April 7, 2020 – Hey, It’s Opening Day on a Tuesday – SEPA

The boy made stuff happen with the old Rapala CD5, and he let me catch one too.

Word spread quickly today after the PFBC put out a press release that officially opened trout season statewide this morning.  I have a trout stream right down the street, so after working in the morning and having lunch, I took a bike ride down to check out the creek.  I have been meaning to check for a couple days now, but I was still under the impression that the old COVID 19 plan was in place, one mentored youth day, one opening day in mid-April.  Well, I did not see fish in my favorite holes, but that is not surprising, especially because the Comish did not want help stocking for good reasons.  However, once I got close to an easy stocking point, I saw 100 fish and an older guy landing three or four in a few minutes.  Someone said they stocked today.  Well, I decided to take the boy to the local reservoir, which usually gets stocked on the same day.  He got a new rod and reel for Christmas, but we sort of forgot about it in the garage until recently.  We fished for about 90 minutes with limited real estate to work with—it was pretty crowded!  He landed a bow and a brown on the CD 5, and he dropped one other.  Before we left, he let me take a few casts to catch one (the little kid in me wanted at least one).  I landed a brown and dropped one other while calling him over to gloat!  Opening Day on a Tuesday.  Strange times indeed.

April 1, 2020 - All Aboard the Social Distancing Blue-line Caravan, Next Stop: Expectations Exceeded – SEPA

Productive hole, but we assumed that last time we got skunked here.  Where mama/papa lives too, no doubt.....

Eric and I took separate vehicles and returned to the little gem we did recon on earlier this year.  Armed with our previous experience and blessed with good weather and health, we cracked the code today and had a blast.  It started out slow, the first two hours being not unlike our first visit here.  I landed two fish, and miffed the hookset on one good one, and Eric dropped a fish too, but when a hatch of little black caddis came off from about 12 to 3:00 PM, the fishing turned on, revealing fish in places we only speculated to be hotspots last time.  I lost count of the wild browns, and I only took pictures of a few really pretty ones and a couple good ones, but we caught many fish and a handful over 10 inches, one solid 12-inch leaper for Eric too.  

Deer trails and intact riparian buffer.

Because the creek is a freestoner for the most part, it held a stain and better flows longer following the rain earlier this week.  We did not have to dry/dropper them from a distance; instead, we both tightline nymphed a couple small tungsten bugs in the riffles, seams, and the rare braided deep hole or three.  I got most on a Frenchie and a perdigon on the dropper, not because they were the right bugs, perhaps, but because they got down quickly into the strike zone in small pockets and short holes.  Eric had success with a walts and a pheasant tail, which makes sense since there were some craneflies to supplement the caddis.  We first revisited a stretch of water that gave up nothing last time but looked too good.  These deeper runs only gave up one fish this time, but it was criminally beautiful with deep colors and parr marks.  I am still convinced that the area will hold fish later in the spring and early summer.   The brush on the riparian buffer was full of caddis too, so later in the day this area may have been as good as where we ended up.  The two holes where we caught fish before did produce again, which was encouraging, though I missed sticking a good fish that put a substantial, albeit too brief, bend in my 9-foot 4 weight.

I didn't even add a filter to this jewel.  That color is all her.

Since I had messed with a few fish in the morning, and caught the only two trout last visit, Eric led the way from here and took first shot at the holes.  This is his spot, after all!  His first fish of the day was also his best, the best period.  He has decided this season to drop the bobber in order to get just as good without it.  I totally understand, as I did that too a few years ago, but I did it first with early season stockies.  I may have even said, Dude no harm in this stained water to pop an indicator on (I did at least once in an appropriate spot), but he stuck to his guns and ended up getting a lot of reps on tough, skittish wild fish not accustomed to pressure of any kind.  At this fishy looking plunge pool with soft eddies on each side and a slightly slower seam down the middle, it all came together.  Instead of fishing up to the prime spot, I encouraged him to fish the spot in the hole, may have even pointed my rod at it and said, Fish there!  It was the spot, for sure, as I caught a smaller one right after him, plus lost one and landed another in the same seam on our return walk.  I got to watch this beautiful small stream fish jump three times and Eric just going on instinct hoping not to lose him.  He admitted right after that the fish took him by surprise because the sighter barely paused in the drift, but because the man can fish, he set the hook at that slight change.

Eric's first, best, best of the day.

