Penn's report....

.....and some musings on fishing tournaments and Peter Charles(with no link
between those two subjects).

Just returned from a few days up at Penn's, closing the camp with Mr.Shaw.
We got a couple of days of fine late season trout fishing in, before the
inevitable deluge hit the valley. The water was flowing well after last
weekend's rain/snow event(12 inches of snow at Hemlock Acres). Trout were
absolutely attacking large streamers when one could pass one near their
lies. This sort of fishing tends to bring large trout, and while we caught a
few little guys, many fish exceeded 15 inches, with a couple at or near the
20 inch mark. All fought like mad. This sort of streamer fishing always puts
me in mind of Peter Charles, and should you be reading ROFF these days,
Peter, you'll be pleased to know that one of the finer fish of the weekend
fell to one of those hair/crystal flash concoctions on short wet fly hooks
that we worked on a few years back.
We had company in Coburn, as it was one of 4 local sites for the National
Fly Fishing Championships, which entailed 10 teams of 5 fishing on Penn's,
Big Fishing Creek, Spring Creek and the Little Juniata. The tournament
started Saturday and runs through tomorrow.
While the participants(a well outfitted bunch of yuppies if I ever saw same)
could not fish the designated beats prior to the event, they could lurk in
the woods attempting to glean information.
My thoughts on this whole event are generally negative. First, if one is
indeed going to have a competition in 'fly fishing', my thinking is that it
ought to take place when insects are on the water. It would be a bit more
challenging to fish Penn's in, say, mid-May, when the sports have to figure
which of 25 insects/stages are being taken. Second, it is spawning season,
or nearly so, and while the locals can pretty well avoid the redds, I
suspect 50 out of towners might not do so, nor even give it much thought.
At any rate, from late Friday to midday Saturday the valley received about
3-3 1/2 inches of rain, falling on saturated ground. The first set of sports
on the Coburn stretches had seen a complete immersion and another partial in
the first hour of competition(talking to judges).
We should have brought the Duck Butt trophy along with us, to present to the
immersed competitors.
And the fun was just starting.....by late afternoon, Penns was as high as I
recall seeing it, outside of the biblical flood clave, complete with large
floating debris. Anyone stepping far off the bank was taking his/her life
into their hands. I figure the rest of the streams were no better, and this
morning, nothing had subsided to any extent. I wish the competitors
well.........
Tom
....really, I do.