Fishing Creek and White Deer Creek, PA

Bryan and I had planned to hit Fishing Creek in central PA ahead of a volleyball tournament in Happy Valley for a few months so I left the Pentagon and headed up on Thursday planning to do a recon Thursday evening and meet Bryan and his dad Jack for a full day of fishing Friday. Fishing Creek is one of the top 100 trout streams in the nation so we were really looking forward to the adventure.  Fishing Creek is a pretty popular name for a creek in PA so the one we're talking about is just south of Hwy 80 in Lamar and the area we planned to hit is called the Narrows. When I arrived at the Narrows just above the hatchery I was disappointed to find it blown-out from thunder storms earlier in the week. 

Blown Out Fishing Creek at the Narrows from the 1st Bridge above the Hatchery

Not one to be dissuaded I decided to find a feeder tributary and walk up it in the hope of finding lower, slower, clearer water.  In luck I found Cherry Run a mile or so down Narrows Road.  Cherry Run is a skinny little blue line and was running full and fast but thankfully clear so I decided to give it a shot. Jack later told me that all these little tribs hold a good population of brookies but the water was too fast for more than a second or two of drift and I think it was just too high for the fish to be active. I called Bryan and Jack and told them that we needed to find a higher, slower stream if we were going to have any luck on Friday and we agreed to meet at a family favorite White Deer Creek another 30 miles east on Interstate 80.  I bedded down for the night at a just barely acceptable EconoLodge and made my way to our link-up Friday morning.  I was 90-min ahead of Bryan and Jack so I decided to give the inviting waters at the link-up a try.  As I walked in I came face to face with a good sized Eastern Hognose Snake basking in the sun on some branches right at eye-level...sure got my attention!

Hognose Alert

I made it to the water and caught this small buy respectable brown on my second cast, he was in a hollow behind a boulder in the middle of the creek staying out of the main flow.

The only brown of the day

After catching a trout on my second cast of the day I was excited that the we'd have a great catch rate, turns out that this was our only decent trout of the day!  After rigging back up a fist full of power bait floated past me and I looked up to see some fish-eaters around the next bend in the river so I walked back to the Jeep (eyes in the trees this time to avoid snakes!).  Bryan and his dad arrived as planned and we headed up White Deer Pike until we out drove most of the pressure and arrived at a favorite section where there's little pressure and we found lots of trout last year.  We fished this section of the river hard for about 4 hours but the only fish interested in our flies were 2-inch fingerlings,  I caught about 7-8 as I was using a #20 pheasant tail dropper whose hook was small enough to catch in their tiny mouths, other than these little fingerlings we were reminded that its called fishing and not catching for a reason. 

Bryan Prospecting on White Deer Creek -- the water was high but fishable

We did have a great time together and promised to re-connect for another trip this summer.   Our best guess was that we just hit the river a day before the fish turned on after the heavy rains.

Wild Browns & Brookies in Southwest Wisconsin's Driftless Area

I love fly fishing. And over the years I've had the opportunity to fish some amazingly scenic trout waters from coast to coast.  But I will always hold a special place in my soul for SW Wisconsin... aka the Driftless Area. With Milwaukee and Madison fading in my rear-view mirror as I travel west on Highway 14 approaching the rolling hills, plateaus & valleys of the region, that same feeling of serenity I experience when heading up Quaker Run Road to the Rapidan River or north on Route 16 to New Hampshire's White Mountains takes over -- I'm home.

I love fishing with friends, and I had planned on fishing with a buddy this trip too. But either I'm not as popular as I like to think I am or else everyone had better options on their plate, either way I arrived solo for what would prove two days of solid trout fishing. Now there are some 2,000 - 3,000 miles of trout water in a really small area so deciding where to fish is always a major decision. Fish reliable proven streams or venture into new waters? This trip I did a little of both and ended up catching trout in four streams (my favorite spot was ix-nayed by a local land owner who decided not to allow me to access a stream thru their field though they had allowed me in years past).

