Nittany Steelhead...

Brian and I hit the road fishing for the first time this year.
Hard to believe that it had been 3 months since our last fishy outing....we were both long overdue.
This trip, which had developed very quickly, had us visting a new river in a new State south of the border. Great....another NR license! Ugh. $$
Ah well.....as Wallacio put it,...it is comparable to a round of golf ...and we sure got our moneys worth on this trip.
Although I would take a 2 or 3 fish day on my favourite trib any day over the disneyland fishery we experienced this week , I have to admit that this trip was loads of fun and will probably go down as one of the best fishing trips in my memory.It should be a goal of ours to at least make this an annual thing.

Too many hours at work lately had me craving some R & R. OT calls, training, and the desire to shake off the image of "raising the boys" will have a simple fishing adventure take on the vibe of fleeing the scene at times...but whatever,...with every passing kilometre Thursday morning I could feel my blood pressure dropping.
Picked up our licenses and within a half hour of doing so we were into our first fish....not bad considering the conditions.

Beautiful spot really and the people were off the chart friendly!
I was pleasantly surprised at the fact that most people were genuinely glad to meet you. I am not sure what I had expected.
Lingering horror stories of tires being slashed by angry locals played through my head as we rolled into town but by the end of the second day we were sharing a beer and some smoked salmon with the natives in the parking lot as we geared down.....passing on a few secrets and answering questions about our "funny looking flyrods with monofilament". :o)
One guy yelled across the river "way to go guys...you sure had a good day!" as we were leaving.....took me a few seconds before I realized he was being genuine.
Nice people.
It could have something to do with the fact that the community depends so heavily on the tourism created by the local fishery. Either way ,...it was very enjoyable.
We met up with a couple of other fishing freaks that were kind enough to let us in on a cabin dealio right on the river.Thx again fellas.

Four seasoned Steelheaders...beer and bad food. Great way to spend an evening.....too bad Morin sounds like Darth Vader when he's sleeping....I'll have to remember the ear plugs next time....or drink a little more.
Besides the inevitable flatulence that can only be expected from the bizarre mixture of too many Rolling Rocks, meatball pizza, Appleton rum, Hot buffalo wings and sheer exhaustion the accomidations were pretty cosy.
Next morning was a frosty one and, hangovers be damned,we were on the river early to meet another push of bullets.

Morin of course got one on the first drift.

Prick.
Most of the fish we caught were small compared to the fish we get around here but they fought like stink! Most were out of the water 5 or 6 times...fresh nickels...like October fish.
I usually associate spring fishing with stale dropbacks and this fishery was something new to me. All these tight fish pushing up the river in pods at first light and again in the evening......you'd be hard pressed to get one over 5 lbs but there were tons of them and if matched properly with the right tackle they were great sport for a bunch of knuckleheads from Ontario.
At one point on the morning of the second day Brian and I had connected on three double headers in a row!
We just stared at each other and laughed.
That kinda fishing can ruin a fella if he is not careful but it could easily become a great spring ritual to shake off the shack nasties of a long fishless winter.
Fresh air..train whistles...and woodpeckers.
Neat.
Hmmmm.....what next?