Saturday, April 2nd, was opening day of Trout season, a much-anticipated rite of spring. All of the stocked streams are open to fishing (and taking, for those who relish the idea of a pellet-fed 10 inch Rainbow on the grill). Anglers with spinning rods and worm cans arrive at their favorite holes hours before the 8:00 AM official start to the season. If you want to know where the fish are on the Allegheny, the mobs around the bridges are a sure sign.
The day is as much about ritual as it is about fishing. Opening Day at the West Branch Tavern is held no less sacred. The morning began with a 6:00 AM wakeup to get the coffee going, pour some Bloody Marys, then head down to the pavilion to get the traditional campfire going. And it was needed on Saturday. Temps were in the high 30s. Although forecast to get into the 50s, the fire was welcome, and a signal to interlopers that the Mikey D Fishing team owned the Pavilion Hole.
Joining us for the weekend was childhood friend and long time "pro bono" client John Hupp. Surprisingly, John had never caught a fish behind the WBT, despite many previous outings. We were pretty confident that he'd at least enjoy a few hookups, as a good dozen or trout had been stocked in the stream a few weeks ago.
Water conditions were perfect. The creek was a bit low, but flows were good, and the water had a nice green tint. Skies started out cloudy, but by 9:00 or so the sun broke out.
After a hearty streamside breakfast, compliments of Mary, we readied ourselves for the magic moment. When the clock struck 8, lines went in the water.
After a long winter of little fishing, it took awhile to get in the groove. For the first couple of hours, we had many takes, but missed and lost fish. As the morning went on, though, our technique improved and we started landing fish. Mary's Egg, Mopp Fly, and black/purple Wooly Bugger patterns were killers. When the fish got wise to those flies, we changed things up a bit, throwing Green Weenies, red Squirmy Worms and San Juan Worms. Fishing picked back up, and we managed to increase our percentage of fish netted (and released) to 50 per cent. When we decided to call it an afternoon, we'd landed 7 fish, all Rainbows except one 10-inch Brownie. John took top honors with four fish landed.
That evening, again thanks to Mary, we celebrated our opening day victory with lambchops and risotto, followed by copious amounts of brown liquor and Perdomo cigars. Good weather and cooperative trout made for a great day on the west branch.
There was one sad aspect of the weekend. While John was bucking for "Trout Whisperer" status (he's got a ways to go), we couldn't help but note the absence the true Trout Whisperer. And so, we decided to film a short tribute as a shout out. Miss ya Bob!
Tight Lines,
Mikey D Fishing
Addendum: Yesterday Mary and I lit out for the upper Allegany for a couple of hours. With rain heading in the area, and temps in the 60s, it seemed a good time to wet a line. We hit the stream about 12:30, and worked our way downstream swinging Wooly Buggers. Heading down to a nice hole, I was wading through a long, slow, shallow pool (normally turns into frog water as the weather warms). But I noticed a couple of trout swimming around. A closer inspection and it tuned out there were a couple of dozen fish stacked up in the pool.
No reason to head any further downstream. For the next hour or so we threw just about everything in the fly box, and the fish took every fly that we threw. Again, we missed and lost a lot of fish. But we did manage to land about 10 stockies between us, all going between 10-12 inches.
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