Two Mornings, Two Rivers And Off The Beaten Path

The greatest enemy of "good" is "better" - Voltaire

Thursday morning found me hopscotching around the Millers and checking out some of my old haunts. I was also checking out how the trout weathered through the Summer and that answer is FINE!!

First stop was the Bridge Street Pool which looked enticing as usual but my hour there produced nice scenery and that was it. Next was the Erving Center Run that produced the star of the trip - a 6 inch brown with fins and a tail that showed no signs of hatchery markings. The pectoral fins really stand out on a fish like this. They are long and wide and look like a set of oars. A rainbow around 14 inches made its appearance before I moved upstream. Both fish fell for my possum nymph. The Center is a great place and is totally overlooked by fly fishers, fly fishing groups and the fly fishing media. It does have its "regulars" and I've been one for over 30 years. Orcutt will always draw the crowds which will keep the numbers down at the Center.

The last stop was to say hi to the Kempfield and that decision worked out fine as there were two browns working the surface and I got them both. They weren't bruisers but required careful casting under conditions that got windy.

The EB - I had to somehow make up for that T'Storm shortened trip of earlier in the week by putting in a good four hours working this river. The storms changed everything by bringing the water up considerably, knocking down the "rise" but not turning off the trout. The possum nymph, which actually looks like an insect instead of a day glow extraterrestrial ruled the day with 7 hits, 6 hooked and 5 landed.

The browns didn't make an appearance as the stage was occupied by rainbows and one gorgeous male brook trout, in full autumn colors, of about 13 inches long. It was a beautiful trout!!

Now some notes - This post and the previous post dealt with three trips totaling about 8 hours where 15 trout were landed. "What's so big about that?" you may ask. But wait a minute!! This is mid September and I was fishing over trout that were stocked over 4 months ago. And these trips were on the backwaters of freestones like the Millers and the EB and not on the popular tailwaters of our area. In short, why wait for the stocking trucks to roll in late September or roll the dice on some future date that could be rained out anyway. FISH NOW if you possibly can. YOU DON'T HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE EVENING to fish. We are in EARLY FALL (sun angle in the sky is the same as late March/early April) and the temperatures reflect that. The freestone trout did very well this Summer and they are active.

Check out my COMMENTS section for the last few posts. Some readers are gracious enough to tell you where they have done well and that is a very good thing!!!!!

My possum nymph was a size 12, tied on a wet fly hook, and it fooled those holdover trainees!

Ken

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