Opening Day memories

[MissingPotter]

Sorry if this overlaps anything, thought it might be cool to share a couple Opening Day memories. I'm sure we all have 'em. I have to disclose up front that there IS, I gather, some hellbenders, or sculpin, and potentially a brookie impacted by the circumstances that made these memories possible.
Growing up in Berks County I was pretty familiar with getting up early to have a shot at getting anywhere near the stream (crick, in Berks). Oh-Dark-Thirty early. So as a freshman at Mansfield I figured we had to do that there, too. I wheedled and cajoled and pleaded with my buddy who had the car to "get there early" despite him telling me "we don't do that up here."
Prevailing, we arrived at a section we called "Brownie's Hole" after the guy who owned the land. Sure enough, no one showed until 0720. Down we went to the Pine which was a heckuva lot bigger than the Manatawny at home. I looked at my hip boots. Then the stream which was the color of coffee with cream and raging. At 0750 we heard a lawnmower start up and Brownie came down to give the "go ahead" at 0800. No one fished before Brownie said so.
It was cold as Christmas in Canada and nothing was caught the first hour. I looked out and there was a little island in the torrent. Slowly, cautiously, I waded out to it. Making it, I flipped out a salmon egg and, mirable dictu, got a bite. Rebaiting I dropped it back in and caught one. I slipped it into my vest and looked around. No one saw it! I managed a limit without anyone seeing. No one believed me till I spilled 'em out of my vest.
The next year only brookies got stocked ( 83 maybe?) because of the acid. Anyway, the Pine was once again raging at Brownies but this year I had brand new Seal Dri stocking foot waders. Looking way up stream there was a dead tree blocking the current.
On the other side.
Slowly I edged out. Heck, I have WADERS now. Ever wade the Pine? The wading is properly known as "hellacious" and I found my nineteen year old self in the middle of it. Ever here that sound it makes when the current is raging and you feel the press of the current push like the bow wake of a boat and you have that fleeting thought you went too far? I used my rod to help break the flow and somehow made it. I can still remember how scared I was.
Every brook trout in the Pine was behind that tree. Don't know how may we caught over the next week after a white knuckle crossing.
I vividly remember the supe at the school where I student taught letting the seniors letting help stock. This time they were going up the West Branch, with instructions to load up one of his favorite holes. Naturally, being kids, they didn't. No one caught a fish in the morning. In the afternoon I explored upstream and there they were. Throwing two nymphs with just the leader out on a roll cast (We didn't know we were Euro nymphing, we just called it nymph fishing) and it was full of rainbows. Later, we went down to the bridge in town. There is a Red Apple there now. The locals watched the two of us fish. There were some blue quills coming off and it was pretty sporty fishing. The locals really ragged on my buddy about how bad he was getting schooled by a kid.
Just a few from Upstate since it's coming up. Thanks for the opportunity to share.

 

[FarmerDave]

The earliest opening day that I can remember. I was just a kid, and after a near sleepless night in anticipation, dad took me and a couple of my siblings to Bluejay in the ANF. When we arrived, there was ice on the slow water.

After battling ice for a while with no luck catching any fish, dad moved us down to Tionesta Creek at the mouth of Bluejay and it was crowded. Not long after casting, some guy, I think his name was Richard Cranium, walked right in front of me, snapping my line.

I think we all got skunked, but I still pestered dad to take us fishing on OD the following year.

Or do you just want pleasant experiences?

 

[MissingPotter]

Sometimes the unpleasant ones are pretty memorable....actually the older I get the more pleasant some of those unpleasant ones seem.

 

[6xAdams(Jones)]

Earliest I can recall was at Lake Pleasant (Erie County?) with my dad and his friend who owned a rowboat. In the early 1970s, NW PA had cold and nasty weather well into April. I was able to bring in one trout and hook/lose a couple others - I think on live minnows. Being used to bobber-fishing for bluegills, I had no clue about playing a fish. Except for the one fish, I just tried to haul them in as fast as I could. Before I froze to death, Dad took me home and we had fried fish for lunch. I've had other opening days with a flyrod but that was a long time ago as well. The only one of those I can remember involved dry-rotted hip waders in the Loyalhanna next to the amusement park. The waders were nothing but fabric after a couple hours, so I was basically wet-wading in 40-50 degree water.

