Birthday Trout 2021

 

Birthday Trout 2021

4/26/2021

 I had caught 2 big trout 2 weeks before my birthday. It was freezing cold and snowy on my birthday so I didn’t fish nor either the next day being the same conditions. I figured one of these 2 fish I caught earlier I’ll have to claim as my birthday trout.

 

  I had caught a few rainbows earlier on Woolly Buggers Monday morning. In the afternoon I was waiting for a hatch of some kind because I wanted to dry fly fish. I sat a spell till 2:30 and only saw a few caddis dance off the water and even fewer stoneflies fluttering about. I was tempted to throw buggers again or nymph fish but refrained. I was sitting on a log searching for just one rise in the section of water the trout rose over a good hatch of caddis and stoneflies the past couple of outings.

  

 Being I didn’t see any trout rising I waded upstream to where I picked off the rainbows earlier in the day on Woolly Buggers. My back was facing the island of small brush and stony banks. The water was gin clear and just about every rock beneath the surface was visible. The water looked shallow but on a bright sunny day and gin clear water it always appears that way looking from a distance. There was nearly a breeze so the conditions for tossing dry flies weren’t too bad at all. The fact there wasn’t any sight of a hatch or rising trout didn’t appear to be in my favor. Being there has been hatches the past few days I figured I’d give my dry flies a chance and start my own looking hatch. It was that time of day when the other hatches started and lasted for a good while so maybe the trout had a time table and were waiting also.

  There was an exposed boulder just out from the far bank. The boulder separated the water flow into a wavy current on each side of the boulder. This left a back eddy and smooth water a few yard behind. I had caught the bows earlier on buggers by casting into the back flow and letting it swing through. It was tough current conditions for a dry fly but I was going to give it a try. I thought about fishing straight upstream from behind the soft water but I had caught trout earlier in the tail out and didn’t want to screw up my chances for maybe picking one off with a dry. Besides that the water that would be behind me was fast, rippling shallow water and if I had hooked a trout and he got into that fast shallow current I would have probably lost him anyway.

  I was casting from knee deep water just off from the island. My casts were long, not wanting to spook the trout, across and upstream. I would stop my forward cast in mid-air so the dry and tapered leader would ease its forward looping motion and fall upon the water with enough slack that my stonefly pattern could drift drag free for a few seconds. Every once in a while I got that perfect cast and dropped the stonefly dry in the soft water. The elk hair wing stood up perfectly and most times than not I had trout trying to mouth it for an easy meal.

 

  Sometimes I would see a streaking flash of a trout swimming downstream after my dry. If he was able to catch up with it he snapped quickly at it like a dog jumping for a thrown Frisbee.

 

   Mind you there was no kind of hatch going on at the time. I was literally making them rise.

 I moved down crick just a bit to get a better angle of possibly dropping my dry right behind the boulder. The stonefly dry fell about a foot behind it and kind of sat for a few seconds in the back eddy before slowly drifting through the soft water. I saw a mouth poke through the surface water, facing downstream, and suck in my offering. I whipped the rod upward with one hand while pulling in slack line with the other. The slack line flung up out of the water, the line tightened and I felt the 5 weight top section bow towards the hooked trout.

  Anyone that catches trout in fast current knows, unless it’s pretty small, its hard to tell just how big the trout might be. A 12” frisky rainbow, in fast current, feels much weightier than bringing him in through softer water.

  With the hook set the hooked trout continued with the current flow than suddenly turned, facing upstream, with a couple of powerful tugs. Nothing too unusual from the past couple of rainbows caught earlier. When the trout took off upstream, on my side of the wavy current, I saw this was a longer bigger trout than I had been catching. I kept the rod facing upstream and gripped the cork handle as tight as I could with the top half of the fast action rod arcing down towards the trout. The trout got to just about across from me when it gave an angry head shake and turned away back downstream. I backed up to shin deep water on the stony shore line while letting out tension line. I knew I couldn’t let him get into the shallower, riffling, faster current behind him. There were exposed boulders throughout the shallower water and swifter current downstream. I was sure to lose him if he got that far down crick. I figured either my 5X tippet may fray against a boulder or the #14 hook will dislodge from the pressure.

