May 5, 2015 – A Leisurely Trip on the Wissy with my Dad

Postcard worthy?

I had the morning to play because I was working a late night and not going into the office until 1 or 2 PM, so I called my dad the day before to see if he wanted to get out.  I thought the PFBC had put fish in the creek on May 1st, so they would be set up or at least driven around by a weekend of pressure.  Not so.  As we would find out from the ridiculous number of trout dumped indiscriminately in unfishy spots (like over 2 feet of sand bottom, so they could become eagle feed), they were just put in the water the afternoon of May 4.  We had a fun, relaxing morning, but for me it was also a reminder of how ridiculous the put-and-take fishery is when you have to rely on volunteers (or, worse, no one at all) to do the stocking.

My dad started out throwing a Rapala CD 3 and ended up catching 4 rainbows at the first hole we fished, probably holdovers from the last stocking in mid-April.  I got 3 on nymphs in a couple holes that often hold fish into the summer (at least when it rains—another story altogether this spring; we need some badly).  

The reliable CD 3.

A couple on the caddis beadhead.

Fishing was tough with clear water and high sun, not to mention nearly 80 degrees.  We didn’t get started until after 9 AM.  Fish were hitting very short when they were hitting at all.  We fished a couple of my favorite holes and had early success but then couldn’t get any more to cooperate.  As we were moving down to the next favorite spot, I spied buckets of fish dumped in a shallow, flat stretch that would be 70 degrees in no time with the heat this week.  The fish were just scattering at shadows and chasing each other around like they were in an aquarium.  We each hooked one or two who were hidden in the shadow of an overhanging tree branch, but mostly we just watched and marveled at the ridiculousness.  We quickly moved onto the hole where we were originally headed and met another nice father/son team who pointed out the buckets of spooked trout in front of them in this hole too.  There were another fifty fish in this spot just chasing each other around.  My dad hooked one and landed a few sunnies.  I hooked half a dozen rock bass on a streamer before quitting (at least the rb's knew not to pass up a meal). 

A jigged hares ear worked on at least one.

The highlight was spending time with the old man on a weekday and seeing the Wissy eagle, possible eagles, again.  My pop even saw him or her eating a trout on the bank downstream from him (once again too far for my phone camera to capture).  The eagles will do well this week eating stockies out of 6 inches of water where they were indiscriminately dumped.  I will be checking water flow gauges in NEPA and planning my next move for Monday, probably giving the Wissy a rest until we get a couple days of steady rain or I decide to get my young son on a few fish.

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