April 28, 2023 – A Couple Hours before Work (from Home) – Wissahickon Creek

Karen's wild city cousin Chadwick?

It only took me just under three weeks at a new job to find a little window to wet a line locally this morning.  I work from home three days per week, so I knew I would embrace the freedom that affords at some point.  Luckily, the cool down and the rain has given the local stocked creeks a reprieve and a longer shelf life.  I did not take a water temperature reading, but unlike my last visit with Eric I caught no sunfish or bass this time, and the trout were active, healthy, and feisty.  I did tangle with one wild fish that ate a dead drifted jigged bugger—one of Karen’s city cousins.  To get eaten consistently and to put together a catch of just shy of a dozen trout, I had to rerig and throw natural bugs.  Most of the fish ate a size 16 CDC tag fly that looks like an emerging caddis, which were around this morning and might have been more active mid-morning if I had the time and we all were not racing the impending rainstorm(s).  A few others took a bomb pheasant tail in a deep, bouncy run.  I was disciplined and quit by 10 AM.  That is something I will have to keep practicing because I have not always been good in the past with leaving behind active fish, especially wild ones.  This was a successful test run.

Not the ugliest stockers in the crick, that's for sure.