymphing in pocket water and riffles.  I even found that piggy I was looking for.  She ate an 18 perdigon during a BWO hatch, not a streamer, but that was possibly even more fun—dealing with a big (albeit end-of-a-tough-summer-skinny) fish on a small bug and 5X in fast water was a blast, especially because it ended well.

Far more steps than casts at stop one.

While the locations north of the ‘Burg must have been spared torrential rain, it appears that the tribs coming in from the west got a lot more rain.  It was night and day between my first stop and my final destination.  Where I ended the day had perfect clarity and flows; where I started was muddy, leafy, and too pushy to wade safely.  I started out with big bugs, a Pat’s rubber leg and a black leech on the dropper because that was what I had on for spot one, but I was seeing some caddis and olives at spot two.  I had one fish take the big stonefly and get off, but it was 10 AM and time was a-wasting, so I quickly rerigged with 5X and small bugs to approach the remaining runs and riffles.  Late morning can mean caddis this time of year, but I was happy to see the olives too.  So were the fish.  As you can see from the collage, perhaps, I eventually had fish take caddis larva, a big hare’s ear, an olive perdigon, and maybe even a size 16 CDC blowtorch before it was all over.  The best of the morning took the perdigon or the caddis larva, which I had to “double bubble” with an extra tungsten bead to get down in a couple deeper runs.  I think I got away with a 16 bomb walts on the anchor in riffles, but everything ate the perdigon dropper on that rig.  They were up and happy, likely eating emergers, for a magic hour, but I extended the good fishing into the 1 PM hour, even catching a few on the walk back.

Small olives and caddis.  Did not stop me from throwing a selection at them....

At least one fish might have been a holdover brown, though it did have some red spots and that blue about the face, but no rainbows today and at least a dozen wild browns.  I was here in September, and I caught bows then, so I know they held over and are in there as well, but I was happy to catch browns exclusively.  They were in prime fighting conditions, though very lean after a rough summer of low water and higher temps.  They are currently making up for lost time, and by the looks of them, not as close to spawning as the fish I encountered in a limestoner this week.  I had no dinks, either.  The average fish was 10 to 12 inches, and a couple were leapers.  The big girl was not a leaper, which was probably a good thing.  She did put up quite a fight in 2 feet of boulder-strewn riffles, however.

Real pretty day at a real pretty time of year in NEPA

A couple times, I had to push the butt of the rod at this fish in attempt to keep her upstream of me, and I had to keep the rod low so she did not entertain a tail walk in these conditions.  I was eventually able to get her out of the heaviest current, away from a down tree that would have been disastrous, and into the net for a couple shots, including the smiling face shot that opens this post.  I guess I was happy!  Here’s how I know the fish were happy too:  I caught fish that bounced or bumped a fly without getting stuck by presenting a different, maybe bigger bug, in the same spot after resting them.  I think that is why the bug collage has at least four different bugs despite the fact that it was clearly a morning to throw small BWO and caddis imitations.  I got one memorable 12 incher that I thought was a second piggy for a minute because he bulldogged toward that same down tree.  He ate a single size 12 hare’s ear out in a flat in front of a boulder.  I saw him bump me in the same spot the first time through, hitting the perdigon up higher on the tag.

Another shot of long tall Sally.

I picked apart a pretty nondescript piece of water that I know from experience has been holding fish.  Perhaps they are avoiding pressure there, or because it is below a long deep flat they get a good supply of mayfly nymphs year ‘round.  I landed two big fish in this spot in the last year, and I broke off one or two more because the water is fast and they just bolted downstream.  I used the wading staff today, but conditions were wadable enough that I could move to go after a big fish if necessary.  Other days in other conditions, that is not possible, so more fish can come off.  I only had to do a short drop behind a couple fish today—no downstream chases—but I probably could have if necessary.  I was worried that a 19-20 inch fish with a perdigon in her mouth on 5X was going to make me run, but with the 10’6” 4 weight with all that butt section, I was able to handle my business efficiently today.  Don’t be surprised if I am back on Tuesday!  This flurry before the spawn only lasts so long, and I still want to have a streamer day before the redd making begins.

More trouts.