Summer and Fall 2011 Recap

I haven’t posted in a long time.  Weather and the hustle and bustle of life have kept me from the stream lately.  I haven’t been able to fish much, leaving very little to post about.  When I have gotten out the fishing has been ok at best so I didn’t feel a pressing need to write about it.

2011 posted the most precipitation on record and we still have over a month to go.  All the rain and flooding changed the rivers and made for few days with decent fishing conditions.

The summer smallmouth fishing was tough.  When the rivers were fishable, I found the stream bed was gouged to clay in areas that used to have good fish holding habitat rendering the spot barren of fish.  I’m not sure if the fish got washed down stream or if some were killed by all the flooding, but it seemed like numbers were down sharply from years past.

I made a trip to Spring Creek on Columbus Day since the conditions around here were supper low and clear.  The fishing was ok, but not as good as Spring can be.  I caught a few trout, none of any size.  I did manage to bring a few fish to the surface prospecting with a caddis pattern.  I fished the newly opened canyon section of the creek which was nice.  The highlight of the trip was a chance to fish a handmade bamboo rod.  As I was walking deeper into the canyon I met an old timer who had made this beautiful bamboo rod.  When I complimented him on his rod, he offered to allow me to fish it.  I reluctantly accepted.  I had never cast a bamboo rod before.  I’ve wanted to try a bamboo rod out and not that I’ve had the chance I really want to get one someday.   

Dawn on the drive to State College

I only got out a couple of times in search of steelhead, and have yet to catch one this fall.  I hear the fishing has been good, but school has consumed me and I have not had a chance to get out when conditions were prime.  The two times I have been out, the water was low and clear and fish were not present.

In summary, between getting married, work and school I have been very busy.  My schedule coupled with very few days when the rivers have been fishing has led to limited time on the water and less than ideal conditions; the end result is crappy fishing.  I still cherished every moment I’ve had on the water.  I often daydream of the next chance I’ll have to be on the water, I envision the perfect cast to the perfect lie and subtle take before the violent fight, then photographing a trophy fish before releasing it.  Until the next time…

Warm water fly fishing

Summertime fly fishing is great.  Warm weather means wet wading with minimal gear.  I've been fishing for smallies and carp on the streams near my house and have spent some time at the local bass pond sticking large mouth when the rivers are blown.  Here are a bunch of pics from the last several times I've been out. 

Dodged the bullet or the rain anyway

For months I have been planning a spring trout trip after I finished exams and before my wedding. I finished exams mid-May and the wedding is the first week in June. I had a two week window to make this trip. This spring has been extraordinarily rainy. April set a new record amount of rain. My last week of exams was beautiful, sunny and dry. The day of my last exam the rain started and didn’t stop for over a week. There were severe storm warnings, thunderstorms that spawned rain and hail, and a string of tornadoes that hit across the Midwest. First steelhead season had been washed away, now it looked like trout season was about to be ruined by the rain too. Penns Creek, Fishing Creek, and Spring Creek were all blown out. Somehow, the Little Juniata River had been spared. The little J was high, but it was fishable. It was the only stream in Central Pennsylvania that was not completely blown out. I decided I was going to go to the town of Spruce Creek to fish the Little J. The night before I left it stormed here and moved across PA. The western PA streams were blown out by this storm. As luck would have it, the Little J had been spared, the rain fell West and East of the J. I packed the car and headed out.


The Little J.

I arrived in Spruce Creek by mid-afternoon. I hit the local fly shop stocked up flies, got some directions and then headed to the river. I nymphed during the afternoon and caught a couple of browns and a rainbow. As dusk settled in, I set up in a nice pool for the sulfur hatch. As the bugs started to do their dance, the fish began to notice and began rising. Slow and sporadic at first, by dark fall the whole pool was boiling with rising fish.  The sulfur hatch was off because of the rain and was not the blizzard hatch that usually occurs on the Little J.  I tried several flies and cast to every fish within reach and could not get a fish to take. The guy at the fly shop said this river could break your heart, it crushed mine.


On the board, first fish in the bag on the 3rd cast!

Big fish of the day out of a seem at the junction pool

...and a rainbow

The next morning I headed to Spruce Creek and fished the Penn State property named after George Harvey. Spruce Creek is a pretty small stream and has even smaller braids in this area. I brought the 9’ 5 weight, I would have been better off with the 8.5’ or the 7.5’ rod. Oh well, I had to pass by some fishy looking water because it was too tight for the 9 footer. The water was cloudy and high. I caught a small rainbow to start things off. I continued to work upstream to where a braid came back in to the main channel. I fished a big black stonefly and small tan caddis pupa. I hooked a monster rainbow in the deep cut at the junction. This fish taped out at 21”. This was the largest inland trout I have ever caught. It was the size of a small steelhead. The fish only fit half way in my net. It was about noon and I decided this was as good as Spruce was going to get for me on this day. I headed back to the fly shop to restock the fly box and then headed back to the J.

