August 30, 2026 – Other People’s Flies + It’s Only a Matter of Time Now – NEPA

Eric's bugger got us started.

I worked the early shift this morning and caught at least a dozen trouts, a mix of browns and holdover bows, including a really nice small stream fish as a bonus.  I was expecting much cooler water temperatures, but I was dealt mid-sixties, so fish were good but also not that active—with the overnight temps in the 50s, I was hoping for better, but I am still learning this creek in different seasons and have noted that next time mid-September is better than late August.  They would eat if you put it in front of their faces, and I guess I put it in front of at least a dozen faces between 7 AM and 11 AM.  They were tight to cover and mostly in holes with current, not riffles or seams.  Even though it was humid and gnatty, and I was wet wading, there were signs that seasons are changing rather quickly.  Some leaves falling, wildlife moving about, including three turkeys and a couple small bucks.  I did not see any aquatic bug life, and I tried a weenie and a drowned ant on the dropper without takers, but fish would eat buggy looking bugs.  I caught one fish, the one that opens this post and my first of the morning, on Eric’s small stream bugger, but I caught the rest on big bugs, small bugs, a perdigon, a big prince jig, even Josh’s bug I found stuck in my drying patch.  After loosing my small purple CDC dropper tag, I noticed what we are now calling the Funky Dutchman itching to get fished as my dropper.  Josh broke a rod when we were fishing last Sunday, so I let him borrow one of mine.  His fly was bycatch when I broke down that rod for the drive home.  It did not slay, as it has for him in the past, but I did catch a few fish on it before I hung it in a tree on a hero hookset in a tight spot.

The best of the morning with some early average fish.

I did get a couple things right: Flows were perfect, like late-June flows, the kind of flows when I can catch 30 fish on this creek in the same amount of time.  The rains we got in recent weeks also moved some stuff around or slightly altered holes.  I caught my best fish of the morning behind a logjam, not in front of a logjam, because the hole is now further downstream by a yard.  A nascent beaver dam in a side channel somehow created a deeper spot in a favorite riffle, and a good 11-inch fish came out of the deeper spot.  There were only bows in a spot I thought would be good summer holding water, but maybe they just outcompeted the browns in there today.   None of the fish got stressed from fighting me and my 10-foot 3 weight, but I still decided to quit at 11 AM anyway and not fish another long, usually productive beat.  That stretch is also mostly pocket water with few holes and longer walks in between them.  Fish did not seem to be active in random pockets or seams, as I noted above, so I decided to save that stretch for another visit on a cooler, buggier day.

A lot of holdover bows and Josh's Funky Dutchman digging up more browns.

The other thing I got right was the assumption that no one else would be on this stretch.  The only actual signs of life in the woods were deer trails when I had to bushwhack.  No other footprints or bobbers in trees or worm containers.  A good number of cooperative fish and some solitude was what I needed today after a very social week at work (and last weekend at the Josh Jam).  Because I ran into a road closure on the way up to this creek, which delayed my typical “Dawnstalker” (Larry’s new name for me) start time by 20 minutes, I took the scenic route home.  The route follows the creek for a while, and I saw no one else out at 11:30 AM as I made my return trip.  With how muddy the Skuke looked last week, not to mention the great flows in this trib, I thought the Delaware would look much less fishable.  It looked really good, maybe not wading good, but boats were out there fishing.  That would have been my other plan this morning had the gage shown a bit more wade-friendly, but I am glad I got up early and fished this morning.  I like trouts.

A real sexy spot and my last decent brown of the morning.

I am looking forward to the shorter days and longer nights, and I hope the overnight temperatures stay cool even if we hit 90 degrees during the upcoming week.  A busy work week ahead, but I do have the long weekend coming up and may suck it up and rise early at least one day.  Go figure: The summer grind is less of a grind if I can anticipate comfortable and productive fishing conditions.  I think there is more rain coming, as well.  I will not be at the beach next weekend mourning the end of summer, but I may be in NEPA jumping the gun (again) on the fall fishing.  Spoiled, I guess?  I really should not call a dozen cooperative fish in four hours of fishing in late August jumping the gun.  I am certainly grateful for that and excited about even better days on the water in the coming weeks and months.  It won't be long now before it gets real.

