Big Bushkill Monroe County FF0 5/2/10

[salvelinusfontinalis]

On Saturday i was in a massive car accident which i banged my head pretty badly. Least you can tell when you look at me. Heres my car:
Car

I was crazy enough to drive it up here just to see the scenery. It was worth it and took some of my soreness away.

Bushkill:
Hendricksons, Black Caddis(both being the heaviest), Tan Caddis, BWO's, and a boat load of various Midges were hatching most the day. I think the fish were mainly focused on the Hendricksons and spinners. I caught a very nice rainbow. Looked like a over-sized football. That fish was taking advantage of all the bugs! Be sure to sign the waiver and donate to the Boy Scouts if you can! Its beautiful down on their property and worth a scenery trip mixed in with some fishing.

Beautiful day on the water.

The first few pics here are Marshalls Creek.
Hatches there were: Black Caddis being the heaviest, Hendricksons, BWO's, One Huge Mayfly I didn't get to identify, and Midges. No fish rising.....

Buttermilk falls

Buttermilk falls 2

Marshalls Creek waterfall
Marshalls Creek Waterfall2
Twin falls

Now Bushkill:

Resica Falls

🙂

Im mailing them some with a donation

Riffle

Small Trib im sure has brookies

Bushkill

Bushkill2

Bushkill3

Big stream

Riffles

This is above the fly area off of firsescout road
I was way to dang tired at this point in the day to climb down to get a downstream shot of the double fall.

Firescout road secion

Firescout road 2

At this point ill say this isnt an easy stream to fish. The riffles and water flow are very strong. Makes it near impossible to cross the creek. I'm sure as it gets a bit lower in the summer it would be easier. As of now it has a great amount of flow. Most the riffles were too fast to fish.

Try concentrating on the edges of these fast riffles and any slackwater you can find. The main pool (piano pool) had about 7 fisherman on it and the rest of the creek was barren.

I thought it was funny to see a 6 miles stretch of FFO water and people only fishing 500 meters of it.

 

[Van_Cleaver]

Sal, it is really a scenic piece of water! (Ressica) My buddy is one of those typical fishermen; every time we go up there he wants to anchor up in one of the big pools, while I always look for riffles and pockets. You caught it when the water was pushing, as well. Right around average flow, but that is over the last 100 years. Like most watersheds the flows have decline steadily over the years, so usually anything around average will be a really good amount of water for that stream or river. The big Buskill can be a bear to wade, I always wear spikes, and usually a staff, or disposable wading aid. (stick) Take care of your head, and nice job reporting!

 

[Fishidiot]

Sal,
Glad to see you're okay and back out on the water!

 

[mrchunk]

I drove right up thru there on my way to the Farmington this weekend. I looked up and down the Bushkill and it looked like primo water. Isn't the Brodhead right around there too? Would you say it's worth the ~ 2 hr drive?

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Thanks Dave.

Van,

Good glad it wasn't just me that thought this is a difficult stream to wade and fish. I did see a bunch of guys with wading staffs and waders. I was the only one without waders and a staff. I was up to my hip in the tannic stained water catching fish 🙂 Im sure I looked like a nutball.

There was one old man well above Ressica Falls way down in with a wading staff. I asked how his luck was and he said terrible. Then he told me to fish before the swimmers come because they are coming.
Then he slowly followed the rugged path along the stream.

I thought this was amazing on several levels. About 300 yards downstream kids showed up with towels and looked as if they were going to swim. I dont know how he knew they were there but he did. More over, I applaud the man for his desire. I was wore out fishing this stream. Im going to guess he was in his 70's and was all smiles and seemed unaffected by the terrain.

I was a worthless pile by this point ;-)

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Mrchunk,

Yes the Brodhead is very close to there.

Yes it is well worth the 2hr drive. Dont forget your also close to McMicheals Creek and Marshalls Creek.

The Big Bushkill is just beautiful.

 

[timmyt]

sal, did you catch any fish in Marshalls creek?

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

No but i did miss a few at the waterfall after Buttermilk falls. Im sure they were trout. We were only there for about 15 minutes.

 

[pcray1231]

Van_Cleaver,

All streams are like that. An "average" flow tends to be a bit high. While I'm not saying that the stream hasn't lost water over time, most streams have, but even if they hadn't the "average" would still be higher than "normal." It's the difference between average and median.

2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 40, 20, 10, 5, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2.

Of that set of numbers, the average is 5.4, which is higher than 14 out of the 17 days. Made up numbers, of course, but they show the point.