Fishing - who would have thought it.....

"Tom Littleton" wrote in message
news:spaRj.2039$Zs1.976@trndny07...
....rain at Penn's. Lots of it, Saturday evening, screwing up a
potentially fine spinner fall. Now, to rewind:

Weds--arrived mid-afternoon at the Penn's Creek Angler,
in Millmont, and joined the owner Bruce Fisher in some
evening fishing. Eventually, a good hour-long spinner
fall(Hendricksons) led to some good fishing. Nice start.
Thurs--caught up with Mike Shaw. We fished hard to no
avail down near Weikert. The river was still up a bit
from recent rains, and bugs were spotty. Evening found
us in the familiar hole at Stan's. Egglaying caddis from
5 pm-6:30 got me a couple of fish, and the spinner fall
brought a few more.
Friday--getting warm for Penn's in April, 76 degrees.
We beat the Coburn area to a pulp with little success,
all of it deep. We'd been joined by Mike Makela, who
fished Elk and the Junction hole early, with good success
and came downstream to help us beat the Tunnel Road
stretch. The caddis were less numerous, and Rusty
Spinners lesser as well, but the two Mikes did get a few.
I had taken one early on a wet fly, and hooked and lost
a couple at Stan's before landing a smaller, slow witted
trout near the end of the spinner-fall.
Saturday--Up to 78 degrees today....with a cold front
approaching....hmmmm. Fishing during the daytime was
lackluster, even for Makela, fishing stonefly nymphs. We
all caught a couple or so, all subsurface. The breezes
subsided around 5:30 preceding the hatch. All was well,
then it started to get dark. Really dark for 6 pm EDT.
Finally, Makela notes a 'few' raindrops in the pool. We
head toward the vehicles, and within 3 minutes, moved
to a driving downpour, with impressive lightening.
This storm killed the fishing, probably for a few days,
but filled the springs and prolonged the season.

As always, the high points were a beautiful locale, good friends and
challenging fishing....especially, the friends part. Nature highlight: we
spotted either a large osprey, or
smaller eagle flying upstream on Friday, lugging a decent,
and still flopping, trout, in it's talons.
Note to Mr. Miller: all your fears are for naught. See you
in May!!
Tom

Just a few things to add...

Friday - After watching a good stretch of water above Stan's pool, I took a
peek below and saw a few coming up at the bend. There are always a few good
fish in that run, appearing to be a bit easier to catch from a distance,
ending up being out of reach, and this night was more of the usual. There
were a few around that bend a bit further though, in the submerged boulders,
as the stream flows in front a Stan's deck. I made my way through the
shoreline boulders which can be a bit of a challenge in itself. Once you
make it into the right area, you can use the boulders to your advantage,
positioning yourself for a few good solid casts away the fish. Flailed away
on a few closer fish and noticed one larger one shy away from the Grannom
Caddis, so switched over to a Hendrickson Spinner.

That was the trick. Caught one in a hurry, and had two others on that
managed to escape on the run, but the last one, was a thin 16 inch brown
that was the prize of the evening. This one had also shot into the boulders
but I was lucky enough on this one that the leader got caught in a cut in
one of the boulders. I was thinking at the time that this would not be a
good thing, that the tippet would surely break as I attempted to pop the
line out of the rut it was in. I watched the Brown Trout twist, and, fight
on the end of my line as pulled the line back and forth. Carefully I
adjusted the level of force until finally the line popped out, and the fish
came free. Not much of a fight form the dazed trout after that, and after
taking a mental picture, released it back into Stan's waters.

Can't say enough about the advantages of Fluorocarbon.

I couldn't make out the variety either, but the bird of prey with a big ole
trout hanging from it was quote a sight. A good way to mark this fine day/

It was good relaxing warm night back in camp with old friends, Tom, and
Mike. Cooked up a couple of Sirloins on the grill, along with a half
dozen ears of good early season sweet corn, and a few fine domestic brews.

Saturday - wandered around Elk all day, catching a good number of the
natives of 4-6 inch variety, with a few larger ones mixed in. Couldn't stay
out of the water all day (except to move to a new spot). In the evening the
ingredients for another good hatch,were there early, but that monsoon took
care of the evening hatch, and any fishing on Penn's for several days to
come. We watched the stream in hope of it letting up and catching something
before the mud arrived, but we ended up watching this bizarre red/pink
lightening for half hour or so before calling it (someone please explain the
lightening, I have witnesses).

Checked out the Milheim for some eats, and the Flyers game. Caught the
special for Snow crab, after ordering a turkey club sub. The sub was fine,
but no hockey on local TV since they used satellite. Seems as though the
hockey game wasn't available via their standard set-up. That was quite
disappointing, but was able to pick up the Philly radio station (WIP 610)
enough from Hemlock Acres to catch that they had won game 2 (Go
Flyyyyyyyyyerrrs)!!

Sunday - Tom left before we awoke (good to see ya Tom, we have to figure out
where to meet on the way down to the Phillies game on Saturday..). Penn's
washed out as expected. Went down to Penn's Creek Angler and shot the ****
with
Brucey. We were to stay/fish with him on Sunday Night and Monday, but the
weather changed those plans. He did send us over to a freestone stream that
we did have a good day of successful all day afternoon/evening brookie
fishing on. Decided to head home a day early, and catch up on stuff (like
posting on ROFF). Made it home in 2 1/2 hours from streamside, not a bad
run.

A good Spring trip to limber up, and get ready for the bug season to come.
Weather has been warm, and the hatches early. There has been a change in
the weather lately, and the temps won't be in the 70's for a bit, but I'm
banking on five flies:
Grey Fox Spinner
March Brown Spinner
Sulphurs
Tan Caddis
Green Drake (I would say 90% sure we catch the beginning of the hatch, and
50% shot at a Coffin Fly Extravaganza or two).

Looking forward to seeing everyone next month for the clave. It should be a
premium season. If you haven't made it up in a few years, or never at all,
it will be a good year to sample it.

The Finn