March 31, 2023 – Yep, More Stockies – Chester County

Three fish, two out of bounds.

I spent a few hours mostly walking with a fishing rod this afternoon at a Chester County DHALO that I have not visited yet this year.  I think I visited once last year for a couple hours, but the creek, like many, has definitely been diminished by storms in the last five years.  It is much wider and therefore much skinnier in some old hot spots.  And there are sandy and scoured-out holes now that are chest deep too.  It was relatively busy and got busier after 2 PM, but not as busy as Valley probably was, and I caught a few fish—like three, I believe.  Two of them were well below the usual stocking points because I have a problem fishing for stockies like they’re stockies, I figure.  I just cover ground and look for active fish and signs of active fish, so I ran out of water quickly, especially water that did not have someone else camped out in it.  The fish have been in a month and the water was low and cold today, but there were adult caddis, some of them large.  The creek is probably rather cooperative early and late, and with better flows, but I will not know this year, I am afraid.  See you in about a year, Chester County DHALO!  Next!  More interesting fishing next week if all goes to plan.

A lot of crick pics.  I guess I missed the place?

March 27, 2023 – Happened Upon Some Fresh Stockies – SEPA Freestoner

Some cloud cover, eventually some rain, some fresh stockers.

I was finished what I had to do today by about 1:45 PM, so I decided to take a walk with a fly rod over at a nearby creek that is managed as catch and release artificial lures only.  I was here a couple times this past winter when I had an hour to kill and/or an itch to scratch, and there were some pig rainbows in here from the fall that I was hoping to scare up in the increasing clouds and impending rains.  With a few exceptions, that was not the case with this new crop, but I did not know the fresh fish were in there, so I just rolled with the surprise.  The TU chapter that I pay dues to actually stocks this one, but I rarely hear about stockings unless Chris H. lets the Silver Fox know and he lets me know—and honestly Chris H. is often not in the loop since those stocking the creek keep it close to the vest for whatever reasons, likely selfish or paranoid ones?  I guess I could go to meetings, but I am really just contributing to the national fund and membership numbers, I suppose, since I have not been free on the nights they hold meetings in close to a decade.  The dudes I have met down there seem like nice enough, older gents, and I even donated money to the stocking fund at least once when I used to take my dad over here.  He eventually joined the chapter before he passed, maybe just to feel like less of a heel catching the private stockies because he never went to a meeting either!

Bonus shot: had to land one piggy!

When I tightlined up a couple small, fat stockies with fin damage, it became clear that I was going to find it challenging locating those holdovers I had in mind.  No matter.  I just switched to a bugger and landed probably ten more fish and moved half a dozen more, including a couple pigs.  When I couldn’t get a fish over eleven inches to eat the bugger or to compete with the savage little guys, I put on a midge and a small indy and tried a different approach in a nice deep bubble line.  I still caught four or five more average, fresh stockers, along with rock bass and sunfish, but I was able to quit after catching a big old hen that looked like a fresh one.  Sometimes silly fishing is fun for a bit.  Since the boy had his round of silliness on Saturday, I guess it was my turn today.  I even texted the Silver Fox to let him know what was up in case he wanted to brave the rain for a while and partake in the short-lived madness/ guilty pleasure that is fresh from the bucket fishing.

March 25, 2023 – Mentored Mitch Day – SEPA Crick

He put on a show!

The weather was iffy, but the boy and I found a productive window from about 3:15 to 5 PM to take a swing at the fresh stockies.  The creek down the street has been low, so the quarter to half an inch of rain only improved fishing, adding a stain that made the fish silly.  I bet he landed a dozen in that short window, and he had several more on and many, many bumps.  I was mostly playing rod caddy and helping to land and quickly release the fish.  A CD 3 Rapala with barbs crimped down did the trick.  Some things never change though.  Longtime readers of this here blog may remember my love/hate relationship with these very effective, rather expensive, and very poorly made plugs.  I used to send broken ones back by the dozen until the service department sent me a cease and desist letter.  Well, they replaced them for a while, then changed the form letter to say the users were “dredging” them and “whacking” them on the surface to clean off algae, you know fishing a sinking plug….  Most of the time none of that was true, and certainly none of that was true with the boy today.  He had two plugs break in under two hours.  The first was the classic diving lip cracking.  The second was a rarer one—the rear of the plug broke and the back trebles were just dangling on exposed wire.  I have just been going through old stock, so I did not care.  A moment to tie on a new one, and we were back in action.  However, I saw the price of them at Dick’s this year!  Unbelievable for a poorly made POS.  Anyway, the boy let me catch three while demonstrating.  We also had a big old golden that was a player.  He charged the plug three times but never got got.  I also rolled an enormous rainbow while demonstrating a new retrieve for the boy.  It was a fun afternoon, and he’s excited to get after them, maybe even with the fly rod, after Opening Day in much nicer weather.

