WB Delaware River. Wayne County, PA Sept 28 - 29

[wbranch]

Fished only Saturday from 6:00 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. The river was quite turbid with only about 8" of clarity. The flow was right around 1000 cfs. I fished a stretch about 75 yards long and turned eight fish and landed six. One 16" rainbow and five browns from 13" to 17". Beautiful day on the river. Saw a couple adult bald eagles and an immature eagle.

I didn't land any big fish but I did hook a bruiser and had him on few minutes before it jumped and threw the barbless hook.

I only fished a few hours because on Friday I was on the Susky with the bass boat and totally blew my back out trying to lift the motor while standing on the transom so I could clear some grass out of the intake on the jet. The pain was so severe by Monday that my wife and I left at 10:00 a.m. and while driving made an appointment to go to an orthopedic hospital in York.

It looks like my fishing might be done for 2017. I was diagnosed, after an X-ray and a MRI, with degenerative spinal arthritis and spinal stenosis. At 74 years old I have to really think it through if I want to undergo major surgery that has a recovery period to pre operation mobility of 8 - 12 months. My condition entails too many vertebrae to have the operation with only a one inch incision and a 1 - 2 month recovery period.

 

[afishinado]

Hey Westbranch,

Sorry for your illness. I don't know many guys that fish and love fishing as much as you do. I know it's a hard decision to make about how to go forward. Hopefully you will be back on the water soon. Best of luck to you.

 

[foxtrapper1972]

Well done WB. Looks like you sure had a good day to wrap up the season on Delaware. Sorry to hear about the back. Getting older is not for sissies. It is starting to limit some of my fishing adventures too. I'm not able to wade lately because of a bad foot. Hope you can get back out there.

 

[AFISHN]

Westbranch: Sorry to hear about your back issues.I am in your age group and I share the same attitude about getting operations that will require extensive recovery.Wish you a good and speedy recovery.
Tom C

 

[wbranch]

Afishinado, foxtrapper, AFISHN,

The next step is to get a pain med injection on October 10. I have had them before and it is very sophisticated. You lay on you belly and you are actually in a sterile room where everyone has scrubs on and there are a couple of doctors, nurses, and anesthesiologists.

The pain doctor gets an X-ray machine and they map out the area on the back based on reviewing the MRI. Then when they find the exact spots where the sciatica nerve is pinched they inject a cortisone type drug into those areas. It usually takes about 2-3 days for the drug to infiltrate the entire area and the patient feels less or no pain.

The drug has some pretty wicked side effects so you can only get three treatments per year. I had one treatment on my back last year when I hurt myself trying to lift the receiver on my bass boat onto the ball on the trailer hitch. That treatment was very successful and I didn't need any further treatments.

Two years ago I had severe arthritis in each thumb joint from too much rowing the Hyde. Those injections were a 10 on the pain scale of 1 - 10 but the pain went away and has never returned. So I have had favorable successes with the injection treatments.

I'm taking a bunch of meds now to alleviate the pain. The drugs are for moderate to severely moderate pain and they are just barely taking the edge off the pain. I'm just laying low in a nice leather chair in my fly tying room. Luckily we had two walkers and I have one at the top of the stairs in our home and another at the bottom of the stairs. I figured out how to get up and down the stairs without triggering the pain spasms.

I have pretty much decided that the surgery is going to be a last resort. At 74 years old I'm not very much liking the thought of going under general anesthesia for a couple of hours.

I'm hoping the pain injection treatment will be successful so I can get back in the bass boat for the fall jumbo smallmouth fishing and also get up to the Catt for steelhead through mid November.

 

[Dave_W]

We're pulling for yuh WB.

It sounds from your previous experience that injections produce good results. Let's hope this holds true and you're back out on the water soon.

Maybe a fishin partner to help with that boat motor or oars would be a nice to have too. Take it easy....

 

[Nymph-wristed]

Dave_W wrote:
We're pulling for yuh WB.

It sounds from your previous experience that injections produce good results. Let's hope this holds true and you're back out on the water soon.

Maybe a fishin partner to help with that boat motor or ours would be a nice to have too. Take it easy....

Dave beat me to it with his idea. Take care of yourself, Matt! Send me a PM if you need a "young" fishing partner to help out after those shots hopefully (!) help the pain. I only left AFishn behind once, and he took a snooze in the shade, so I think he was content ;-)

 

[tztrout]

WB,

Hope all is well- get back on the water soon!

 

[rrt]

WB,

I, too, hope things go well for you and you can get back on the water quickly. At nearly 68, I particularly admire those who have even a couple of years on me and are still at it. It gives me some hope.

But, mainly, I hope things work out well for you.

Rich

 

[wbranch]

Thank you for all your good wishes for my hopefully successful treatment. Now is a good time to get the injection as the Susquehanna is as low as I can ever remember it being for October 01. I think the gage at Marietta was only 5500 cfs.

The conditions on Steelhead Alley are very bad. There has been hardly any appreciable rain and there is not much in the ten day forecast. The Catt is running at 182 cfs which is low but fishable. Ideally a flow of 300 cfs to 350 cfs is perfect for swinging flies or indicator nymph fishing and the turbidity is running at 9.0 which means it is very clear and whatever steelhead have run up to the Route 5 bridge pool are likely to be very leader shy and 4X fluorocarbon would be the heaviest tippet I would consider using.

Walnut Creek is running at 5.0 cfs which means there is almost no flow and the turbidity is almost zero which means whatever fish are there are totally spooked by 7:30 a.m. and the only guys hooking up will be those with 10' - 12' noodle rods, 6# main line, a micro swivel and a 4' length of 5X or 6X tippet material using single eggs or very small nymphs.

