Creek Addict

For the trout opener in PA I met up with Mark Erdosy from This River is Wild. We hit one of the popular local trout streams that is open year round in hopes that the other trout fisherman were off fishing streams that were previously closed. No luck. The place was crowded. I even saw a guy with a grill and party tent set up right on the banks. We fished a section that is a little less pressured in hopes of catching a few wild fish.

Mark was interested in learning about some of the European nymphing methods, and I was happy to oblige. After a few quick blurbs on how things work, and a quick demo of how it all looks, we were off to the races. It didn’t take long before Mark had a handle on things and started putting fish in hand with the new learned methods. It probably only took about 15 minutes from start to finish before he caught his first fish using the European techniques. After catching a few fish, we decided to head to one of his top secret spots. A more than fair trade. The amount of gold hidden in the place he took me to is unreal. A new favorite spot, and I haven’t even caught a fish there yet.

At secret spot X we met up with one of the other writers of This River is Wild, Adam Hope. As soon as I stepped up to the water, I saw the shadows. After trying for an hour or so, I couldn’t get a take. Adam was lucky enough to catch himself one. A sure sign that the season is looking up. It’s time for carp, and I couldn’t be any more ready. It was great fishing with these guys. I’m all about meeting new like minded fisherman. I hope to get out on the water with these guys again soon.

A nice little wild brown.

I love the buttery yellows the trout in this stream have.

One of Mark’s rainbows after the release.

Looks like we took the same picture.

I finally got out of the house this past weekend to get a little fishing done. Nick and I decided to head to eastern PA with hopes of catching the BWO hatch. We fished two rivers in the area, both were slightly high and a little off color, but the fish didn’t seem to mind. I got a few new toys in the last couple of weeks (a new Canon 7D, a new 17-55 f2.8 IS, and a new 70-200 f2.8 IS), and decided to play with them a bit while Nick was getting his fish on. As some of you know, I’ve been in to photography for a while, but in the last 2 years, I think I only took my SLR with me to the river once. I’ve vowed to take more pictures this year.

The fishing didn’t really pick up until about noon when the BWO hatch started to kick off. We were at the Little Lehigh with what seemed like half of the fly fishing population in PA. Like Mark Erdosy over at This River is Wild we fished a lot of the “overlooked water”. With most people within 100 yards of the hatchery, we fished way down stream for the most part, and picked up our fair share. The BWO hatch was pretty good and the wild browns were tight against the bank suckin em up at will. We fished a dry dropper set up for most of the day, and had no problem picking up fish in areas that most other anglers that fish that section never touch. Taking fish on top, getting a sunburn, and fishing in less than 4 layers of fleece almost made it feel like spring. Spring is definitely right around the corner. Although I love the fishing conditions that come with the change in season, I hate the amount of anglers that come with it. Winter will be missed, but only a little.

Fish food.

NOM NOM NOM.

Decent wild brown caught three inches from the bank.

The stockers were eating BWO nymphs.

One of Nick’s fish caught on top.

Another one of Nick’s fish, I think this one was sippin a few inches from the bank as well.

These next pictures are kind of funny. If you check out This River is Wild’s latest post, you’ll see our eyes seemed to be caught in a few of the same places. (Although I think his exposures came out a bit better.)

And a few more just because.

Yup… I finally convinced my wife to let me off of diaper duty long enough to get some fishing done. It was colder than a penguin’s taint outside, but that wasn’t going to stop me. Nick and I crossed the border to PA to try our luck at a few different places. The fishing wasn’t great, but we managed to put a few pigs and an occasional wild brown in our nets. It was good to get out, but it’s like crack, I’m already fiending for more. Fatherhood has been a pretty awesome experience so far. Knowing that I have no idea when I’ll actually get to go fishing again, it really makes every second on the water that much more enjoyable.

So fat it looks like a tick ready to pop.

Nick’s no lip beast!

Another view of Nick’s big brown.

Nick’s really nice wild brown.

CreekAddict is based in Bergen County, New Jersey, so today, I’m going to talk about places to fish that are within an hour drive or so. Many people cannot believe the number of winter trout fishing opportunities that exist just a short drive from home. Here in NJ our rivers are open all winter long; PA has many fishing opportunities all winter, as well.

In NJ, many anglers that fish in the winter will do so at the Pequest River. The Pequest is home to some very large stocked fish. In the most popular section, the majority of the fish end up stacked in an area that is about 100 yards long. The Pequest is home to NJ’s trout hatchery. From the hatchery, warm water is pumped back into the river via a concrete spillway. Most of the fish (and fisherman) line up in this warm water and give those fish more than their fair share of abuse. These fish that are lined up in this current of warm water see so many flies they can probably tell you what kind of thread you are using. In general, small flies will out produce larger ones, however, the very large Vladi worm still gets its fair share of fish there. For the most part size 16 and smaller flies will be the ticket. Try hare’s ears and red thread midges, and don’t be afraid to tie on some hot bead nymphs. I like a simple dark brown thread body nymph with Coq De Leon for a tail and a pink tungsten bead (available at www.wflies.com) . This is about as easy as winter fishing gets here in NJ and if you can deal with the large crowds of people you’re sure to catch some fish.

