jifigz
Well-known member
Well, I hit the water at about 11:45 am or so. The water was unbelievably clear. I immediately was into some nice water and I started off drifting a hare's ear under a yarn indicator. In that first nice piece of water when I went to lift up to make another cast I felt resistance and saw a stocked rainbow shake it's head once or twice, come off the bottom a bit, and pop loose. That all happened in half a second but I never knew that fish was there and the bite was so, so light. In another likely pool on a bend with some good depth I had three more fish semi-hooked but didn't land anything. By this time I had switched to a prince nymph. The bites were very, very light and the water was very cold. The sun was out and even back in the mountains I was plenty warm in just a light jacket. I kept working slowly and deliberately, feeling total peace at that moment in time with life, the weather, the stream, the approach of spring...it all just felt perfect.
I came upon one of the nicest pieces of habitat imaginable in a PA freestoner and cautiously tucked the prince nymph tight into the seam of current which would lead my indicator down into the slow depths of about 3 feet. I hooked up with a nice 6 inch native or so. This is the kind of water that holds plenty of fish, however, so of course I kept working it over. Well, I got hung up in a bush on a cast and instead of busting it all off I walked out in the pool to get it. I came back out, tied on the pink San Juan, and put it further up in the current where I had hopefully not spooked the fish while retrieving my last bad cast. On my second drift through there I had another light bite. I set the hook, felt the weight of the fish for just a moment, and then the hook popped loose and shot into a tree right above me. This one I had to break off.
As I am re-tying I see behind me another angler with a fly rod approaching. He is a middle-aged man and we chat for a bit. He said he ran into a couple of kids but he let them fish past him and he decided to walk up further. Well, he walked past me and I stayed where I was but before he departed the two kids came working up the stream. They walked by me and immediately hopped in the next pool just above me. They worked rather quickly and went from pool to pool. They were bypassing a lot of water that many spin fisherman often do. Trout hold in places that many anglers don't realize, this we all know. The bite started to pick up a bit and I began picking up more natives but only in the water that these two had walked by without spooking. Every pool or deeper, obvious holding water was lifeless, dead, and I can only guess it is because of those two youngsters that weren't even trying to be stealthy. I fished my way, catching a few fish here and there, eventually catching those two kids again sitting on a log. I talked to them for a bit, they said they hooked one. They were nice enough but clearly had a lot to learn about not spooking fish. They immediately hopped back in front of me and started churning and burning the pools up ahead of me. By this point I figured I had had a good enough day and that I could call it. I trekked back up the mountain to my truck and then headed out of there. All said and done I landed maybe half a dozen brookies and missed just as many more light bites. I no doubt would have done better had these two kids not been spooking the stream in front of me but it is what it is: Public land, Public water.
I was happy and content to feel the warm sunshine and see a few beautiful natives in my net.
I came upon one of the nicest pieces of habitat imaginable in a PA freestoner and cautiously tucked the prince nymph tight into the seam of current which would lead my indicator down into the slow depths of about 3 feet. I hooked up with a nice 6 inch native or so. This is the kind of water that holds plenty of fish, however, so of course I kept working it over. Well, I got hung up in a bush on a cast and instead of busting it all off I walked out in the pool to get it. I came back out, tied on the pink San Juan, and put it further up in the current where I had hopefully not spooked the fish while retrieving my last bad cast. On my second drift through there I had another light bite. I set the hook, felt the weight of the fish for just a moment, and then the hook popped loose and shot into a tree right above me. This one I had to break off.
As I am re-tying I see behind me another angler with a fly rod approaching. He is a middle-aged man and we chat for a bit. He said he ran into a couple of kids but he let them fish past him and he decided to walk up further. Well, he walked past me and I stayed where I was but before he departed the two kids came working up the stream. They walked by me and immediately hopped in the next pool just above me. They worked rather quickly and went from pool to pool. They were bypassing a lot of water that many spin fisherman often do. Trout hold in places that many anglers don't realize, this we all know. The bite started to pick up a bit and I began picking up more natives but only in the water that these two had walked by without spooking. Every pool or deeper, obvious holding water was lifeless, dead, and I can only guess it is because of those two youngsters that weren't even trying to be stealthy. I fished my way, catching a few fish here and there, eventually catching those two kids again sitting on a log. I talked to them for a bit, they said they hooked one. They were nice enough but clearly had a lot to learn about not spooking fish. They immediately hopped back in front of me and started churning and burning the pools up ahead of me. By this point I figured I had had a good enough day and that I could call it. I trekked back up the mountain to my truck and then headed out of there. All said and done I landed maybe half a dozen brookies and missed just as many more light bites. I no doubt would have done better had these two kids not been spooking the stream in front of me but it is what it is: Public land, Public water.
I was happy and content to feel the warm sunshine and see a few beautiful natives in my net.
