Weekend Warriors

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.

Higa saves me yet again

Wild Bow!

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).

Mean Mugging

Love the hooked jaws these fish have in here

 

"You thought I was a big brown trout ya sucker"

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.

From Gloom to Bloom

First Brown over 20" for the year

I met up with the Ross's for a couple of days on the water and we took advantage of the not so nice weather to throw some bugs at some weary brown trout. We got up at the usual 4 am and started the long journey to brown trout heaven. The trip there actually didn't seem too long, as we talked about what spots we were going to start out at and some new streams we were looking to explore. We got to the parking area a little late after missing a few turns and getting slightly lost on the way.  You would think it was late May with the amount of cars there. We grumbled under our breath about it and threw on the 50 lbs of gear we seem to wear these days. The temperature was around 28 degrees, but it felt a lot colder after the previous day being in the 70s. We started our walk to the spot we usually start out at on this stream, hoping with every step that one of the 50 guys on the water wasn't standing in "our run". We beat our way through the woods and could finally see the stream, we lucked out, no one seemed to have walked that far up stream yet. The usually difficult to wade stream was running fairly low this time of the year, so we crossed it with ease. Ross settled down into a favorite chute of his and I crossed over into a favorite side channel of mine. With great excitement I started working over the usually productive spot. I threw my flies through every little piece of water I know holds fish and it didn't even result in a snag. My indicator hadn't made the slightest movement in the half an hour or so it took to work over the stretch. Feeling that I hadn't "Blown up" the spot too bad I looped back around to the bottom and started over again with some different flies and techniques. I threw flawless drift after drift and came through the section with one 12" brown to show for my efforts. I walked back over to where Ross was and let out a yell to see how he was doing, he had similar results as me, as he signaled that he had only picked up one fish also.

I started working up stream at a fast pace throwing tuck cast after tuck cast into water that I know holds fish. I rifled through my fly box throwing on every nymph and pupa I thought should work in March. As I worked up around the bend, I couldn't help but to notice how beautiful the landscape was along the stream and up into the mountainside that it runs along. The trees along the mountainside made it look like a painting, it had an eye appealing reddish to purple tint. I took me a minute to realize the trees had started to bud and it caused to cool looking affect. It was in this section the fishing started to pick up. I started plucking fish out of pockets here and there on a favorite Stonefly pattern when my drifts were good. I ran back into Ross and he said he got into a bunch of fish up above me. He pumped a few of their stomachs and found that each one had a plethora of different bugs in their bellies, one fish would be full of Caddis, the next BWO nymphs, another Stoneflies. It just goes to show how much bug life there really is living in some of these streams. So I switched over to some generic suggestive patterns and continued to pick up fish, however at a slow pace. Below me, I could see Ross picking up some fish as well. We met up at a small island chain and decided we would check out some new water. On the way back to the vehicle, we couldn't resist getting a few casts in at a nice run just above the parking spot. I took a deep hole that eventually drops off and pushes the current under an overhanging branch, Ross worked down stream to a nice looking hole. I noticed this section of stream looked different than the rest. There were some yellow flowers blooming along the stream and the overhanging tree already had some leaves on it's branches. It was here where my day quickly turned around. I had a few bumps on the pattern that Ross was doing well on. I saw a sucker fish swimming around, so I decided to drop a cream sucker spawn below and things lit on fire. I quickly put fish in the net as if it were Spring during a hatch, not Winter like the rest of the stream fished. Nine fish later (One being a solid 18" fish) I walked back to the car with a big grin on my face. As I sat in the car and ate my lunch, I thought a lot about how the river fished. I've spent enough time in the wild the last few years to know there are many parallels in nature, whether it mirrors itself or just gives us signs for our own lives. The trout stream is no different. Just as the one hillside was dull and wintry, the next showed signs that the Pennsylvania wilderness was coming to life after a long winter, and another was in near full bloom, the fishing was exactly the same. Sections of it fished as if it were spring and in full bloom, others fish as if it were the dull grey mountainside, and some sections showed signs of coming to life for the Spring.

