doubletaper
Posts: 682
Joined: 10/15/2007
From: clarion, pa
Status: offline
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Solitary Contentment
I subconsciously heard the second truck drive up the muddy lane as I lay, tucked under my sleeping bag, on the converted seat bed, in the back of my conversion van. My alarm didn’t go off yet so I knew it was still dark. Then in my dreary sleep I remembered it was a couple of days before the last day of spring gobbler season here in Pennsylvania. I lay silent and tried to fall back asleep but the thought of trout fishing, in the quiet weekday stream I was about to partake in, kept bringing up visions of quiet solitude. I finally got up, started the van to warm up and put the 12volt-heating rod in my water filled tin cup for tea.
I took the day off during the week so I could get a chance to spend some quiet time on one of my favorite creeks without the crowds. I could have chosen to go out turkey hunting but I didn’t get the time to go out scouting. I wasn’t sure any turkeys would be in the area but I’m sure there’d be trout in the creek. Besides if I don’t hear any turkeys by 9:00am I’m usually in the trout stream fishing anyway. I don’t want to waste the morning and wait until twelve to fish. This is when you must be out of the woods hunting gobblers in the spring season.
The creek I’ve chosen this morning is the East Branch of the Tionesta. The upper part begins in McKean County and flows into Warren County. I like fishing the bottom section just above where it empties into the South Branch. The only road that gets near the East Branch is at the bridge where the two creeks meet. There’s a lane that follows the creek a short ways up on the western side and then it’s closed to all vehicles. The lane is gaited but from here on the fish commission uses the lane to stock trout. The creek gets stocked only twice a year, before the first day of trout season in April and usually the beginning of May. Usually by the third week of May the creek gets less traffic and if you fish before noon and on the weekday it’s almost desolate of fishermen. Native trout also inhabit the creek and because of the fir trees, overhangs and total mountain confinement the water stays cold mostly all year around. There are not many hatches in great numbers but I do well with dark Hendrickson, some small caddis imitations and quill-bodied dry flies. The best nymphs I’ve found to use are latex caddis. I think it may be because a lot of bait fishermen use maggots and the fish are used to seeing and feeding on them. Whatever the reason they work.
After my hot tea I geared up and decided to string up my 6 ½’ fiberglass rod. An old friend gave it to me because he didn’t use it any more and he knew I loved to fish in small isolated creeks. The rod is an old Shakespeare Wonderod. There is nothing on it that said what weight line it is for. I’ve been using a 5wt. But had bought a new 4wt. line to try out. I don’t know what it is but using that fiberglass rod for small trout in small creeks makes the whole day a little more prestigious and fun. I figured on heading upstream about a couple of miles and fishing down stream.
On the way up I checked out the water. It was clear to about a foot or so. The deeper pools and the shaded areas were still dark enough I couldn’t see through. The creek is fairly wide for a mountain stream so you can get clear overhand casts if you stay in the middle of the creek. Other than that you’ll have to roll cast or side arm cast. The creek also has many straight shallow run areas and I have found that if you’re not seen and fish the edges, under overhangs and the cut banks, this is where you might hook up with the natives. The stocked trout stay in the deeper water under downed logs, trees and rock ledged pools. If they are feeding and not spooked, such as the morning, you can catch a few in the faster current or at the tail end of the fast water.
This brings to mind why people get up so early to start fishing. When I was a kid I thought that it was because that’s when trout love to eat. With age and fishing experience I found that mornings are about the best time to go, most of the time, because the fish aren’t spooked yet from hoards of fishermen walking over them and plucking away, scaring them half to death. It always amazed me on the first day of trout season, how people can’t wait until 8:00am, starting time, to cast in their lines. People actually get fined for casting in too early. What, are they afraid of that the trout are really hungry before 8:00 and won’t bite after that?? Got me!!
As I walked along the creek checking out the different holes I couldn’t wait any longer to wet a line and tied on an olive woolly bugger. I roll casted and it drifted just in front of an old logjam that’s been there for years. There’s usually a few nice trout gathered under it and around the area. Just like that I hooked and landed a 9" stocked brookie. That was good enough for that hole for now. I know I could spend at least a half hour in and around the logjam but I wanted to get upstream.
I got to where I wanted to start. Just above a fire trail that crosses the creek. I started fishing buggers and latex caddis. Nothing was happening and I didn’t see anything coming up or flies coming off the water, but I wasn’t discouraged. The peacefulness alone and the confidence that the trout will soon bite, was enough to keep me content. The smell of sweet pine and the absence of road noise along with the flow and sound of the creek meandering through the forest made the morning enjoyable. The sun wasn’t high enough to soak through the water yet, anyhow. I found fishing in the early spring on cold mornings that sometimes the trout don’t get active until the sun’s rays penetrate through the water and the trout absorb its warmth. The morning birds chirping and the echoing of a woodpecker knocking at an old hollow tree brought life to the otherwise quiet morn.