George Harvey section of Spruce Creek

Pretty tight, shouldn't have brought the 9 footer

didn't fit in the net

Beast of a fish

21 beautiful inches of rainbow trout 

Penn State Forestry shed

 Sulphurs were on the water

I fished the same area on the J that I fished the day before. I didn’t catch anything all afternoon. The sun was high, it was hot, and the bugs were not as active as they had been the day before. It was a long and frustrating afternoon. As the sun started to move behind the trees creating some shade on the water I began to get into a few fish in the shadows. I worked back to the same pool I fished the night before for the hatch. I could just not manage to get a fish to take a dry fly. It was so frustrating.

A Couple of nice fish

I drove to State College that night because I had heard that Spring Creek had come down enough that guys were catching fish. I planned to fish Spring first thing and then move onto a brook trout stream up in the mountains as I made my way home. I have never fished for brook trout and really wanted to catch a native trout.

Spring Creek was high, fast, and cloudy. The only clear water was on the edges. I fished every soft spot on the edges that looked fishy. I hooked into a good sized fish early and lost it. Later I caught a couple of browns and then snagged up in a tree. I broke the leader free and it got all tangled up. I chopped off the bottom of the leader and tied on some 2x and a big black streamer. I pounded the banks and caught a good sized fish on the streamer. This was exciting for me because it was my first inland trout on a streamer. I packed it in and headed for the brook trout stream.

Flowers on Spring Creek

Spring Creek was still high and cloudy

Dink brown

A little better...

Hammered the streamer

First trout on a streamer

 

The drive up into the mountains was beautiful, but the roads were not marked well and it took some guess work to get there. I managed to find my way to a beautiful small stream at the bottom of a high mountain valley. The landscape was picturesque with pines hemlocks and rhododendrons. I couldn’t rig the rod fast enough. I was so excited! This was a small stream the width of a parking space. I fished the 7.5’ 5 weight with a 7.5’ leader to manage the tight quarters and all the overhanging brush. I tied on a big bushy dry fly and cast upstream in the pool above me. There was a small rise and a brook trout leaped out of water. I had caught a brookie on the first cast on a dry!! This was so exciting for me because it was double first, first brook trout and first fish landed on a dry fly. I caught another small brookie before I had to head for home in order to get the rent a car back on time.

 Heading up the mountain

 Mountain stream

Beautiful native brook trout 

I had a fantastic trip. I avoided the rain for the most part. The only rain I encountered was a slight drizzle on the first night as I was packing up the car and a brief but heavy downpour on the trip home. I caught the PA triple, brown trout, rainbow trout, and brook trout. I caught my first trout on a streamer and my first trout on a dry fly. I caught fish in every body of water I fished in some tough high water conditions. I fished hard and had a great time.

First time out since exams

We have had a record amount of rain this spring and the last few days have been no exception. Last night was the first evening it has not been raining so I grabbed the fly rod and headed out to fish. The rivers are all swollen from the vast amounts of rain so I headed for a nearby pond.
As I was walking along the bank I saw bass cruising along the bank. I decided not to cast to the cruising bass until it got a little closer to dark so I wouldn’t spook them. I began by fishing an area between a little island and the bank and started crushing the bass. I was catching a fish on every other cast, it was awesome! It was great, I was out fishing a guy using live bait and another who was throwing a spinner bait. You have to love the Clouser minnow!

As it got dark and I tied on a deer hair popper and started twitching it near the bank to entice those bass that I saw cruising along the bank earlier. The fish hit the popper with a violent predatory response that bass are legendary for. There is nothing like the way a bass destroys a popping bug, it is truly amazing.

I had several fish leap, jump and tail walk in an effort to throw the hook. Some were successful, most were not and were brought to hand. Several of the fish I caught were larger than average and a few of them would have been keepers in a Bass Master tournament.

It was a hell of first time out since I finished school.

