April 21 and 22, 2025 – A Couple Short Trips on the Home Home Waters – SEPA

Crowds on a Monday and brookies.

Maybe I need to pay more attention to social media, but besides my own blog, one fly fishing forum, and one surf fishing forum, I stay off the stuff.  In general, I don’t find it informative or all that exciting, until I decide naively to fish the Wissahickon on Easter Monday AND the day after the big tournament hosted by the dudes in Roxborough.  When I arrived at a park entrance about 7:30 AM on Monday morning, I started to put two and two together.  There were a lot of trucks that looked like fishing and hunting vehicles, not the usual Monday morning dog walkers, cyclists, and runners.  I suited up at home, so I was walking towards the crick in no time.  Peeking over the bridge, I had my confirmation.  Dudes lined up on both sides of the creek, upstream and downstream.  Water is not high, but it’s not low yet, so I decided to avoid the holes, and potentially a 29-inch brown trout or 25-inch rainbow, and fish for the average ones the Comish put in who’ve likely wandered since Opening Day.  There were some midges and caddis flying around by 9 AM, and after nymphing a couple up in the riffles, I actually had the most success and fun doing something different.  I started swinging the caddis pupa down and across.  This also got the attention of little smallmouth bass, rock bass, sunfish, so I was having steady action.  I figured if I was fishing for stocked trouts, then I should practice a skill I find comes in handy during caddis hatches, you know, so I am ready for the main event some morning with wild fish.  I made the most of staying away from the crowds, until they started giving up and moving around or leaving.

Some stockers on the swing.

A slight cold front had come through on Easter evening, so the air temperature had dropped about 10 degrees.  As a result, fishing was not on fire.  I watched a lot of dudes chunking a spinner and quickly moving around and not landing fish.  When I got to a favorite hole, a few younger guys and a retiree were complaining that the fish ate briefly at sunrise and then shut off.  I don’t believe the three younger dudes, sharing two rods, had touched a fish.  I felt a little guilty when I switched to a heavier peeking caddis and hooked a couple in this deeper hole, but not that guilty.  I did not catch 10, just 3, and made my departure for home—I was on borrowed time on a workday, just sneaking out because I had a light morning and had not visited the Wissy since Opening Day with Eric.  I wanted a Monday with some solitude in the park, and by fishing away from the crowds for much of the morning, I sort of accomplished that?

Crick pics and a fat bow.

Skip ahead to Tuesday, and I had to join the procrastinators who had not secured their Real IDs.  I took the day off to accomplish what I assumed would be a 3-hour ordeal.  It was 5 hours.  I was smart enough to put my fishing stuff in the ‘Ru in case I had the itch or needed to decompress after DMV hell.  Stony was right there in N-town, but I decided to head closer to home.  I got some food and Gatorade and headed to another stretch of the mighty Wissahickon.  No one works anymore.  The lot was full of people at 2 PM.  I guess I was calling the kettle black, but I am sure these places are like this every day.  Thankfully, most of the vehicles did not belong to fishermen, although I did see a dozen on the crick or leaving the crick.  Again, not for nothing, but the Comish drives Forbidden Drive and dumps buckets all over, not just at the easy access points!  I took a walk away from the crowds, had two prime holes to myself, and landed at least 7 fish in a couple hours.  It was the middle of the day, so fishing was not on fire, and I had to look for them in a couple of old favorites that were not stocked, but once I found them, I was able to get them to eat.  With the water low and pretty clear (for the Wissy) they just wanted a natural bug, a size 14 green caddis larva.  They’ve been ducking spinners for several days, so I should have fished midges!  Dude in the lot had a whopper plopper on his baitcaster telling me that people were catching them on flies, as I pulled the fly rod out of the back of my vehicle….  It was confirmation that the fish have seen the bugs hatching, however sporadically, and are starting to swear off corn and Velveeta (and topwater).  I am still thankful that I have this beautiful place so close to home—even the jamokes in lifted diesel trucks with bass gear add a special charm to the place.  I encountered no a-holes in two days, just people enjoying the arrival of spring.  Protect the Wiss, yo!

A simple natural bug fooled more than a handful.