October 1, 2023 – Barely Avoided the Skunk as Seasons and Other Things Change – Northampton County

Leaves but no aquatic bugs in the spider web.  Sexy water devoid of life, at least this morning

After making a second stop further upstream in some Class A water, I was able to catch four fish this morning (two of them rainbows, but that is a subject for another blog post), but I first spent about three fishless hours going for the one in some marginal water downstream.  I think I did the same thing last month, where I may have prematurely visited a section of another creek that holds some seasonal piggies.  In both cases, the water temperatures were fine, and some very small bug life eventually showed after 10 AM, but the early shift was not good.  I did not even see a fish this morning and can say that I did not even get a hit, not even from a bass or fallfish, while nymphing my way back upstream.  This first stretch I fished closer to the confluence with the river is not stocked by the Commish, but I know the community puts some in because I have tangled with some thick club stocked rainbows that wanted to pull the rod out of my arms as recently as this spring.  I don’t think they make it through the summer, or at least I have not caught them in the fall.  Instead, this is some water where more migratory browns might pass through.  There are a few holes upstream of this stretch, now posted up really well, where these larger fish would spend some time each year—some might have even made a longer-term home.  I have tried a couple times in the past with limited results to intercept their travels since I no longer have access to a place I once unoriginally but affectionately called "Big Fish Hole."

Eleventh-hour salvage job on the caddis larva in pocket water.

I tossed a jigged bugger in some great water, but I found just as many runs and former holes filled with trees and/or filled with rubble.  Man, this stretch gets some flood damage!  What I did not expect was the degree of flood damage I found later in the morning in the Class A section.  With my tail between my legs and just trying to catch a couple before taking the ride home, I parked at an old favorite spot.  It took me a minute to realize that a deep hole was gone, completely filled with rolled stones, with the channel running along the opposite bank.  Upstream, another tree in a deep hole, which I had encountered three or four times downstream already.  This entire region is becoming one giant fulfillment center for our Amazon addiction, so I should not be surprised that it floods like crazy after each substantial rain.  It still hurts, however, especially when I look back at photos of multi-piggy days of yore in some of these spots.  Eventually, I found one stretch of pocket water where four small-to-average fish ate a bottom rolling caddis larva.  With air temps inching towards 80 degrees and my own lawn and my mother’s to cut with the boy, I decided four fish was better than none on a day when none had felt like a real possibility.