  He fought hard with weighty tail swats and pulling head tugs in the oncoming current. I had the rod facing out and upstream trying to lead him up into calmer water to net him if I could. He didn’t oblige in the least. I knew he was putting plenty of strain on the tapered leader and if my knots weren’t secure they would have had a good chance of coming loose. I could feel the force of the trout in the current in my forearms trying to keep the rod steady. We were kind of in a stand still. He was swimming to and fro facing into the current trying to tug and pull his way further down crick. I couldn’t let him get any further downstream and had the fly rod angled upstream with the top two sections, at least, bowing and flexing downstream. Any moment, especially when he would surface, I was afraid I would lose him. There was no way he was going to cooperate and swim upstream towards me and he was too weighty to force him. The stony bank water, down from me, was calm and just deep enough that maybe I could get him out of the faster current to net him. I took a chance and swung the rod downstream and towards the stony bank island while pulling in some line with my left hand not letting him swim any further down crick. I watched him dart towards the island with the rod pressure I had forcing him that way. He swam so fast, with the pressure, he actually swam onto the shallow stones and beached himself in the shallowest part of the stony island bank. I thought he was going to grow legs and keep on running across the island. I just about ran towards him splashing water everywhere not wanting him to twist and slap his way out in swimmable water. It wasn’t till I got closer to him that I realized his actual length and size of this tank of a brook trout. My stonefly dry was solidly in the side of his jaw.

 

  After a few quick pictures of my catch I put him in the net and took him to deeper water. I firmly held him facing into the current. It didn’t take any time at all before he knew he was being set free and scooted out of my hand back into the current and swam away.

WOW!

  I continued to fish the dry stone in the same flow of water only I was behind the soft water fishing upstream. I picked off a few more rainbows before I called it quits and headed for the truck.

  

 It was no doubt an interesting day. No hatches to speak of but I got trout to rise anyhow with my persistence. Not only that I unexpectedly caught my lengthiest brook trout and on a dry fly to boot. He claims the honor to be my 2021 birthday trout.

~doubletaper

My dry flies catch fish no matter the size.

 

PA Grand Slam

 

PA Grand Slam on the Tionesta

4/08/2021

 It was a chilly morning, maybe in the upper 40’s. The sun was out avoiding the cloud cover most of the time. I already been out in the Tionesta Creek for the past ½ hour like the other 3 or 4 guys. While they were fishing the deeper section of water and downstream riffles, I was fishing the shallower water catching trout on nymphs and Woolly Buggers.

  

 There was a guy across crick from me fishing a deep pool area and slowly wading down crick to where the other bait fishermen were fishing. He was actually wading through water I had caught trout the past 2 days. I kind of followed, fishing behind him, only from my side of the crick. I started to toss buggers and letting them swing in the current. Now and then I’d get a bump and now and then I was able to hook a rainbow or brook trout.

 

  The guy would turn around and see the trout I caught splashing surface water. The cross crick guy finally took a stand on a flat rock and was fishing the tail out of the deeper hole just before the riffles. There was a guy downstream from me fishing the same hole from my side of the crick. Both were throwing bait of some sort.

  So, I’m tossing the bugger cross crick to where the guy just waded through 5 minutes ago and letting it swing into the deeper water downstream from me. The glare on the water surface was pretty intense with the sun shining down on us. I made a long cast with the fast action fly rod across and downstream and let a little more line out so the bugger would drift further down crick. I figured the drift should swing just shy of the cross creek fellow and close to the beginning of the deep hole. From out of nowhere I saw a long fat gold oblong shaped fish chasing my swinging bugger. At least I assumed that. He darted towards where I figured my offering was swinging but held back from hitting it but still followed it. His second attempt he hit the moving bugger like a hawk grabbing a running field mouse. When I felt the bump I pulled line in while jerking the rod high upstream for the hook set. The line tightened instantly as the 9’ 5weight rod arced into the mid section. I watched the golden dart underneath the surface glare to my left downstream taking line. I held the grip tight trying to lock my wrist trying to keep an arc in the rod. The golden trout was heavy and used its weight and the current trying to break loose. After a few more seconds, with the force he was putting on the arcing rod, I had a feeling he was hooked pretty good.

  The guy, just down stream from me, called out “he caught a Palomino.” Just then the Golden came out from under the glare and started causing a big commotion on the surface. The sun shown down on the battling trout like a spotlight on the main attraction of a stage play in a fit of rage. The golden appeared to glow upon the surface as it struggled before returning below. I felt the vibration of the flexing rod with every tug, head shake and body twist. With a little more of his energy exerted I felt I could start coaxing him towards me. As I was bringing in line, slowly, he swam from side to side into the oncoming current and was slowly coming my way. At time it was like trying to get a stubborn mule, tied to a long rope, tugging to follow me. When I finally got him closer, and saw the size of him up close, I wasn’t sure I would be able to keep him in the net. I lifted the rod and he drew closer from downstream. I assumed that when he saw the net he didn’t want anything of the sort and swam across from me. I felt the rod arcing more and more so I relieved the pressure by dropping the rod some. I let him swim upstream a little and got ready to try and net him again. My intention was to get his head in the net first. I lifted the rod high and he backed up towards me. With one quick swoop, from beneath him, I swung the net up and his thick body entered my tear drop net. I angled the net quickly so his head dropped into the deepest part of the net bag while his tail was flapping frantically like windsock tails in a stiff breeze. His solid reddish maroon lateral line was so pronounced it looked like someone took an artists paint brush and made one swipe across his glowing side.

