October 20, 2025 - Making Lemonade on So Many Levels - Berks County

Not too shabby, all things considered.

October has been interesting.  My son was in the emergency room for a couple days—out in Central PA, not anywhere near home—so I had just attended Family Weekend, then drove back out to the hospital the following week, and then he came home for fall break.  It was good to see him, of course, under any circumstances, but he is an 18-year-old with a lot of friends, so we barely got to hang out over fall break before I had to drive him back again.  I actually drove him back to school with two new college friends that live in the area, and that was fun, but on the solo drive back home, I was rear-ended about 90 minutes from home.  There were three other cars involved, a chain reaction caused by a young dude in a pickup truck who hit me.  No one was hurt, including the driver at fault, but the ‘Ru is a goner, a total loss.  Not that I want a car payment again, but at least I am physically fine and no one else was in the car with me. 

Low, clear, windy, and leafy = fall.

The accident was out in Berks County on a rural state road, and I had to drive out there today, clean out the car, and release the vehicle so that dude’s insurance company could pick it up.  The accident happened last Tuesday night, so by Friday they had accepted fault and given me a rental (a BWM X1, so really roughing it; I almost felt like I should tuck in my shirt and temporarily install a stocker locker with some Yeti stickers).  I had to bail on my camping trip with the boys at Poe Valley, which sucked, but not as bad as the fishing they experienced, apparently.  I also had to delay my start date at a new job by a day, but they were cool with everything, which is a good sign about the culture there.  I was not surprised, but I was grateful.  I had completed my responsibilities at the tow yard by 10 AM, and the small SUV fit my 10-foot rod, so what’s a guy to do with a day off work for which he will likely get reimbursed in the settlement?

A few average fish along with the dinks and chub life.

I stopped by the “world famous” Tully early in my drive back, but I am not a fan, nor a fan of chasing fresh stockers when there are other wild fish to chase before the spawn.  It’s the Tully, so of course there were some dudes out, even on a Monday—I still don’t know why this stocked fishery is still a destination crick in SEPA, but I am glad it draws fishermen away from other creeks I do like to fish.  I was curious if the rain overnight had impacted the creeks in the region at all.  I was hoping for more rain, but the forecast had been changed half a dozen times.  The Tully looked on the low side of normal, but it’s a tailwater, so a release may have happened recently too.  At any rate, I convinced myself that rain had happened, and I would fish another much smaller creek that has a lot more natural reproduction.

A pretty autumn day.

Upon arrival, I accepted that the creek I chose was low, clear, and a recent victim of “leaf hatches,” which the drizzle and impending wind would certainly make worse today.  Nevertheless, I decided I was fishing it.  As I was suiting up at the BWM and feeling self-conscious about it, another fly guy arrived, but we discussed our intentions.  After trying two or three honey holes en route, I gave him and myself some space.  As a result of the longer walk, I got to explore more of the creek than I normally would, and I may have even seen a bit of water I had never seen, let alone fished, before.  The fishing itself was just meh with the challenging conditions.  I spooked some hiding fish and/or drove a few from the tailout into the heads of runs despite being stealthy as possible.  Riffles and deep holes, just like my last outing.  Deep holes meant a lot of chubs in a freestoner that gets warm each summer, and I even caught minnows.  Once in a while, though, I encountered a wild trout suspended up and looking for emerging bugs in the swirling and drowned leaf litter.  The best fish came from the head of a pool in a riffle not 8 inches deep, and I missed a few other short, sharp hits in this type of cover.

Chublife represent....

