TR: Penns Creek Clave

In no particular order (except the first part, which although not fishing
related, is certainly the big cheese of our first day out), here are some
remembrances of Penns Clave 2005:

1) As usual I was accompanied by my 34 year fishing (and all around) buddy,
Jim Lafley. This year our friend Tom LeBlanc (missing from Frank's list,
but important in my life and my tale) came along, towing his mini-trailer.
I'll add here (parenthetically, but not so surrounded) that Tom was the only
camper this year (not counting, truly parenthetically, the other trailer
folk like Mike "Handyman" Shaw and Gene Cyprichsp). That is, Tom was down
in site 75, fondly remembered as the group camping site in that first
Northeast Clave, back in 2001. The lack of campers may be the result of the
*bear problem* at Hemlock Acres (which I will touch on later) or the general
low attendance this year, but it was notable and thus has been noted. So,
getting back on the tracks again, I will relate the story of Tom and the
Trailer, which was foretold in one of my last pre-clave posts where I wrote:
"We'll be pulling in about 2 barring disasters en route." We were just
outside of Scranton when Jim said, "Is there something wrong with Tom's
trailer?". That was more of a question, I think, but he really did just say
it more than asked it. Like a rhetorical question, which I don't have a
symbol for on my keyboard, so I have added a normal question mark. I had to
agree that something was wrong, because it can't be right to have your
trailer listing to port at about 15 degrees. (Mmmm, port) We decided to
pull over so Tom would do the same, and as he passed us we noted (notably)
that the left tire and rim were missing. When the wheel hit the rumble
strip, it exploded into miscellaneous pieces of brake drum, shoe and wheel
part shrapnel, luckily missing us and other vehicles. Tom gets out of his
truck, walks past the now bare axle and says, "Why did you guys stop?" I'm
not making that part up, which may or may not be true of the rest of the
story parts in this post - you'll have to decide that for yourselves.
Eventually Tom made contact with a local trailer repair guy, who came out
(eventually) and towed his trailer off the Interstate. Jim and I abandoned
him to his fate, promising to contact him later by cell phone (not realizing
fully or even vaguely that cell phone service in Coburn was as missing as
Tom's tire and rim). The good news is, after driving around the Greater
Scranton Area collecting parts, he got his wheel repaired and was back on
the road by 6 and in Hemlock Acres by 9. We got his voice mail messages
Thursday. Despite the disaster, Jim and I arrived by 3. Jim headed down to
Weikert with Makela and Reid for the drake hatch, and I got to go fishing
during a good evening hatch of tan caddis and white wing sulfurs (on the
Axelrad stretch, so I could watch for Tom). While I was doing the Penns
Creek "wait for dusk", Vince Norris found me and we shared some beers,
waited, fished, and hooked up with Tim Carter late in the evening for beers
and conversation. Late night meetings became the routine because of the
night fishing.

2) John must have been fishing on west coast time. He expressed concern
Saturday that he might get some grief about all the fish he missed Friday.
I assured him that he was right.

3) by Saturday night it felt like Monday. Lots of river time.

4) had a good reminisce with Jeffie, Vince, IJ and JR about the Maine Clave
of 2001 where we were fishing the Rapid River during the 9/11 attack. A nod
to our fellow Maine clavers: the Pirate and Mrs. Pirate, flyfish, salmonfly
and daytripper and the missing Wayno.

5) Tom LeBlanc and I were touristing a bit Tuesday morning and ended up in
State College looking for the beer store. We ran into Vince Norris, the
only person we know from the area, in the store parking lot.

6) Jim and I have always liked to pursue our hobbies where we're unlikely to
meet lots of other people. Back in our days at UMass there was a tennis fad
going on and court time during nice weather meant a long wait, so we played
in the rain a lot. (hitting a wet tennis ball sounds a bit like a big brown
trout slurping a coffin fly) We do a similar thing during fishing trips -
tending to go to places where other people, and thus fish, are unlikely to
be. We got in a few such days, missing the big hatch (or spinner fall) on
Penns in order to get quiet time on a calmer river. Fish were caught, the
commotion was not missed. At the popular spots on Penns (basically
everywhere) there were lots of people looking for a spot for the evening
activity. Most people were very polite about it, and there was plenty of
room to move around, but JR and Joel both had run-ins with people with no
etiquette who jumped right into their casting area.

