February 28, 2017 – First Silly Fishing Day of 2017 – More Winter Dry Fly Action

One of 5 on the dry fly.  Another 10 took a midge dropped under the gnat.  Silly morning of fishing.

I fished the Pickering DHALO for just over two hours this morning before heading in to work for a 1 PM meeting.  I arrived about 10 AM and immediately found fish rising to midges.  I was half-hoping and half-expecting as much, since the flow and visibility looked perfect after a shot of weekend rain, and today was a sunny, blue-bird day.  The air temperature read 45 degrees at 10 AM, and it probably rose close to 60 by the end of the day, but it was not that crazy 75 degrees and humid of last week.  Fish were stocked about a week ago, over top of a huge number who thrived after the fall stock, so each brood acted and fed differently.  A dry dropper was the ticket, as the old heads hit the Griffiths gnat dry, while, with maybe one exception, the new kids hit a zebra midge or bwo midge in size 20 dropped about 36 inches below the dry.  As with most of the month, little black stoneflies danced without getting any attention, at least on the surface.  They do love landing in my beard.

15 inches and a porker.

I had plans all weekend, so roles were reversed, with Tom, Eric, Kenny, even Sam out in State College texting me pictures of fish (Sam, a 19.5 wild brown!  Tom, a fat suburban blue-lined wild brown on a creek you can jump across on one leg!  Eric, a half a dozen freshly stocked bows in a short window.  Kenny, a mess of prespawn largemouth bass.).  I was happy for the fellas, and the family and I were having a cool day on Saturday doing a service project with Tami’s class at Elmwood Park Zoo and celebrating the baptism of my newest niece on Sunday—Brooke, so that surely means she will fish?  However, I knew I could only take so much before I stole a couple hours this week to realign.  I tried to sneak out Monday, got to my destination, but I then had to double-back to handle some business with my doctor.  I never even suited up!

Another over 14 inches who took the dry and proceeded to leap all over the pool!

I only had a couple hours today, so there were only a few choices.  Eric had a good time at Pickering on Saturday, before the heavy rain on Sunday, so that is where I pointed the Subaru, figuring I may even check out Valley for a little while too.  Well, I ended up netting 15 trout in two hours in the same stretch of water.  A third of the fish took a dry fly too, so I was not leaving them to squat behind a tree at VC, at least not today!  

One brown in the net and hooked another.

I only caught one brown trout, and I hooked another, but some of the rainbows were beastly.  The largest was 15 inches (by measure net, of course), and another was over 14.  Many of the new fish are average 10 inchers, but the ones that have grown fat on midges during this mild winter, feeding all day on sunny days, no doubt, they have some shoulders now.  When I had 8, I said I would quit at 10.  When I had 10, it became a dozen.  When I had to leave for home or risk being late for an important meeting or attending in chest waders, I had 15 tallied.  Plenty.  I couldn’t do this every day—that would be plain silly—but it is fun to catch rather than hunt some days.  I had my fill for a while, and will likely stalk some wild ones next week.  I am also planning a trip to State College to fish with Sam next week, which is my spring break.  After seeing the picture of his 19.5 inch wild brown, I was ready to go Monday!  I will be working a lot of hours the rest of the week, but it will be worth it if my next fishing furlough proves productive.  I am looking forward to a couple relaxing days next week, not to mention a Central PA adventure with a guy who is basically fishing for a living at this point!

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