Signs of Spring

We ended the day on a new stretch of water to do a little exploring. It was a promising looking gorge and we each worked some different sections of it over. We met up towards the end of the day and talked about our success. Ross ended up having a great day with around 20 or so and I worked hard to put 16 fish in the net, still a solid day. We decided it was time to go, but not before we worked our way back to the car throwing some streamers in the deep boulder strewn section. Ross quickly turned two big fish. One being in the rare two foot range, he was sick as he laid on the boulder thinking of what could have been. We hit one last hole below the car and I got a huge bend in my rod followed by a miss. It was starting to get dark so we packed it in for the day.

Gorgeous Wild Brown

  

 

 

Ross couldn't make it out for the second outing, but I met up with the other Ross and we set out to see what we could do on a terrible rainy windy day. For once we got to the stream before daylight. We got all decked out in our waterproof gear and started the long trip down to the run we decided to fish. The weather was warm, in the 60s, however when the wind would blow it brought a feel of Winter back with it. After talking for a little, we decided with conditions, we'd start out throwing streamers. We got to our spot just in time for first light. I let Ross take the deeper, more structural side and I worked over the side opposite, this side had a few sneaky drop offs mixed in with some more shallow runs. Ross yelled over "Big fish just chased my streamer in", good sign I thought. I'm not the best streamer fisherman, I probably fish Nymphs 99% of the time, so I was really just playing around with some different retrieves and mostly using it as a learning experience. I was working down stream pounding the banks, as I fell in a deep hole that I forgot was there, my wading jacket saved me yet again. I remembered seeing a big mouth rising here last summer, so I took a step back to get a better angle. The hole lies under a big overhang, so I put to use the cast that GD taught me for such situations during our session a few weeks back. It was right on target and two big strips resulted in a crush that I hadn't felt in quite some awhile. Unlike usual I was ready this time and stripped the streamer hard into the fishes jaw. It was in an instant that I knew It was an above average fish as he took off running. Also, unlike usual, I calmly let him take drag and do his run, although I quickly realized that I was in a bad situation. Since I was lazy and it already had a streamer leader, I had an old reel on my streamer rod and the drag was messing up (goes to show why it's important to take the extra time to have the proper set up).  As I hand fed line out, I carefully followed after him through the difficult to wade drop offs. As I closed in, I caught a glimpse of him when he rolled and tail slapped the surface, Yes!! It was a nice brown. Somehow being so focused I didn't even realize that Ross came running over and was prepared to help me net him. He made a fast dart towards us and I steered him right into Ross's Brodin, a beautiful brown trout that I could instantly tell went over the big 2-0. We let out a cheer and I took a second to pop the hook out of his mouth, we let him revive for a minute in the net and I lifted him for a few quick pictures before being released back into his reclusive den.

That was all it took for me, my day was made. I worked over a few more productive spots and picked off a few more fish using nymphs. Mostly just testing out the Syndicate. Shorty after I caught the nice brown the weather turned for the worst and plummeted in temperature. Neither of us had much more luck. We worked one last section and I took a wrong step and caught a sliding board of a rock that jetted me out into a deep hole. I had to swim back to shore and I figured this was a good stopping point for the awesome, yet unproductive day. We made the trip back to the parking lot and chatted for awhile about how much fun we had. It isn't always about how many fish you catch, even remove the big fish we got that day and it still was an excellent morning on the water with a great friend. Hopefully, by the next time I can make it out the fishing, weather, and landscape are in a more predictable state.

Smile for the camera buddy

"If we had no Winter, the Spring would not be so pleasant, if we did not sometimes taste adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome."  -Anne Bradstreet.

Foul Weather Fisherman

With the weather forecast at home on Sunday supposed to be sunny and beautiful, there was only one thing I could think of to do. Wake up at 5 am after losing an hour of sleep to the time change and drive for hours into a forecast of 100% rain. Anymore, I really enjoy fishing on days where fair weather fisherman would rather stay home, when else could you have a Class A wild trout stream all to yourself? After talking with a good friend for a few months about fishing, we finally found some time on the water together. We pulled into the parking lot and surprisingly the weather was decent. It was overcast and the water looked excellent despite lower flows than I'd normally like to fish. We got out of the car to gear up and it started dumping rain on us. Perfect weather to chase brown trout right? That's why they make wading jackets. We started out at one of my favorite holes, Ross hooked a nice fish right away and lost it at the net. A good sign, so I thought. After cycling through every nymph I thought should work, not even a take. I left the normally productive hole and worked up through a small channel that's usually good for a fish or two. I heard something over the loud current and looked down stream to see Ross holding up a nice fish.