7) Jambalaya good. Habanero sauce very good. Thanks John.

8) Barley stew good. Farts even better. Despite his polite exterior, JR is
the master. We gasp in awe.

9) The late hours shortened the usual hobnobbing hours. Clave decentral
moved to the big cabin because of the big smokers' porch, the big
fridge-full-o-Yeungling, the concentration of folken, and Peter's and Tom
LeBlanc's Scotch. JR and I discussed the big number of smokers. You guys
should quit that before it kills you.

10) Rum and Coke
1 1/2 ounces Rum
5 ounces Cola

11) It's a bit too peaty

12) (for Tom LeBlanc)
Amish girls on trampolines
Woo
Woo

13) One thing that was missing was the camping crowd. I was one of the crew
at the first Penns Clave and made some good friends there. We didn't have
any group campfires this year, but Jim and I had a small fire one night when
we came back early. Everybody mentioned missing people.

14) Rudy, the new owner at Hemlock, needs to get serious about his bear
problem. He told me that bears aren't a problem until they lose their fear
of humans and thinks an occasional trash can raid is part of the outdoors
experience. I think if he collected the trash at the sites every day before
dusk, he would reduce the problem. I ran into him one night on the walk
back from area 75 and he told me that a big bear had raided trash cans. He
was heading down to the meadow to check on some people who were tenting
there. He looked worried, and he should be. Right Frank and Wolfgang?

15) Peter, sorry you had to leave, thanks for leaving the party favors.
Clinks to you. Vince, glad we had a chance to chat the first night. Mark
V, hope everything works out for your daughter.

16) Rain? We don't fear the rain! The rain Friday kept the olives on the
water making for a great afternoon. It did not stop the coffin flies. The
coffin flies were so thick that they were hitting your rod during the cast.
And while you were just standing there. They made the fish stupid.
Awesome. Standing in the rain, getting hit by tons of bugs, uncatchable
fish rising everywhere in the dark? Sign me up! Honestly, the fishing in
the dark part didn't appeal to me, but as a 'once in a lifetime big bug
adventure' it was a big win. Definitely something to experience and I loved
it.

17) It was nice not to have raging rivers and biblical rain every day. It
was tough fishing in the low clear water. Very tough when the sun was on
the water which it was 4 or 5 days.

18) Big fish on small flies. Can life get any better? Got my biggest brown
ever on a tiny CDC bluewing olive. Saw the fish rise off the bottom and
whack it. My biggest fish of the week was a *huge* healthy looking sucker
caught on a size 18 flashback PT. Got a little sucker too. My big lesson
of the week was learning to distinguish between rolling suckers and brown
trout. I think.

19) If you think the trout at Penns are finicky, try Big Fishing Creek. It
was running low and clear this past week. Got many refusals and caught a
nice fish in a tiny side channel in a flashback PT. That was a popular
nymph all week.

20) Found a little store with a great meat market. Pig stomachs (stuffed
with potatoes, onions and sausage) for $6.59. What a deal! Purportedly goo
d to eat, but not a good sexual lubricant.

21) Teaberry ice cream. Mmmm.

22) I not only didn't die, but my knees held out all week, and I actually
feel better today than I did last Friday. I spend 8 hours fishing in the
rain yesterday and felt great. I just can't tell you how good it is to be
*not sick*.

23) Cosmic Wimpout is as frustrating as fishing Penns during the green
drakes and coffin flies. Last night after the coffin flies, I was rolling
my last licks in a close match, and had plenty of points to win, and rolled
5 tens. 1000 points. Just too many points, so I lost. But I enjoyed the
game.
--
Stan Gula
http://gula.org/roffswaps