Bonus pic of a small stream beauty.

August 21 to 23, 2026 – The Warmwater Jam Pivots to a Late-Summer Coldwater Jam and a Memorable Fall Trout Preview – Central PA

Friday view from the front porch.

Because of the rain that had fallen and promised to fall harder on Saturday evening, a smaller number of guys from the fly fishing forum made the trip this year to the Josh Jamboree on the Juniata.  For those who didn't come, it was their loss because the fishing was really good, especially for August.  If you had your heart set on wade fishing for smallmouths or taking that half-day float on the river, it was not your weekend, of course, but for those who decided to pack the trout rods and make the drive anyway, it was hard to beat.  I believe nine dudes, ages 28 to 70 and all points in between, spent time in and around the farmhouse on the property instead of sitting under the big top and grilling over charcoal.  We also fired up the gas grill near the cover of the back porch and ate a lot of cold sides and a more continental-style breakfast.  The group was small enough that when rain approached on Saturday night, we were able to gather indoors and be entertained by Shakey, a working blues guitarist, and Josh, a more than competent amateur performer, on dueling guitars.  Pre-season football flickered in and out of focus during the deluge while we ate well (don’t ask about the chocolate lasagna) and shared plenty of stories.  It seemed that everyone was content with the fishing, too.  We spread far and wide (well, within 30 minutes of camp) and caught fish in the big crick and the little cricks.  The Juniata never got to fishable flows, at least for fly gear on foot.  I saw one jet out there on Saturday night. But I counted us fortunate to have nearly springlike flows and conditions for trout on Friday and Saturday before Sunday blew up most creeks for a second time in three days.

First pig brown in probably 6 weeks or more.  And on a streamer.  Fun stuff.

No Larry, no Brian, but many other Josh Jam regulars.  In the absence of the rest of our core crew, it was easy for Josh and I to pair off both Saturday and Sunday.  Josh was generous with the local information so that everyone could find fish, but only I was fortunate enough to have the local guide with me all weekend.  When everyone was convinced that Sunday was a bust, Josh found a creek in good condition that produced at least 10 wild browns for us while everyone else was driving home.  I even scored a pig on a streamer on Saturday night.  And this was after having a 15+ fish Saturday morning.  Rainbows dominated for us, but we caught many dink wild browns too, and our buddy Joe caught a handful over 15 inches.  He was the outlier though.  Most of us reported very eager holdover rainbows and many small wild browns tuned into a decent showing of size 20 BWOs.  I had fish jump all over a size 18 soft hackle dropper on Saturday morning, but I couldn't find a good fish until the evening.  And it was a streamer eater, a ferocious visual eat!

Perfect flows for late August and many cooperative trouts.

Even with Josh’s knowledge, we had some misses and errors in stream selection due to the unpredictability of the weather and flows on cricks without gages.  We had a great spot in mind to throw streamers on Saturday morning, only to find surprisingly low flows and visibility too good for a bonkers streamer bite.  The same stretch was blown out on Sunday when we took another peek, determined to get the good fish that live there to chase a bugger or two.  Even a tributuary of this creek was too dirty, so Josh pivoted to another favorite trib instead.  Here we found much better visibility.  Sadly, no fish over 8 inches ate our nymphs and small jigged buggers, but we did catch 10 or 11 wild browns between us to end the weekend on a high note.

Despite most creeks being blown out, Josh found us some small stream fish on Sunday.

I wish we could have caught a few bass, but the weekend did get me excited for fall trout fishing again after braving the summer doldrums with nearly zero motivation to get out.  I am already seeing rain on Thursday after a cool first half of the week, which has me thinking about the weekend.  I have a couple creeks in mind that could fish well on Saturday or Sunday.  This past weekend started with me taking the boy back to college on Friday after working a half day and then driving another hour to the Jam, but now he’s there and settled for the semester, so I have a lot of unrestricted fishing time ahead.  Work is still crazy until about September 10^th, but weekends are free, so more fish will be caught in August and September and beyond.  I need to walk off the meat heavy menu from this weekend, not to mention chocolate lasagna.

