brown recluse in my wading boots

[Bamboozle]

north west jersey. i am sure they are in PA as i am 5 min drive to PA.

Not the same place but in a nearby geography...

I had a friend who lived in Nanuet, NY who was bit by a Brown Recluse on the lower leg and ALMOST lost that leg...

 

[sixfootfenwick]

Not the same place but in a nearby geography...

I had a friend who lived in Nanuet, NY who was bit by a Brown Recluse on the lower leg and ALMOST lost that leg...

It certainly happens despite those critters not being able to survive our climate.
My account was similar, my leg was really bad and the pain was worse. I was lucky not to have lost my leg.

 

[Bamboozle]

...One of the first timea I saw a Dobson Fly (adult Hellgramite) I was about 18...

Cool bug, but not when it is that close to my face.

I was fishing the Susquehanna with a friend one night as the White Flies were coming off. The Dobsonflies were attacking the White Flies and literally sawing off their wings as they grabbed them. They were occasional landing on us too, usually after using our headlamps to change flies. 😱

My friend was standing on a huge rock and I was across from him when a Dobsonfly buzzed and landed on him. He freaked out and ran around like an cartoon elephant seeing a mouse and proceed to step on his fly line almost completely cutting it in half...

...while I laughed my a$$ off at the sight!!

 

[afishinado]

After getting humiliated by a couple of guys fishing "caddies" on the Susquehanna I went searching for an alternative. I found it in a hand poured "plastic" version made by a company called "Case" (not sure if they still exist).

Anyway, their stone cat & hellgrammite imitations worked pretty well without the hassle and terror factor coming into play...

Instead of picking caddies and clippers from under the rocks I tie these up and FF with this bait >

 

[Bamboozle]

Nice flies...!!

It's funny, when I fished the Susquehanna regularly with a fly rod I hardly ever threw anything bigger than small poppers or White Fly imitations as I absolutely hate fly fishing deep or with big or heavy flies.

So for me it was spinning gear by day fishing big "baits" or real bait, back to the car around 6pm to exchange the spinning rod for the fly gear (and have a few beers 😉) and back on the water with poppers and dry flies until midnight or later.

I'm not bragging but from the very first time I ever fished the Susquehanna in 2001, I out-fished my fly fishing only partners about 10 to 1 using spinning gear in the daylight hours. After seeing how effective and how much fun it was with spinning tackle I never bothered tying or trying flies that that again...

Obviously YMMV.

 

[falcon]

There is a older fly pattern Murray's Madtom. It may be effective but not real imitative. Two colors marabou for tail, black chenille body and a few wraps of black hen near the head It looks like a bugger without the hackle wrapped up the body. Probably works as well as a small w bugger does. I recall it in Bates streamer book. Afishinado's pattern looks much better.

 

[TimMurphy]

Instead of picking caddies and clippers from under the rocks I tie these up and FF with this bait >

View attachment 1641231117

Dear Afish,

I still have a couple of Clouser Madtoms I bought from him 25 plus years ago. They always worked well on a quartering downstream dead drift on the Susquehanna River for me. Murray's Strymph fished the same also worked well.

When I lived in Johnson City NJ there was a town park right along the river at the outlet of the Goudey Station power plant. I mostly just fly fished or tossed Twisters, Rapalas and Tiny Torpedoes if I was pressed for time and had to fish from the bank. It was literally the fish every cast section of the river.

In October after the first frost or two the larger sections of the pool would fill with large smallmouth and good-sized walleyes. Many mornings I was tossing torpedoes at first light and was rewarded with a couple 20" smallmouth before I made my first sales call. Those were the days!

Most times in warmer weather there would be folks wading in the river crouched at water level. They would pick up a rock and use it to tap another larger flat rock. It would momentarily stun the stone cats, or "Tonies" as they were called locally. It was easy to scoop them up in their hands and deposit them in a bait bucket. I'm pretty sure that is an illegal way to collect bait, seines or dipnets should be used, but it was fun to watch.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂

 

[Bamboozle]

I was fishing on the Brodhead in Anolomink one day and saw a guy & his kid who were collecting "bait."

I struck up a conversation and learned they were collecting Hellgramites for a bass fishing excursion elsewhere.

I told them they had much bigger balls then I did... 😉

 

[Prospector]

Swattie, it could be a conspiracy like the one where the Game Commission says that there are no Mountain Lions in PA. 😉

That’s not true. There is one in my game room.

 

[Swattie87]

That’s not true. There is one in my game room. View attachment 1641231124

Me too.

 

[Zipper]

Looks like Yoda.

 

[Swattie87]

Looks like Yoda.

Haha, glad someone else sees that. That’s exactly what I said to my wife on the car ride bringing him home as a kitten.