Spruce Run Creek and Sparse Trout

Took some planning, but Oliver Shapiro and I managed to get out and fish trout this afternoon and evening. He left it up to me, whether we would fish Spruce Run Creek or Lopatcong Creek. I did get online and figure out where some Lopatcong access is available, but chose Spruce Run, because I decided I want to approach the other stream with a fly rod in the fall. I've never fished there, though Mike Maxwell and I caught many trout here in Glen Gardner on salmon eggs.

Today I did manage to fish spots new to me. By walking up and downstream of stocking points, I found some interesting holding water, but no really deep holes. Oliver hiked and waded far, too. Now we've each seen parts of this stream the other hasn't. Despite recent rain, the water was very clear, and lower than when Mike and I fished here two years ago. Stocked on Monday, about a week ago, we found very few trout. I managed to catch two and miss a handful of hits. Oliver got one hit.

That second trout made me feel especially fulfilled, since I had already come to grips about few for the taking. And I released both. They holdover. Or at least any leftover do. (Quite a few end up in Spruce Run Reservoir.) But it took me an hour or so before I got my first hit, and the first trout I caught relieved me of the skunk on my back. It's one thing to write a book about this marvelous microlight method, and quite another to look forward to your guest reading it before it goes to an agent...while you caught nothing during the outing introducing him to the fishing. A little scary. Both 11-inch trout took off on drag-screaming runs on that one-pound test Suffix I'm using. The only draw back to this line is the difficulty in seeing it while I drift eggs. I chose the clear option. Maybe orange is a wiser choice, but I just don't like the idea of using line the trout might see, and besides, a bright orange line would seem garish to me.

I've noticed over the years that sometimes many more get stocked than other times. Why the stocking crew decides to put more in one stocking day, and not so many another, sometimes seems impossible to tell, since it doesn't always seem to do with water level or dangerous warmth. (Maybe Noel can fill me in.)

Towards sundown, we pulled over at a stocking point downstream and found the only obviously worthwhile hole occupied, deciding not to encroach on the owner of an SUV with PA plates. We hopped on down to another point, or ostensible stocking point, finding nothing but very shallow water, so we decided to give the North Branch in Bedminster a half hour.

Water was high but not off color, just not very clear. Fishable. But little were hitting. Oliver did manage to get a hard smack on a spinner, then another hit on the same downstream. I got two hits in my most dependable hole at the Zoo. One of those hits came at high speed, the trout swimming a full five feet before I completed my attempted hook set, drag on the line in the water making that impossible. This microlight game is largely about the fun of setting hooks. If you get good at drifting eggs, you will get a lot of them, but missing many is unavoidable.

Chilly day. My brother Rick mentioned possibly fishing the Pohatcong, but he had decided the rain and the "cold" weather had changed his mind. I've caught plenty of rainbows on eggs in early April weather much chillier than today, but perhaps a distinct drop in temperature does affect the trout badly. Oliver and I saw no insects hatching. It's not that trout stocked fairly recently are selective about dry flies, but when you do see insects in the air, it's a good sign. Life in general is on the move. Probably on the feed.

https://littonsfishinglines.blogspot.com/2017/04/spruce-run-creek-trout-fishing-and.html