A close up of the tank.

August 13, 2026 – Dipping my Toes Back into the (Warm) Water – NEPA

Looks like holding water.  Looks....

It’s been a while since I’ve had the desire to get out.  I don’t love the hot weather, and neither do the trouts.  With the price of gas, I have not been raring to go when it comes to the surf, and I actually had to cancel out on the annual Ward fluke trip because I was sick for a few days prior.  Besides that inconvenient week, things have been good.  I think I have been working on a few things at home and reading actual books again, like real literature!  Not a bad way to wait out the heat and humidity and thunderstorms, I suppose.  I have gotten the urge again recently and have monitored the gages a couple times, but I did not like what I saw.  Honestly, I have cringed when I’ve seen videos of dudes fishing on creeks I know are hitting 70 plus every day.  I feel like I am even more prone to give the wild fish a break the older I get, and with this new job and all the time off, it’s not like I won’t be at it again really soon.  In order to catch a few trouts today, I had to fish the dreaded (for me) Pohopoco.  Like the Tully, it is not a trout stream in my head, just a place where someone puts trout.  The Po is functioning bottom release tailwater, however, so the water is cold year-round within a couple miles of the dam.  And wild fish do exist in the main creek, not just from the tribs like the Tully, so it's closer to a trout stream?

Dry fly eats after an early start.

I got a couple holdover bows, and they were on a dry fly, a big stimulator, so that was fun.  I also landed some of the resident wild fish.  I nymphed up a few before switching gears as the sun got higher.  For some reason, most of the wild fish that I’ve encountered are sub-legal—maybe their parents retreat to posted property and/or better holding water.  I only fish the crick once a year in August because it’s the only game in town, so I am hardly a regular.  I have heard this from others I trust, though.  A lot dry fly eats from dink wild browns is a common story.  From afar, like in the pic above, places look sexy, but then you realize it’s ankle deep and wide.  I had one big hole in mind that was good to me last year and other years, but it was dead this year, so I went with the random big dry cast to cover.  I had only one blow-up that I missed.   By 10 AM, I was comfortable because I was wet wading, but I knew it was over with the sunny conditions.

Just stopped to change for the drive home, but too wadable not to try!

It was so hot where I parked that I decided to head for home along the local roads, which takes me down the Lehigh River, and look for a shady spot to change my wading boots and have my lunch.  I found a nice park above Slatington to do just that, but when I saw the River was low and wadable, I decided to catch a bass or two.  Not that I had bass stuff with me, but I did purchase a new 11’ 4 weight nymphing rod this summer.  It was in the tube in my car, and I found a couple balanced leeches and a bobber that would suspend them.  To my pleasant surprise, I was able to wade across the entire river to a shady and deep bank.  I guess that even with the rain, flows are still down.  I did not have high hopes at midday, but I was very pleased with myself when the bobber went down.  Like on the Juniata, which inspired my use of the balanced leech for bass, the bass buried the bobber when he ate.  I had a couple short hits after that, which I should have known were not bass.  I was right.  When I became vigilant about reacting to every pause and dip, I caught a couple fallguys (or bottom).  Still, mission accomplished.  I even put on Eric’s jigged bugger to see how this new rod would perform on the trouts this fall way upstream of here.  I may have shared that I broke my 10’6” this year on the River with Larry, so this was my inexpensive replacement.  I may need to work on balancing the outfit a bit, but I do like the extra reach.  It will work.

One on the balanced leech, so worth the stop.

I get busy at work until a couple days after Labor Day, but then it's game on, I hope.  I am taking the trip to Lewisburg to return the boy to college and then on to Lewistown for the Josh Jam, so more fishing for bass and maybe even trouts in August.  I like August.  Days get shorter and nights longer, which cools the creeks.  The forecast is for a below-average second half of the month, which sounds good to me.  I am done with humidity and pop up storms that flood some creeks and don't touch others.  I mean, the Delaware was too high to wade today, but I was able to have my way with the Lehigh River.  No wonder I have been sleeping in!  That should be changing very soon.

Pretty low or pretty and low, something like that.