  I unhooked the bugger from his jaw and admired my catch with a quick picture. I laid the net close to the water and when I held him I could feel his firm strong body within my grip. I slid my hand to the neck of his tail and when he gave me a good hard get away tail swat I released him from my hand. He swam away looking as if he was in good shape.

  Well, I continued to fish into the evening. Around 11 a few trout were rising to what I believe were stoneflies. I knotted on one of my stonefly dry patterns and casted to the risers. One snapped it up and broke water rising like a plastic ball being held under the water and then letting it go. I set the hook on the rise and got a good hold on him. He fought like a small dog trying to pull his favorite rope toy from its owners hand. When I got him netted I saw he was a brown trout. I couldn’t get another to rise to my dry fly so I knotted on a nymph with a Picket Pin. On one drift a felt a hard strike like a trout grabbing a swinging streamer. I hooked it and when I got it in it was a frisky rainbow. Since I didn’t take any photos of the other rainbows I caught earlier I figured I’d take a pic of this one to authenticate my story. That completed the PA Grand Slam. At least one brook trout, one rainbow, one golden trout and one brown trout. In all my years of trout fishing I’m not sure if I ever did that before.

 

 It was another exceptional good day trout fishing.

 

~doubletaper

Unexpected Snag?

 

Unexpected Snag?

4/14/2021

 

 I decided to brave the cold morning and go out trout fishing. I’ve been trout fishing the Tionesta everyday, except 2, since the day before Easter. It has been from 70 degrees at times to high 40’s. This morning it was still in the mid 30’s when I left the camper. By the time I got to the crick it was in the low 40’s and spitting rain. Jeff and I had fished this spot the evening before with good success catching trout on streamers and I couldn’t wait to return before the predicted snow Thursday evening and on Friday.

  It felt like a typical early April spring morning in my opinion. The air temperature was colder then the water temperature which we measured at 54 degrees the day before. The short bursts of wind gusts brought an even colder chill just in case you were getting semi-comfortable with the air temperature for the time being. The bushes and trees were starting to blossom with whites, yellows and orange blossoms adding much needed color to the over winter bare trees. Even the pines appeared to brighten up a bit with lime colored needles overtaking the drab olive colors from the colder months. There were still a few oak trees showing off their brown crispy leaves that hung on to the branches over the cold winter as if they were proud of it. With the sun peaking out between the clouds, and the blossoming trees, it sort of gave a promising feel that warmer weather was to follow and stick around till summer.

I had just got done picking off a few trout from where we left off the evening before. There were still a few hungry frisky trout without sore lips that were looking for a brunch meal.

  

 My hands were cold and my cheeks felt stiff from the overall cold windy conditions. I looked upstream and the two guys that were fishing were gone. I decided to take a walk upstream and fish a section I never fished before. By the time I found a bunch of rocks beneath the surface I could wade out on to get to cast further out my feet had warmed up some and I felt much warmer from the exercise. It didn’t take long though, once I stepped in the water, to feel the coldness surrounding me once again. I already had a Woolly Bugger on and added an extra split shot so it would drop deep in the deeper looking section of water I was casting into. My first cast was only about 3 rod lengths away. I dropped the bugger just before the rocks and boulders I planned on walking on and let it drift into the deep water with the slow current. My second cast wasn’t much further. I was watching my floating fly line waiting for a trout tug when the fly line quit drifting. I didn’t feel a tap or a tug so I figured my bugger snagged bottom. I lifted the rod with an upper wrist pull but it didn’t come loose. The second pull was a little more forceful but not so much to try to break the line, still nothing. I angled the rod upstream some to maybe dislodge from a different angle. On my third try I gave more of a tugging pull. The line began to move slowly down stream. I figured I must have dislodged a knotted root and the undercurrent was taking my snagged bugger and root down stream. When I felt a nudging tug I knew there was something live on the other end. It didn’t fight hardly at all but it was heavy enough to bend the 9’ rod sections that I had no control of trying to move it my way. I thought maybe I had snagged a big old sucker being that it wasn’t fighting much. After I let a little tensioned line out whatever creature was on the end of the line decided it didn’t want to be there anymore and started thrashing about. It took off towards mid crick and I didn’t have any choice but to let it run. Then it made a semicircle down stream. I still hadn’t gotten an eye on it as it stayed deep and out of sight. I held on tight and let it play around feeling the jolting tugs in the cork grip but really nothing to fierce. I watched I as lifted the rod and it became visible just below the surface. It looked like a big long smallmouth bass. When it was just under the surface it whipped around and took deep again with fly line zipping off out of the reel. It was finally mad enough it was going to be coaxed into a fight I don’t think it really wanted. He forcefully got his way for a while but the hook didn’t let loose. It was a good hard struggle getting him close enough to net and by the time I did my upper arm felt the strain. There was no way I snagged him. The bugger hook was deep in his jaw.

