The second weekend of October, 2009, Midhudson TU members Dave Barletta and and I, Don Jiskra, took a break from our routines to try our luck on central Pennsylvannia's Penns Creek. We've fished this river in the winter and spring, but never in the fall, so didn't know what quite to expect. The section we fished was the no-kill area downstream of Coburn, home of our quarters for the weekend, The Feathered Hook.

Mother nature had done her best work to enhance the beauty of the hardwood forest. The weather was cool and a bit windy at times. Water temps were in the low 50s. The heaviest rain clouds cooperated by waiting until after dark to let loose. The dirt and gravel roads we travelled to get to the good water only cost one tire change. We saw few deer and assumed they were heading to their suburban hosts' backyards in time for hunting season. The "Cobruns" that were everywhere in the spring must have burrowed into their winter hideouts as we saw zero snakes. The only birds we noticed were some jays, crows, and hawks. Despite the numerous bugs in the air, no flycatchers darted over the stream. Do they migrate?

The fishing was challenging as it gets on Penns. The low water concentrated the rising fish into the deeper pools. We drifted olive emergers to rising fish. Luckily we had a good simple pattern that gave the picky wild browns little reason to refuse our slow moving offerings. One of the coolest things about fishing these conditions is that we could watch the trout move several feet from their sheltering lies to take a fly and return. Although they were rising in the feeding lanes, they weren't sipping from one spot under the surface, as they often do during hatches of small flies, they were expending a lot of energy to feed. This makes for great practice in timing of the hook set. Too often I found myself yanking the fly off the water after seeing the trout charge towards it. One flub like that with the Penns trout and its time to find another fish to cast to. For a change of pace, the slate drakes occasionally came off consistently enough for the fish to focus on them. This allowed us to throw some larger flies that our poor old eyes could actually follow downstream. Neither Dave nor I found nymphing very effective in these conditions, although I did net my biggest brown in one of the few sections of deep-enough fast water. It was definetely a dry fly trip well suited to the light cane rod.

Anyone who has fished the evening rise in the popular weeks of the season knows that the fish continue to rise well after the country kitchens are closed for the night. One of the benefits of fall fishing neither of us had anticipated, is that it gets dark before 7pm. Although this forces one off the river, the restaurants are still open. In fact we enjoyed several great meals and some local bluegrass after fishing at the Elk Creek Cafe in Millheim.

On our last day there, Jim Kelly of The Feathered Hook loaned Dave a smart Hardy reel outfitted with a silk line. Dave fished it and let me try a cast or two. I predict the future holds the past for one or both of us!