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| A Pennsylvania native |
An 8 AM start
is late for me, but even giving the storms some additional time this morning to
pass slowly west to east, I still had to contend with periods of very heavy rain
during my drive. I took my time at home
and drank a leisurely coffee while hoping the weather folks had gotten it wrong. They often do, but the radar on my phone was
not lying today. Eventually, I just had
to go for it and hope my plan worked. It
was pouring so much when I was about to start the ‘Ru at 6 AM that I had to
grab a rain jacket just to run from the front door to the car. I knew if I headed due north or, worse, north
and east, I was going to run into flash flood waters, but in doing my research
last night and this morning, I knew that parts to the north and west of here might not take
the full brunt of the storms. I was
right, maybe too right. I was counting
on at least half an inch of rain to spike the creeks in this region, but they
appeared to be pretty unaffected—or so low previously that they did not register
a bump. Even though I had packed the rod
for it, it was not streamer chunking conditions, even though it stayed cloudy
until noon and was streamer chunking conditions somewhere in PA today. I did catch my first fish on a black jigged
bugger on the nymphing rod, but I switched to bugs when I worked an entire prime
run with nothing more to
show for the effort than a fallfish taking the bugger on the fall.
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| A pretty good start. Maybe I should have been here at 6:30 AM ;) |
I caught some
trout, like three maybe four of them, and the water temperature was 62 F, but the
minnows and chubs were dominating. I
guess the water temps have just been yo-yo-ing, and that does not make the
trout trust that summer is over. This
was pretty big water too, so minnows feeling this safe was not a good sign that
the trouts were on the prowl. I gave
this first spot about 90 good minutes based on the early success and the
potential to find a better fish in the deeper, bouncier spots, but I knew when
to throw in the towel and head for a potentially cooler tributary. It was still cloudy and drizzly when I made
the 15 minute drive to the next spot. I
was secretly hoping for a long shot, that this one would have gotten a rain
bump even if the water had not yet reached the bigger creek, but that was not
the case. I fished it anyway but limited
my visits to three prime spots with elevation changes and some current and
depth. They were good stops, and one of them
was really good.
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| Stop two produced some pretty brown trout. |
You probably
saw the big brookie that opens this post and have been wondering when I was
going to get to the day’s highlight? Well,
it was a highlight for sure. This thing
was at least 10 inches long, likely half an inch longer. She hit the black jigged bugger that had kicked off my day with a decent brown. I actually
caught a really pretty brown on the bugger in this same hole not two casts
before landing this PA native. The
nature of this creek washes out the colors quite a bit and sometimes makes the
browns exceptionally beautiful, but it does not always cast the brook trout in
the most impressive colors. That said, I
am 100% certain that this is a wild fish, my second over 10 inches this
year. Just amazing and even more special
following a rather middling morning, even for September, which itself can sometimes be pretty meh.
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| She got the full photoshoot as quickly as I could. |
While keeping
her wet and minding the late morning water temps, which may have been 65 not 62
at this hour, I gave her the full photoshoot and then let her go in a quiet
spot. She shot right for an undercut bank
with plenty of energy. This made me more
hopeful that fish were feeling good here despite the noon hour approaching, but
my next spot produced an average wild brown and the hole after that, one that
is a proven honey hole, produced a dink and some short hits. I knew it was time to go. Honestly, the humidity and the gnats were getting
to be a bit much. I was in waders and a
sun hoodie, so I was not all that comfortable at this point. When the sun came out, which it was starting
to do at this hour, it was downright terrible.
Sun and 90% humidity is not fun while wet wading, let alone in
waders! My fishy September rolls on, and
I have a really cool event coming up in a couple weeks that I will share more
about soon (think: one day Mayfly Project vibes), but I am still looking
forward to actual fall.
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| Yeah, one more. |
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