I was tossing a caddis larva anchor fly with a soft hackle/tag fly on the dropper.  While the minnows loved this size 18 emerger-looking presentation, so did half a dozen wild trout.  I caught fallfish, creek chubs, minnows, a small smallmouth bass, YOY, two year old dinks, and at least a couple decent small stream browns.  Drizzle had given way to cold front winds up to 30 MPH, so the low water was only the beginning of the day’s challenges.  Half a dozen trout, midday in wind and sun, especially in low water?  I was making lemonade.  And instead of being anxious about starting a new job in the morning, I got plenty of fresh air and exercise to help me sleep like a young mitch all night.  The accident stuff has not been resolved.  The pay out will determine next steps, of course, but I think the plan is to let my wife buy something new.  She is driving an Impreza that was mine briefly and did the job.  It is all-wheel drive, a hatchback, even fits a 10’ one-piece surf rod inside.  I do recall seeing 40 MPG on the display during a few trips to Central PA, which does not hurt either.  The Ru is dead, long live the Ru!?!?

Leaf hatch with little brownie.

October 9, 2025 – Small Stream Sneaking in the Skinny Water and Finding Some Success – NEPA

Early success (but not too early).

It became very clear that the little bit of rain that happened this week had not made any difference on my chosen crick this morning.  I arrived about 8 AM after letting it warm up some following the coldest night since June, so there was enough daylight to dispel any hope that a little stain or a boost in flow was present to help the cause.  I like challenges, and I like to be proficient in less-than-perfect conditions, so instead of heading to a bigger creek, I accepted the challenge.  I know this stream intimately, too, so I knew where to fish and how I might have to fish it in order to make lemonade.  By 2:30 PM, I had landed about a dozen trouts, a few of them very decent for a small freestone crick, so I was glad I stayed.  With one exception, a couple of young bulls tossing spinning rods and high-holing me, I had the crick to myself, so I took advantage of that situation.  I was covering water fast because I was skipping yards of boney, clear water and targeting higher percentage spots, so I actually covered a few miles of water, making two or three short drives and many long walks over exposed rocks.  I ended near the lower stretches, hoping to intercept some big, seasonal interlopers or lovelorn wanderers looking for a place to settle next month, but I only found a couple holdover bows down there.  Still, it was worth all the steps and drives.  I have never seen this creek so low, and that is information.  I made mental notes of the spots within the spots, less obvious cover, deep depressions, things I would not see in normal flows.  That is invaluable time on the water, and the fishing was solid, all things considered. 

Caught some fishes despite the low water.

Deep plunges were the first order of business, but because the leaf cover is still significant enough to offer low light until 9 or 10 AM, I did pay a little attention to deeper holes.  Fish can only do three things, or a combination of those three things, in water this low: hide under cover like rocks and ledges and wood, go deep out of diving range of birds of prey, or tuck up under the white water (or whitish water today).  I found my first fish and a second much better fish tight to a plunge.  Another good fish shot out from under a boulder to eat.  As the day got brighter, I could see fish in the deep holes and, with stealth, was able to target a couple.  At times they were with big suckers, a behavior I see in winter from time to time and during sucker spawn in early spring, and that resulted in me tagging a 20+ inch white sucker that provided the best 15 second fight on a 3 wt. in fly fishing!  There were some dinks and average small stream fish along the way, and even three rainbows, including one solid one in good shape.  I was fishing 5X with a 16 frenchie on the anchor and a smaller dropper, like a midge or riffle nymph.  With some small BWO’s around, the mayfly nymphs seemed to get more love than any caddis larva imitations, despite cased caddis regularly finding their way onto the hook of my anchor fly.

Boney enough to sight-fish a river monster ;)

My first stop was the longest, both timewise and walking-wise, and it produced the three or four good browns you see in the photos.  The second stop was short, involved me targeting a nice wild male and tangling with a relative of Karen the white sucker.  The college boys in sneakers and spinning rods that I let high hole me without comment were also a feature of stop number two.  My third stop was after 12:45 PM, so well past primetime, but also a hail mary.  I know from experience—and lost access to a stretch now posted—that big fish move through seasonally for the spawn.  They often stayed through the winter, as well, resulting in some solid pre- and post-spawn browns.  The creek is changing rapidly, and I have not intercepted this seasonal movement in a few years now, but with the high sun and low water, I was hoping at least to see a couple.  Here I caught a two-year old wild brown and two rainbows.  One bow was skinny like she’d just barely made it from the spring stocking and had washed down, but the other bow was far healthier.  It looked like a multiyear holdover, and my first impression said male.  Looking at the anal fin, that first impression may not have been wrong.  I am not saying wild, by any means, I am just saying that the Comish stocks females and mutant triploids.  This one may have been a wanderer or a club stocker, something different.  It was not a wild brown, but it was a fun fight and a nice surprise.