It was on for the next couple of hours, helped by the increasing presence of those caddis and fish rising to them.  I considered tying on a dry, but we were catching solid small stream fish on the regular, even targeting risers with the nymphs.  Many suspended up in the holes took the nymphs on the fall through the drift.  My best was probably 11 inches, and I reached close to that at least three times, and Eric also landed a couple other 10 to 11 inchers.  They fought well and went back just as spry in the cold water.  By this point we were in a rhythm of taking a shot, hooking and landing a fish at the back of the pool, and then hanging back for the other to step in and take a fish.  We pulled 5 and 6 fish out of at least three small spots, so it was lot of fun, and we were cycling in an out of the holes like a somewhat well-oiled machine—as long as I don’t mention the fish I had hanging over my back suspended from my tippet tender that one time….

A pretty average, and my best fish?

We pushed further upstream than last visit, excited at the prospects of finding more prime holes.  It was looking like brookie water for a good stretch, with not much cover for brown trout, but when the stream got snaky again, we found two deep bend pools that looked perfect.  They pretty much were, too!  We took three fish out of the first bend in the reversed-s-curve, and I got bounced at one small root ball before the second bend.  I could see fish rising steady in this second bend pool, though, some right in the braided water, others in the foamy back eddy.  We snuck up there and took a bunch of fish, cycling in and out, landing them quickly and away from the others to minimize disturbing the hole.  One riser looked to be 14 inches or more, and Eric spotted two large shapes suspended up in the deep edge of the tailout to confirm suspicions.  We did not land this one before we muddied up the eddy too much, but we did land several more nice fish here up to 11 inches.

Another little plumper.

Some pretty water, but probably not brown trout water until later in the season.

We could see that we were beginning to encroach on another farm and another home, and we lost the tree cover after this hole, so we turned back here.  We were both shaking our heads in pleasure and disbelief, like wow this place was amazing today!  We stayed out of the water for the most part on the walk back, and Eric tried two of our honey holes again with no takers.  I refrained until that plunge pool where he landed the best of the day.  After Eric gave it a shot, I stepped in and drifted that perfect seam a few times.  I had one great hit but lost the fish after one or two head shakes, but the following drift netted a good 9 or 10 inch fish to end the day with.  We had a feeling this creek had the potential to be too good to be true, and were mildly disappointed last visit, but this one is a keeper, exceeding both our expectations.

One of Eric's other better ones.

March 31, 2020 – Respecting the Social Distancing and Working Online Takes More Time – Northampton County Limestoner

Cold today, but good flows.

I am in this weird position where it feels like friends like Eric and Tom, young Kenny, are getting out to fish more than me.  I am usually the guy harassing you with a mid-week photo of a nice wild brown, not the other way around!  Nothing too abnormal in the grand scheme of things, but last week was just one of those weeks where I was very busy with work.  I had a bunch of online meetings, at least two online office hours for my students, a couple online classes for work, and even a long one for my own poetry class for my MFA program.  The conferences are not bad, and I teach online a lot, so I am comfortable with all the time on camera.  However, I usually teach two classes on campus and only one online because the online takes up more time.  Anything “live” tends to happen on weekends to accommodate working adults’ schedules, and writing responses to everything, not having a conversation, takes more time too.   Taking my MFA class online has given me a more empathetic stance towards my own online students, so silver lining?  For the last week or more, I have been the guy responding with encouraging texts to my fishing friends, but this week I was able to restore the balance a little bit.  I expect that to continue.

Thick, ornery small stream fish.

Tom invited me to Valley and Eric to Pickering in recent days, but I was both busy and not too keen on fishing popular destinations.  My TU chapter stocked a local creek too, and I see the sense in staying close to home, but I also lean towards choosing fishing spots at this time where I am not likely to see a half a dozen other dudes.  I drove 45 minutes today, and 45 minutes back, to fish for two hours, but it was worth it.  Besides some families of walkers and bikers, I had the creek to myself and caught some nice wild browns.  I nymphed one 500-yard stretch of pocket water with the mono rig and landed 4 decent fish.  The most memorable was a thick brown over 13 inches long that made me go after him in the slightly heavier post-rain flows.  The slight stain also allowed me to sneak up on the usually skittish fish here, and this one was sitting in the pillow in front of a mid-riffle boulder—just a lot of fun to see the take and fight a good one in the current!  I had an audience from across the creek of about 6 people, like 3 generations of the same family, two dogs, so I am glad I didn’t mess it up.  I held the fish up to one very interested son before I let the fish go, and the dad said, You made my day!  That one fish made my day too.