March 22, 2023 – Ain’t Nothing Gonna Break-a My Stride…. – A Couple SEPA Class A Cricks

First nice one of 2023.

I apologize for the corny Eighties song lyric in the title, but it may make sense by the end.  On Tuesday this week, I got a Google Photos notification, one of those “A Year Ago Today” messages, with a pic of a piggie fish from a favorite stretch of a favorite stream.  It had been on my mind, and not in a good way, this week in particular because last week some time I saw a YouTube video in my feed featuring a dude holding a pig with a very obvious landmark along this creek in the background.  As if this place hasn’t been pounded enough by the tri-state area as of late (see my post from February of my encounter with guides, sports, and several dudes, half of them from Jersey, on a winter Wednesday) said YouTuber’s new friend/subscriber was showing him around “a new creek.”  No, he didn’t name creeks, though he sometimes does (just like I do with larger watersheds or cricks whose cover’s been blow for decades) but my heart sunk—and I still haven’t watched it. Just so you know, I do a lot of cropping of photos to avoid sharing too much.  Those of you who know the creeks I fish, know the creeks (Jay knows this one for sure!) but these are almost exclusively NOT those Keystone Fly Fishing travelogue/destination types of posts.  Due to access taking some commitment, very deep water, and its more industrial surroundings, this beat is always my go-to when I’ve passed nothing but Jersey plates at all the other lots.  I think I was even high-holed by one such mitch today.  He looked lost and seemed unsure even how to get near the water, so I am going to say it was his first time here and YouTube sent him….  Anyway, call it arrogance or being well-informed, but his game did not look tight despite mostly dressing the part, so I rightfully assumed I could catch fish behind him.  My cocky self said,” This mitch vaping and not wearing a hat has no chance with these wise wild fish.”  I was actually thinking, “I already made quite a wade to get here and have landed a decent holdover rainbow, so let’s assume dude doesn’t know any better and just enjoy the beautiful day, especially now that some bugs have started to show.”  I am trying to evolve, I guess.

No love at the longer shot spot.

Before finding myself in this predicament, I had spent at least two hours at a Class A that I am about to write off for a few years, maybe for good.  It has not been good in over a year since some construction and massive storm damage at the lower end.   I just wanted to see it since I knew the water would be low, and it was good cloudy light to see some fish while not spooking them as easily.  I tossed a dry dropper as stealthily as possible and did not get a hit.  I did see one or two wild fish hanging around a pod of suckers in a deep wintering hole, but they spooked at the line shadow since I had to approach from below, and the sun kept peeking out even though the forecast had called for mostly cloudy.  I had one other even smaller Class A in the area in mind, but when I saw how low and clear it was, I did not even make a cast.  I chose instead to brave what I assumed would be a busy day on the creek discussed above.  It did not take long to hook a holdover rainbow, but the next rainbow took some time.  By now, the other fly guy was casting away upstream of me 100 yards or less, but I did not see him land a fish.  I hooked and dropped one more smaller fish before the net job, and then I treed my tandem of nymphs while making a stumbling snag retrieval.  I was approaching some more good pocket water, a stretch where I caught my first nice fish of 2022, the one sent to me by the folks at Google this week, in fact, so I rigged up a heavy micro-bugger with a lot of action and movement.  This is actually the same bug that scored my last big fish of 2022 while out with Eric on December 31, so it had good, pretty recent mojo on it too.  

A couple bows before the little piggy on a size 12 micro-bugger.

