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| Barely a 1/4" of rain, but something. |
I have been
fishing, though not a lot. Conditions
for trout anywhere in NEPA or SEPA are terrible. I like to leave them alone in low water
because life is hard enough with death from above and all the competition in the
deeper holding water. Water temps are
also borderline still. Evidence of that were
the sunfish I caught one evening on a Lehigh Valley limestoner. It rained about a quarter of an inch, which
was more than we had had in weeks, and the air temperatures were cooler, so I
snuck out one Sunday afternoon before dark.
I ran into at least three guys on this popular crick, but I had a couple
of spots in mind that required a little bushwhacking in the late summer growth. All I had to show for sweating it out and
picking hundreds of hitchhikers off my waders and clothing was a couple redbreasts. Trout were pecking, even the YOY, it
seems. I had a handful of hits on a
single small bug, but I must have just hit them on their locked jaws for a
second. YOY are big enough to peck this
time of year, too, so it may have been hungry but not that hungry youngsters. It was good to get out and see the creek full
of water, however briefly. It had me
hankering for fall.
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| How contraband, human and otherwise, gets in. |
Flash forward
to September 19th. I headed
west to see the boy for parents’ weekend at the college. He joined a fishing club, and they have a meet-up
next weekend at the advisor’s cottage on lower Penns Creek. If you know lower Penns, then you know this
is a boss hookup! You can float it, even
run a boat up from the river in the spring high water, without getting harassed,
but bank access can be tricky with houses lining many of the prime spots. I hung out and met his friends and friends’
parents most of the time, ate a lot, and did NOT go day drinking, which was
certainly on the menu at this notorious party school for smart (and/or wealthy)
kids. It was a throwback to when I went
to college long ago, an age I thought had been legislated and enforced out of
existence, but not in Lewisburg, PA!
Instead of drinking or attending the football game, my son and I tried
to catch a couple fish on Saturday night.
He was tired, having slept little on Friday night, so after hitting a
thrift store and eating late lunch down in Selinsgrove, I let him sleep in my
hotel room for at least 90 minutes. We
did scope out some access points on Penns for the future, but my gut said
spring fishing spots. The creek was full
of dying weeds and flowing backwards at this time of year. When we did stop to fish after his late
afternoon nap, it was more of a rundown of what I had brought him from home for
future fishing trips. We reviewed knots,
went through the lures I was leaving with him, and made a few casts from a
public boat ramp and access right at the junction pool of the North and West
branches.
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| One very small LMB |
There were
plenty of bass boats taking out at that hour and some late season water-skiers
and pleasure boaters. The boy caught tiny
largemouth, likely from the West Branch before we ran out of daylight. With a dam or two in this area, the river is
more like a lake, so a largemouth was not a surprise. The lack of even panfish, however, was. He was throwing a spinner. Everything eats a spinner! I was going for broke with a big old swimbait,
but nothing took notice. It was still
good to spend some time solo with the boy, and it was a really nice night. We ended up having dinner about 8 PM and then
I dropped him back off at the college.
We decided that it was not worth coming back in the morning since he had
work to do and we were both done with the organized parent events. I needed the 11 AM check out on Sunday
morning because I slept past 9:30 AM. Saturday
was leg day, as Bucknell’s campus is all hills, so I guess I was tired. It was early enough that I decided to keep scouting
out Penns for future visits, so I did not head for home before finding a couple
access points upstream of the town of Penns Creek. Water was low and clear, so much so that a
couple I spoke to told me a kayak livery in the area would not rent them a kayak.  |
| A lovely night on the WB. Should have fished the other side of the point! |
I wet waded
away from a young Amish family having a post-church visit to the river to skip
stones, and the water was as warm as the late morning air. I have a camping/fishing trip with Josh,
Brian, and Larry in mid-October, so I am praying for cool nights and rain,
definitely rain. We will be up in the
limestone influenced trout environs, of course, but it must feel pretty summery
up there too. I found two slightly
deeper holes (where I could see to the bottom in three feet of water) and made
a few casts, first with a Rapala CD5 and then a Crippled Killer topwater. I had given the boy all the finesse soft plastics! I even had to gnaw off line with my teeth in
order to change lures because I left the nippers with him too! Scouting mission, not fishing mission, I
reminded myself. Well, in the 45 minutes
I spent in the water, I caught an uber dink on the Rapala and had a couple
toddlers blow up on the topwater. I
landed one of them. I also spent a lot
of time picking off dead vegetation, one sign the fall is here. Besides that, I spooked some fry from the shallows,
saw a bald eagle find fishing success, and even had flock of turkeys cross in
front of me on the drive out, so there was life despite the low water conditions. It was good to be in the woods, and better
days are coming. Hopefully, the boy can
get me access to a sweet stretch of lower Penns because my blind guiding is not
going to get it done....
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| Lower Penns is bony right now. |