Exams

Normally I tie flies at this desk.  For the past week and for the next week I am tied to this desk to study for exams.  I am up to my ears in law books.   I took the Torts exam last Wednesday; Criminal Law is Monday, followed by Contracts on Thursday.  1 down 2 to go.  The end feels so far away.  I just have to keep pushing as hard as I can, persistence pays.  It will all be worth it in the end.   When all this is over I will finally have a chance to get out and fish again.  If I’m lucky there might still be a few steelhead to be had, if not onto PA trout and lake run smallies.

This used to be my fly tying desk... too bad.

Fishing the Starbucks special…

After peaking just over 5000 CFS on Wednesday, the river had dropped to just over 600 CFS and was just about to be fishable Friday when it began raining.  After a meeting with my TA, I had an hour or two before dinner so I hit the stream near the house to swing big nasty streamers for some chrome.  It rained the whole time I was on the water and the visibility went from bad to worse.  I didn’t catch any steelhead, but I did land a trophy size bronze back on a 4” leach pattern.  This fish’s mouth was as big around as a pop can.  This was easily one of the largest smallmouth I have ever caught.  I forgot my camera so I didn’t get a picture.  Not a bad consolation prize for a couple hours of fishing a river that looked for like a mocha latte while it was pouring rain.  Sometimes you have to take what the river will give you and make the best of it.

Swinging between the rain

It rained hard Thursday night and Friday morning. The river spiked to 2200 CFS by noon on Friday. I went and looked at the river Friday afternoon and it looked like chocolate milk. With more rain in the forecast, I figured my chances to fish this weekend were blown out with the river.

It didn’t wind up raining on Saturday and the river dropped fast. By this morning it was down to about 600 CFS. I headed out to fish one of the small tribs figuring it would be clear enough and would be holding fish. When I got there, there were a ton of guys on the water. I worked the open water I could find and caught two suckers and one bright chrome jack steelhead. I also hooked and lost two other steelhead before I fished all the whole trib.

I jumped in the car and drove upriver looking for some clearer water. I decided to fish a place that has a lot of good holding water where I always find steelhead in the spring. There was less than a foot of visibility. I fished through choppy run that usually produces, nobody home. I worked up into through the text pool and again nobody home. I figured there were fish in there, but there was not enough visibility. I saw a fish porpoise confirming this theory.

Up to this point, I had been nymphing under an indicator. I put on the sink tip to swing a large streamer.  Catching a steelhead on the swing is a special experience because of the way the fish slam the fly.  Swinging big flies for steelhead is more difficult than catching a steelehad while nymphing under an indicator.  You won't catch as many fish on the swing, but the ones you do catch will be the most agressive fish in the pool. 

I tied on a 4" black and blue leach.  It was a real big piece of meat, something large enough to get the fish’s attention in the dirty water. I fished through most a good pool that always holds fish when the fly stopped swinging, I got hung up on a large rock. Once I freed the fly, I picked up where I left off swinging through the tailout of this pool where a fish whacked the fly hard. I set the hook and a fish leaped out of the water, fish on! The fish headed straight down river for the lake. I ran down river chasing the fish putting pressure on it. I eventually turned the fish and worked in towards the bank where I landed it for the obligatory photo.

I never expected to get to fish this weekend. By the looks of things today was the only day the river will fish as the forecast is calling for more rain tomorrow. I got out just when the river was on the high side of fishable. It was a brief window of opportunity between the rains. I caught a bunch of fish today and I caught a steelhead on the swing!  It was an excellent day on the water.

 

Best advice ever...

About a year ago, I was getting ready to start law school and I knew that my time on the water was going to be drastically reduced. As I prepare to finish my first year, that prediction has become a brutal reality.

I wanted to go do some quality fishing before classes started and my life changed. Steelhead season had ended early. The lake run smallmouth bass were gone too. The resident smallmouth bite had not really turned on yet. With no great fishing opportunities around here, my attention turned to Pennsylvania trout.

It was trout season in Pennsylvania and some of the legendary hatches were a couple of weeks early because of the premature warm temperatures we had last spring. I considered making a few trips into Pennsylvania to fish for trout. The sulphers were hatching and I was excited to fish for stream trout on my own for the first time. I set aside a few days to make two trips before class started and began planning all the details. I bought a 7 day license so I could fish Oil Creek for a day and then a couple of days later I could head to Central PA for an overnight to fish Penns Creek and Spring Creek.


Researching stream access before the trip.

Filling the fly box for the trip

The trip to oil creek was good, it was sunny and in the mid-60s. Most of the day was spent nymphing, and at dusk the water started to boil with rising trout which I threw dries to. I had several hookups and landed one rainbow. It was a good trip for my first effort to catch PA trout. Oil creek was a good practice for the week to come when I would fish two of the most famous streams in Pennsylvania.

