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| A long way down on the western bank. |
I guess I sat on this report hoping I might combine it with
another trip this week, but it has not rained in these parts in a while now
(now being September 1). I will head out
somewhere on Labor Day to ring in the new month and the unofficial end of
summer, but I took a lot of pics on this date, so I decided to keep an accurate
record of my trips. They don’t all end
up successful, though not for lack of effort.
The whole reason for me being out in Amish Country was because the boy
missed the deadline to register to retake the SATs at any location within a reasonable
distance from home. Since I regularly
drive 90 minutes to fish, and in the wee hours, I said I was the guy for the job
if he wanted to register for this distant remaining open location. He actually had a buddy taking the test the
same morning, but I did not want to be responsible for this buddy’s future by
being late or running into traffic. At 8
AM, they close the doors, whether you drove 90 minutes or not. I guess his parents didn’t want that
responsibility either. Since I had plans
to stay, I drove both boys home and treated them to their first Sheetz chicken
sandwiches al fresco outside Lititz, PA.
Being 11 miles from the Susquehanna River this particular morning, I had to bring a rod or
two. I had about four hours to kill
before the test was over and it was a pretty decent weather day.
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| A shelter in the woods. |
I did a total of 30 minutes of research on google maps and
found a trailhead to a path that joins the Mason and Dixon trail. There is a powerplant nearby, and several
boat ramps to access “lakes” formed by the dams in the area, so I tried to avoid
those and find bank access near broken water or rocky structure. I now know that the eastern bank is far friendlier
in these parts. I first drove down a hidden drive
that led to some houses and possibly one legal parking spot, but the river
looked featureless here. A couple boats had
the trolling motors down and were fishing within sight, so I assumed one of
those ramps was nearby. I decided to
check out one other spot where I had put a pin on the map. The drive was short, but the walk not so
much, at least with all the switchbacks.
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| A red blaze: loose and steep. |
After a 30-minute hike to an overlook above the river, I
realized just how high the look was and just how far in hiking steps I might be
from the river. I tried to block out how
long the return trip would take and just enjoyed the walk in the woods. The shelter along the Mason and Dixon trail,
a nearly 200-mile blazed walk to Havre de Grace, MD was maybe a sign that the walk
back up might belie the “moderate” rating I noted online somewhere in reference to this
hike. Moderate for a 55-year-old dude carrying
a spinning rod, I wonder? In the end, I
had to hike down a tributary and traverse a couple water falls to reach the river’s
edge. When I looked at my phone and saw
the time, I knew this was going to be a quick fishing session. I saved an hour for the walk back, and I still
had the boys calling me on the phone because they got out of the test 10
minutes early. I noted some rough
terrain on the way down, even one trail I scrambled down that had a telling red
blaze. Yeah, that one required a rest at
the top, maybe one rest halfway up, on the return hike. And no water with me... Good plan.
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| A fishless ravine and some waterfalls in low flows. |
Oh yeah, the fishing.
I mentioned the tributary I had to use to access the river, but even the
plunge pools below the waterfalls were low and devoid of life. I did not discover a new Class A brookie
stream. The tributary did give me a bit
of a clearing near the river to fan some casts.
And there was one other spot where I had enough room without stepping
into the river to make a cast. I was going
to wet wade until I saw the terrain I had to cover to get back to the car. I am glad I did not try this hike in wading
boots either! I wisely kept my Altra
trail running shoes (and their very useful rock plate, which I much appreciated
a few times) dry for the steep walk back.
Between these two perches, I tossed three casts with a crayfish soft plastic,
then three casts with a topwater when a dragonfly got harassed by a panfish, and
as a last resort the Kenny tough fishing go-to lure, a trout sized
spinnerbait. I did not get a touch on any of them. I saw a lot of fry in the shallows, all swimming
happily and feeling safe. It was sunny
and getting hot, and the water that looked worth fishing was out past an island
and way over by the east bank, where the main current and additional current from
a larger tributary were located. Me, I
was standing on the edge of a rocky pond with little life in the current conditions. Time was short with the looming return hike, anyway,
but I did use the rod I carried down a mile and a half (double that with the number of switchbacks and scrambles). I probably should have carried a trekking pole
instead….
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| Some river views. Blanked on a couple dozen casts. |
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