The weather is always a wildcard when planning a trip a month in advance. The forecast called for nice weather so I didn't pack rain gear - big mistake on Day 1 as I got poured on throughout the day during a blustery grey chilly day.  Day 2 was sunny in the 80s! Go figure.
I love brown trout. No two trout ever look the same as their spots are so beautiful and colorful. See what I'm talking about.

I experimented with trying to videotape "the action". I edited out most of the Blair Witch Project shaky, wildly pointing film, but it's rough at best. But the video reflects the different types of water -- pools, rifles, bends as well as the countryside from farm pastured to wooded areas.

               Brook trout from a headwaters pool caught with a Mickey Finn - my dad's favorite fly.

                                         Brown trout from a bend in the stream in the woods.

                                           Brown trout from a deep pool in a farm pasture.

                                          Brook trout from a fast rifle in a farmer's field.


The trip turned out pretty awesome. I didn't count the fish.... okay you know I did.  52 in two days of which maybe a half dozen were brookies and the rest were browns.

Best flies were from swinging streamers like the Golden Retriever, black and olive Woolly Buggers, and nymphing with Prince and Pheasant Tails.

I did lose my net somewhere in the public section of Plum Creek. It could have come in handy a time or two thereafter.

I'm going back to work full time next month.  After all, I can't fish every day in Wisconsin or Virginia or New Hampshire... or could I?

 

Brook Trout Heaven in New Hampshire

Every once in a while you have one of those days. You know what I'm talking about - those fishing trips that are so epic no one really believes you when reliving it.  Well, sorry to all those nay sayers, but what I'm about to share is no fish story -- rather it's one of those fishing adventures that we often only dream about.

 

I was home in New Hampshire for the opening of trout season (the 4th Saturday of April) at Duncan Lake, our family has a camp there and we've fished Opening Day of trout season there for years and years. The opening on our home lake was not as good as years past, and after a visit to the ER for a nagging upper respiratory infection, by Tuesday I was ready to try some other locale. My brother Marc and I loaded the canoe and headed to a nearby fly fishing only pond set in the Ossipee Mountains.

Less than five minutes after pushing off from shore, we had a double hookup of brook trout.  Marc was using a Prince Nymph or an olive Woolly Bugger. I was using a Golden Retriever.  The bite was on, and it remained red hot all all day.

 These were not your ordinary trout from the Fish & Game stocking program. These were big, fat and feisty brightly colored brook trout.

The average size of these fish was 15-17 inches. I'm not joking!
I've fished my entire life and have caught only one brook trout bigger than that - an 18" 3.1/4 pounder coincidentally caught in this same pond in 1999.
And now we were catching these brookies with great regularity.


Early on this morning, Marc hooked a big one... a really, really, big one.  As we did not anticipate finding ourselves in monster brook trout heaven at this pond, we did not bring a net -- and we could have really used it for this fish which we estimated over 20 inches.  Yeah, a brook trout over 20 inches.  He got it alongside the canoe but when attempting to lift it into the canoe, it shook it shoulders, snapped the tippet and slowly swam back to it's underwater home. At this point, we paddled back to shore, jumped in the truck and went to get a net... it would get much use over the next several hours.

Our manner of fishing was simple. Using sinking fly lines, we paddled around the lake slowly trolling the shoreline.  When we found a spot that consistently hit, we stopped, anchored and cast flies for awhile.  The trout cooperated with both tactics.

Fish on!

Total number of brook trout caught on Day1: 50

Total number of trout over 15 inches:  30





That's not a fish story. We caught 50 brook trout on the first day with 30 trout over 15 inches.  Never had either of us had a day like that on the water. Would the following day be as successful?

        YES !

We normally do not keep any fish, but this brook trout -- 19 1/4 inches and 3 3/4 pound went straight to the taxidermist and will soon be proudly displayed on a wall at Marc's camp in Maine.

My personal best was this 18 incher. Hopefully he (or she) will be an inch or two longer and a half pound heavier next time around.

