Creek crawlin' 7/20
 

Instead of hitting a reservoir like I had planned, I decided to fish the creek behind my house that I've been fishing for almost 13 years now. It never ceases to amaze me! You feel very isolated and engrossed by nature even though you aren't far from town. I had my sister drop.me off downstream and I walked up in a pair of old boots and shorts. A great way to keep cool on this sorcher of a day!

The first two holes I passed had a bunch of fish in them, but nothing was bititng. But as a lifelong trout fisherman this stream is a dream. The next hole I caught 2 nice rainbows, both 12 inches or more, and a surprise smallmouth bass! A dinky one, but I have never caught or seen a smallmouth in this creek before, so I was pretty stoked.

Onto the next hole. Got hooked up to 4 different trout, was only able to land one of them though. After deciding to move on I went up on the bank and looked down into that hole and saw a monster trout, so I stayed and tries for another 20 minutes without a bite. I'll be back for him though.

The last spot is one of my favorites, and although I didn't catch any trout I did catch a personal new species. I believe it was a juvenile creek chubsucker, but I'm not positive (Mark B.?). I included a few pictures of some of the catches including this one in the link at the bottom of this post. There were easily over 75 of these guys swimming up and down a slow moving run.

Everything was caught on a white and silver blade roostertail, except the chubsucker which was on a trout magnet, and my go to 4'6" Fenwick HMG UL and Mitchell Outback reel.

I climbed out of the river, called my brother to come pick me up, and home I went, extremely satisfied. A beautiful day of fishing, catching and wading. Tight lines to all and to all a good day!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/147680.../shares/m743t7

Re: Creek crawlin' 7/20
 

Nice man! Yea with the heat, walking a river sounds nice. Broiler in the boat today .

Did the mystery fish have soft lips?kinda down turned?

Re: Creek crawlin' 7/20
 

Yes exactly, with a brown lateral lone from the face to the tail! There's a picture of it in the link if you wanna check it out.

Re: Creek crawlin' 7/20
 

One of the best ways to beat the heat right there brother. Plus noone bothers you!
Looks like a little creek chub to me. I'm still new to the whole trout game, but I think that both chubs & trout need the same kind of fresh water to survive in..find one find the other type situation I guess.?

Re: Creek crawlin' 7/20
 

Ive seen chubs in much warmer water. The state actually posted some study online about the "if this fish is in the water it means trout are likely to be there" data thing.

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/pdf/cwfmp/33-52.pdf

(glad I found it again thanks for reminding me :D)

Re: Creek crawlin' 7/20
 

Btw I envy not only do you have a fishable stream in your backyard, but it also holding trout. :cool: cool

Based off the article, Seems like creek chubs are a good sign of trout maintenance but not a sure thing.

today I learned carp and yellow perch dislike trout. Odd since I've seen yellow perch in natirar park,which is TM I think.

Re: Creek crawlin' 7/20
 

Gr8 report and pics!!! any idea what the water temps were????

Re: Creek crawlin' 7/20
 

Awesome multispecies trip!

Re: Creek crawlin' 7/20
 

Walking distance, you can't beat that man! Nice job.

Re: Creek crawlin' 7/20
 

I'm a pretty lucky guy! The stream is beautiful and always on the colder side, not positive on the temperature though. It's almost entirely lined with trees and is very shallow and fast moving in a lot of places, which helps keep the temp down and oxygen levels up.

ALSO! After further investigation I am 95% sure the mystery fish was actually an eastern blacknose dace! After looking at that article I noticed dace numbers were much higher than either chub or chubsucker, and looking at a picture of one they look almost identical.

Thanks for all the kind words fellas! Hopefully I'm gonna hit this same stream again this week.