Van_Cleaver
Member
- Joined
- May 11, 2007
- Messages
- 742
Last Sun I was fishing a popular Lehigh valley stream. Managed to miss the Trico hatch, though a local reported only a couple fish and tough going. Rigged up and started about 9:30. The stretch I was fishing is fairly small and compressed to amplify the flow which is what I like. Hadn't gone more than a couple hundred yards from the truck (mostly walking on a trail) when I bumped into a fly fisherman fishing down opposite my direction. He was very polite and offered he was wading carefully, but the fact that he had caught some fish and waded through some small areas was enough to make me consider trying else where.
Since I wasn't on a tiny brook trout stream and the fish there are known to be more tolerant of anglers, and less tolerant of sloppy drifts than most, I decided to fish up to the next bridge and then move. I worked a couple of runs and missed my first fish which was at least encouraging. A cast or two later I hooked and landed a fat 13'' Brookie which was bittersweet since I was looking for local browns. Managed to land a small resident trout as well before heading back to the truck for a break and a sandwich.
A buddy showed up during my lunch (completely unplanned) and we went upstream to explore some new areas. Example of how tolerant these fish are: I had missed two small rainbows from a very shallow run when two kids decided to raft and walk right through the spot. About three min. later I hooked and landed a beautiful and portly rainbow from the same run, and within feet of the other fish. Again I was disappointed, but since I had hooked and lost four fish in a row I was also relieved.
So maybe I would have landed a couple more if I had rushed off to try another spot, but it all worked out in the end.
Since I wasn't on a tiny brook trout stream and the fish there are known to be more tolerant of anglers, and less tolerant of sloppy drifts than most, I decided to fish up to the next bridge and then move. I worked a couple of runs and missed my first fish which was at least encouraging. A cast or two later I hooked and landed a fat 13'' Brookie which was bittersweet since I was looking for local browns. Managed to land a small resident trout as well before heading back to the truck for a break and a sandwich.
A buddy showed up during my lunch (completely unplanned) and we went upstream to explore some new areas. Example of how tolerant these fish are: I had missed two small rainbows from a very shallow run when two kids decided to raft and walk right through the spot. About three min. later I hooked and landed a beautiful and portly rainbow from the same run, and within feet of the other fish. Again I was disappointed, but since I had hooked and lost four fish in a row I was also relieved.
So maybe I would have landed a couple more if I had rushed off to try another spot, but it all worked out in the end.