I ran down to snap a picture for him, not a bad catch for one of his first few wild browns. I asked what pattern he took and when he told me, I couldn't believe I didn't try it with the conditions we had. Good thinking Ross! Things started to look up from there. 

We flipped some rocks in the shallow fast water on the way up stream to check out some of the bug life. We found an abundance of small BWO nymphs and tiny green Caddis. We worked up through another productive section of water and caught a few nice fish on Ross's pattern at a pretty decent rate. 

After not having much luck in the pocket water, I saw some little black stones coming off, so I switched over to a suggestive pattern that I thought would work. I was right. I picked up a few fish while picking apart the tiny seams and eddies. Seems like the fish in this type of water have been into the small stuff lately. 

Despite wearing wading jackets, we were fairly soaked by this point. It probably rained about a half of an inch on our heads as we worked up through the first section. We worked up to a section that I've yet to fish due to it usually being a little too deep at higher flows, today it was perfect. We switched back over to a bigger pattern and Ross landed a nice fish right away. A few cast later using a new deep nymphing technique I've been having luck with,  I hooked into something heavy in 10-12 ft of water. As usual, I got overly excited and horsed him off of the bottom, causing him to freak out and shred my 5x off of a boulder. Ross got a good look at him and said he was in the 18-19" range. My heart sunk when I realized how good of a fish it was. We moved on and up towards the head of the hole. I picked up a few fish deep again and lost my rig to a boulder. As I was tying on, I heard Ross say "Fish On". I looked down and knew instantly he had something better than average on so I went down to assist. Unlike me moments before, he calmly fought him in on his 11' 3wt (I really need to invest in one of those, I was impressed with how it performed). After tangling with him for a minute or so he dropped into my net a very pretty above average sized fish for this creek.

After talking about what a great experience it was for a few moments, we moved up to fish one last little run. I picked up four fish quickly on some small stuff before the rain picked up really heavy.

We started the long hike back to the car and felt pretty good about how the day went. Even though conditions weren't ideal and we were soaked, we put up nice numbers. It could have been worse, we could have stayed home and enjoyed the nice weather doing something silly like golfing. I'm really starting to enjoy getting out on the water when conditions and flows are bad. I'm really beginning to enjoy being one of the few foul weather fisherman.

Rock Bottom

 

The routine was the same as it was every other week, day dream while at work about fishing and put those day dreams into reality over the weekend. The temperature finally decided to break towards the end of the week and I hoped this would cause the fishing to heat up. I was wrong again, but it did get some of the bigger fish on the feed if you were willing to work for them. I met up with Ross early Saturday morning as usual to and we headed to one of our favorite boulder strewn, mossy bottom, ankle breaking creeks. This creek could eat up the best of waders and Saturday didn't disappoint. I spent most of the morning doing the Stonefly shuffle on the slippery bottom (And likely earning myself and early hip and knee replacement) , falling in seemingly every other step, and often rolling down stream (The Simms wading jacket played hero again).  Despite fishing a usually productive section of pocket water, it only yielded two fish. A strip of water that put around a dozen fish in my net the last trip. This just goes to show the difference a week can make in trout waters. At least they were gorgeous examples of God's fish.

 

They don't get much prettier than him

Another pretty little pocket water fish

We quickly cut our losses and switched to a plan B that we talked about on the way down. We went to explore a section of creek where we thought some bigger fish may hold. Well, it didn't disappoint. Although numbers weren't as high, we picked up some solid fish for this watershed.

This feisty little guy came out of a root system to crush my nymphs
 

Awesome looking fish that Ross nymphed out of a big chute 

Hard fighting fish that made me run down stream after him.

