Fall panfish

[Baron]

Van, That is how it happened at Gouldsboro. One week my catches went from 2 or three 8-9" Gills at dark to 1 or no babies. The whole stump field stopped in another week. I rowed out to the deepest part way down the lake and dropped a worm to the bottom and the game was back on. 23 in the freezer and as many undersized were released. many gills, bass, pickerel and big big perch all out in the middle, open water. At one point something took my line and took off. whatever it was I couldn't turn it and then it broke off. Great day with Son on board.

Van_Cleaver wrote:
Fly fished my local lake recently and only caught smallish gills Stopped for lunch and noticed thousands of Lanternflies on the water. I had only managed one on top ( and many misses) to go with a bunch on a sunken ant. Fish were rising steadily 80 to 100 ft out.

Took out my 7' spinning rod and put on a crappie jig I had tied about 4' down with a Rocket bobber to insure distance. Heaved it out 30 yrds. or so and promptly got into some nice 8" gills. Interesting to me was the water was probably 10' deep (or more). My takeaway was there are often feeding fish I can't reach with my fly rod and without a boat.

 

[sandfly]

my uncle ran dozer for sylvan in the day. eds was great. they would buy my snappers for soup. our farms were all turned into the park. as a kid on a stingray I fished every pond in the area

 

[Baron]

As a farm kid I looked longingly at the stingray bikes lined up at the creek with their owners fishing for my fish in my creek while I had to milk, haul hay and more. during other kids stingray days I was so jealous as I had to work for 12 hrs a day. Payback was that once I learned to drive I had permission to fish many farm ponds in the area. I only had time to fish in the evenings and that is when the larger Bass were hungry. Looking back I had it good.......better than I thought by far.

 

[Van_Cleaver]

Also grew up living on and working on a beef cattle farm and gained opportunities to fish local ponds as well. Had some great blue gill ponds within an easy bike ride, which of course have all changed hands and become off limits. Hoping to get out locally in the next day or so; finally starting to catch up work wise. Local pan fish are missing me.

 

[Baron]

Do you know any Supplees in Coatsville. Wife's family is from there originally.

I often regret that I never looked at Gills as an end game. I never knew how big they can get and never realized how all other species revolves around them for food....sort of.

 

[Fly-Swatter]

Dave's Sporting Goods on 611? I used to drool over the Fenwick rods there. The closest I got was a Sears spincast rod that had a blank that looked kinda (appropriately) like a worm. It was outfitted with the old trust Zebco 33 reel.

I may have bought my first fly rod from Dave's about 1984: 7'6" 5 WT Cortland.

Sometime around 1980 Dad and I were fishing out of our (also) Sears "birchbark" fiberglass canoe on Lake Galena, trolling jointed Rebels when I caught a "big" brown bullhead. We took it to the bait shop on 313 in the big white building in Perkasie just before Nockamixon. It weighted just shy of 2 pounds. I got a youth angler award certificate and patch from PA Boat for that! I'll be 55 this month and that still makes me smile. 🙂

Many great memories fishing from south of Newtown to north of Dublin.

 

[Baron]

I sometimes miss being in the Doylestown area but in reality it has changed dramatically in the cross-section of peoples that inhabit it. They're no longer locals that are distantly or closely related but now mostly outsider. Although its lovely and people are friendly Its expensive and not warm feeling for me anymore. I loved Buckingham when it was all farm families.
One Sunday in Summer I walked from Dave's Sporting Goods to the unfilled Dam Breast of Galena Just to say I did. Went Sledding in that area every winter. I got married at the top of the Hill towards Plumbsteadville at Grace Gospel Church. Still have the same woman to prove it.
compared to the rest of my family I'm different in that I don't care for the mountains much. Pennsylvania is absolutely awesome but I prefer the lay of the land and the streams or everywhere south and east of 81. Problem is I should have been here 200 years earlier.