Fishing Report and Visiting A New River

Ahhh... it's been nice to be back in Pennsylvania for a few days. Even got to do a little fishing, and I do mean a little, but it was all good. A nice recharge of the batteries, as nothing beats the summer heat like a wet wade through some nice, cold water while chasing trout beneath the shade of a wooded canopy. Well, almost nothing...

Saturday: Valley Creek

On Saturday I snuck out to Valley Creek, my old stomping grounds. I'm not going to lie, I didn't have a very good day on the fishing front. I caught two fish, but they were so small I didn't bother to take photos. I'm talking fingerling size, both caught almost one after the other on a size 16 Copper John about 20 yards upstream from the wooden foot bridge. (If you've been to Valley, you know where I'm talking about). The rod of the day was the (updated and new to me) Tenkara Times TRY 360.

Every time I visit Valley, it's much different than the last. It's crazy how much Mother Nature can change the look of what used to be familiar water in a little less than a year. The water was pretty low too, making some of the usual riffles and deeper runs not quite the same. Guess that can be expected for July.

Uh oh, somebody lost their bobber. With Valley being catch and release, wild brown trout only water you don't often see bait fishing gear or associated remains scattered along the banks, so this was kind of a curious find. I suppose either a kid was playing around in the creek, or perhaps it washed downstream from somewhere else.

Sunday: Not So Secret Water

On Sunday, I drove just a little further West and visited one of my old "not so secret spots." Even when some of the other streams in the area slow down during the Summer, this one usually produced for me. I was sure this time would be no exception until...

And then...

Ummm.... those signs are new, and kind of strange considering they run along State Game lands. They were never there before in all the years I fished this section of the creek, so I kind of wonder if nearby landowners didn't just put them up to deter visitors... It's not like they had any specific information filled in on them. Oh, whatever...

Not wanting to really deal with the hassle (or potential gunfire pointed in my direction) should they have been legit, I had to resort to fishing a much shorter section nearby that hadn't really been quite as productive in the past, but I knew still held fish.

Fortunately, it did again. I only caught one wild brown, but it was a pretty specimen... even if the photo below doesn't really show it well, particularly the vibrant red spots. See, I was trying to do the good guy "keep 'em wet" thing and keep it at least partially submerged in my net while snapping a quick smartphone photo, but I didn't realize the amount of glare the water was producing. Almost looks like the fish is in a puddle of mercury or something.

Either way, the brownie put on a pretty good show, making a few deep runs before finally coming to hand/net after a surprisingly good fight. Oh, and as far as gear goes, I was fishing the Three Rivers Tenkara Confluence zoom rod (a feature which came in very handy with all of the summer growth vegetation choking out sections of water), 3.5 Tenkara USA level line, and a size 12 Road Kone Kebari.

That was about it on the trout front. I don't think I'll get out fishing on Monday before heading back to Florida on Tuesday. Can't say I'm disappointed. This trip wasn't really even about going fishing (these two outings were just a few stolen bonus hours), rather, it was about visiting family and getting to meet my new nephew River.

The kid's got a pretty cool name, right?