It was a good choice of bug, as I quickly tagged a thick, bright fish that jumped twice and then got off in some challenging pocket water—more on that below.  I had a plan to get below this fish and then let him get downstream in some more landing-friendly current, but he was not having it.  It was probably a 15-inch fish too.  Dammit.  Well, at least I was right about the other dude walking right past these fish without moving them.  I stayed hopeful as I crept up to the next big pocket with competing currents moving around a big boulder or two.  The bugger got dinged on the first drift, but I did not get the hook into whatever that was.  The next drift, I landed the bug a hair farther away from the white water but still in the seam where a wise fish might expend very little energy next to an easy food source.  I got popped again and got a strong hookset on something that refused to move out of the current once it moseyed over about a foot.  We were in a standoff for a moment before I took a gamble to change the angle on him, and that certainly woke him up.  

B reel.

I will spare you the blow by blow, but this fish bulldogged, burrowed under one of the boulders, tried to shoot through shallow whitewater to reach the next pocket upstream, and even had two jumps on a short line in him just when I thought he was ready for the net.  I had rethought my endgame this time, and because flows were very wadable and I was rocking felt and spikes, I waded out into the deeper riffle so I could reach over and net him in the slower pocket, which was all of 5 feet long and 3 feet wide.  It worked, though I was in danger of breaking the thing off with the amount of pressure I had to put on 5.5 X tippet—don’t ask, just lazy rerigging after losing the nymphs.  I stumbled back to safety with this beautiful fish in my net and got a couple shots, including the selfish that opens the post.  We were both tuckered out by this short scuffle!  I gently put him down in some clear, quiet water and, despite the cold water temperatures, he had a nice rest there before sneaking back to his lair.  I drank my last bit of water, noticed the time, and decided to head for home before a meeting online at 4 PM.  I made it back with at least 10 minutes to spare, maybe even 15 minutes!  In the end I didn’t let a couple mental challenges take me out of the game and so, nearly a year to the day of my first good fish of a previous year of many good fish, I had my first of 2023.

March 16, 2023 – Promising but Fizzled Out After Only a Couple of Hours – A Pair of Northampton County Limestoners

Found one over the slot, at least.

After giving the morning temps a bit of time to get out of freezing territory, I took a ride north and west today.  I contemplated going a bit further than I did but instead took a turn about 45 minutes into my drive to check out a favorite spot.  I had on my list another nearby special regulations creek, as well.  They both used to be called “Trophy Trout,” but as you can see from the pic, the Commish is using an arguably more accurate term these days.  Besides special regs stretches like these, most Class A’s, and those creeks with no regulations at all, many creeks within 90 minutes of home are closed until Opening Day.  These two creeks fished really well for me in the late winter and early spring last year, but they both sort of fizzled out, and the fall was pretty terrible for me at both.  Fishing pressure, low water, increased sediment, a couple YouTube channels sharing creek names and landmarks on film, and probably just a cyclical down swing in fish population may all share some blame.  The increased pressure during the week is relatively new, and hopefully cyclical as well, but I did manage a stud wild fish or two at this first creek last spring.  The second creek is in serious need of a rebound, but I saw no signs of that today.

Some fish were caught.

The morning began partly cloudy, perhaps mostly cloudy in Northampton County, so when I arrived around 9:30 AM I rigged up to toss a jigged bugger in the absence of bugs.  I was very surprised to find no other fishermen, although it was still under 40 degrees out, and I did not even encounter dog walkers.  In fact, a plein air landscape painter, whom I greet a few times each year, was the only other human out there today.  Fishing was slow for the first hour, although I landed a holdover bow after my second cast.  In order to catch more fish, however, I had to switch to nymphing once the sun broke through and midges started showing.  Three more fish, to be exact.  I landed another rainbow on a walts, followed by two wild browns, before I ran out of water on this particular beat.  The first wild brown was a solid fish, probably a 14+ inch hen with nice colors.  She ate a go-to bug on this creek, a basic brown nothing in size 18 with a dull brass-colored bead.  These fish see a lot of bugs, so small and natural to the point of being almost rock snot seems to work when the water is lower and clear.  There was some flow, but not early spring flows today, and there was a bit of a limestone tinge, which was nice to see.  I think the springs that feed the creek are getting filled up slowly, and it had me excited for a solid day that never really materialized.

Karen?  Promising cloudy start.

