The Last of 2012; The First of 2013

I've been meaning to do this post for several days now, but my personal schedule has kept me from sitting down and doing it.

I was fortunate to make one more trek out for 2012 on Saturday, 12/29. It was snowing again, and we had several inches on the ground. Getting to the stream was a bit of an issue as there were accidents everywhere. At one point, the road that leads to my stream was completely closed, and I had to take a 5 mile detour to get around the closure. I left my house around 1:00pm and did not arrive at the stream till after 2pm...the stream is 15 minutes from my house on a normal day.

This picture is of the trail that runs back and parallels the stream I was fishing. The tracks there are from a pair of bow hunters who had just started walking back as I was pulling in. I followed their tracks for about 1/4 miles before they veered off the trail and up the mountain. Small stream fishing on State Game Land this time of year is always tricky. Its a good idea to wear orange so that hunters can see you, but the question is, does it allow the brook trout to see you!? Better to take the skunk than take an arrow in the throat though. The fishing was tough this day. I got into slippery spots on top of boulders and whatnot, and felt very uneasy on my feet. The snow made walking on these boulders incredibly difficult, and as a result, I didn't fish many of the plunges and pools that I would fish other times of the year.

 As you can see, though, the scenery just could not be beat. It was so quiet and peaceful back there. I love being in the woods when its snowing. Its almost as if you can actually hear the snowflakes landing. A few miles back and I saw one other guy, some hiker who had ski polls, but no skis? He was doing some weird hike/cross country ski hybrid I guess. I saw his tracks running beside the stream for several miles, and as I was walking out to my car, he passed. me.

And this is the last fish of 2012, the only fish I caught. Yeah, I had to resort to an "ugly fly" like the green weenie, but my theory is, the only ugly fly is the fly that doesn't work! I really like the colors on brookies this time of year. There's a purple tint to them that you don't see other times.

January 1 was a much more productive day, fish wise! Once again, I decided to fish the Tulpehocken Creek in Myerstown. This time, I went exploring. It was recently reported by our area fish commission biologist that a survey of the stream in certain public stretches actually turned up wild and hold over fish. Either these fish swam downstream during the Hurricane Sandy flooding, or, despite the deteriorating habitat, the wild fish are expanding their range. I hit three stretches of this stream. I was fishing a royal wulff/scud dry dropper, which, despite being winter, seems to produce well for me on this stream. The first stretch was a very short stretch of water. I missed one little brownie on the wulff, and after an hour of fishing this few hundred yard stretch, I decided to drive around and look for more access. Again, this stream is posted like you wouldn't believe, so finding places to get in is tough. Still, I found more public access a down stream a bit, and fished that stretch. Again, I got the skunk. This habitat was in very bad condition. Trash everywhere, silty banks, tires and cement blocks in the stream, I couldn't believe any trout would live in that stretch.

After getting in my car and driving around for a bit, looking for more access, I came across this beautiful stretch of the stream.

The water here was clean, there was a good amount of cress, very little silt, a solid pebble bottom, it just looked like your classic limestone spring creek. Unfortunately the land was posted. Still, this stream is declared a navigable water, so in PA while the land around the stream can be posted, the stream itself is available for the public. Wading in was quite easy. Above the bridge in this picture there was a public lot. I fished the stretch above the bridge first, and caught the first trout of 2013!

Not my biggest fish, but the first one of the year is always something to commemorate! I fished the stretch above the bridge a bit more before deciding to wade downstream. Fortunately the water under the bridge was not deep at all, and getting through was quite easy. I moved some larger trout as I was going under the bridge, which was a promising sign! A few minutes above the bridge, and the trout started flowing!

Exploring can definitely pay off sometimes! After two bust sections, I was getting tired and a bit discouraged, but I'm glad I stuck it through and hit this last stretch. The payout was worth it. 2013 is off to a rippin' start!