Creek Addict

Nick and I decided to go down to western Jersey and pick up a buddy of ours, Chris Smorul, and fish some of the eastern PA spring creeks. The fishing in PA was amazing. I had hit one of the streams we fished mutliple times before only to come up skunked. This time, I couldn’t not catch fish. Nick and I both had fish with literally our first couple of casts. That just set the tone for the rest of the day. The numbers for Nick and I on the day were well over 20 fish a piece. Chris, who was just learning long line euro nymphing didn’t get quite that amount, but he still netted himself some nice wild fish.

The first place we fished had a good amount of really good wild browns. We were worried that the water might have been really high and off color from all the rain we have been having, but when we arrived at the creek, the water was at a perfect flow with just a slight stain to the water. Perfect nymphing conditions. It seemed like every where we put a fly, we pulled out at least one little wild brown. We talked to a fish and game officer down there and he told us, in that particular stream, there is between 575-725 wild fish in a 300 yard stretch. I had been skunked on the stream twice in the past, I must have forgotten to tie on a hook before, lol. Nick also managed to catch two stockies while we were there. The colors and condition of the stocked fish in PA is extraordinary.

The second place we fished wasn’t quite as good as the first place we went, but it was still pretty darn good. We caught quite a number of nice wild browns in there, and I was the one to catch the two stockies this time. A big old brookie and a little rainbow. A few sections of this spring creek were VERY productive, while others would just net us a couple of fish.

Biggest fish of the day caught out of stream 1. Gorgeous colors.

Really nice brown caught out of stream 1 by Nick.

Another fat little brown caught by Nick on stream 1.

Another nice size brown out of stream 1.

Nick’s brookie out of stream 1.

Brown out of stream 2. The fish seemed all together skinnier on this stream.

Brookie out of stream 2.

Pretty little brown out of stream 2.

I know you guys haven’t seen much from me lately. The wife and I recently moved out to Jersey, so I haven’t really had too much time to get any fishing done. Saturday I managed to get away from the house for a little while and chase some little brookies close to our new home. I didn’t get to fish too long, but Jordan and I managed to catch a few fish before it was back to the salt mines for me. I was seriously jonesing for some trout, and catching a few of these little guys sated my appetite, at least for the night.

Good looking little fish.

Another good looking little brookie. We caught a few more of these, but I think you guys get the picture. Most people don’t get excited over 4 inch fish.

Yuck.

Sucks to be back, that’s for sure.

Panama is a beautiful country to say the least. Being Panamanian, and finally getting to see where my mother was born, and where my family is from was quite the experience. I’m seriously thinking about getting my citizenship down there and bailing for good. The people were great, the food was amazing, and the beer is just 45 cents! I looked at a few houses down there, and for a small 2 bedroom in a beach town they only want 25k. Panama city had tons of things to do, and was a pretty nice city overall, but being out in the country side is where I really fell in love with the country. The only down side, if you don’t speak spanish, it’s tough. We went to Costa Rica last year, and english is spoken by a lot more people.

Now to the part y’all care about; the fishing. I did a one day trip on the Bayano River for tarpon while I was down there, and to sum it up, I went fishless other than the ass load of mullet I snagged trying to put a fly in front of some tarpon face. I did hook up for a second in the morning with something big (I think it was a tarpon), but my hook set wasn’t good enough, and the fish came off with one good head shake. :-\ About an hour later the river was filled with a run of MILLIONS of mullet. I’m talking about a 4 mile stretch of water with nothing but mullet slowly moving up river. During the mullet run I watched about 50 tarpon over 6 feet do back flips out of the water slamming these guys. Big snook of up to 40 pounds were also smashing these guys pretty good. I desperately tried in vain with top water mullet imitations, underwater wounded mullet imitations. I just couldn’t get these fish to see my fly. It was amazing to see the mullet run though, and the monstrous tarpon smashing them. If I had more time, I definitely would have got one. The guide, Tony Herndon, offered me another trip while I was down there for half price to just fish with him on his boat, but I didn’t have the time. Here’s a video of the river in the morning, then the river on fire with mullet. What a site, these things were jumping out of the river and hitting me in the back as we drove up river to get to the head of the mullet run.

The River in the morning.

The Mullet Run.

While I was down there I also rented a pontoon boat to fish on Gatun lake for Peacocks. Gatun is the reservoir that holds the freshwater that feeds the locks for the Panama Canal. My day on Gatun was much more fruitful. I used top water popper and diver type flies all day, and was rewarded. Watching these aggressive fish come up and destroy my fly was a treat. I even had one that looked like a family sized pizza come up and snap my 10 lb nylon leader! I’m thinking it had some nicks from previous fights. All the fish landed were all about the same size, except for one my cousin landed on an ugly stick and minnows. He won the dollar bet for biggest fish. On top of catching a lot of these guys, I got to take our driver, Pepe, who moved to Panama from Mexico, fishing for his first time. Within ten minutes I had him into his first fish, and he was hooked from that point on. Nothing like helping someone out, and watching the look on their face when they catch their first fish!

My best fish landed for the day. Gorgeous fish.

My cousin’s beast.

A few of these oscars were caught as well.

Here are some bonus shots and videos from Panama.

I went snorkeling and fishing here.

We caught these crabs from the island pictured above.

The moon on the beach.

Best Ceviche in Panama, supposedly. It was pretty good.

Freezing cold spring fed stream. If I move there, I’m gonna stock it, lol.

Me zip lining through the Panamanian canopy.

Panama was an amazing trip, I can’t wait to get back.

The wife and I hit the gorge up today and with all the rain we had the entire river to our selves. Fishing was good as usual. We both caught countless numbers of stockers and my wife caught a nice 15”+ bow on her first cast which I then dropped before we could get his picture. The stocker browns are everywhere and some of the brookies are still in there. We both caught nice size wild browns in the “wild water”. All in all had a great day and I’d fish in the pouring rain anyday if it kept the crowds away.

I’m going to Panama for a week. EAT IT!

Hopefully I come back bearing pictures and wicked sweet HD videos.

See ya in a week!