There were a few days between the Oil Creek trip and when I left for Penns Creek. During that time, the weather got bad. It was very cold, and rained a lot. At first I thought I would have to scrub the trip. The day before I was to leave, it rained hard here, and reportedly rained in Central PA too. The forecast called for more rain in Pennsylvania while I was supposed to be fishing. This was bad. I thought for sure the rain would blow the streams out, if the rain didn’t ruin things the cold was sure to put the fish down and ruin the fishing. I was still mildly hopeful that I would get to go and was at one for the local fly shops to get some last minute essentials when I bumped into a guide friend.

I mentioned to my buddy that I was planning to go fish Penns the next day and I was worried that the rain and cold conditions would ruin the trip. I was thinking maybe I should just scrap the trip. The worst part was that I had no other chance to go because class was scheduled to start two days after I was to return. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to drive four hours for some crappy fishing. I asked him, "what would you do?" He gave me some of the best fishing advice I have ever received. He said, “just go, just go.”

I did as he suggested, I just went fishing. I was glad I took his advice. The weather turned out to be decent. It got sunny and warmed into the mid-50sand it didn’t rain at all the first day. The next morning it was really cold in the high 30s or low 40s, the rain held off until about 2:00pm. I was heading back to the car to leave for home when it started raining. Talk about good timing.

There was no dry fly action because the sudden cold and rain had put the hatch off, but I managed a few fish on both Penns and Spring Creek fishing nymphs. It was a great trip. I was very thankful I took my buddy’s advice to “just go.” The moral of the story is don’t hesitate, just go!

I am so glad I went

As I write this, I am in the last few weeks of spring semester.  I will be taking another trip into Pennsylvania when I finish finals.  There will be no hesitation this time around.  Lesson learned.

Virgin waters

I fished an area way upstream from where the dam used to stop steelhead migration. This recently opened water just got its first ever steelhead run. Nobody has fished this area for steelhead and most guys don’t know this part of the river well. Guess who does? That’s right yours truly. I fish this area all summer long for smallmouth bass. I know it all very well. With the river flowing higher than it does during the summer, there is some really fishy new water that I have been itching to fish. It has been a major goal of mine to catch a steelhead in the South Chagrin Reservation since that dam fell. After all, it’s 5 minutes from home!

I went out on Sunday and fished for a few hours. It was cold, about 32 degrees. As I was driving down, I saw a guide friend’s car. That’s a good sign, if the guides have clients here there must be fish. I knew there were at least a few fish around as I had seen them in the feeder creek at this location a couple of weeks before.

I had a nice stretch of water to myself for a while and I caught a small fish, but it was a steelhead and it was so close to home! Despite its size this fish held great significance because it is the first steelhead I have caught in this newly opened stretch of water. This was an exciting moment; it meant I don’t have to drive a half hour or 45 minutes to catch steelhead anymore! I had one other hook up that day, the fish threw the hook. It didn’t matter; I got what I came for.

Talk about home waters, right around the corner from the house!

Can’t keep this angler down

School has taken almost all of my time away from fishing. When there is an opportunity to fish, I go fishing regardless. I had an opportunity to go fishing the other day, but I have a bad cold. This is the kind of cold that causes crazy sinus congestion and snot runs out of your nose. I felt crappy, but it was a beautiful sunny day, the catch was the temperature was in the low 30s. Being since and out in the cold didn’t seem like a great idea. I struggled with the decision, should I stay in and rest or go fishing? I looked at the flow gauge, it was at about 450 CFS and I called the fly shop to find that reports were coming in strong. I went fishing! I couldn’t help myself.

I went straight to a spot in the North Chagrin Reservation that has historically been a fishy spot in the early spring. Since the dam has come down and flood waters have receded things have changed a lot. There was sand in places where there never used to be before. You could see the high watermark form the flood, which was 20-30 feet from the bank in places. Sand was deposited in the woods along the river in the flood zone. You never see sand in the woods around here. It reminded me of Cape Cod.

The fishing was pretty good. I was out for about two hours and I was not disappointed. I hooked up with four fish and landed two of them. One was a fresh hen and the other was a hold over buck. Both fish came on egg patterns. The fish were holding in deeper water with slight current. The water has not warmed enough to move fish into spring holding locations.

It was a good short little outing, for a while there I forgot that I wasn’t feeling well. It was not until my nose got raw from the constant running and cold that I thought about having a cold. I got a good dose of chrome, the best medicine for this patient!

Two of these and call me in the morning

Just what the doctor ordered