WE NORMALLY don’t do much trout fishing in early July because of high temperatures, warm water and the fussiness of brook trout in the summer. We usually replace the trout with Allegheny River smallmouth bass, a fish nearly as wily and twice as strong a fighter that a brook trout is, mainly because of their size. We get them regularly over 15 inches and well over one pound or a pound-and-a-half in the river. and the acrobatics they put on during retrieval are exciting and fun.
But this year was different. Our all-time best trout fishing most years is in May, and Donna Rae and I “always” go up for the Memorial Day weekend, sometimes just the two of us and often with a small gang. But in 2022 we had family commitments out of state, and camp was out of the picture, as Old Powser always said, to “keep peace in the family.”
So Donna Rae and I traveled up to camp, while other F-Troop regulars stayed home and celebrated with fireworks and beer. As it turned out, we got some rain in late June/early July, which made all the difference in fishing for trout. The waters were unusually high and roily and the fish were as active as they were in spring.
We had a campout and cookout Friday evening, but we devoted the entire day Saturday to walk-in fishing for brook trout at Antler Run, a small but heavily populated brook trout creek. We walked in during the early morning and listened to the fast-flowing waters and the songbirds in the hemlocks above and the breezes blowing through the hay-scented fern. We traveled in about a half-mile before we sat on a log and relaxed and put our fly rods together.
We laughed at the idea of taking a break before we even started fishing. But the summer foliage was stunning to look at and the deep-woods air felt cool under the hemlocks, and we sat and enjoyed before we tossed our first line.
Which D-Rae executed promptly. She found a fast pool that that ran up under a stack of branches in the water and formed a possible trout haven under the structure. She drifted her weighted fly nearby, and a six-inch brook trout bolted out, took the bait and dashed back toward cover. D-Rae set the hook and played the fish until it snagged in the underwater branches and got away.
No worries, though. We found a great-looking trout hole a short ways upstream, and D-Rae caught three fat brookies, 5 to 7 inches long, one after the other. Even I landed one, a hefty wild brook trout that measured 7 1/2 inches long and displayed colorful markings along its back.
We found two more sweet looking fishing spots further up the creek, and Donna Rae took two trout from the first pool under a waterfall and two more from the second under a cutbank below the hemlock roots, while I mostly observed. She ended up with seven small but beautiful wild brook trout while I got only one, but I don’t keep score, for the obvious reason.
Later, however, I caught two nice fish, which made the score a little closer. I decided to quit while I was behind, and in the late afternoon, we hiked the couple miles back to the road and felt like we were getting fresh air and good exercise, besides all the fun of catching fish.
Donna Rae loves to sleep out under the million stars that light up the deep black sky at camp, while I prefer to hunker down inside. So we did both. We tended campfires day and night and roasted hot dogs over the blaze, then went in by the back door and snoozed as soon as our heads hit the pillow.
Our last day there, Donna Rae put her kayak into the river down below camp and paddled five miles downstream to Tidioute, where I met her for lunch at the Landmark Hotel, and then returned to camp, where we packed up our gear and watched the light rain coming in from the west for a while, relaxing on rocking chairs on the front porch, and finally headed home. As always, we missed camp much from the moment we left.
DON FEIGERT is the outdoors writer for The Herald and the Allied News. His latest book, The F-Troop Camp Chronicles, and his earlier books are available by contacting Don at 724-931-1699 or dfeigert@verizon.net. Browse his web site at www.donfeigert.com or visit Leanna’s Books at the mall.
DON FEIGERT is the outdoors writer for The Herald and the Allied News. His latest book, The F-Troop Camp Chronicles, and his earlier books are available by contacting Don at 724-931-1699 or dfeigert@verizon.net. Browse his web site at www.donfeigert.com or visit Leanna’s Books at the mall.
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