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And we're off!
Nothing says leaving Mobile like heading North over the Double Ds on I-65N.
On our way, the first day of a little two day, 1180 mile adventure to our SiL's cabin for a well deserved vacation at my wife's sister's beautiful cabin, located on one of the top trout streams in Northeast Pennsylvania, Bushkill Creek.
My son and I are blessed with seven days to fish this gorgeous location.
The rest of the family will swimming and tubing the creek, shopping, touring the sights, lots of great food and whatever else they desire, like sleeping in till noon.
Woohoo!
Largest Cabela's in the US, their flagship store in Hamburg, PA.
Wow! I got out for less than $300.00, way under my projected expenditure.... Prudent shopping.
80% of that was lures and flies, and if it's anything like last year then 50% will go to rocks/snags and fish jewelry.
First day of fishing and while I'm breakfasting with the wife and our hostess Auntie Angela...
Nate scores a nice 13" wild Brown within 20 minutes, it hit a Rapala floating minnow silver/black.
That's my Mini-Me!
Frikkin! FrakkinSon of a #^!@<!
I can't land a damned trout to save my life, every single one is getting off at the net, lost a beautiful Rainbow just now.
Day One
And I finally score during the evening bite, two Rainbows and a Brown,
Today was really frustrating all day, bites and fights but no fish landed except dink trout and small Smallmouths and rock bass. Bass are all out of season so C&R.
I cooked dinner tonight.
Blackened Chicken, Spicy Yellow Rice and a Black Bean Salad.
Nate filleted his big Brownie for dinner too.
I get the first fish of the day, a Brown on a Vibrax Blue Fox spinner.
And with that I cooked breakfast for the cabin. Lightly scrambled duck eggs with pepper jack cheese, topped with black bean salad w\ onion sauteed in butter.
Real New York Bagels spread with Honey Cranberry cream cheese.
Duck vs Chicken (brown)
Day Two
Just had an encounter with a Black Bear.
He came outta the woods about 50 yards upstream, swam across, got curious and stopped to watch us.
Blew an air horn at it and he huffed and melted in to the woods.
Reassuring to have my pistol on me.
The people that live on this private road all use them not only to scare bears, but to alert others that there is a bear in close vicinity. They also use fireworks and firearms too.
This bear didn't like the loud noise, but I'm not counting on a horn.
Not with my kids being out here fishing and playing, I've the only real bear deterrent on my hip.
Day Two
This has been a tough day fishing, one fish landed all day, every bite since then has been halfhearted with pop offs and fish lost at the net.
Lost gear in the rocks is driving me nuts, went to WalMart and dropped another $50. on Rapalas and Blue Fox spinners.
Day Two
Nate catches his new PB Rainbow at 16"
Right after this I lost a similarly sized Rainbow at the net, I blame my net man.
So we're one for one today.
Dinner was my job again. Thai Satay Chicken with Peanut sauce and green onion garnish, Thai Cucumber salad and rice.
Just a quick 30 minutes mid morning fishing, I got a nice lil'Brookie.
It was raining so we headed in to dry off and eat a late brunch.
Then it was off to the movies to see 'Solo', I was entertained.
A late lunch in town capped it off.
Nate doggedly going at it in the rain.
My Brook next to the implements of it's capture.
Stand by for dinner.
Trout Grilled in Foil, with butter, salt, herbs and lemon
Leftovers for sides
Got my limit this morning working Joe's Flies and live Red Wigglers under a cork.
Nate is batting zero this morning and isn't talking to me.
Some Scenery Pics
And top it off with a hearty breakfast of... Scrambled duck eggs with Black Truffle salt and red peppers
Awesome local sausages and real New York City rye bagels slathered with butter and goat cheese.
Yummy!
Day Four
We just got schooled by a couple of very experienced fly fishermen.
They caught over 20 trout in spots I was afraid to try for fear of getting snagged and loosing gear.
Nate chatted them up and picked their brains for his fly fishing, they were nice and explained/showed him some tips and tricks.
Day Four
Nate is still batting zero today, even after taking him shopping for new tippets/leaders and salmon egg flies... What the guys ^^^ above were using.
I was planning on catch and release for any fish I caught, but Nate laid claim to my fishies.
Yep, I caught another nice 15" Bow and Brookie, was fishing a riffle not more that 6 inches deep and WHAM!
Dinner tonight was my... Herb Crusted Garlic Studded Pork Roast
Roasted Herb Potatoes seasoned with Black Truffle salt
Celery sticks with Chipotle Ranch dressing.
Up and at'em early, took a good while of hard fishing before I got my first bite and it was a decent Bow.
A short while later I got another upstream from the first set of rapids.
Both were nailed on Joes Flies, I love these, the JF's Super Strikers are the best for easy casting with UL/L spinning gear and you can drift'em like a wet fly or work'em like a spinner.
Those and small Rapala Minnows in both sinking and floating have been fantastic lures.
Then while fishing in about a foot of water I thought I saw an Eel, but it's a little too early for them.
I noticed it sucked onto a rock, a Lamprey! Hot damn! Never seen one before, very cool.
I tried to grab it, grabbed it but it was too slimy and got away, it wasn't afraid it hung out in the same area. So I grabbed my net and just scooped it up, about 2.5 feet of parasitic Sea Lamprey.
Guy who has lived on and fished this creek for forty years said he'd never seen one in the creek.
