May 19, 2016 – Sweating it Out on the Monocacy Creek Trophy Trout Section

After a lot of walking, I found some water that I wanted to fish!  Got one here...

After a lazy morning, I decided to explore a creek that I had not visited before.  The lower Monocacy Creek is stocked and ends up flowing right through Bethlehem before it enters the river, but upstream there are good populations of wild fish.   I saw plenty of little guys today, and few decent fish in the 12 inch range.  I only landed two trout and neither one got a photo.  One wild brown about 10 inches long who hit a sulfur nymph was a victim of my swampiness on a 75 degree afternoon, and it ended up looking like a big gray blur.  The other got off a barbless hook while I was digging around for my phone to take a picture.  He was about 12 inches and colored up nicely.  I took pics of the spots after cleaning my lens….  The fished lived there and there.

One lived here too

Not knowing the parking situation above the lower limit of the special regs section, I parked near the Illick’s Mill Park and walked upstream for a couple hours.  I had to cover a lot of ground to find water that I thought looked fishy.  There was a lot of shallow water and muddy and silted up spots in between good looking spots.  If I had more time, I may have done better, as I had to quit at what looked like the most promising stretch for a nymph fisherman.  Before quitting, I ducked under a bridge and fished a bit below Illick’s.  I missed two fish on a midge in a deep hole at the outlet of a drain pipe, and I figured today was just not meant to be.  Like Cedar in Allentown, I am glad I saw this urban/suburban wild trout creek.  Not sure it made the short list, but I will try again upstream someday.

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