We only fished three hours and brought 17 trout to hand.

As is my fly fishing tradition, we each ended our fishing with a trout on our last cast.

Paradise Found

Scott and I were worried that the recent heavy rains would wash out the dry river so we set our sights on the familiar runs of the upper Rapidan believing that as we gained elevation we'd mitigate the heavy flows down stream.

Our fears were confirmed as we crossed the Cedar, Rappahanock, Robinson and Rose and they were all blown-out to the point of being unfishable, but as we gained elevation on Quaker Run Road our hopes lifted as it became steadily less soggy.  Junction Pool was full and fast but let us know the upper river would be fishable. There were several other fisherman on the river but when we parked at the SNP  gate we were happy to be by ourselves. Our plan was to fish to Hoover Camp and then catch a trout or two on both Laurel and Mill Prong, the headwaters of the Rapidan.

We both rigged up similarly with parachute adams and bead-head pheasant tail nymphs and headed to the water, Scott toting his superfine 1-wt and me with my 3wt. Though the flow was on the high side altering the character this section we know so well we knew we'd be able to fish the pools, eddys and runs and each had a brookie by the third cast. 10-minutes into the day we both knew it was going to be a day to remember.

Our best explanation (beyond our self professed expertise!) is that the high water had been too high for the fish to feed and that this was the first day when they could grab a meal. In any event we had strikes on about a third of our short casts and the question was many could hook and land. As we neared Camp Hoover our catch crested 110 brought-to-hand. We split-up Scott on Mill Prong and me on Laurel Prong where we each caught a trout before flipping to the other blue line to each catch a trout. We ended the day with lunch on President Hoover's porch trying our best to soak in this great day.

Devils Ditch ~ Conway ~ Staunton: Mtn Streams at their best



Colorful SNP Brookie




Mission Accomplished: Scott w Brookie on the Ditch

 On his way to NH to fish opening day with his family Scott stopped in NOVA for a chance to fish our favorite SNP mountain streams.  We arrived at the upper Conway and parked by the 667 ford and walked 12 minutes down 667 until we hit remote Devils Ditch Run.  Scott had his 1wt Orvis Superfine, he had to dust it off as its not stout enough to ward off the snakes and gators in Florida, he rigged up with a #16 Parachute adams trailed by a pheasant tail nymph.  I started off with my 2wt and an elk hair caddis followed by the hares-ear nymph.  Scott had not been to the ditch before and it was only my third time to so both shared the anticipation of new water.

Both the Ditch & Staunton are tough sledding!

The fishing was very slow and the wind was whipping to start the day but Scott was able to bring to hand a colorful brookie after some hard prospecting.  Devil's Ditch is tight-quarter, high gradient fishing, so know what your getting yourself into if you ever make the ditch part of your plans.  We fished up the ditch for 2 hours then walked down the hunters trail that parallels the southern bank of the river until we hit the Conway just below the Devils Ditch Hunters Access. 

If you've ever been to this section of the Conway you'll agree that these deep holes are some of the least accessible, most beautiful pools in the SNP.  From there fished up the Conway toward our parking spot until 1300.  We would have fished longer but the fishing was still very slow and and we decided that we would change streams and hope our luck would change with it. We drove to the Staunton River and I think the abundant mayfly hatch had more to do with our increased catch-rate than luck...either way the Staunton was awesome. 

Matt Stalking a pool on the Staunton

In the first two pools of the Staunton we had more action than the earlier 4 hours of fishing.  Scott had not been to the Staunton before so I was very happy that the bite was on.  The Staunton is not for the timid.  It's a higher gradient, steeper scramble then the aptly named Devils Ditch.  The river has varied character, dominated by falls,  plunge pools, and fractured boulder and timber strewn runs. I often count my catch but didn't on the Staunton, but it wouldn't surprise me if I caught 25 and Scott caught 30 during on 3 hard but rewarding hours on this gem of a feeder into our beloved Rapidan.    

