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....