Unfortunately, I stuck only one more wild brown, a leaper of about 11 inches, before I ran out of water and decided to move to the second creek about 15 minutes away.  Midges were also active here, but the water was much lower and the rocks covered in algae from all the low water all winter.  I spooked one decent fish just walking the bank between holes, and I miffed on one hit in one of only two deep holes I could find today.  The only other action was with a big white sucker—this is the creek where the infamous Karen and I used to tango once in a while.  This fish was a ways from where Karen usually hangs, but who knows?  At least they both eat bugs like trout, and both gave me and the 3 weight a good, albeit abridged, battle.  I considered taking a walk downstream, even with the dry dropper, but it was only midges at 1:30 PM, and I did not want to kill two or three hours waiting for the potential afternoon/evening bite.  Besides, the wind that’s been around for two weeks now had decided to come back, and all the effort to get good drifts for the so far uncooperative fish seemed futile.  Instead, I called it good and made it home around when the boy was getting off the school bus.  We decided Thursday, not Friday, was pizza night this week, and Tami was happy with that as well.  Let’s call today decent.  I got a little sun/wind burn, had a good walk in the fresh air, and caught a couple nicer fish.  I am entertaining a weekend foray in the bays and/or rivers for a striped bass or two, especially since rain seems unlikely until next Friday and colder temperatures are hanging around on Sunday.  Or maybe it’s time to bite the fresh stockie in a DHALO or FFO bullet since they seem to find me even in Class A creeks these days?  We shall see....

A bonus shot of today's best fish.

March 9, 2023 – I Decided to Make the More Challenging Choice? – Valley Creek

Pretty little ones on a pretty day.

On the this, the best weather day of the week since Monday, I had every intention of poking around a nearby DHALO and catching some fresh stockies amongst the potential crowd of hopefuls.  In the end, however, I just couldn’t do it.  Instead, I decided to fish a dry dropper in the low and clear water closer to the headwaters of Valley, a place I had every intention of writing off until perhaps next winter due to all the pressure it's been getting in the Park.  I ended up sneaking around effectively enough to catch ten little fish up to 7 inches but not effectively enough not to spook a ton of others, including some better ones.  I spooked one good one that I had not seen by landing my dry right on his head, I assume.  He immediately shot back downstream at me and likely sent some friends and family hauling ass upstream too.  I definitely hung up due to the wind gusts and spoiled at least two holes, and I definitely lost the best fish of the day after a short fight.  With midges in the air and some really small olives, I was fishing an 18 or maybe even 20 riffle nymph under the dry fly, so I guess I just didn’t get a good enough hookset.  It was enough action and surely challenging enough, so I did not regret my decision to forego fishing for stocked fish.  Had I landed the one 10- or 11-incher that jumped off, I may have even counted it a banner couple of hours on the water, especially under these conditions.

March 6, 2023 – Before the Weeklong Blow, a Breezy, Lazy Fool’s Errand – SEPA Freestoner

Low and clear, but some trouts in there.

So this creek….  It was stocked into the early aughts, I believe, and then it was taken off the list because of dwindling access and usage.  At least that is what I remember hearing back in the day.  I did not fish it when it was stocked, but I did spend a couple lunch hours in parks on the edge of the creek when I worked in the area.  It is a beautiful area of Montgomery County and, despite its proximity to the City, it now supports some wild reproduction.  There is also someone stocking it, which is often the case these days.  I have said numerous times that I am never surprised where stockies end up.  The lack of usage I get, as the stream is small, shallow, and clear, so not an easy place to fork a stick and wait on Powerbait.  The access is a taller tale.  Yes, there are some ritzy properties who probably didn’t like the random fisher getting out of bounds.  But I have seen more posting (and purple paint) in places far removed from urban and suburban concerns, and there are no less than three parks along the banks full of dogs and dog walkers.  I counted ten discarded or lost tennis balls.  Some are probably from private courts in the backyards of the rich and famous, sure, but most are from walkers and canines off leash.  No one wants to retrieve a ball in December without waders, I figure.

Got one to pose, at least.

I go back here every couple of years to see how the creek is doing and see if I can at least spot some of those Montgo chupacabras—I mean wild fish.  I did catch one last year, from what I can tell, and I landed one today that had many of the marks of wild.  I also saw a bigger fish, in the 12 to 14 inch range, along with a two sub-legal trout that had to be wild (or fingerling stocks?).  Besides the one I landed on a micro bugger, I had another of similar size come off while flopping in the shallows, of which there are many, after a short tussle on a bugger swung under a log.  Fishing was pretty technical today with high sun, breeze, and low water (I actually started out with a dry dropper and a long leader before deciding to tuck and dab the bugger in tight to cover where I could).  The pics probably do some justice to those observations.  It was also midday—I fished from 1 to 3 PM in one spot and then drove to a second short, unposted stretch for another hour—so I was happy to move and hook as many fish as I long-distance spooked.  I was disappointed that the area around arguably the best wintering hole in the creek was lined with shiny new No Trespassing signs, but I was also not surprised.  Also, the second fish I hooked was in a section I had not fished before and only fished because my ace in the hole hole was posted and I had more time to explore.  So far, posting seems to be a theme for me this month.  Let’s hope that changes soon.  Still, it was good to get out, catch a fish and a half, and assess that some trout, both wild and possibly stocked, made it through a hot dry summer and mild dry winter.

