Summer 2000 Outings Recap
Perkiomen PicnicI am not only new to fly fishing; I am totally enamored of just about everything involved with it. That being said, I try to make it my business to attend as many of the DVWFFA outings as I can. So it was that I set out from home on Sunday August 27 bound for this year's picnic on the Perkiomen.
The day was glorious (hot with fairly low humidity) and the drive was excellent (light traffic and good scenery). I made the trip in good time and pulled into the parking lot of the Central Perkiomen Valley Park just in time to help Rabbit Jensen unload her truck. Two sets of hands made short work of the unloading so Rabbit and I were sitting around chatting when Mary Kuss arrived. Here I should mention that my introduction to fly fishing was at an adult school evening class taught by Mary. Since then I have attended Mary's course in Potter County, several outings at which Mary was present, and crossed paths with her while fishing at Ridley Creek. On each and every occasion I came away better for the encounter because of Mary's patience, skills and her generosity.
Soon after her arrival I was in the water with Mary positioned just down stream of me offering advice and encouragement. I had a few strikes on a foam popper, but was unable to hook anything and after a while the fish lost interest in the popper. I went through a number of different fly patterns without much success. The fish were rising, but I just didn't have anything that grabbed their attention. I was thinking that perhaps my lack of success was due to my lack of skill, but downstream of me Mary, aside from one explosive strike on a damsel fly look alike, was not faring any better.
Since it was just about dinnertime I decided to pack it in and headed for our picnic site where I had the pleasure of meeting Nancy and Jake Jacobson. We chatted while eating a delicious meal of hamburgers and hot dogs accompanied by a nice selection of salads including fresh grown tomatoes and basil. Nancy and Jake reported results that were not much better than either Mary's or mine, but the food and company were good enough to compensate for lack of results. Conversation turned to the Brandywine trip that I attended and had great success at. The fish that evening were on my fly like Philistines on the buffet at an art gallery opening. All were able to agree, however, that having the fish throwing themselves at you all of the time would be neither fun nor desirable.
After cleaning up we, despite the distant rumble of thunder, caravaned upstream to a small park behind the Schwenksville firehouse. I had just wet my line and hooked an audacious blue gill that was no bigger than my fly when the rain started and the thunder drew closer. Now inasmuch as I am a religiously practicing coward, I stayed just long enough to bid my companions farewell and hightailed it for my truck. My drive home was spent happily musing over the great day that I had just experienced.
--Donna Trexler--
Delaware River Trip
The DVWFFA Delaware River outing at Washington’s Crossing on September 24 did not bring a big turn-out of members, and that’s a shame because the fishing was fine and there was plenty of water to go around. The day was cloudy, with a bit of rain mostly in the morning. But the dismal weather triggered a good hatch of the typical, tiny autumn olive mayflies that brought fish to the top in numbers. Later black flying ants peppered the surface of the river as well, along with several kinds of caddis.
Thankfully warmwater fish don’t often get as selective as trout typically do, because no one came prepared for serious hatch-matching. But the usually reliable chartreuse popper just wasn’t making it. To be successful it was necessary to offer something remotely sized and shaped like an insect. Caddis patterns and soft-hackle wet flies presented carefully to rising fish worked well enough. What’s more delightful than sight fishing to risers, especially on big water with plenty of backcast room? Many feisty hand-sized and bigger redbreast sunfish were caught, along with smallmouth bass and jumbo fallfish. These strong and well-conditioned river fish can really put a deep bend in a fly rod, and reels sang briefly more than once on this day.
Later, when the fish stopped rising, a chartreuse and white Clouser Deep Minnow accounted for several nice smallmouth and two small (9 and 12 inch) striped bass! Host Nancy Simpson hung it up early, but Donna Trexler and Mary Kuss fished until dark, with just a short break to refuel at a nearby restaurant. It was a wonderful day of fishing on the big river.
--Mary Kuss--
Fall 2000 Issue
