April 13, 2026 – I Had to Pivot and Be Patient, but I Was Eventually Rewarded with a Pair of Piggies – NEPA

A good fish.  One of two.

Today did not turn out the way I expected, but I am not unhappy with the results.  The fish pictured to the right here is one of two high-teens fish I landed on a favorite NEPA freestoner.  The plan was to chase brookies in an SGL with the Silver Fox, who had off today.  He was not feeling well in the morning and cancelled when he was unable to power through his early morning trials.  I got the text around 5:50 AM.  I had already called out of work and packed up some fishing stuff, so I had to do something fishy today.  It was going to get warm and progressively hotter this week (and dryer) so today was the day.  I pivoted to a solo Plan B after just pointing my car north.  I had the forethought to grab my wading staff and my 10’6” 4 weight, so I was ready for big water if that was where I ended up.  Big water is becoming the option right now in most of the areas I fish within two hours of home.  It sounds like Central PA flows are holding up, but SEPA is droughty and NEPA is quickly catching up.  I don’t like that I am fishing creeks I typically hold back until mid-May and count on in early June, but our springs are becoming more and more unpredictable these days.  I did what I had to do, and it's working so far....

Bowfest was silly in the riffles for about an hour.  Tan caddis got them excited.

I arrived later than I like in low water conditions, but it was cloudy to start the day, so I had some time before it got hot.  It rarely got sunny, and I even got rained on for 10 minutes as a weak front came through from the South.  Despite the presence of midges early and big tan caddis about 11 AM, fish were not rising, so I never had to pull the mono-rig off my reel.  The caddis were present for about an hour, but they brought nothing to the surface—that happens with caddis and it pays to be a dirty nympher during an emergence sometimes 😉 However, I had a blast catching a dozen stocker bows in the riffles during this brief event.  They all hit a buggy dropper tag fly that matched the action of emerging caddis if not the color.  I experimented with the color of the dropper when I could not find a brown in the mix, thinking they were more keyed into the specifics, but it was nothing but a bowfest for a good hour.

Bony for this early in the spring, but still mighty-ish in places.

I committed to the task at hand, however.  I took advantage of the low water for spring and waded and then bushwhacked (with a 10’6”) into a couple spots I usually save (or have to save most years) for late spring and early summer.  It was a good move.  In order to get down deep, I abandoned small bugs and small bugs with a lot of weight to get them down.  My gut told me to try a single big bug.  I had tightlined a jigged streamer when I first arrived, but I moved nothing.  The next idea was to dead drift a size 8 or 10 jigged pheasant tail on the seams with a bobber.  Stoneflies and fish fry are always on the menu on this creek.  Once I got into the spot, a spot where I have a white whale or two pushing 25 inches, a good, long, drag free drift was met with a buried bobber.  This fish would not quit in the cold water.  I was happy I had the extra backbone of the long 4 weight rod.  I even had a leap at the end of a short line long after I had this fish tamed for a netting.  Just an awesome fight and gorgeous fish!

Two of two.

It got better.  After resting the spot for a couple minutes and torturing my fishing buddies with a third piggy pic in a week, I got into another really good fish.  Same drift along the seam, maybe a little further back and a bit deeper, this second fish buried the indicator and took off on a long run.  I always worry about these fish dragging a big bobber around a very deep hole filled with obstructions, but I got a good hookset with a size 8 bug, so there was nothing to worry about this time.  This fish was a bit smaller, maybe only by an inch so, but it would have been a day maker if not for her cousin.  More pics and texts, but I could not get a third fish to eat after the ruckus these two caused.  I had also run out of water.  The path below was too deep to wade and the terrain too steep and brushy.  I did some billygoating back upstream and fished a couple holes I had already fished, now with this big bug that had cracked the brown code.  Nothing happening.  By now, I had gotten rained on and the South wind had picked up, so I decided to head for home instead of moving to a new spot.  Those that read this blog a lot know I don’t like to overstay when I have already met good fortune.  A few on the dry fly would have been nice.  Some brookies and a day with the Silver Fox even nicer, maybe.  But I made the right call today.

Bonus shot of fish #1