It may be short. It may be rainy, windy, snowy. It may be on water you know nothing about. But when the opportunity arises, take it.
On Friday the opportunity arose and I find myself on a small urban stream I poke around on from time to time. It isn't the cleanest stream out there, nor the dirtiest. It doesn't have a wild trout population, but stocked fish and rogue browns and brookies are around from time to time. The fish are plentiful, but not as easy as they might seem. Being stealthy is smart no matter what your query. Even a bluegill will run to cover in the skinny water of a small stream. Besides, I'd seen just about everything from big largemouth to pike to carp in here and I took no chances. I wanted to see how many species I could catch in the tiny window of time I was presented with.
The first six fish I caught were all different species. How's that for variety? I could easily have caught two or three more without getting a duplicate. I believe to date I've caught a dozen species from this stream and seen a half dozen others.
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| Micropterus dolomieu |
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| Ambloplites rupestris |
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| Semotilus corporalis |
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| Lepomis auritus |
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| Lepomis macrochirus |
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| Lepomis gibbosus |
It really doesn't hurt to carry a rod and small box of flies in the vehicle for all opportunities that may arise. And although panfish, fallfish, carp, bass, snapper blues, or other common species may not be your favored targets, they are darned good practice. The more you come to know them and the little spots they reside in, the more you may come to enjoy them for what they are.
If you enjoy what I'm doing here, please share and comment. It is increasingly difficult to maintain this blog under dwindling readership. What best keeps me going so is knowing that I am engaging people and getting them interested in different aspects of fly fishing, the natural world, and art. Follow, like on Facebook, share wherever, comment wherever. Every little bit is appreciated!
Thanks for joining the adventure, and tight lines.
I'll say that is skinny water. Well done catching multiple species out of that stream. Amazing after all the rain we had that small creeks are looking so skinny again. I see the same where I live also.
ReplyDeleteThis is urban water with either a very thin buffer zone. Runoff goes fast and the aquifer is severely compromised.
DeleteYour mountain streams run down fast after all the rain. Nice variety of catches for that low water.
ReplyDeleteTie, fish, write, conserve and photo on...
This is an urban lowlands stream. It has fairly low gradient. CT's mountain streams hold water better than these lowland creeks because their aquifers hold water better and natural riparian buffer zones slow runoff while roads, parking lots, drainage ditches, and storm drains speed it up on these lower urban streams.
DeleteI thoroughly enjoy your writings! Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteInteresting how easy a photograph can fool us into thinking of the countryside.
ReplyDeleteI often take certain measures to mask a stream's identity in my posts. In some cases even using photos of a different but stream than the post is about. I didn't do that in this case, but too much of the surrounding infrastructure would be recognizable. And thus, an ambiguous photo that could be literally any mid sized lowlands stream from the Massachusetts border to LIS. If you recognize the geology going on in the stream bed maybe you can narrow it down to about 15 possibilities.
DeleteYes. But the other thing is how even urban streams looking along them look pretty country. Even the busyDelaware River looks like the Chesapeake Bay if you are just north of the "tacony Palmyra Bridge. That's Philadelphia!
DeleteMy nephew (who lives in suburban Philadelphia) took the completely opposite tack to you. He identifies the creek. But since he fishes it like 99% of the time there is really no masking it. On the other hand he has a pretty cool story to tell today. Something I never found as a kid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXdbP0oVZws
I know just enough about the Wissahickon Creek to know that that is pretty darn cool!
DeleteYes, it is! That you also know the Wis at all is also very cool.
DeleteThey all look like gems, but my favorite of those three is the Lepomis auritis.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, I prefer Lepomis gibbosus.
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