After quickly picking up a few nicer fish, we started working up into a harder to access part of the creek. It was a beautiful section of holding water and I picked off occasional fish working upstream on a size 22 midge (still amazes me these fish will eat such a small bug in pocket water). Ross did equally as well on a Euro style nymph he ties . Despite being a slower day it was rewarding as we started to pick off some better fish for this little gem. It's only a matter of time before we hit our goal of a 18"+ inch fish out of this fishery and this is likely the stretch that it will come out of. Until then, these pretty little guys will do.

 

 

Thanks for reading! Tight Lines! 

Blown Out

Normally just a small seam

With a good portion of the state's trout waters being blown out this weekend due to recent rain and snow melt, most fisherman stayed at home to tie flies, went golfing or even worse, laid on the couch watching Fuller House . We took advantage of the nicer weather on Saturday and took a ride to a stream where we've historically done well during high flows in hopes of maybe picking up a few fish and enjoying the decent weather. Despite the stream being 5 times the normal CFS the plan paid of in big dividends.

Tying on my favorite winter pattern

We pulled into the parking area at around 8 am and did the typical scurry to get all of the winter gear on and get to the water as quick as possible. We started out at a couple of holes below the parking area that usually produce fish. Cast after cast resulted in not even a tap. I looked up the hillside to see Ross walking upstream and signaled to him asking if he had better luck than I had, he threw up the goose egg and kept walking up stream. A few fly patterns later I followed suit. I climbed up the hill and over the big boulders just in time to see Ross dropping a buttery brown into his net upstream.

  

I walked over to take a look at him and told Ross he can have the right side of the river up and I'd work the left. I crossed over and beat my way through the thick laurel and down into a nice little pocket. After a few casts I rolled a fish resulting in him blowing up the small pocket. I worked up to the next one and dropped a tuck cast into the zone, a strong dip in my indicator and my day was started.

 

I worked the long stretch of pocket water upstream, each small pocket would produce a few fish before I would wear out my welcome. Any good drift resulted in a take, You would've thought it was spring during a mayfly hatch the way fish were feeding in the pockets. 

I worked my way up to a favorite seam and to my surprise didn't have much luck . Before I moved on I decided to switch over to a size 16 hot spot PT nymph. Within the first few casts I got a strong take and set the hook into some weight. After a few violent head shakes I saw a great fish for this stream running up to the head of the pocket. He had a bright yellow belly and appeared to be thick for his length, The only problem now was... We were separated by class 5 rapids. The one disadvantage of fishing the 10' rod is I was able to reach over the strong rapids and into the seam. I played him for awhile in the seam and had to make a move, I angled the rod tip hard towards the shore and hope for the best. There was a small pocket there I hoped to pull him into. He had other plans. He started swimming hard down stream and out of the pocket. With canoe paddles for fins my 5x stood no chance. He won this time, but I had a lot of fun doing battle with him. I know where he lives now at least. I cut my losses and moved up into huge pool above. I ran into Ross up there and found out he had just as much luck as I did in the pocket water. We already reached far beyond our expectations for the day. We both worked the large pool over from different angles without even a bump. It was strange, the normal Winter holding lies seemed vacant, whereas the pockets were loaded to the gills with fish. 

The type of water that produced all of the days fish

I looked up above and saw some more pocket water that I've never fished before. This is where things really picked up. My first six casts resulted in six pretty little browns. It's been awhile since fishing was that hot for me.

What these fish lack in size they make up for in beauty

Some of the prettier fish you'll see on the east coast

I had to be home for a family dinner so at this point the day was running out. I rounded up Ross and we decided to fish one last hole we both like. As was the pattern of the day, we got skunked in the deep hole and picked up huge numbers of fish in the pockets above it. I finished out the day with 4 pretty fish out of the same run, man was it tough to leave.

It always amazes me this little eye can pick out a size 22 midge in fast water.

Butter

Can't get over the beauty of these fish

It took everything we had, but it was time to leave. We quickly packed up the rods and jetted home so I wasn't late for dinner. On a day when most people would never think of going out we put up around 50 fish between us and lost many more. As long as you are able to do it safely it is worth the time fishing high water most times in my experiece. It was my best day of 2016 so far and hopefully things continue to fish well as the weather warms. Think Grannoms!!