May 26, 2025 – Quite an Auspicious Start to an Awesome Overall Outing on a Couple of Fast Flowing Freestoners – NEPA

A third cast stud.

My first fish of the morning, on what was possibly my third drift, still standing but a foot off the bank in order to work the softer water closer to me before stepping in and spooking some early morning eaters, was a true day-maker.  I was in full shade at 7 AM-ish behind a bluff, and visibility was not great, so I was in disbelief for a moment at just how strong this heretofore unseen fish actually was.  I had no idea how big.  I knew he was solid, but I was on autopilot just trying to land a good fish of 15 or 16 inches, I guess.  Then he passed by me on a run and disbelief turned to excitement.  He was 20, maybe 20+.  No anxiety, at least.  I got a solid hookset, my knots were tied with love, and I was using 4X tippet on a stretch of water I knew well, so barring any newly deposited wood since I was here in March, I was confident that this would end well.  Okay, when he jumped twice on a short line, I got a little anxious.  I got the pictures but decided to forego the hero shot/selfish when he behaved nicely for an experiment with the patented hand with fish shot.  He went back with plenty of energy and his well-deserved dignity intact.  What did he eat?  The sulfur nymph I had used on the Lehigh River when last I held my 10’6” 4 weight in my hand.  Only half an hour later would I see the yellow sally stoneflies choppering about.  I’d rather be lucky than good some days.

The old stud slowly ceding his dominance to the next generation?

I was again in disbelief when my line stopped a few minutes later.  The drift just stopped, as it sometimes does when a good fish eats in current and has no desire to move unless provoked to do so.  This long, skinny-ass old man was certainly not going to waste much energy.  The fight was not half the battle of the first young stud, but I am not complaining about landing another large fish in the first half hour of my morning.  He got a net shot in case he found his grit right before a photo, but he too cooperated for a hand photo and went back into the cold water.  The fish gods were not done, however, not by a long shot.  Eventually, I put on an indicator to fish a deep glide at the back of this hole, and before an hour of my morning had passed, a third beauty buried the bobber.  This was a sparsely spotted, thick bodied stud in training—high teens, also male I guess by the anal fin, although with a cuter, more youthful face?  I was thinking, Where do I go from here?  Should I just go home?  Go get a fancy coffee and just enjoy the beautiful day?  Nah, I had at least 4 hours of fishing left in me, so I just kept going and tried to crack the code again.

Some net pics, a crick pic, and # 3, the pretty boy.

It did go downhill from there, at least at this creek.  I caught a couple rainbows, one an Eric-tied streamer eater, which was fun, but nothing like my first hour on the water.  Knowing it was a holiday with a forecast in the 70s, I expected to encounter other fishermen if I covered too much water.  Instead, around 10 AM I decided to get a drink and a snack back at the ‘Ru, and it was here that I saw all the “front-platers” had paid the bridge tolls this morning.  No offense, of course.  I married a Jersey girl, but I don’t fish with her, either.  With too much New York and New Jersey around, although no lift kits or stocker lockers to trigger me, I committed to exploring a Class A creek that has been on my list.  I fished it a few times in the past, but last time I was in this area, I did some scouting of a stretch that looked unposted and also held the potential for some deeper water and bigger fish habitat.  As I noted above, the fish gods were not done rewarding me today for some unknown or unremembered tribute to them.  Creek two was loaded up with solid wild brown fish, some angry holdover bows that come from who knows where (the fish gods know, of course) and I even broke off another stud on a leap I unwisely did not bow to, and I lost a second unseen stud that won the game of Run Down the Riffle As Fast As You Can (by Milton Bradley?  Parker Brothers?).  Some nice small stream wild fish were landed and photographed, so don’t feel too bad for me.  This was just a bonus round on a brand new-to-me stretch of crick, anyway.

My second stop of the morning was loaded with willing fish.

Near the access point, this creek has a significant elevation change, so serious flow, but it was wide and therefore relatively shallow. This is what I had experienced further upstream, so I was already thinking about smaller bugs and lighter tippet.  But I was encouraged by a couple of solid bumps in pocket water.  They did not commit in high sun, but I landed a fish on the shady side a bit farther upstream.  Mission accomplished.  This fish was shaped like a stocker, however.  He had the eye spot and good fins and no fused Minecraft-looking patterns, but my gut said holdover.  Unwisely it seems (see comment above about breaking off a stud when he jumped on a tight line) I retooled to 6X tippet and a single, small walts worm, just a confidence fly for me, like the perdigon or caddis larva, but one that might stay in the feeding zone in shallower water without hanging up.  It’s also not a bad searching pattern because it imitates so much and nothing at all—larva, scuds, shrimps, etc.  I connected with some fish that were unmistakably wild brown trouts, along with some strong bows that were right in the current or under it.  I concentrated on the quieter pockets and seams both near and across the way, and that was when more browns came, including the stud that broke my 6X tippet on a jump.  I was aware that fish were digging for cover and scraping line on the rocky bottom, but I had been maintaining and monitoring the tippet too.  After that minor disaster, I changed back to 5X and a single perdigon that I could bounce through that heavy water they seemed to be hanging near and within.

After learning the hard way, twice, a nice wild fish from a tricky spot.

That level-up did not help with a second stud who used the old trick of getting below me and then really below me.  As big fish often do when actively feeding, he had gotten himself up into the only soft spot in a roaring plunge.  Sam always says, The big ones are near the bouncy stuff, and his gravelly Delco voice plays in my head when approaching water like this because I know from experience that he is not wrong.  I gave chase to this fish, losing the battle to keep him in front of me, and eventually lost him altogether when I could not keep up, but I learned my lesson.  He was not alone in that little spot, and I kept the rod low on two more solid wild browns and coaxed them across the creek under the whitewater.  There was a little dance of fish and man in the narrow soft seam, the confined space on my side of the crick, but I netted both of these fish.  One female was in the 14-inch range, so a great small stream fish.  Not the two that got away, but no slouch.  More bows in there too, so a productive stretch of water.  Above it was a long shallow riffle that would have to wait for another day.  It was getting past noon, so I did not push forward after this magical and challenging spot.  I did fish a few pockets on the way back, however, and I even caught another fat fish over 10 inches on that walk.  Besides a leaking wader leg, and one lost stud (or two) that could have been the day-ender to my early day-maker, it was a perfect May outing, yo.

One last nice one before hitting the road.  Quite the day, this one.