March 1, 2023 – .…In Like a Lamb, Kept Out by Purple Paint…. - Berks County

A very eager fish or two in the mix.

I am on the board for March after a slow fishing February.  There was/is just a lot going on personally and professionally, so four trips for the month was probably below average for a mild winter.  The water has been low because of the dry winter and the creeks crowded because of the mild winter, so I think better fishing days are to come.  Even with those low and clear conditions, March definitely started out very well today!  I fished a Class A with a dry dropper, and I landed at least a dozen wild browns in the first two hours, including a couple dry fly eats on the size 12 stimulator.  I guess those fish wanted the stoneflies that I did not see today—they may have peaked early on this creek this year.  There were fish up rising in the heads of riffles, and most of those fish took a size 18 CDC tag fly on the dropper.  At one point, there was a small swarm of bugs flying upstream like caddis, but I also saw BWO’s.  The eats were more like caddis emerger eats, so that checks out, but there must be a smorgasbord on any given day, especially the mild ones like today.  The emergers could well have been olives and fish just using the riffles for security in the low water.  A half-assed attempt or two to catch an adult bug failed, so I just went with my other observations and the success of what I was doing.  I may have had many more dry eats if I had taken the time, but I was having a blast doing what I was doing.  For someone who is more often than not a dirty nympher, even throwing a dry dropper, you know, making actual casts with a real WF fly line, is enough of a novelty for the day, I guess!

Low, clear (for March), and sunny.  Pretty day and pretty fish, though.

When I arrived, there was another dude in another section of the creek.  I let him have at it, as this is a very small creek, and I had one more spot downstream.  The problem was that this second spot (well, actually both of these beats) only offers about two hours’ worth of real estate even if, like today, I am fortunate enough to take multiple fish from holes before putting them down.  I had a very effective two hours with very few chubs or dinks in the mix of 9-to-11-inch fish.  When I reached the posted signs, I exited and walked back to my parking spot and took a short ride.  Dude was still parked at the first section, so he may have gotten into them too.  I had thought in advance about a couple back-up plans if this creek was crowded, and one of those plans was just to revisit a couple natural reproduction creeks in the region that I used to fish.  A combination of things, including the convenience of PFBC interactive maps of Class A cricks, just plain time passing, land development, and even land changing hands have led to a lot more postings in the area.  It was worth a shot, however.  There are many creeks with wild reproduction in this region, and the two creeks I wanted to check out share a similar geological and habitat milieu with the one I had just finished fishing.  I guess that’s a very fancy way of saying these other two cricks are similar to the first, and if the first was fishing this well then there was no reason to expect anything much different at these others.

A few more fish pics.  Most ate that small soft hackle.

Well, the biggest difference was all the purple paint on the trees!  I did a Google maps drive-by of one old favorite spot, and it looked like no postings near the (former) parking, but I did not check closely for purple paint, which is part of the new(er) PA law about posting your land.  There were just plain old posted signs at the second stop, and the third, which was my ace in the hole, even if a very short stretch, was also freshly posted.  Ah, the perils of blue-lining…  It is hard when someone is always moving the goalposts.  I get it, though.  If I am seeing pressure on public land, I know the signs went up because there was increased pressure on private land too.  The landowners may still allow fishing if you are 1) a local, which I am not and 2) find out which door to knock on for permission.  There were a couple landowners in the past who did not allow hunting but made exceptions for fishing.  Unfortunately, purple paint can’t convey those subtleties, nor does purple paint have the ability to share more information about who owns what.  Having had a good morning, I was not in the mood to pull up maps of real estate tracts and start knocking on doors.  In theory, anyone with the right color paint can put a save on their honey holes, right?  Maybe I have found the solution to the crowded cricks?

A couple more and another crick pic for Ron....