 

[wildtrout2]

One of my "good ole days" (early 70's) memories was fishing Mill Creek in Lower Merion (no longer gets stocked) one Opening Day, when it was so cold, me, my brother, and a friend built a small fire with dried knot weed to get warm. This was under the Conchy State Road bridge. For some reason that memory has stayed with me after all this time. Back then we always caught our 8 trout limit.

 

[Silent Ocelot]

I remember waking up at 5 to go down and fish that pool below the Scott's Run Lake outflow (Berks County). We all spin fished, swearing by our "red rosy" minnows to get the job done. This was back in the day when I thought the idea of repairing a broken rod tip was to just cut the broken tip down to the next guide. I don't think I have woken up that early to fish in a long time. Was I a more dedicated angler back then haha?

A few years back in May of 2018 I took a fly rod down to that same hole and caught three little brook trout on ant flies (surface variants). During that time a former NAVY buddy took a vacation to visit me in PA. I was teaching him to fly fish, which actually meant just dragging him along on my trips. I remember casting across the pool into some slack water to get those fish. Something happened to the dry I was fishing (maybe it no longer floated) so I took the rod I had set up for my friend from his hands so that I could continue fishing. I should have been nicer and just let him cast but I didn't think he was proficient enough to get the fly where it need to be. It was cool to go back and relive a memory from my childhood and go after fish on the fly.

 

[Nymph-wristed]

One of my "good ole days" (early 70's) memories was fishing Mill Creek in Lower Merion (no longer gets stocked) one Opening Day, when it was so cold, me, my brother, and a friend built a small fire with dried knot weed to get warm. This was under the Conchy State Road bridge. For some reason that memory has stayed with me after all this time. Back then we always caught our 8 trout limit.

I will send you a PM about that crick. I have fished it once last year and once this year for the first time in a long time. I saw you and Bamboozle discussing in another post, I believe, and forgot to chime in.

 

[wildtrout2]

I will send you a PM about that crick. I have fished it once last year and once this year for the first time in a long time. I saw you and Bamboozle discussing in another post, I believe, and forgot to chime in.

I have a FF friend who swears there's a few wild browns in there. IDK

 

[Nymph-wristed]

I have so many, including spending the night not sleeping in the back of my dad's pickup cap at Belle's Mill lot on the Wissy in Philly. Camping out for the best spot with the way they used to stock those creeks, you know!?

Like the OP, however, my favorite times were staying at a friend of my dad's hunting cabin in English Center, 200 yards from the Little Pine upstream from the lake/park. We stayed for a week, so my father was def pulling me out of school to fish, which I've gotta respect. I caught my first dry fly fish on the Little Pine and Blockhouse Run around 12 years old, I bet. I also was intimidated by a spring runoff high Big Pine, but it made me hungry for those bigger creeks later in life!

Still friends with my buddy Ward who used to come along with us on those trips too.

 

[Bamboozle]

My first Opening Day was in my first year of fishing when I was kid who knew NOTHING about trout fishing and barely anything about any kind of fishing, as I was self-taught because nobody in my family fished except me.

Ridley Creek in Delaware County, PA was a local legend amongst us kids so we knew we HAD to go there for our first opener and we stupidly ignored the other stocked streams within walking distance of our homes.

At the crack of dawn on Opening Day, a bunch of us hitchhiked down US 1 with all of our gear to an overpass that crossed Section 4 of Ridley Creek. The stream was maybe 100 feet or more below the overpass so we had to climb down a steep hill to get the water.

I carried a tackle box in those days and I was ready with some red salmon eggs that I was informed were the ticket. We positioned ourselves on one side of the creek on a small clearing, baited up, fished ALL day...

...and were skunked.

Despite the skunking, the memory I have that sticks with me to this day was seeing my first vest clad trout angler with hip boots walking through the stream to get into position to fish. I even tried “wet wading” in my shoes & socks to emulate his tactics but even that didn't help.

However, I knew I HAD to have a vest and some hip boots too so I could look like the guys in Field & Stream and Outdoor Life and possibly solve this great trout fishing mystery...