Brookie on a bed of river flowers

Typical Staunton Pool

Prize possession

Pools on the Conway below Devils Ditch

Rainy morning on the Rapidan -- Better than rain anywhere else!

Standard Rapidan Brookie

It had been awhile since I had been on the river and after reading Scott's last post about the aggressive reptiles in Florida I was itching to get out and remind him of streams so cold they'll never know the slither of a moccasin or gator! James and I planned this trip last week and even though the forecast called for building an arc we were not to be dissuaded.  We arrived at the yellow SNP gate of the upper Rapidan at 0745 in a steady rain, it was 41 degrees and breezy, the kind of day when you hope the fish are biting to keep your mind off the hypothermia you're about to tempt.

James ~ Cold but happy with his catch

On the positive side; we were high enough in the mountains that the river was clear and the flow, while fully loaded, was still very fishable. James rigged up a 3wt with a #16 purple-bodied adams parachute followed by a #18 bead head prince dropper.  I fished a stiff 2wt and started with a #14 tan elk-hair caddis followed by a #18 pheasant tail.  We headed down to the river directly from the parking area and began to fish upstream leap frogging and scouting spots & casts for each other. 

so wet the trout might have been able to breathe out of the river

90% of the days action was subsurface on the droppers and both the pheasant tail and the prince nymphs produced nicely fished slowly in the back-eddys pockets just out of the current.  The relatively high flow of the river made the caddis the "dry" (nothing was dry) of choice as it added buoyancy and visibility greater than the adams.  We switched rods back and forth a few times and easily missed x3 the dozen or so fish we brought to hand between the two of us.  All the fish were in the standard 5-7 inch range and were beautifully colored.
         Two of the natives had that deep molted orange belly and white tail-end, the markings of more mature brookies.  After 3 hours I changed out flies and found that my fingers were not working real well so I asked James how he was fairing and could see that while still game he was shivering-wet too.  We climbed out after having fished about 400 yds of river and walked back down the trail to the Jeep.  Kudos to Chrysler, they make one heckeva heater which we thoroughly enjoyed.

Get off the couch and out fishing!

Florida -- it ain't fishing unless there's snakes and gators

My last fishing trip before I moved from Virginia to Florida last November was Knapp Creek, West Virginia with Matt.  Classic trout waters winding through a picturesque maintain-side made our last trip epic.  We each caught trout over 20 inches and lots of hard-fighting rainbows a bit smaller.
We both can't wait to revisit those West Virginia waters again some day soon with our friend Mark.

Which brings me to the Sunshine State.  Let me start by saying I've got a new pair of Orvis Pro Guide waders for sale as I don't think I'll be wading much down here... anymore.  You hear about how there are poisonous snakes and alligators everywhere, but they really can't be everywhere.  Or can they?

While wade fishing during the shad run in the St. John's River last month, I was attacked, and I chose that word carefully, by two snakes that swam out me repeatedly as I fended them off with the tip of my fly rod.  I couldn't wait to get back on shore and was promptly rewarded by nearly stepping on a coiled, lying in wait cottonmouth.  Put it this way, it's not like fishing the shad run in the Rappahannock!

So I've been doing a little bass fishing this spring as the bucketheads seem to be in most bodies of water around here.  Fishing from shore, I've had some success in several area ponds including one at TPC Sawgrass where I caught several bass similar to the one shown here.


I found a few more ponds off the beaten path that I wanted to try the past few days.  But I wasn't alone out there... and the company I had wasn't the company I desired.

A 3 1/2 foot water moccasin

 Did I mention that I really don't like snakes? The snake above did not shy away or retreat from my presence. In fact, it aggressively came closer to me and come to the bank of the pond.  If I had Matt's machete I would have killed it then and there.

After catching a few bass there, I tried a couple other ponds.

More friends...





Not to be left out, after all, Florida is best known for its gators.  I ran into these guys too.

So if you're interested in a new pair of waders let me know.  And if you read of my untimely death from either a venomous snake bite or alligator mauling, know that I died doing what I love!
Tight lines!