Another decent one, this one over 11 inches and beautiful.

March 22, 2020 – Sort of Broke the Seal on the 2020 Striped Bass Season – Ocean County

Was it?  Nope.

I was hoping to get out with Dolf and Jeff this past Saturday to change it up and fish for early season striped bass.  I had an online meeting come up for Saturday, and then Dolf ended up having to take a work conference call on Sunday, but Jeff was on the line for a ton of pricey bloodworms and even some salted clam.  Jeff’s enthusiasm is infectious, so I had no choice but to man up and meet him on the bay in Ocean County to soak some bloods.  Tide and sunrise were a potentially effective pairing, but it was cold, so the water was probably colder too.  On warmer days this week, especially with clouds, flurries of shorts were being pulled up the sods, some up to 24 inches—one old timer got a 24 a on shad on Saturday while I worked!  We were out on the point before sunrise on a beautiful and calm morning, perhaps too calm and beautiful for the entire incoming tide, in fact.  That changed by 9:30 AM, however. 

Pricey skunk too!

It felt eerily quiet out there.  As I mentioned, Jeff secured bait on Friday close to his home, but the bait shop up the road that supports this fishery closed on Saturday.  The Gov wanted enforced social distancing, so this helped for sure. There were 10 rods instead of 30 out there.  All ten remained angled at 45 degrees into the wind, that angle never changing for 3+ hours.  A front chased all of us off the sods, too.  It was cold and still to start, but we could see the clouds coming from behind us.  When the front arrived, it came with sleet, rain, and wind.  Since no one out there caught a fish or even reacted to a bite, it seemed crazy to remain standing out there for long.  Jeff and I enjoyed talking fishing and smack about Dolf, his brother in law and my longtime friend.  Since even Wawa was counting heads as they entered the stores, breakfast and coffee was out, so we just bumped elbows and said our adieus about 10:30 AM, logging our first bass skunk of the year.  Don’t worry, there are always more when it comes to bass!

Would not have seen this from bed, however.

March 20, 2020 – Another Successful Day with the Mono Rig – SEPA

At least four plumpers in the mix.

I left the house a little before 9 AM this morning and headed towards Bethlehem, unsure of which Lehigh Valley limestoner I would target.  I figured the rain would have the Bushkill running high, and the Monocacy stays dirty longer than the Saucon.  Saucon is also under an hour from home, so I headed there first, figuring I had the day and could jump around if I had to.  It was foggy and cloudy on the ride up, and it stayed that way most of the morning and early afternoon.  I even got rained on for a while.  Honestly, I almost turned around and headed elsewhere when I saw another fly guy suiting up in the lot of the first stretch I wanted to fish, but we had a nice chat and happened to have two different directions in mind, so it all worked out.  Maybe it’s the social isolation in place now, or the fact that I am 25 trips into the young year and having a good start, but the crowds have not been irking me.  I even had a nice talk with female fly fisher—one of two, she told me—at Valley yesterday, and we bonded over catching the same big trout in the same log jam in recent months.

Slow start

The plan was to fish some prime pocket water with the mono rig and small bugs.  The water was slightly stained and running a tad high, perhaps higher than I initially estimated.   I stuck with the small bugs for a while, especially because only midges were active for the first hour, but once I started seeing olives and larger midges around midday, I put on two heavier bugs.  That was a good move.  I landed about a dozen fish, and a couple took the small hot spot pheasant tail dropper I have been using to imitate emerging olives, but the hot fly today was definitely a grubby hare’s ear on the dropper, a little brown nothing, small profile on a bigger competition hook.  I am a firm believer that a well-presented fly will trump a particular pattern most days, as long as you are close, and time of day could have had everything to do with it, but this little fly got them chomping today.  In the first hour, I landed one little holdover rainbow and one small brown, but in the last two hours I landed a bunch of wild browns, another better bow, and the requisite sucker.  I even think I miffed on a really good fish.

That hot, nothing fly.

