A pattern is begging to emerge, Stuck working all week during beautiful unseasonably nice weather and getting one day of fishing in with the worst possible conditions. We've been hit with it all every Saturday so far in 2016, Inches of rain dumping on our heads, freezing cold, feet of snow, drift destroying winds, blizzards, and high water. This weekend was no disappointment, we got caught up in an epic battle between Spring and Winter.
I've been doing a ton of research lately trying to find some new streams to fish, to me exploration is as much fun as the fishing itself. I tortured the internet for a few months until it uttered a few stream names that sounded very promising and supposedly hold some trophy class fish. Ross and I met up a few hours before daylight and headed deep into limestone country. We drove well behind Amish lines and arrived at the first stream. It was a bit small but looked awesome it had a ton of structure and some sneaky deep holes. The weather was very gloomy and it was spitting some rain. Fishing a creek like this was a little bit outside of my skill level yet, but we still managed a few pretty rewarding little fish. Every time I'd see a good hold for a fish I'd attempt a cast into it, only to be blocked by a tree branch. It was as if I were a high school basketball player trying to play in the NBA. Time after time I'd try to get a cast in and get denied by a tree, I'd finally line up a good cast in front and get blocked from behind, it's as if the trees were protecting these precious little gems of a fish from me. While untangling my flies from a branch I quickly realized that I wasn't the only one, as I found a rather large streamer tangled up in the same limb. This kind of confirmed to me what I read that there were some trophies in this small sneaky little stream. I got beat up by branches and the tough fishing for about a mile or so, Somehow I was still having fun and really liked this stream regardless. I came to a nice hole and sent out an S.O.S. as usual it almost instantly hooked into a beautiful example of a wild brown. We even got into a few what I think were wild Rainbows.
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| Higa saves me yet again |
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| Wild Bow! |
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I met back up with Ross and we decided to explore a few more streams in the area, driving around these parts was a real blast from the past. It was almost as if we hit some time warp and got sent back into the 1700s, it was actually a very freshening reminder that you don't need modern things to get by in today's world. We arrived at the other stream and it looked very nice, around twice the size of the first and even more promising. The third creek we came to looked the best to us. It fit into the type of water we like to fish. Some nice pockets and big chutes. We're definitely going to have to spend some more time in this beautiful part of Pennsylvania.
On the way back home we decided to spend the afternoon and evening on a stream we were passing by in hopes of running into an olive hatch. We got there and the weather was perfect, overcast and warm, I was down to just a flannel shirt. As soon as we got the the stream Olives and a few Hendricksons were coming off. We picked up a few fish right away, then Winter reared it's ugly head. Sending frigid gusts of 30-40 mph winds instantaneously destroying any drift we attempted and putting a halt to the hatches. Spring would then battle back and the sun would come out and warm the stream up, bringing the hatches back and good fishing with it. This became the template for the day, Fishing was void during the high winds and when they'd stop we'd stick a few fish on olive nymphs. I spent most of the day battling a reel malfunction, free spooling drag made landing fish in pocket water interesting, yet fun, even though I lost a few fish due to it. The day ended with a pretty calm stretch of weather and right before leaving Ross and I each stuck a nicer fish. We decided we were wind burnt enough for the day, so we ended on a high note. We battled our way to a dozen or so fish a piece for the evening including some solid fish, which given conditions was a win. The one nice thing about being a weekend warrior is you have to make the best out of any weather or conditions God throws your way, I truly believe that fishing through such adversity is how you become a better fisherman though. Fishing will seem a little too easy when we finally catch some good conditions (Which is highly unlikely).
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| Mean Mugging |
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| Love the hooked jaws these fish have in here |
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| "You thought I was a big brown trout ya sucker" |
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| Can get used to this scenery |
We took a long walk back to the truck and talked about some future camping trips that are planned. As we made the journey home, I watched the temperature drop from 50 degrees to 32 in a matter of minutes. Winter blindsided Spring with a surprise attack and we just so happened to get caught up on the battle ground. A few huge cracks of lightning soon led to the worst blizzard conditions I've ever saw. It was absolutely a nightmare to drive in, the swirling snow was making my head spin. I set the Silverado into Hyperdrive (my fellow Star Wars nerds will get the reference) and we flew out of the storm and home safely.
A pattern is begging to emerge, Stuck working all week during beautiful unseasonably nice weather and getting one day of fishing in with the worst possible conditions. We've been hit with it all every Saturday so far in 2016, Inches of rain dumping on our heads, freezing cold, feet of snow, drift destroying winds, blizzards, and high water. This weekend was no disappointment, we got caught up in an epic battle between Spring and Winter.
We took a long walk back to the truck and talked about some future camping trips that are planned. As we made the journey home, I watched the temperature drop from 50 degrees to 32 in a matter of minutes. Winter blindsided Spring with a surprise attack and we just so happened to get caught up on the battle ground. A few huge cracks of lightning soon led to the worst blizzard conditions I've ever saw. It was absolutely a nightmare to drive in, the swirling snow was making my head spin. I set the Silverado into Hyperdrive (my fellow Star Wars nerds will get the reference) and we flew out of the storm and home safely.
