March 9, 2017 – Taking the Old Man Fishing – The Little Schuylkill River DHALO with My Dad.

I hope I look as good at 70.  I still out-fished him, though, just like I have since I was 10 years old.

When I first fished the Little Skuke DHALO section in June of 2016, the lasting impression was that this would be a great place to take my dad, Joe.  At 70 years old, he looks young and is very healthy, but he is 70 years old, so places like the Lehigh or the Brodhead or the surf kick his butt sometimes, even though he toughs it out.  He is more at home on the front of a bass boat these days, but he does like to trout fish, and he even got out this winter on his own, which was impressive, as he is a mitch about cold weather.  The Little Skuke is easy to wade, wide and open, and often productive.  Holdovers, stockies, and even a few wild fish can be found.  No wild ones landed today, but I did the brook, rainbow, brown hat trick, and I think I tangled with one little wild one that got off.  My dad had the tell-tale one bump and gone hits on his CD 1, which are often signs of wild or long-time residents.  Together, he with the plug, me with the fly rod, accounted for at least 25 fish between us in roughly 5 hours of leisurely fishing.  Needless to say, it was a good day.

Streamer and walt's worm accounted for about 15 trout of all varieties.

When we arrived at about 10:30 AM, I had a feeling my dad was going to have a good day throwing the plug.  The water was perfect for that: stained and a little bit high too.  I had a streamer on my 5 wt from my trip with Sam on Tuesday, so while Joe tossed a CD 1, I heaved a streamer.  The wind was rough off and on all day, with periods of high winds and falling sticks and branches, but there were also periods of relative calm.  I caught many fish on nymphs, and even though little black stoneflies were popping all day, and a couple fish rose to them, I did not contend with the wind and a dry fly, sticking to the streamer and the walt’s worm because they were working well.  It was good to see the holdovers from last year rising to bugs though!  I will be back again on a less windy day with clearer water conditions.  There were big splashy rises, and a couple fish that showed themselves were also quite big.

A nice brookie ate the Roberdeau, along with one bow and one brownie before I switched to nymphing.

To add to the windy, high pressure conditions, the water temperature was only 45 degrees around noon when I remembered to check, despite the air getting up to around 63 by the time we left about 3:45 PM.  Joe caught a small brown on his second cast, but we only caught 4 other fish combined during the first hour to 90 minutes, including a 13 inch brook trout that took the big streamer.  My dad got another brown (he only caught browns today, actually) and I stuck a bigger brown and a decent rainbow with the streamer before switching to the double nymph rig. Two nymphs were not necessary, as about 12 trout went for the walt’s worm and nothing took the pheasant tail above it.

One of Sam's walt's worms with the barbless tournament hooks took a dozen fish

We only ran into two nice young guys fishing downstream with spinners (and doing well, too) the entire day.  They said the upper end nearer to town was crowded, but we never saw anyone else since we didn’t have to go far, just doing a loop around some islands and catching or moving a couple fish at each likely spot—and some unlikely ones too.  The river is wide and mostly shallow, but fish were spread out very well, so even some slightly deeper depressions or bank-side riffles held a couple fish, and the 3 or 4 risers I saw were right out in the flats eating size 12 stoneflies with relish.

Wide and pretty shallow, also good wading for my old man who did very well tossing the Rapala plug all day.

One of a couple brookies, a bonus stocking this year.

A couple times during the day, I tried to get my dad hooked up with the fly rod, coaching from the sidelines, but even though the fish were stockies, they were new to the creek, which was cold, so the hits were tough, tentative.  He got some good drifts and even swung on a couple, but no luck today.  If the water warms up, or I become a better instructor, I have no doubt he can connect with a few this year.  Well, true to form, Joe and I talked about stopping for lunch and even visiting Cabela’s on the way home, but we ate nothing and fished right up until it was best to hit the road in order to miss rush hour on 22 and the PA Turnpike and be home for dinner.  This is how we have fished together most of my life: 12 hours on a canoe or boat with maybe some water and peanut butter crackers.  I hope the old man had a good meal and sleeps well tonight.  The forecast is for snow tomorrow, so I will be sleeping in too.  It was a great day with plenty of laughs and highlights, and I have had a great week off, fishing and spending time with friends and family.  Joe is retired and has been for 7 or 8 years, I think, and I am jealous.  I would have retired at 30 and just read books, listened to records, written a lot, and fished to my heart’s content, sort of like I did this week...

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