Quick Sunday Outing @ The Skippack

Last Sunday (April 4th) was kind of a busy day.  I'm actually still tired from it, hence the delayed blog post.  First, it was obviously Easter Sunday.  I'm not a religious person, so admittedly Easter really isn't as big a day for me as it might be for others (go ahead and call me a heathen), but it didn't stop Lilly from participating in 2 Easter egg hunts.  The first was in our living room around 7AM, the second in our backyard with our next door neighbors around 1PM.

A different kind of hunt - no camo necessary

Following the hunts, oh about 4:30 PMish, we went "Lebowski" and hit the Limerick Bowl for some full-on family bowling.  It's sort of becoming an Easter tradition, plus the alley has a pretty good deal for the afternoon; 75 cent games & snacks.  Some folks eat an Easter Ham, my family goes with hot dogs & soft pretzels.  The day wrapped up around 7 PM with a bit of birthday cake back at the house for K.C., as her birthday was the next day (Monday).

F**k it Dude, let's go bowling

Well, amid all of that action, I did find a little window of time (9AM to 11AM) between the first and second Easter egg hunts to sneak out and get some fishing in on the Skippack Creek.  I don't really care for the Skippack much, but it's close to my house so I thought I'd give it a try.

There's about 8 more guys behind the tree on the right

In addition to the trout fishermen, the frogs (or toads, whatever) were also out in force.  Lots of chirping and jumping into the water with a "splash" with every step along the bank of the creek.  I'm sure Wandering Owl could tell me what these are.  

Cutting to the chase, when I finally did settle in to do some fishing, I brought in 3 trout - lucky survivors of the previous day's "opening day" carnage - as well as this little guy.  I think it's a creek chub...but what do I know?

"There's a sucker born every minute" - P.T. Barnum

Uhhh...These Aren't Trout

It was beautiful out today, upwards of 85 degrees. We had a community yard sale this morning (and did quite nicely might I add - K.C. sold a bunch of scrapbooking supplies and I said goodbye to my XBox), but didn't really have anything planned for the afternoon. After putting Lilly "The Potty Training Terror" down for her nap a little after 2, I decided to try Skippack Creek again, but this time with my fly rod.

I'm a novice fly fisherman to say the least. My roll cast is more like a "stumble & fall" cast, but figured I'd give it a try. So hiked upstream quite a bit from the parking area, waded in, and started getting my cast on. Was having a really nice time getting the feel for the fly rod - until some interloper decided he needed to wade right through the pool I was fishing and set up camp right next to me. (Note: There were almost no other anglers the entire length of the creek - Gimme a break!) Anyway, enough about that DB...

Well several casts in, I caught my first fish. But it wasn't a trout, it was a pygmy, miniature, horizontally-challenged dink of a fish. Maybe I should call Guinness. I mean my rod barely bent while "fighting" this bruiser. And it didn't stop there; I caught his Smurf-like brother & sister too, but no trout. Oh well, at least something was hitting the fly I was tossing out.

No matter how much you zoom in,
it still doesn't look very big...
(That's what she said)

Skippack Creek

Fished Skippack Creek (off of Germantown Avenue) today. Only fished it once before. Didn't have much luck then, didn't have much luck today either.

Actually did a little bit of exploring today; the last time I fished Skippack I stayed pretty close to the main parking lot where the large pool is (and most of the other folks hang out). Today I took a stroll, doing some scouting for future trips. Sure I fished, but I didn't really concentrate on one spot for too long.

In chatting with other fishermen along the various banks, most weren't having much luck either. One guy using minnows said he caught 1 trout, but the folks using spinners and Powerbait...nada. So at least I don't feel too bad. I did find a nice stretch that looked ideal for fly tackle, I'll probably bring my fly rod the next time I go and give that a shot.

One minor consolation - did see quite a bit of wildlife, especially snakes and toads. Here's a shot of some toads.