  Now I have caught smallmouth bass in this crick before but mostly in the warmer months. I never expected to catch something of this size this early in the year.

 Well, that WAS the big excitement for the day. I did catch a few more rainbow trout on Woolly Buggers and even caught a brown trout on a dry fly which was pretty peculiar. I thought being it was pretty cold out and windy and I didn’t see flies coming off the water. Then again I’ve been known to make trout rise out of the blue.

 

 

 Back at camp I tried to warm up but I swear, fishing almost everyday for the past week or so, my core body temperature felt like it was in the 50’s. I finished off the evening eating venison steak bites smothered in Jim Beam Smoky Barrel BQ sauce and a cold Molson XXX watching snow flakes fall outside of the camper window. 

 ~doubletaper

 

Need a Bigger Net

 

Need a Bigger Net

4/09/2021

  The group of bait chuckers were downstream from me fishing in a faster run. They were kind of lined up, knee deep, keeping their safe Covid distance away from each other. (I’m sure none of them cared being that they were all camping with each other as a group.) I was a fair piece upstream, standing on a flat rock a third of the way across the wide section of water, fishing a slower deeper pool. I was making long cast down and across, with my fast action 5 weight, 9’ fly rod, with a variety of different color Woolly Buggers but only caught a couple of small rainbows in the past ½ hour or so. Another young man, from the group, waded knee deep between me and the group of guys downstream. There was plenty of room between us and he started casting his spinning rod out beyond where I could reach anyhow. Well he started picking off trout, one after another, with no end in sight. One of the other fellows ask him what he was using and the young guy catching all the trout told him minnows.

  As he continued to catch trout after trout on his minnows I wasn’t getting any strikes on my bugger offerings. It was like he was the new handsome kid at school and the girls all clung around him and ignored the rest of us fellows. I unsnapped the Bugger from my Fas-Snap and decided to snap on my best looking Triple Threat minnow pattern. I set it under the water, to my side, so the Polar Fibers would soak up the water and make it cast easier. My fist cast was across the crick right in front of me of about 25 feet or so and I watched the Triple Threat sink and start to swing with the slow current out of sight. Before me I saw a long dark oblong shape quickly swimming in the direction of my streamer from up stream passing me by. I couldn’t see my streamer but when I felt the sharp nudge on the rod and in my grip I yanked upward to set the hook. The line tightened, the rod arced downward and I tightened my grip around the cork handle. The trout pulled away down crick like a rolling bowling ball with no way of stopping it. The excess line, I had on the water, uncoiled in a jiff through my tensioned fingers. Once all the extra line was off the water the spool spun out line as I grabbed the rod handle with two hands. Downstream he exploded out of the water clearing the water surface of at least 10”. His big body twisted and turned in mid-air. Water sprayed everywhere as the sun rays shimmered off his wet body like a strobe lite ball. He splashed down upon the surface with a loud cannon ball entry and dove deep. After a few jolting head shakes he darted out across crick and more line peeled off the spool. As he started to swim upstream I was reeling in line as quick as I could keeping a tight line and the rod top section bowed towards the heavy trout. About 15 yards away, down and across, he came barreling out of the water again as if shot out of a cannon. Again he cleared the water surface by 10” or more. His body twisting as he shook his head trying to release the hook and be free from the tight line and rod resistance. I gave him some slack hoping the hook wouldn’t come loose during his aerial display. When he hit the water again, spraying water in all directions, I put some tension on the line between my fingers as the rod top section arced with his weight. He never exploded out of the water again but took the battle beneath the surface with fierce tugs and pulls. He maneuvered his way beneath, covering water, using his weight and current to his advantage and keeping his distance not letting me shorten the distance between us for some time. Once he came nearer to the surface I knew he was tiring and exhausting his energy. I was reeling line in getting him closer to me with the rod high and with a half decent arc. I knelt on one knee, on the flat rock I had been standing on in the middle of the crick, so I was closer to the water when ready to net him. When he wouldn’t swim any closer I just let him fight the arced rod pressure but when he was strong enough I had to let some tension line slip through my fingers. It was a short distant melee for a time being. When he got closer he had the strength and body weight to pull away and I had to lesson the pressure on the 5X tippet and let him take line out. This went on longer than I wanted it too and I didn’t want him to be totally exhausted by the time I got him in the net. I finally got the upper hand as he drew closer and tried netting him. I wasn’t sure if I could even get him in the net and keep him in there safely. He splashed and flipped when he felt the net but I was able to get most of his body cradled in the net. I could see the hook was secured well in his upper lip as he squirmed in the net. With his weight it was hard to hold the net in a level position until he settled down a little more as he almost flipped out of the net a few times. It was like trying to balance a volleyball on a badminton racket on a windy day while standing in the surf with one hand. I knew he was pretty exhausted so I only took one quick picture before letting him go. I laid the net in the water and I thought he swam out safely. As I watched him, as I stood on the flat rock, I saw him turn belly up and flowing with the slow current just under the surface. He was heading for the guy that was catching all the trout on minnows. I called out to him and told him the trout was heading towards him and was belly up. He was able to hand catch the trout and brought him towards the bank. It took longer than I expected but the guy did a great job being patient and reviving the big rainbow before letting him swim on his own. Of course I thanked him for his good deed.