Like yesterday, midday saw an influx of anglers, but I had tangled with at least 10 fish by 1 PM and got two more before it got too warm for my liking and water consumption.  Because fishing had improved, or my rig had gotten more effective, or both, I worked through the same run of pocket water twice and caught fish both times before moving to the stretch where most of the other fishermen seemed to want to target.  In a hole where I have had a lot of luck, but have also tangled with a sucker at least twice, I landed a big white sucker that barely fit in the net.  A little further downstream, I dropped my nymphs in a small, prime spot and got a gentle take just about on the swing.  Because of the downstream angle of the drifting line and some trees around, I had to come nearly straight up on the hook set, not downstream on the fish.  When the fish came off in one heavy headshake, I had that knowing, sinking feeling that I had missed the best of the day.  I guess I have just caught enough large trout on the nymph to know how they usually take the bugs.  This was near the end of my trip, and I was fishing water that had been targeted all morning, so I did not think through the end game if a fish hit in this little bucket of a spot, nor did I expect a pig at 2 PM in the sun with all this activity on the creek.  Next time, I hope.  I have moved a good one near here with the streamer, even seen a handsome pair on redds in the area last year, so I should have been on my A game, I guess.

A handsome one.

Like the shock of seeing so many other anglers on a weekday, even seeing a spinner fisherman with a nicer trout in the net, out of the water, for far too long while he looked for I don’t know what (camera, hemostats?), I can shake off that irksome feeling pretty quickly these days.  I landed a few nice, plump wild browns—at least two close to 12 and at least two over 12—and I had fun with the new rig.  The Silver Fox jinxed me, though.  When I told him I was experimenting with a mono rig on Valley yesterday, he joked that Tenkara was next.  Well, wouldn’t you know it…. I did land a good fish without the reel.  After retying or releasing a previous fish, I hadn’t noticed that the leader had gotten wrapped around the tip of my rod, and after I set the hook on a strong fish, I quickly realized that neither he nor I was going to get any more line to work with.  I played the fish more gently than normal and took pains to keep him upstream of me and, finally, voila, in the net, Tenkara, yo.  I think that a heavier running line that retains limpness but adds some diameter, strength, and possibly abrasion-resistance may have to factor into my next leader formula, as it will probably stop this from happening again.  It was fun, but if I lost an 18 incher and broke my rod tip, that would not be awesome. 

Landed Tenkara style, though not on purpose....

When the sun came out around 1:45 PM, it got hot out, but the change also seemed to cause a little spurt in bug activity.  After watching a few risers not far from where I parked, I considered running up to the ‘Ru and getting my other rod.  Instead, I snuck up behind the risers and gently dropped my nymphs—sight fishing anyway.  Well, I landed a little brown this way, as well as another rainbow, this one a bit bigger and feistier than my first of the day.  That was enough for the day, I figured.  I took my time walking back and getting undressed, had a snack and some water, even talked to the same guy I saw first thing this morning for a minute.  Even with a couple stops for supplies for the house and cheap gas, I was home before 4 PM when it was inching close to 80 degrees in late March. It is still creepy to see all the flowering trees popping already, but I am seizing the day, even if it’s not the right day, and trying to catch my first striped bass of the year on Sunday.  Jeff and Dolf already have nasty bloodworms and salted clam.  Word on the street is the fish they are here…

Sight-fished a couple to end.  And the sucker has been lobbying for a shot for a few months.

March 19, 2020 – Messing Around with a Mono Rig and Landing a Mess of Little Fish – SEPA

Many fish in a short window, but this was a good one for today.

I believe it was a week ago today that we all started working from home, and we have at least another full week to go—at least.  My classes will be solely online until May, through the end of the semester, in other words, and I have a feeling the soft deadline of March 30 for the boy’s school is very soft.  Everyone is healthy in my immediate family, and Tami and I are still employed, so I really have no major complaints, though.  I am trying to stay grateful and positive.  Sure, it takes a little longer to do my classwork and my grading solely online, and it is an inconvenience to have Tami and the boy home in my usually quiet, often unstructured home office.  That said, I know two of my friends are laid off or furloughed already, and a couple others expect that any day now.   Like I said, grateful.  We have had a lot of fun too.  The boy and I have taken a few long hikes, flew a radio controlled X-Wing fighter, and Tami and I have come up with at least one silly, sometimes ridiculous, thing to do as a family each evening, whether that is puppet shows, or scooter rides around the neighborhood, a kazoo concert, ice cream sundae bar.  I had not been fishing since Tom and I snuck out on Saturday, but with the overnight rain, I was watching the gages for a window and was fortunate enough to get out for about 3 hours this afternoon. 

Muddy water, pretty browns.

