August 5, 2023 – Some More Trouts Were Caught on a Warmer Weekend Morning – Northampton County

More holdover bows.

Yep, it’s been nearly a day since I wet a line, but the cool days this week had me dreaming of fall, so I made it happen this morning.  Déjà vu?  Expectations were higher at this particular creek, which has had somewhat better flows this summer, but it was more of the same—just without the bonus piggy bow and no picture of the only wild brown I caught.  I took a water temperature reading at 9:30 AM when I was ready to quit, and it was even colder here, like 60 degrees cold, but no bugs besides some midges.  Nary a rise where I thought there might be some action, not even before sunrise, and not even later in the morning to terrestrials or something, so I nymphed some favorite pocket water.  I had a few bumps in spots that were feeling like brown trout hot summer haunts, but besides the one that I dropped before a photo—all 10 inches of him—it was another bow fest.  I was wet wading and realized that all the indicators that I would need to fish a couple deep, cold holes with heavier bugs were in my wader pockets, or I may have caught a few more to add to my 5 or 6 fish tally.  I remembered to put an extra stream thermometer in my pack last month, but I never checked for an assortment of indicators.  I tried to make do with the smallest size thingamabobber and even a small cork bobber I found in a back eddy, though I did not combine them.  That would have been a pathetic way to run up the fish count, I admit.  A handful is enough in August….

A warmer, sunnier morning but good cool flows, so it should have been better?

Besides the brown, I got a few plump bows in faster water tight to plunges, but I did drag up two bows in the aforementioned deep holes on very short drifts.  Fishing upstream with short casts and high-sticking, I was able to get the bugs to float along a few feet before the tungsten necessary to keep them afloat won and dragged them down.  In retrospect, a big old stimulator dry would have been better, but I really wanted to fish the way I wanted to fish, I suppose.  Fish were caught and no one fell in—Oh, wait!  I did almost fall in, so I can’t even use that old cliché.  I believe my felt boots require new sharp replacement spikes.  I guess I have spent too much time clacking along improved roads, sidewalks, and Brodhead granite boulders with the ones currently in there.  Trying to take the shortcut out of this section of the creek, I did a full slide down the face of a low-head dam, barely coming to a halt at the edge of the deep drop-off.  At least it was warm out and I was wet wading, so it would have been a nice swim.  In the end, the slide stopped inches from the drop.  On that note, it was time to call it a morning.  I am definitely not fishing tomorrow, at least not for trout, but it was good to log a couple early August mornings.

A lot of these similarly sized bows around from the spring, and not just here.