October 14, 2024 – We Found a Handful During a Rough Fall Transition Day – NEPA

One dude, two hats + hmm... leafy.

The Silver Fox has off this week, and I only had Monday free, so we made the most of an iffy weather day in NEPA today.  With nary a raindrop in sight for what feels like ages, I slept in both Saturday and Sunday mornings this weekend.  I was tracking better flows in central PA, but I didn’t have it in me to make the long drive, I guess, especially not twice in two or three days.  Instead, I took care of some things around the house and saved my energy for Monday with Tom.  I was encouraged when I saw a dam release on the Lehigh River this weekend and thought we might have a shot at some eager fish closer to home as a potential alternative.  Besides a half a dozen fallfish, “some” fish disappointingly meant a total of five average browns for me, and a goose egg for Tom.  It was warm and humid at first light with the weather carrying over from the weekend, but we fished through the arrival of the cold front.  That change came with falling temperatures, winds, a barometric change, and the best part of fall fishing in the wind, the leaf hatch.  For what it was worth, there was plenty of actual bug life, including caddis in two sizes, and even a smattering of olives—who sometimes like to choose nasty days to hatch.  None of these bugs seemed to interest the trouts all that much.  Slow and low, including two of my five fish coming on a big bug dredged under a bobber and 8 feet of 4X tippet, was the name of the game.  Not awesome, but it was a good social trip with Tom and, like our summer trip that was equally middling, an excuse for me to have a planned day out of the office.

Pretty fall-ish and blustery by late morning.

I avoided the first cast curse by logging a first cast snag.  I lost it all, including the aforementioned 8 feet of 4X fluorocarbon, due to a terribly tied knot at the tippet ring.  I caught a good 13 inch fish after rerigging, so technically my second cast of the morning.  And I actually got back all the tippet and two bugs a few minutes later when I snagged my own long-ass tippet and freed all of it.  Had I one of those handy rigging spools, I could have just wrapped the whole jawn up and been ready with a super-quick rerig following the inevitable future snag.  Instead, I clipped off the bugs and saved the tippet for some dropper tags later in the morning.  I mentioned the two bobber fish, well the others took a perdigon or a jigged bugger deep and near the bottom on a tight line.  Despite the presence of caddis, nothing took the dropper tag like they did on my last visit.  Speaking of which, I usually don’t like to double down on the same watershed, let alone nearly the same spot, but this drought is playing havoc with my fishing plans.  Before seeing the detailed Monday forecast, Tom and I were slated to drive out to Central PA, but with this front I figured our time would be better spent fishing the early morning window before the major weather change—a change that was happening west to east too, mind you.  Besides a couple trout, I did catch a solid fall fish bite before the weather changed, so there was that part of the plan that worked out, I suppose....

I caught some wild trouts (and likely one holdover top left).

Tom is not accustomed to fishing big water like this, so I let him figure it out for a while before sharing that he was probably two feet short on tippet length and way light on tungsten for a day where the fish were just hugging bottom.  He had some hits that probably surprised him (a couple of mine did to be honest) after long lulls in the action.  None of the trout were dinks that I did land, but none of them were likely much over 12 inches either, and the first fish may have even been a long time holdover, not even a wild boy.  I made some bug changes when the leaf hatch began in earnest, going for the big old isonychia or stonefly approach in the underwater leaf storm over leaving (get it) it up to the trouts to pick out an 18 or 20 caddis pupa down there.  The water was a bit stained from the release, even though the flows were still very wadable and had dropped back to normal by the time we arrived.

Bonus shot.  Some fall colors.

We quit the first spot before 10 AM to hike by the ‘Ru on the way to a second spot.  To give you an idea of how not nice it was, we were still the only vehicle in a usually quite busy lot.  By noon when we returned, it was bumping like usual, but I have never seen the lot empty on a late morning in the early fall.  I refused to believe we could not catch a trout at the second spot.  I even sat out and coached Tom for some time before giving it a shot myself.  I eventually dredged up a couple fallfish in a row on a size 8 jigged pheasant tail, a single heavy bug made heavier with even more weight added and one that may have said iso nymph to the residents because I finally caught my fifth and final trout with this cumbersome rig.  We could not get Tom on one even with the same bug and the same weight.  Instead, he lost it all in some random encounter with the elements.  On that note, we were done.  I am going to see the mitch again on Friday when we join a crew of aging hipsters for a drinking and eating weekend in Asbury Park.  I will bring a rod, especially with this cool week ahead, hoping to blind squirrel one of those cows that are the first to begin migrating south.  I will take a bluefish or two on a pencil popper, of course.