A morning on the Wissahickon, 9/29/2007

[Philly]

I headed out this morning, though I know that I should be fishing the afternoon now. Overall a nice morning, air temp was in the lower 60's, water temp around 66. Started off top water with a black and copper Sneaky Pete. Got a few splashy rises with it but because of the shadows I was having a hard time tracking the fly. I switched over to a yellow Chernobyl ant, but managed to clip the front legs off when I was cutting the tag end of the line. Changed over to an orange one, and picked up a couple of small sunfish, and a dink smallie, but the first half hour was slow. I was using a fluorocarbon furled leader, and because it sinks, on a fast retrieve most of my retrieve was underwater. I also was getting hits but no hook ups. Maybe the fish were telling me something. Tied on a white Estaz bug, with a small minnow pattern as a trailer. Again, a few hits and one hand size redbreast that took the minnow pattern. Tried a small rapala "fly" with no luck, then switched back to top water with a Woodchopper pattern. That caught me a couple of more sunfish. One on top, and one as I retrieved it subsurface. Switched back to the orange Chernobyl, and tied on the small bead belly minnow pattern on as a trailer. Some more missed strikes. Figured it was time for a green weenie as the trailer. Tied on a one with a black bead head, and chartreuse and black legs. Things started picking up and I doubled my morning catch with about a dozen casts, including a hand size green sunfish, and a couple of similar size redbreast. I lost the trailer on a fallen tree. Next up was the same pattern with orange legs. Orange is a hot color on the creek, and over the next half hour I caught a dozen or so sunfish, six of them hand size. I also caught the tree behind me three times. The fourth time I caught it I figured it was telling me it was time to head home and have some breakfast. By that time the wind had picked up and a lot of leaves were falling, making fishing a bit of a pain. So I called it a day, got in two hours or so of fishing, ended up catching 24 sunfish and the one dink bass. I plan to head out tomorrow around lunch time and see if a bit of sun on the water improves the action.

 

[Woolybugger]

Sounds like a great morning. It's the action that makes for a great trip. We release all the fish anyway.

When was the last time you caught 25 trout in a couple hours?