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| A real pretty trout. |
I don’t believe
we received over an inch of rain as forecasted, but I did see enough yesterday
and heard enough overnight to contemplate a couple small streams to target
today. Before the rain arrived on
Saturday afternoon, while I was at my mom’s setting up her new television, I
cut her lawn, then came home and cut my lawn.
It was a rush job at my house, as it was drizzling already, but I almost
beat the rain. I won’t be home next
weekend since I will be in NCPA camping with the boys, so it had to be
done. At least the moisture kept the pollen
down a bit. I still felt the effects of
mowing two lawns in one afternoon, so I did not get up at 4:30 AM this morning
as I intended. Snooze button and then shut
off the alarm. I did get up at 5:30 AM,
though. It was still cloudy, and quite
cold, so I made a slightly altered plan.
Instead of driving 90 minutes in the dark, I would drive 45 minutes at
dawn to a Berks County creek that I am fond of fishing a few times each
year. It is small and mostly freestone
with some limestone influence in places, so the lack of rain in SEPA this
spring has kept me away, but with a stain and slightly elevated flows this morning,
it fit the bill. It was a great
call. I fished for just under 4 hours,
which is about all this stretch of unposted creek will allow on a good day, and
it was pretty bonkers. No big fish, but some
decent small stream fish, and I must have landed over 2 dozen gorgeous wild
browns in that short period of time.
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| Still low but at least stained today! |
I was fishing
by 7 AM, and I knew rather quickly that this morning had potential. It was just under 40 F, so the hits started
out pretty soft, but the fish were eating.
I landed a handful at my first hole, rested it, and got 2 more before
moving to the next spot. I found a few
fish in the deep holes, but once I started fishing shallow riffles with access
to deep water, I found the pattern. I
must have caught 8 more trout from the same riffle, and the fish were as
shallow as ankle deep in the low light and slightly stained water. Most took a size 16 soft hackle that usually
serves me well as an emerging caddis. A
few took the point fly, a walts or caddis larva, as it got brighter and fish
went deeper. I tried swinging bugs a few
times in case caddis were in the water column in numbers, but it appeared that
the fish were up shallow in anticipation or by habit not necessarily because of
what was currently happening. To confirm
my suspicions, I shook a few bushes on the bank, and the caddis were there. Later in the morning, a few smalls and a
couple creek chubs took swinging bugs, but upstream nymphing was by far the
most effective approach. When I did not
find a fish over 11 or 12 inches, and had logged so many fish, I did chunk a
streamer hoping to move a bigger specimen.
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| More very pretty and healthy fishes. |
I had some
swipes at the bugger, and landed two aggressive chubs, but the trout looked to
be average small stream fish just flashing at the streamer. I targeted one riser before I decided to
start walking back to the ‘Ru, and it ended up being a creek chub, as
well. Without the stain, a dry fly or
dry dropper might be the only way to get takes in this creek tomorrow. I could see by the vegetation growing between
rocks that would normally be covered in water just how low the creek has been. It was a nice change of pace, fishing a small,
wooded creek. I enjoy big water and the
big fish that live there, but they require a lot more work. This morning’s success only required a leisurely
walk with a modest amount of stealth to find some takers in every likely spot,
and some surprising spots. I caught one
of my 10-inch fish in 8 inches of water in moderate current, just hanging
out. I guess a sparsely leafed overhanging
branch gave him the sense of security he needed. After catching a few dinks out of this
shallow run, I was pleased when I set the hook on this one. “Oh, that’s a real
fish!” I said to myself (channeling the Silver Fox?).
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| A couple later morning fish. The colors! |
My honey hole
that often gives up a couple better fish every year, especially when fish begin
migrating for the spawn (or hang out after their winter duties) today provided
numbers but not size. It was here that I
decided to fish a bugger, but after catching 6 more trout out of the hole, I
was not surprised that I did not move a good one. In hindsight, I should have fished a bugger
here first, but it is what it is. It is
certainly hard to complain about two dozen+ fish in a few hours. I did have two carp move towards the
bugger. That would have been fun on a 3
weight! Actually, I am kind of glad one
of them didn’t grab it when I paused to let the bug sink. That would have been silly and today was
pretty silly already. Keep on raining
rain! That was not enough, but I appreciate the effort.
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| Another. Love all the parr marks. |
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