Your next option is the Musconetcong river which supports more than a few hold over fish. The majority of these fish are going to be stockers. There is no warm water influence here so most of your fish are going to be in pools and deep runs. Popular flies here are your standard hare’s ears and pheasant tail nymphs, but you should also have some size 12-16 stoneflies. Around February there is a good early season stonefly hatch and although you probably won’t see any rises, the trout take the nymphs eagerly. Don’t count out the use of sucker spawn and glo bugs either, around the beginning of March the suckers will be spawning and the trout line up behind them to eat their eggs. The most popular spot on the Musky is the Point Mountain TCA, and rightfully so, as there are always a good number of holdover and fall stocked fish here. Don’t be afraid to move around though, every spot from Saxton Falls down produces fish in the winter and most of them contain no other fisherman.

Heading out to the Ken Lockwood Gorge on the South Branch of the Raritan is a good bet anytime of year and the winter is no exception. There are many holdovers here, along with a great many wild fish. Be warned though — wading here can be tough and its usually a few degrees cooler in the gorge. The best producers here are golden stoneflies, woven nymphs and frenchies. While the pools and deep runs will hold the majority of the fish, these are also the fish that get the most pressure. Don’t neglect the moderate pocket water here, even in the winter. There are endless number of places for the trout to hold where they are out of the current but can still ambush prey. The KLG is one of my favorite places to fish and it should be for you guys as well.

A little farther out on I-78 just over the PA/NJ border lies the Little Lehigh. This creek is home to one of the many PA fish hatcheries. Just arriving here and looking in the water from the platform by the hatchery you will see where most of these fish get stocked. The Little Lehigh is a limestone creek so it is always a little warmer than our freestone streams in NJ. It also contains a warm water spillway that the fish will line up at. One of the nice things about this hatchery creek is that it contains a good number of wild brown trout on top of the insane number of stocked trout. It’s a safe bet to go small here as well: BWO nymphs, zebra midges, Al’s rat and Walt’s worm are all good flies here. Don’t count out the dries here — even in the winter there can be decent BWO hatches and midge hatches that the fish will rise to. I remember Chris catching fish on a small size 24 bwo in late January last year like it was his job. Be advised: in the stretch by the hatchery, anglers are not allowed to wade in the creek. There are also leader restrictions making this a good place to brush up on your indicator nymphing.

Those are all the popular spots that I will name. I will say this though, there are very many limestone creeks that fish very well in the winter in eastern PA. There are also a lot more streams in NJ that contain wild trout than people realize. All of these small out of the way places that contain wild fish will fish well throughout the winter. Good luck with your winter fishing! If you’re interested in hunting some of these small wild fish with us this winter, book a trip and we’ll make sure you put some of these beautiful native NJ trout in your net.

Holdover Rainbow caught from the Musky last winter.

So, I somehow convinced my wife to let me out of the house one more time before the baby comes. Of course, I could only convince her to let me out on the worst day to fish. The combination of rising temperatures and rain melted the foot or so of snow we had on the ground, causing all the local rivers to become high and way off color. It took us a little while to figure out where we wanted to go, but in the end, we decided against going the easy route (the Pequest or Little Lehigh) and chose to fish some smaller wild trout streams in the area. Although the day wasn’t stellar, we did catch a good number of fish, and got to practice some high water techniques and patterns.

We fished a few streams early in the day picking up fish here and there with hopes that by mid day some of the smaller spring creeks we know about would clear out a bit. After a hot lunch we decided to see how things were looking. We were both pleasantly surprised to find the water in perfect condition. I spent the day taking everything in, just trying to enjoy what would most likely be my last chance to fish in a LONG time. It was nice to just be there in the water trying to fool a few fish. I had missed that feeling this last month, and I know in the upcoming months, I will more than likely miss it even more. My name is Chris Michels, and I’m addicted to fishing.

Testing some new nymph patterns. The wild browns seemed to really like this one!

Really pretty brown. We didn’t get any huge ones, but I was more than happy just to get out there again.

Chris Smorul and I had been planning a trip to PA for a few weeks. Packing the truck the night before, I noticed the wind was already blowing pretty hard and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. To me, this means be ready to freeze your ass off the next day. Waking up dark and early the next day (same night), I made the drive out to pick up Chris, from there we made the drive to the river.  Arriving at the river I could see the water was high but had that nice limestone green color to it. We both rigged up long leader Euro style, opened a few hand warmers and made our way down to the river.  It didn’t take but a few minutes and we were both hooked up into some nice trout. The browns were our main target but the rainbows were a nice surprise. I guess no one bothered to tell them it was 20 degrees outside, every rainbow we got came with multiple jumps and some hard fights. The flies for the day were the usual flies, woven nymphs and frenchies doing their fair share of damage, along with a new hares ear I’ve been working on. The usual woven nymph, however, (black bead, olive back, orange underbody) didn’t take a single fish. The wovens that had copper beads and white under bodies worked very well. Unfortunately, I only had a few of them. When they were all gone I pulled out the old limestone reliable; Walt’s worm. Despite the below freezing temperatures, Chris and I both got more than our fair share of fish and the Euro nymphing helped keep the ice off the guides.

First fish of the day

Chris with a nice brown.

Close up with the french tickler fly (Smorul original).

They really liked the light colored wovens.

This wild brown liked Walt’s worm.

Are these browns pretty or what?