It was a day for blue winged olives at Valley, so it was a pretty crowded afternoon.  With many people off, and mild days, and bugs, I pretty much assumed that at least a half a dozen visitors would be present at any given stretch.  I was not wrong.  In fact, I counted over 10 fly fishermen in my short window.  I really didn’t care.  I was looking to catch a couple fish while the boy did his schoolwork online and Tami made some phone calls and napped.  What I was really hoping to do was test out my mono rig formula.  I was playing around in the garage earlier in the week and tied up a mono rig on my nymphing rod.  You can Google Euro nymphing mono rig and probably find videos, even diagrams.  Orvis and others now sell one for 12 bucks.  I winged it, perhaps going on memory from the first George Daniel book, but since I caught at least 20 trout on my rig today, I would say I got most of it right.  I probably should have thrown a streamer, as flows were around 80 CFS and rapidly falling, but I figured that it is not everyday that I can nymph so close to Valley fish and not spook them.  Today was a good day to test the mono rig and expect to be bounced plenty.

A few Valley-decent fish in the mix, most on a hot spot pt jig or a sexy walts, both size 16 to 18.

The majority of the fish I caught in the first hour were very small, sitting in the softer spots close to riffles.  As the creek started to clear, and olives and midges started coming out in some numbers, I began creeping up in size and fishing deeper and bouncier water.   The best two were under 12 inches but not by much.  I would estimate that I landed over 20 fish if I counted every trout, but only 6 of them were over 8 inches long!  If I had been throwing a streamer, I may have caught 5 decent ones and been lucky to get one really nice one, maybe, but I had a plan in my head to fish the mono rig, and so it was a quantity not quality mindset, I suppose.  I am a believer, and I will be working on my leader formula a little more, or I may break down and buy one the next time I need to order tippet.  The sensitivity is pretty impressive.  A couple times, I felt little ones rat-tat-tat like I was 12 and fishing a meal work on 2 lb test.  I will probably give the rig a shot on a creek with a larger average size fish tomorrow morning before the thunderstorms arrive.  This was a good trial run, however, and it was good to get out.

March 14, 2020 – Third Time Was the Charm for Me – SEPA Blueline

A tough but sometimes rewarding (I'd heard) little SEPA anomaly.

Tom and I picked a challenging day to visit a little SEPA trickle that has wild reproduction but is already pretty technical fishing on a good day.  Low water, high sun, breezy, but we eventually saw bugs and fish.  Much like our Thursday marathon, we spooked more trout than we caught, but unlike the last two times I crawled around this place with him, one of us actually landed a decent small stream fish—and it was me this time, while skittering a caddis dry fly too!  It was just an impromptu thing.  He texted me in the evening yesterday saying he was thinking about giving the creek a shot on Saturday afternoon.  I said I would touch base in the morning, and we both ended up having a window around 1:30 or 2 PM.  I got plenty of woods time in today, having taken a long walk with the boy along the Wissy in the morning.  It was a cooler, dryer day, but still mild for this time of year.  Tom and I didn’t expect much when we saw the low flows, but we decided to target a couple holes we know are often occupied with wild fish.  Tom has landed several, just not with me present.  Like I mentioned, I saw enough of them to know he was not lying, but I had never hooked one until this afternoon.  After the spots produced nothing but three chubs, we explored more of the creek, recon for the future, but were lucky enough to spot a small group of fish that we had not disturbed.  They were in flat water, but it was deep enough that we could crouch and not be seen—which is not often the case here.  Tom tried to drift a couple bugs on an indicator down to them.  The first time, nothing happened, so he made a second cast that landed closer to them, and one of them came up like a brook trout and popped his tiny thingamabobber!  He got excited, set the hook, and ended up with an epic tangle that can only happen on a small, tight stream. 

On a skittering dry fly after all that sneaking.

Me, I was so sympathetic to his plight that I was already tying on a deer hair caddis to float over them….  My second cast was pretty spot on, and then I also extended the drift by gently shaking out a few feet of line.  A big fish, like 14 inches, slowly rose behind the dry and even turned and followed it downstream.  It was not what he wanted, but he was hungry.  When my line was about to straighten out and drag, I decided to see if skittering the bug across the surface would get him to take.  Instead, a smaller competitor who had given this one space to look and refuse said, I will take that!  Tom and I watched it happen in clear water, and I giggled the fish all the way into the net for a photo and release.  We put them down, so to rest them we took an exploratory walk upstream, but when we returned, we could see a riser further downstream in the same hole.  Tom’s turn to creep.  He even climbed out on a down tree in order to get some room for a backcast.  Good cast, fish rose, and he landed a chub!  On that note we called it good, just content that I now have first-hand knowledge of wild browns in this little suburban sanctuary.