  It turned out to be another good day on the water and of course the big rainbow was the prize catch of the day.

  Back at camp I had Venison Fajitas and refried black beans with a pint of Brown Ale from the local brewery. 

  

 To end the evening I sat by the campfire and enjoyed a Fuente Double Chateau Sun Grown while finishing off the pint!

 ~doubletaper

 

2021 Trout Opener

 

2021 Trout Opener

4/03/2021

 

 While anglers encircled trout upstream like vultures around a dying animal, I was downstream alone catching trout on streamers.

 

 I wasn’t in any hurry to meet the freezing weather in the morning of trout opener. I wait till after 10:00 am. By then the ones that keep trout left the water, some are back at the camp fire warming up or drinking beer and eating. This usually gives me some room in the more productive areas I know of on the crick. I got to the crick after 11:00, assembled my fly rod, geared up and looked downstream from where I parked. This bunch was determined and encircled a section of water where there looked like there wasn’t any escape from the wary trout. I decided to walk the path downstream some and just fish streamers till I caught a trout. Then I’d make a stand and enjoy trout fishing without a crowd.

  The air was chilling cold and the water was even colder than that. If there was a remedy for aches and pains that involved cold, near freezing water, to subside such conditions, this would be the place and temperature to submerse your body. If you can withstand the water coldness for 15 to 20 minutes or so your submerged limbs will become numb and the original pain will most likely go unnoticed.

  On my way fishing downstream I caught my first trout within the vicinity of mid stream. That’s all I needed to know. Where there’s one trout there are usually a lot more. Being the first day of trout season they most likely were unmolested and should be easier to fool. Well just lets say for the next few hours I was having fun, cold, but hooking trout time and again while smoking cigars. 

 

 Now I have to admit, I wasn’t catching anything big to brag about but wrestling the trout out of the fast current to my waiting net was more of a challenge than hooking them. When my feet and lower limbs couldn’t take the cold anymore I would wade out to the bank and take the chill off. Everyone else was upstream beating the water with an assortment of bait, artificial lures and what not, so I wasn’t worried about losing my spot. It was enjoyable for me while it lasted.

  As early evening approached I looked upstream and the crowd had dispersed leaving only one angler still within the area. I waded out to the bank and walked up to my truck. From there I stepped back into the water and waded and fished my way towards where the crowd was in the afternoon. I started catching trout just shy of where most of the anglers were fishing. In fact I’m sure I was hooking up to trout right where some of the anglers were standing. 

  I ended the outing when the wind got stronger and the air got colder. By then I was pretty well shivering at times when I wasn’t netting fish. I lit up my last cigar and waded out towards the bank.

 

 I find, even at my age, it’s hard for me not to engage in trout fishing on the opener. I’ve been fishing the first day for many years. First with my grandfather, then my children and then with friends. Now I mostly fish it alone or maybe meet someone during the day.

It was quite chilly but it was still fun.

~doubletaper