The down sides of fall fishing; limited daylight and cold. The up sides; you don't have to get up early to fish, the prospect of Indian Summer, and few anglers on the water.
Temps the past few days have been in the upper 60s, so I lit off to fish Kettle Creek, about 50 minutes south of the WBT. Did some stream reconn on the west branch the day before, but Potter County is back in a drought watch, and the stream looked every bit of it.
So I headed south, hoping that there'd be enough water in Kettle to wet a line. Parked in the PA Fish and Game lot, a couple of miles south from the beginning of the C&R section, around noon. The lot was pleasantly empty. Walked up to the overpass to check out the water, and the trout were stacked up just below the bridge, I guess enjoying the afternoon sun.
Fish were finning and rising in ankle to shin-deep water to something (midges?) really small. Not having anything tiny to throw, I tied on a hopper (on 5X)/dropper rig (on 6X), with a 16 bead-head Pheasant Tail as the dropper. After a couple of misses I managed to hook my first Rainbow for the afternoon, a thick 15 incher.
The trout quickly tired of the PT, so I dipped into the box and tried a variety of nymphs. No dice. So I looked in the terrestrial box, and noticed a small Cinnamon Ant. Figured what the heck, added a foot and a half of tippet tot he hopper, and tied the ant on as the dropper. I dressed the ant once with floatant, figuring if it sank a bit, more the better.
That proved the ticket, as I managed four more Rainbows. One went all of 18 inches, (and chunky), with the final three between 10- and 12 inches.
And then, about 2:00 in the afternoon, the catching shut down. The fish were still eating, but apparently figured they'd given me enough of their time, and preferred to eat bugs that will get them through the winter.
Which is just around the corner. The moral of the story is get out while you can!
Tight Lines,
Mikey D Fishing
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