A couple more nicer fish.

Thursday, yo!  The reason I had so much water to myself—besides the windy, cold front conditions—was that I was out on a weekday.  I am using up PTO because I start a new job later this month.  Back to my roots.  For those who have read the blog for years, for some of you 10 years at the end of this year, you know I used to have time off for 100+ days of fishing.  I am not promising that with this new job, but I am saying that I will have more than double the days off in 2026, something like 41 paid days off.  I can’t wait.  Even with having to earn that time at a new job, I will still have an extended Thanksgiving and two weeks off for the holidays, a spring break.  I will continue to be a weekend warrior for the time being, but I do have a camping fishing weekend next week with Josh, Brian, Larry and Josh’s brother in law.  Rain would help, but today’s success proved a theory I have held about the fall for some time: low water or not, the better fish have to eat if they want to make babies in November.  Let’s hope I am proven right again on Penns next weekend!

A good long day and the first cold morning in months.

October 5, 2025 – Shook the Cobwebs Off the Nymphing Gear – Lehigh River

One good fish.

I have been watching the gages on the river for a couple of weeks now.  The water temperature coming out of the reservoir has actually been hurting the cause, even though there appeared to be some fishing releases in September.  Cool nights and cool tributaries are likely to cool things down after the dam, but the Lehigh is a lot of effort just to take a stream temperature at a couple of my spots.  Flows were the best in the region due to the releases, however, so it was torturing me with its 250-300 CFS when the other NEPA cricks are historically low.  When I saw that water temps were finally and consistently below 66 every day for a few days, and hovering around 250 CFS at White Haven, I sucked it up and did the scouting mission.  There are worse places to be than on the river in October even if fishing ended up being meh.  I arrived late for me, like 10 minutes after sunrise, and was surprised to see two obvious fishing vehicles.  At least the decals and stocker lockers take the guess work out.  It would be worse to see an SUV or pickup truck and wonder, right?  I decided to take a longer walk, knowing I could run into someone in one of my go-to spots when water is wadable.   Sure enough, there was a dude down there, and one in between too.  Instead of turning back, I decided to try and get access to another riffle I have always wanted to fish.  I found a few places to make a cast or two while standing on the bank and attempting to avoid the overhanging trees, but my hopes of locating a crossing point were thwarted.

There are worse places to be on an October morning.

I had a couple snags and zero hits, so I bushwhacked out of there, hoping dude upstream of me had experienced a slow morning himself and had given up the spot.  Luckily, he was gone, and I finally found a couple wild browns tight to pockets in whitewater.  The sun was up by this time, so I was not hopeful that fish were still out in the open eating, but I did fool one rainbow out on the flat.  The rest of the fish, all wild browns, ate heavy but small bugs (added some tungsten beads in some cases to get down to them) on the edges of heavier water.  Caddis were around, so a green larva on the dropper tag was the fly all five fish wanted.  You can probably see from the pic of the 12-incher below just how close to the whitewater they were sitting.   

Close to the O2 but actively eating, at least.

That is a sign that water temperatures are still keeping them close to oxygen-rich water when active, but also a sign they are feeding, not just hunkered in the deep holes riding out this summer that won’t quit.  Speaking of quitting and summer, I quit before noon because the heat came back quickly.  It was 45 F to start, but it had risen 30 degrees by late morning.  With the nice weather, the lot was also full of hikers and bikers.  It was good to get the kinks out, but the fall fishing is barely kicking into gear in NEPA.  I guess the Commish stocked last week too, but maybe not with the low water.  If we just get a little rain, there might be some more options later this month!

Bonus shot of the one good fish.