Later on, I got a fishing vest as a birthday present that had plenty of pockets for salmon egg jars and hip boot were available at Two Guys for about $19 so before long I at least looked the part. I even had an Orvis zinger on that vest when NOBODY had a zinger and people would ask me all the time what it was.

It took me more than a few fishing trips after that Opening Day to a LOT of different creeks to catch my first trout which came on a Panther Martin spinner at French Creek in Chester County. The best part of this memory is I still have the rod, reel & tackle box I used on that Opening Day and the Panther Martin spinner I used to catch my first trout. I even still have that Orvis zinger!!

Even though I don’t usually bother with Opening Day anymore, when I do I always use that rod, reel and take that tackle box with me. When I catch a trout on it, I smile as if it was the first time all over again...

 

[Bamboozle]

One of my "good ole days" (early 70's) memories was fishing Mill Creek in Lower Merion (no longer gets stocked) one Opening Day, when it was so cold, me, my brother, and a friend built a small fire with dried knot weed to get warm...

That reminds me another Opening Day at the West Branch of Chester Creek in Delco...

My buddy & I hitchhiked there which required a couple mile walk to get to our usual starting point. The ride in the car and long walk hid the fact that it was REALLY cold that morning.

We got to our spot WAY TOO early before the opening bell and it was FREEZING cold so we saw this little concrete structure (an old foundation maybe?) across the street from the creek & decided to go inside and huddle to try and keep warm until the sun came up.

When I walked through the doorway about 10,000 bats flew out past my head which freaked me out for at least 30 years...

These days I throw a grenade into any suspected unoccupied structure before I walk in...

 

[Bamboozle]

I have a FF friend who swears there's a few wild browns in there. IDK

Like I mentioned to you before, it IS on the Natural Reproduction List...

 

[bugs4]

Staking out a spot on Logan Branch in Centre county at 4:30 AM because the season actually opened at 5:00 AM.

 

[wildtrout2]

Like I mentioned to you before, it IS on the Natural Reproduction List...

You did, and I had forgotten about it. I was never aware of that in all this time. I know the area well enough that I can fish certain sections without any problems. I won't be satisfied until I catch a wild brown out of that crick. I'll be on a mission later in the season!

Since this is the stream I first started trout fishing on, and the stream I caught my very first trout on a fly, catching a wild brown would be very cool.

 

[Bamboozle]

Here’s ANOTHER Opening Day memory that involves fly fishing and NOT getting skunked... I don’t recall the year and I’m too lazy to look it up but it was the year BEFORE the PFBC created the "Delayed Harvest Fly Fishing Only" Special Regulation designation.

A friend of mine was in deep depression over being dumped by a girlfriend so I was trying anything and everything to break him out of his funk including getting him into fly fishing by hooking him up with a rod, reel and other goodies.

We decided to do the Opener at Resica Falls BSA Scout Reservation that at the time was Fly Fishing Only, 6 fish per day in that section. In those days in the off-season for Boy Scout camping, you could just drive into the Scout property and camp in any lean-to or on any tent platform with no reservations or fee. I was also chummy with the Ranger which probably helped too...

We arrived late the evening prior and set up a camp by a platform that meant sleeping in the back of my buddy’s pick-up truck. We got up really EARLY, well before the opening bell and I made breakfast while my friend checked out the creek. To say my pal was excited would be an understatement but I kept reminding him that we could not start fishing until 8:00 am.

When it got close to 8:00 we broke camp, got suited up and ready and reconnoitered for a spot on the stream between Resica Falls and the infamous “Piano Pool” but there were already more than a few guys in position. The water was running high & fast but not off color so I was looking for some kind of break in the flow and found it at the inlet and outlet of a short braid on the far side of the creek and we had it all to ourselves!

We were alone and in position in the swift water when I handed my friend a Grey Ghost streamer that looked particularly fishy to me that morning. We both knotted one on and waited until 8:00...

I seem to recall us landing and releasing 54 trout between the two of us in that little stretch in about two hours or less. My shoulder and arms were actually tired from trying to keep the fish’s heads above water and out of the swift current. At one point, another fly angler who evidently was not doing as well started to crowd us until I threatened him with bodily harm...

