Casual Monday
4/13/26
Having trout fished everyday since Easter Sunday, except the 7th because of a hard rain and wind, I decided to just casually trout fish on Monday, no hurry. Each day I’ve fished I was usually in waders for 5 to 7 hours each day. Well, Easter I fished for maybe an hour or so because Tionesta Creek was high and muddy. Each day I fished was against the wind. Sometimes the gusts were pretty much unbearable like it got to be today. Except for two days on smaller creeks. I used my 5 weight fast action rod fishing Tionesta Creek to try to cut through the wind. Most of the time it was against a cross wind gust so I had to use extra energy to cast a weighted streamer throughout the day. Each one of those days I came back to the camper tired and fatigued. Monday I decided to just casually take my time and try not to use as much energy. So, I thought!
It was sprinkling in the morning when I was ready to go. They were calling for high wind gusts throughout the day and a possible storm in the evening. I dressed for the rainy conditions and maybe a little warmer than I needed to, being it was going to get into the high 60’s. The overcast morning looked worse than it turned out though the wind gusts were pretty bad at times that I had to wait for the gusts to die down before trying to cast.
The section of the Tionesta Creek I planned on fishing I’ve fished many times every year. I drove up and parked at an empty campsite. I assembled the 5 weight 9’ fast action Icon rod, got my gear on and grabbed my water bottle and three cigars. I walked up the road and walked down to the creek where I wanted to start and fish my way back to the truck.
Starting off the wind wasn’t very strong at all so I easily casted my streamers across creek short to longer casts towards the far bank which, because of the deeper water, couldn’t really get as near to the far side that I would of liked. It took some time before I got my first strike. He grabbed the bugger like he was late for breakfast. I pulled the rod up and back quickly and set the hook. He was pretty frisky as I brought him to the net. This gave me a good reason to lite up my first cigar.
Till I got back to my truck I caught quite a few trout in the long stretch of water I fished. ( I wasn’t in a hurry at all.) Just relaxing, trout fishing and smoking another cigar!
It took sometime and the closer I got to my truck the gusts of wind picked up more often. By now it was about 2:30. I was deciding to brave the windy conditions but since it didn’t look like rain or any storm clouds I decided to fish downstream. I took a good gulp of water and relaxed a bit before continuing on.
Back down at the creek I started casting a Woolly Bugger as far as I could across creek. The cross wind was pretty much constant now but I was able to get the bugger cross creek with a lot of casting energy. At times the gusts were so bad I had to wait it to calm down. I wasn’t too far down creek from the truck when I was getting strikes. If I missed the first light strike I would let the bugger continue to swing and twitch it now and then. Most of the time the trout would follow it, I presume, and I teased it enough that it would grab it hard enough and I would catch it. It had me laughing to myself each time I caught a trout this way teasing it. Most were rainbows and some were pretty frisky jumping into the air trying to shake the hook loose. Some hooked fish never made it to the net. Catching a brown trout was a treat as I caught very few.
I made a far cross creek cast and watched the bugger splash down on the surface. I was holding the rod close to the water at an angle down creek. As the bugger continued to swing I watched the arc in the floating line. I watched the floating line shoot outward and felt the take. I yanked the rod up and back. I felt the top section bow towards the take and felt a strong fish pulling the line. It felt heavy but I was playing it against the undercurrent so it was pretty much hard to tell how big it was. I was bringing the trout in pretty handedly as I was bringing it up creek mid-stream. He kept his distance but wasn’t frisky or didn’t appear to be in a hurry to try to get away. As I was bringing in line and the fish towards me I saw the golden trout come into view. I was surprised he didn’t fight too hard as I was getting him closer and closer to me. I guess when he felt he was too close is when he decided to battle it out. He took off across creek tugging the line and bending the top section into the mid section. We battled it out for a time. I had a tight grip on the cork handle and fighting a heavy fish like this I actually rest the back end of the handle against the inside of my wrist for leverage. This gives me more control of the rod. With the golden trout closer he wasn’t going to cooperate very easily. He splashed the surface and then dove deep trying to take line. I let him have a little line and then tighten my grip on the line after he swam a ways. The rod sections bowed and I forced the golden closer to me. Bringing the rod up the golden surfaced and I was able to scoop him in the net. He flopped around a bit and then settled down. What a surprise! I had no idea he was out there and didn’t celebrate, to myself, until I netted him. After all the commotion he looked happy to see me after all!
The bank was too steep to climb and I had to wade the water against the current to exit to my truck. As my grandfather would say after a long day hunting, “I’m tuckered out.”
I guess my Casual easy going Monday wasn’t as casual as I intended.
~doubletaper
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