West Branch and Main Branch Chester Creek, Del co. 4/30/2010

[Van_Cleaver]

Weather; bright sun, seventies, light breeze, turning into a stiff breeze. Water was clear and running nicely at 52 degrees at 10AM. Fished mostly pockets and rifles down the West branch, then turned and went back up the main, avoiding the bait tossers in the big holes. Had a blast, though the conditions got a bit tough when the wind kicked up. I was finding a lot of holdover browns laying out in plain sight, but they were hitting and spitting, often without even stopping my strike putty. Started watching the individual fish for movement, and the fun began. They were well trained enough to be rewarding, but couldn't resist a sunken caddis pupa and ant combo. Hooked or lipped three times as many as I got to hand, but educated many fish, and had a blast. I never even made it to the tasty looking fast runs below the bait holes, having slaked my appetite for trout by about 2:30. The beauty part was that a lot of the fish I was releasing should remain for awhile. Bugs present were mostly tan caddis, and a small (18) black stone.

 

[lestrout]

Van - I helped Delco Manning stock there last year, so maybe some held over? There's surprisingly pretty water, especially considering the density of humanity and the centuries they've been there.

tl
les

 

[Van_Cleaver]

Les, the state puts in silly numbers of fish that never get caught to the extent that bait anglers believe. The area where I was fishing almost almost always holds some fish, usually browns, that winter over fine as long as we have plenty of water. This morning I went out and educated some more, including removing six from the bait hole and putting them in fast water. The fish in the clear water above were tough but I managed a nice catch again on caddis pupa and ants. Picked up several on the swing at the end of my drift. A few of them were real nice fish , and they tended to come unbuttoned. Biggest was probably a 14''bow, but I was more excited by the browns that were excellent fighters, and in very nice shape. Here's a typical example:

Here's a surprise, a Delco Manning fish, only about seven in. and fat

Here's a beauty, likely a holdover brown 18'' up in R Park a couple days ago:

 

[Van_Cleaver]

Oooops! Guess I need to do some home work on the picture posting.

 

[jayL]

Here ya go.

 

[JKnPA]

Van,
Very nice fish...................

Jay,
Thanks for the assist..............

 

[Van_Cleaver]

Thanks Jay; Not sure what I did wrong, but I was beat and didn't check the preview.

 

[mute]

The type of board ran here doesnt like capitalized tags, so you just needed to change your IMG to img. But yea, very nice fish van cleaver