June 8, 2025 – Where I Get a Tour of a New Piece of Water in Coal Country and Get to Serve as Brian’s Personal Photographer – NEPA

Brian out there killing it today.

It’s not like Brian didn’t give me a shot at a few good fish today, it’s just that I dropped two of them that I should have landed without issue very early into our tour.  Maybe my hooks needed a filing.  I was tossing an Eric-tied bugger that I have thrown numerous times late last winter and into this spring.  It had literally gotten no love, like not even a hit, despite looking really sexy.  It was black and olive, and black is not always money unless the water is dirty.  I actually have more success with olive in clear and just-barely-stained water. This particular creek is mine-damaged orange on a good day, so it seemed like a very good choice, especially in higher-than-normal flows. Despite never being in a fish’s mouth, I neglected to think about how many times it may have been snagged and freed, snagged and freed.  When I lost the first wild brown, I said to Brian, I should probably sharpen this hook because there was no reason for that one to come off.  But then I gave it a half-assed test, and it felt alright.  It wasn’t going to pass the fingernail test or anything, but it should hold a fish, I thought.  And then I lost another good fish!  That cursed jigged bugger now lives in this creek, under a rock, or stuck in a log, perhaps.  The acidic water should make short work of it.  Maybe it’s for the best.  Don’t get me wrong, I caught a lot of fish today, as many as Brian caught, but he landed some real beauties, including a fat 16- or 17-inch wild brown and a brookie we taped at 10 inches.  At least I was sharp with the camera work to document it all.

A consolation prize on the black sculpin.  I guess Brian was my photographer too!

I eventually stuck another fish maybe 12 inches with a back-up black sculpin, and I landed another decent one on the same streamer at our last stop of the afternoon.  Between those, I was the king of average wild browns.  I forgot there were brook trout in this watershed, until Brian noted that I made a quick release of a decent brook trout, likely thinking it was another silvery dinker brown!  Not long after, Brian hooked a really solid native fish and then a very good wild brown from the same hole.  I will killing it with the dinks in the next hole down, but I was having fun catching a mess of fish and getting to see the type of wild and native trout present here.  I was close enough to run up and get good pics of both fish for Brian.  It’s not like he wasn’t giving me my chances.  In fact, he gave me first shot a couple prime spots today, so I can’t ask for more in a fishing partner.  With Brian’s reminder, I even took a photo of my next brookie instead of tossing it back like a small brownie!  We hopscotched or he offered me first shot at times since he wanted to see me make up for the two early in the day.  I stepped back and let him at a few good spots too, and he landed another good brown later in the morning while I was retying or adding weight.  I got some good photos of that one too.  Photography was my purpose today, it seems.  It made sense since I really was the tourist just taking it all in and learning about a new stretch of crick.  Brian was a good guide despite what the pics say 😉

High teens wild brown, 10-inch brook trout.  Not a bad showing!

We did a lot of walking, but we really only moved our vehicles once if I recall.  There is a lot of creek that we didn’t cover, but we covered plenty in five hours of good fishing.  There is plenty more to see, too, and I Iook forward to exploring more of this region and this creek.  I have fished in the county several times, but none of these spots, so in some ways it is an untapped region that is pretty convenient to home.  It’s all relative, of course.  One of the reasons Brian and I get along is that we both have to travel a minimum of an hour to find quality wild and native fish.  I am outside Philly, and he is in the Amish farm-ravaged Lancaster watershed.  So, 90 minutes is a pretty short drive for both of us, where 9 minutes is too far for some like Josh who are blessed with water water everywhere.  This particular creek was high, which is no surprise this spring, so I would love to fish some of these spots in more normal flows where I can see the cover and not have to trust what my guide was telling me.  That said, Brian did paint a good enough picture for me to have success on new water.  The dull hook or wimpy hooksets were on me, the cursed bugger on Eric.  

I remembered that there were decent brookies present.  Pretty spot despite AMD.

Brian and I both planned to fish until about noon today, but fishing was good later in the morning as the flows continued to drop, so we extended our time about an hour.  We also started seeing black caddis, which was exciting since bug life is not a huge feature of creeks like this one recovering from AMD.  Recovering is the key word, however.  Midges are plentiful, and I saw a cranefly or two—Brian saw a yellow sally and we both saw a couple larger tan caddis.  But these small black caddis were out in pretty good numbers, which was a first in Brian’s experience.  They may have been active before we even noticed them too.  My hot fly downstream of this buggy spot was a red tagged blowtorch up high on a dropper tag.  This set up does a good job of imitating an emerging black caddis.  Granted, my fish were all 8-10 inchers and a couple small brook trout, but it was helping to piece together what was happening.

He wasn't done yet.  I demonstrated "hand with fish" on his second beauty of the day.

We hoofed it up to one more spot before quitting.  It was this hole where in the past Brian caught his PB for this creek, perhaps his PB period.  We caught a few more average fish, and then I stuck one on the bugger that would not come up.  I didn’t think I had a 22-inch fish, but I thought I had something much better than what I’d been catching since my early morning drops.  It was just an ornery 11 or 12 incher, but it was a good fish to end on since it provided a little excitement.  It took a black jigged bugger and stayed on, go figure.  Brian and I each made a few more casts and landed a couple more average fish, so this was a good stop even if we didn’t end on a redemption piggy.  It was a solid trip with both of us hitting double digits.  Brian’s were just a lot bigger—at least the ones that he landed!  I am sure I will get another chance at these fish, so I was content to see the quality of the fishery and fish with Brian again.

A good note to end on but far from redemption!