He immediately vacated the spot... Shortly thereafter, we called it a day as well.

My fishing partner thought I was a genius for finding that current break and choosing that fly but I kept telling him that this was indeed an anomaly and don’t expect fly fishing to always be this easy...

However to the best of my limited Opening Day recollections this was the BEST and easiest Opening Day I ever had!!

 

[MissingPotter]

Thanks for the responses! Enjoyed readin' them.

 

[pcray1231]

When I was a kid, we always fished Tionesta Creek out of my camp. Bout halfway between Kelletville and Mayburg. At opening day flows, it's "difficult" to cross, meaning you have to kind of scout for the shallowest riff. And it's big enough water that people on one side are not really fishing the same water as people on the other. So the road side of the stream gets some people, but the far bank gets very few.

My brother and I being kids, we had hip boots but weren't getting across, or fishing while wading much. But my dad found a spot where the main run hugged the opposite shore, should you be over there, you can fish from shore. He would always carry us across the stream on his back, about 3/4 of a mile up from the where we would fish. First me, then my brother, then go back for the stuff, like a ferry. Once everything was on the other side we'd hike down. One other guy would be over there, every year, only time we saw him every year, he got over on a canoe. Got to be "opening day friends" with him over the years. He'd catch his limit every year and be gone by 9. Lot of good times over there.

 

[Silent Ocelot]

These days I throw a grenade into any suspected unoccupied structure before I walk in...

A grenade!?!?! What are you? Some kind of domestic terrorist?

 

[Silent Ocelot]

I have a story about Resica Falls too, although not opening day related. A friend who I used to fish with a lot more once tasked me of all people with the idea of picking some water for us to travel to to fish. Going off of the advice of someone I knew threw Facebook I decided it would be a good idea to trek up the Bushkill. Not bothering to ask this Facebook friend what would be a good time to attempt this creek and not bothering to check the flow reports (biggest issue here) I told my friend we should fish the Bushkill. We fished it on March 7th, 2019. It was cold, definitely below 20 degrees. Water had massive ice chunks in it and there was snow on the ground. The flows here high and turbid. It was the first time I actually saw my flies freeze! They were balls of ice. Even if either of us were to get into a fish, they'd just cut us off on the ice chunks. My buddy broke off on the first cast of every new hole and got so pissed he just started walking downstream. He was a big dude, big in terms of muscle mass so I wasn't going to question his actions and risk walking home (he drove) or getting chucked into the creek. Eventually I told him we were walking downstream and away from the truck. We then crossed the creek and hiked up a very steep hill. We ended up in the boy scout camp and hiked back to the truck.

Next we hit the Broadhead, which was running at a healthy 500 cfs. We got skunked. At one point I was running my fly 10ft below my indicator and was still unable to touch bottom. I also threw my rod after I repeatedly kept getting wind knots in my rig. Luckily the rod was a lowly SAGE VXP and my Hatch reel had a lot of dents in it by that point. The rig landed on snow. At one point we crossed the creek with our rods broken down. If we dropped a rod piece we probably wouldn't have found it. Fun times.

 

[Bamboozle]

...At one point we crossed the creek with our rods broken down. If we dropped a rod piece we probably wouldn't have found it. Fun times.

Coincidentally, I lost the top section on BRAND NEW 4pc Winston rod carrying the rod UN-STRUNG down to the Bushkill at Resica. After fishing nothing but bamboo for more than 20 years and doing the same with a bamboo rod a zillion times, I never expected a rod section on a graphite rod could pull off so easily.

I spent hours & hours looking for a 25" long thin dark green rod section in amongst tons of dark green leaf litter and tree branches but never found it. I ended up going back to the car and grabbing a bamboo rod I brought as a spare but ever since, whenever I fish glass or graphite the rod always stays strung up!!

...and not bothering to check the flow reports (biggest issue here) I told my friend we should fish the Bushkill...

FWIW - I bought my first wading staff BECAUSE of the swift water at the Big Bushkill which was a favorite haunt of mine years ago. I'm not completely positive, but it might have been christened on that Opening Day adventure.