May 26, 2024 – Despite Summer Air Temps, Fish Were not Ready to Get Up as Early as Me – Northampton County Limestoner

Two out of three ain't bad.

Limestoner time, I guess.  I want to tell myself that we are going to get another couple of cool weeks in June, but I am not so sure.  Marginal creeks might be done for the season without a drastic cool down or a week of rain.  The bugs and fish are still on the late May clock for now, at least.  I proceeded this morning as if it were late July, and I only had a few hours to fish.  I was up at 4:30 AM, on the road before 5:30 AM, and fishing by 6:15 AM.  The trout did not get the memo, however.  If this were any other creek, maybe, I could have gotten a fish or two to move to streamer, maybe even a big terrestrial, early.  I tried, but these fish get pounded.  I had some follows and one nipper, but no takers on the bugger.  I had to remind myself about small, non-descript bugs and encourage myself to be patient until the 9 AM hour, which is when I finally I started catching fish.  I would say I caught one fish before 9 AM, and then I went on to land over 15 more between 9 AM and 11 AM, including a few good ones—well, I got 2 out of the 3 good ones in the net, so a couple good ones.  I quit at 11 because it felt hot.  It felt like I needed to stop trout fishing at 80 degrees.  Not that this stopped a couple of Jersey jadrools from suiting up as I was leaving.

It took a while for them to get going, but once they did, it was game on.

My thermometer was in my waders because today was the first day of 2024 that I was wet wading, so I will reserve judgement on said Jersey jadrools.  I was perhaps being overly trout woke, but I can say that the legs don’t lie.  And by legs I mean scrot’?  At no point today did I get close to shrinkage.  Fish were in prime fighting shape early, and they all went back quickly and lively, even the one that drug my point fly into a stick as I was bending to net him, in the process taking the dropper tag with him and gaining his freedom while retaining his anonymity—no hero shots of this one today.  Flows and color were perfect, so I was still hopeful even with the quiet start.  I also kept moving and was able to find the sweet spot between two easy access points, perhaps at just the right time of the morning.  Bugs were out in force late morning.  Well, bugs were out in variety more than force.  There were midges, olives, caddis two ways, even some egg-laying sulfurs in the mix.

Besides the heat, it was a perfect May morning on a pretty crick.

The twist with so many bugs about is figuring out what they want to eat, especially when nothing has risen yet.  On some level that was part of my issue last week when I fished with Josh.  At creek two, we saw a half a dozen different bugs on the water.  He solved that mystery in the stained water with a streamer and a big old Pats while I stuck to the script to my own detriment.  Today, my gut was right and simple caddis patterns got them going, including the famous little brown nothing.  Once the fish were going, however, I did try the sulfur nymph route and was rewarded with a few fish.  The fish here seem to love the small dark caddis emergers, and the three best fish all took a size 16 CDC blowtorch on the dropper tag.  That dropper tag take, with the point fly dragging two feet below, cost me the third nice fish, but having caught two before that and the fact that I got to do everything but net and photograph this third one, I was okay.  I even quit on that last one as the high note that it was.

Just gorgeous, these two in particular.

This was one of those days during a more typical May when fishing might have been good all day.  Everything but water temperatures were lining up, unfortunately.  Despite the stain, flows were pretty normal.  There were so many bugs to choose from.  No one was out on a pressured crick besides the two dudes showing up when I was leaving.  I thought about refilling my water, digging my thermometer out of my waders, and reassessing the situation after a snack.  Part of me wanted to re-fish some prime spots that were dead early in the morning.  Instead, I just enjoyed the walk out, looking up from the creek to see what was happening on a warm spring day.  Wet to the ass, evaporation kept the swamp to a minimum, and the trees are in full coverage, so it felt good to stroll and dry off a bit before the relatively short ride home.  Besides a pair of mergansers playing grabass, I saw several small families of geese, one sadly small one with just one gosling I called Ryan.  I also stalked a big tall and lean buck already sprouting new antler growth.  He kept sneaking down to the creek, very aware but defiant of me, in order to eat some especially succulent new growth.  I eventually gave him a snort, and instead of trying to kick my ass, he moseyed off.  Perhaps there were early berries of some kind.  There was the smell of flowers and skunk cabbage in the air, maybe mulberries mixed in.  A very good morning despite the slow start.  I will take it.

The nature show, more crick pics, the empty netter....