Researched it thoroughly after remembering hearing they are a delicacy, and we're eating this guy for lunch.
Day Five
Yay!
Nate finally gets his almost two day skunk off him around 2pm with a smallish Smallmouth.
Then around an hour later at another spot he hung into a beautiful Brookie.
Incredible colors on it, love the blue dots with red centers.
And I landed yet another Rainbow and a Brown.
One more and its a limit for me, bet I get it after dinner.
Day Five
The ladies, two women and a girl, got up at the crack of dawn and went off sightseeing and shopping down in Lancaster, PA... Amish Country.
My wife better not return with a rental truck full of furniture... It happened in central IL one time
So the gents, after sleeping in till almost 8am, enjoyed a leisurely home cooked breakfast and then followed the ladies lead.
We hit up the largest sporting goods store in the area, Dunkelbergers in Stroudsburg, and did a little shopping too.
Then we decided to go sightseeing and drove out to Resica Falls, which involves some nice backwoods roads and mountain views.
Then back to the cabin where I finally processed and cooked that Sea Lamprey.
It was actually pretty good, and not intimidating at all with that horror movie head chopped off, much like handling eels... Mmmm, I love eel.
It was like a cross between squid and clam, but not chewy, a nice bite through consistency.
Nate and I really liked it.
I started by cleaning and chunking it into four inch pieces.
Then I parboiled it order to be able to wipe off the slime coat.
After cooling and drying I removed the cartilage and left the skin on, cut down the center and cut the chunks into one inch pieces.
EVOO, onion, garlic and bell pepper into a sauce pan and lightly saute.
Add lamprey and saute for about 10 minutes, add white wine and deglaze pan.
Add in tomato sauce, I used an upscale bottled sauce that was tasty.
Simmer covered for about an half hour or until lamprey is al dente.
Serve over pasta or buttered toast.
I start of early this morning catching an average sized Rainbow, keep fishing switching out spots and land the biggest Rainbow of the trip, get it netted and to the bank.
Hooray, I'm ecstatic, this fish has to be 18"-20"!
I pop the hook out of it's mouth and it violently flops out of the net, gives three more huge flops and slides down a wet mud bank and back into the river as I'm desperately trying to grab it.
Talk about a morale crushing blow.
Ok, I can get over it, I keep fishing and moving, and I'm in a quiet spot casting when across the creek I notice a spotted fawn stand up in a patch of grass right on the edge of the creek.
Its not 15 yards from me and wholly unafraid, it watches me, it settles back down into the grass where I can clearly see it. I pull my phone out of it's "waterproof pocket" in my waders and get a few pics and even some video when it stood up again, cool stuff.
Never did see it's doe and I left it alone.
Keep fishing and decide to cross the creek in a likely looking spot, not too deep, not too fast, as I can see rocks/bottom all the way across.
I get about to the middle and find that I've managed to get atop a huge flat rock covered with slime.
Slip #1, and I'm wet, damn get off this rock!
Slip #2, much wetter, cussing, where is the edge of this slab?
Trying to find footing, how big is this F#cking thing.
Slip #3 and I'm almost swimming.
But hey, I'm off the giant @ssed slip and slide of a rock slab!
Slip#4 and I'm sputtering cuss words with water and finally stagger into a few inches of water, out of breath and waders full of water.
Wow, I still have my rod, nothing lost out of vest pockets and I'm not hurt/drowned.
Life is good.
Then my phone starts making random noises... Oh crapola!
Yep, that waterproof pocket wasn't waterproof... I give it up and slosh 1/2 a mile back to the cabin.
Phone is toast, gonna have to buy a new one.
And my pics of the fawn are history.
I might go back out later and scour the section of river I caught that PB best Bow in, he might still be around.
Day Six
After this morning I hung it for the day and went back to bed.
I must've been a little depressed cause I slept till that evening.
Got up and fixed a nice dinner for everyone.
Got up early and went hunting for 'The One That Got Away'.
Nate and I both combed that particular section and up and downstream of it.
Neither of us hooked any monsters but we did get a few.
Going upstream I noticed a familiar patch of golden brown in the same patch of grass from yesterday, and there was the same fawn. I called to Nate so he could come get a look, we edged up pretty close before the fawn took off up the steep hillside, stopping to watch us. Again no sign of it's Doe.
I figure it was abandoned or lost in a creek crossing, or maybe it's Doe got killed, don't know.
But I do know it isn't going to last long, some bear or pack of yotes is going to find it.
The trip home was a fairly uneventful 1180 miles.
A little heavy rain here and there, but no traffic jams or other delays.
We over nighted in Abingdon, VA and hit the road again.
I talked the family into detouring through NC and GA via I-40E / The Gorge, and it was as beautiful as I remembered it. Went through Atlanta and it wasn't too bad being a Sunday.
Home
Hello Double Ds
We brought a nice bag of fish home this time.
Breakfast and dinner on Monday featured fried trout, yum!
First thing you talk about the bear and the bear horn. Next thing I see is two eggs and I think to myself, "damn that bear must have really scared him".
Looks like great fun and relaxation. Not so sure I could motor from Mobile to Pa. but I am proud of you for doing it.
Nice vacation John, looks like you and your family had a great time. Over here the state treats the lakes tributaries with some chemical to try and kill off the lamprey's. They are very damaging to the game fish in the lake. Nobody likes them.