The first deep pool was just beyond a good flow of riffled water. The riffles flattened out under overhanging branches on the far side of the creek. "What the heck" I thought. I had tied some royal coachmen patterns just for something different. I tied a size 12 on and side armed the fly into the riffles. It stayed afloat, slowed down some under the overhang and drifted beyond without a taker. I tried again and nothing. The next cast, for the coachmen, I landed it right at the beginning of the overhang in the slower drift. It didn’t drift for more than about 6 inches and a mouth came up and gobbled it up, I yanked and set the hook. The trout took the fly deep with force. Wow, this was a heavy one. My fiberglass rod bent good as I let line out. I fought the fish and landed a fat 17"brown. This is a big fish in this small creek. The sides of the belly were the dark brownish rusty color you normally see on trout that have been around for a while. I figured this one to be a hold over from at least last year. Now this was unexpected to catch a big trout like this at the start especially with an attractor pattern. I positioned the brown upstream and it swam away. I’m not sure what trout see in the red color and herl body but I have had this happen before.
I was down on Cool Spring Creek one day fishing in the delayed harvest area. There was this nice fat rainbow lying on the bottom in front of me upstream. It looked like he was feeding on nymphs now and then by the way he would swim out to the left or right and then back to where he started. I was in that dry fly mood and casted a few different patterns but he didn’t stir. I tied on a size 18 Griffith’s Gnat and tossed it in front of him, he came up to look at it but didn’t take. I knew I was in the ballpark with shape and color but obviously something was missing. I then tied on a #16 Gray Hackle Peacock, actually dabbed some dry floatant on it and tossed it out there and let it drift into his sight. The rainbow swam up to it and took it like it was a dead fly floating. The rainbow didn’t attack it or even examine it, just took it.
Well with that big brown my day was already a big success. I decided on trying dry flies now and then even if none were on the water. I looked down stream. The creek made a sharp turkey leg bend to the right. The water narrowed and flowed sharply into the far bank. The royal coachmen didn’t produce so I tied on a #16 blue quill, still nothing. I switched to a latex caddis just to see if anything was in there and hooked a small brookie. On the way down from there, the creek fantails out and breaks off into a wishbone around a long island of dry ground. The main flow breaks to the right towards the trail while the left branch slows and then waterfalls into a long deep rocky pool over a ledge of rock. I walked around the deep pool and fished it from behind. Tied on a blue wing olive and casted upstream. Almost before it hit the water a native brook grabbed it. Being that this is still prime trout season and the creeks, until June, will get heavy pressure I didn’t expect to catch more than one trout in any given hole.
Below the long island the creek widens into a shallow long flat stretch. The sun was warming things up a bit, and a hatch came off. They looked like Hendrickson’s and tan colored caddis. The hatch hovered over the shallow riffles and above the shallow waters. I didn’t see any trout coming up feeding. After fishing the banks I continued down stream as time passed unnoticed. I caught a few stocked brookies now and then on a B.W.O. midge along the banks but overall it was slow going. I came upon the logjam I fished on the way up and tied on a red quill. After teasing, another brookie ended up on my line. I caught another trout deep in the out flow of the logjam on an olive woolly bugger.
Below this the stream widens and I alternated swinging an olive than white silky bugger along each bank and shallow riffles without a hit.
On down stream I finally caught up with some trout slurping flies on top. The stream of water banked sharply to the left, flowed a bit into a deep pool and than under a brushy tree overhanging the bank. The water than flowed up to a half sunken tree trunk, flowed around it to the left and picked up speed as it curled along the end of the sunken tree. Right where the water turned against the bank and the tree trunk something was having a feast on small flies. I stayed back quite a ways and casted downstream. The #14 red quill settled quietly upstream from the feeding frenzy. I watched with excitement as the fly drifted into the feeding area. Wham, I hooked up to a stocked brookie. In about a half-hour on the red quills and Quill Gordon’s, I hooked up to 4 more in and around that small area and teased a couple. There was still at least one more feeding but I had my fun in that hole. A fishermen downstream had moved out from the water where a huge pine tree had fallen in recently. He wasn’t fishing with a fly rod. When I got to where he had just left I could see it would have been tough to fish there with a weighted line. The current swished by quickly towards the far bank. After trying a wooly bugger I found the under current raced the bugger through so fast I had to strip line in before I got snagged up in the evergreen treetop towards my side of the creek. Well, back to the dry flies. I sharply casted and skated a few tan caddis dries towards the downed treetop and picked off two nice browns and a brookie.
By this time I was pretty close to my van and started to get the munchies. The turkey hunters were either leaving or some were getting their fishing gear on as I walked towards the lane. I walked back to my van to get lunch before fishing down stream. Come to think of it, that whole time I was fishing I didn’t hear any turkeys. I didn’t hear any shotgun blasts either. I must have made the right choice for I had caught trout and was well content!!
~ doubletaper
_____________________________
beer and whiskey makes me frisky
but it's fly rods and trout streams that excite me
it's not luck
if success is consistent
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