For the past few months, my girlfriend and I were planning on doing something special for New Year Eve. We typically spend it with friends at their house ringing in the New Year with a few drinks. This year was going to be different.
This summer, we spent a long weekend at a cabin in Cook's Forest. We fished, hiked, and canoed. We decided we wanted to do the same in the winter, so what better plan than to spend New Years weekend there? We booked a cabin with some friends. We planned on going there to celebrate New Years Eve and do a little hunting and fishing weather permitting.
I prefer to fish, while my girlfriend prefers to hunt. She was going to go out and hunt muzzleloader on Friday and Saturday, while I fished nearby streams. Well, she ended up being sick and spending most of the weekend on the couch in front of the fireplace with her book. She still let me out to fish both days though.
I got to check out a few tiny little streams I had been eyeballing since the summer. The extra rain we received last week brought the streams up to fish-able levels.
All of the streams are located within state gamelands in 2 separate drainages.
Friday January 1st -
I started my day later than I would have liked. Too much PBR and scotch the night before has that effect on me. I decided to fish a stream listed as a "Wilderness Trout Streams" by the PFBC. Its a small first order stream, which eventually feeds into stocked stream. I've spent a lot of time on said stocked stream but never fished the feeder stream.
To get to the "Wilderness Trout Stream" I wanted to fish, you have to hike about a mile or so up another stream until it splits into a "Y". The stream that comes in on the left side is unfortunately AMD polluted, but the stream that comes in from the right side is a EV (Exceptional Value) stream. On the walk up I did fish a few fishy looking spots, but only managed one tiny little brookie.
Once I got to the stream that I wanted to fish, things started to look up.
The water was very cold and the few fish I did catch were very sluggish. I fished until about 4pm, then started my 2 mile hike back to the truck. By the time I made it back to the truck, it was barely 25* out and almost dark. The little bit of coffee left in my thermos was ice cold, my fingers were numb, and I had a pot of deer chili waiting for me back at the cabin.
Saturday, January 2nd -
My day started out much the same way Friday did, late. Sometimes you can't help but sleep in, sometimes the booze helps. I left the cabin around 11:30am and got in the stream around noon. My initial plan was to fish the main stream, but it was up too much from the rain the week before (Ive had success fishing the main stream for natives in the summer when the water was low). So plan B took affect.
There is a tiny little stream that tumbles off the side of the mountain that drains into the main stream. I had crossed over this stream countless times fishing the main stream. Saturday was the perfect day to explore this little stream. Turns out, this little stream was definitely worth the look.
I fished the first stream for about a mile or so then turned around and headed back to the truck to regroup and grab a quick bite to eat.
The second stream I fished Saturday was not nearly as productive, but it was just as beautiful. It was about about a mile walk from the truck to the mouth of the next stream. I didnt get there until almost 2:30pm so I didn't have as much time to focus on every little riffle, run, and plunge pool as I would have liked.
The stream gradient wasn't as nearly as steep as the first stream I had fished. It contained more runs and riffle and less plunge pools.
I did catch a few interesting colored brookies on this stream though. Their coloring was much much darker than the ones I typically catch. I'm sure many factors go into this, and hopefully I can research this a bit more when I find the time/info.
All said and done, I walked about 9 miles over the 2 day. I managed to catch a few dozen of these little gems. I'd call it a successful start to 2016.
Cheers
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