I typically fish between 100 and 110 days a year. Mid April through mid November.

 

[troutbert]

Some sciatica is caused by "piriformis syndrome."

You can Google it and find out about it.

I had this problem, and had severe sciatica. At the worst point, I could not drive a car, and could barely walk. The muscles in my right leg atrophied so my right leg was about half the size of my left. And didn't have good control over my right foot. It was flopping around.

This was an extreme situation. And the cause had nothing to do with the vertebrae or discs, as most people assume.

It was caused by muscle tightness. The piriformis muscle lies directly on top of the sciatic nerve. If the muscle is extremely tight (spasmed) it puts pressure on the sciatic nerve and inflames the nerve, causing excruciating pain.

If you loosen up the muscles, the pressure is released and the sciatic nerve gradually heals and the pain goes away.

That's how it was with me. I went to a massage therapist (6 sessions) then took gentle yoga classes. As my muscles got more stretched out, the pain gradually decreased and finally disappeared altogether.

Not all sciatic is caused by this. But it is a common cause of sciatica and where that is the case, stretching out the muscles is the solution.

 

[lestrout]

Yow WB - hope all that works out for you. You certainly are hard-core.

 

[SurfCowboyXX]

wbranch--my father had the stenosis surgery in his early 70's (maybe late 60's), but he was a very large and robust, muscular guy whose heart and other vitals were particularly strong for his age, making him a good candidate for surgery. It was tough on him, but it did give him some relief for a period of time (his vertebrae had fused together in the lumbar region, so they had to cut a channel out of the back of the fused bone, opening up space for his spinal cord and relieving some of the stenosis pressure). If he were still around, I'd ask him his opinion, but I'm guessing it would be that surgery is always the last resort. If you can find a chiropractor, they might be able to help considerably. Good luck.

 

[wbranch]

Troutbert -

I Goggled "Piriformis Syndrome" and I will definitely discuss this with my doctor upon my next visit. My symptoms are very much like those described on the sites I have read;

* Large painful knot or cramp in buttocks
* Burning, aching, tightness in back or buttocks
* Pain radiating down back of legs
* Back or buttocks discomfort (pain for me) while sitting
* Weakness, muscle imbalance & fatigue

There is a picture depicting the muscles and nerves and a line showing the pain starting at the mid point of the buttocks and going down to the top of the knee. My pain is circumferential in that exact area as well as the muscle between my hip socket and the back of my pelvis.

Obviously I have no medical background but I feel these exact symptoms and it states that often Piriformis Syndrome is mistaken for Lumbar slippage of vertebrae and the pinching of the Sciatic nerve.

Dave_W & Nymph-wristed,

Maybe a fishin partner to help with that boat motor or oars would be a nice to have too.

Thanks guys, I have been thinking about that for a couple of years and have even mentioned it here on one of the other forums.

That is one of my biggest problems as I age, getting the Hyde which weighs 350# off the trailer into the river and back on the trailer at the take-out. It is especially difficult when the water is low on the WB of the Delaware and I literally have to push 350# of boat plus gear off the bunks. It is really tough, more difficult getting it back on the trailer. I've thought of selling my current Hyde which is the Low Profile design and buying their "Sportman's Drifter" which is a two seat drift boat at 12' and just 150#.

The Lowe bass boat with the Yamaha jet probably weighs 600# but the ramps on the Susquehanna are nice and deep and all I have to do is back the trailer all the way into the water until the boat floats off the bunks and pull the trailer out of the water. But of course it is still nice to have a buddy help with all the boat stuff like making sure the plug is in!! Haha, I have forgotten it three times in 15 years and once at the Marietta launch the transom was almost under water by the time I had walked back to the ramp after parking the car. Luckily I have a bilge pump and I jumped into the river with my street shoes still on and physically lifted the transom so it wouldn't go under while turning on the bilge pump and bailing with a bucket I keep in the battery/gas tank area. It took about 15 minutes to get all the water out of the boat. Now I have a written check list that I go over before launching the boat.

 

[BradyS]

WB- I am a physical therapist and I would recommend talking to your doctor with regards to your medical condition whether or not you'd be appropriate for physical therapy in lieu of surgery initially. I am currently treating a number of patients with lumbar spinal stenosis who are recovering very nicely.

 

[wbranch]

Brady S wrote;

I am a physical therapist and I would recommend talking to your doctor with regards to your medical condition whether or not you'd be appropriate for physical therapy in lieu of surgery initially.

The orthopedic surgeon I spoke with at OSS Orthopedic Hospital said I would be a candidate for physical therapy after the swelling diminishes and after the cortisone X-ray directed injections to help restore mobility.

 

[Acristickid]

Best wishes , get well.

 

[gulfgreyhound]

Get feeling better Wbranch. GG

 

[rrt]

Hey, WB, don't be afraid to try the injections. I have a bad knee (from blowing it out playing Bball), and I had it surgically repaired 21 years ago. About 5 years ago, I started having pain again. I went to the orthopedist, and he started injections of Synvisc. They worked for a while. When I had a bad reaction to the Synvisc, he changed to another injection, and it has worked pretty well. I am not ready for knee replacement.

When I asked how long I could continue the injections as opposed to having knee replacement, he replied, "Indefinitely."

Maybe you could have the same results. (I am a wade fisherman, and though I stumble around much more than I used to, with the injections I can still fish most of the places I have always fished.)

Give injections a try!

Rich