what a heron taught me
SE PA has been seeing a large resurgence of black bears, coyotes, and great blue herons. This week I was ffishing a riffle of a local tailwater that I thought I knew well. I thought I understood the holding areas, the feeding lies and, most importantly, where, when and under what circumstances the alpha trouts would move into the riffle from the deep holding water to feed, particularly at dusk during summer and early fall.
While I was busy trying to cash in on a multiple caddis hatch and ovipositing, a white cahill spinner fall, midges and a Baetis and maybe Pseudocloen hatch, I noticed a heron had flown in to the very top of the riffle, where the water is fast but impossibly (so I thought) thin. In short order, he snagged a fish, but let it go - I think it might have been a sunfish or rock bass, judging from its profile.
The heron crossed over to the other side of the river. Just after I hooked a nice rainbow on a Colorado King and while I was playing it, trying to bring it up the slow wash right below me so I wouldn't have to move and disrupt the feeding trouts, I saw him stab a 13" trout, right below where the flat tailed over into the top of the riffle.
I have never in all my years attempted to ffish that particular spot. Apparently the heron knew his business, so I cast into some equivalent water upstream from me, and got a big boil, which I missed. The light was pretty dim, and since I had never calibrated the drift lines on that piece of water, I didn't have good control on my slack.
As I waded back to the car, I quartered down over a similar spot and missed another nice one.
Next time, I'm going to check the drift lines on these skinny spots in broad daylight and hope I can match the heron's success at the right time of day. Except they don't C&R trouts.
Too bad these beautiful predators are protected. I looked into what preys on herons, and apparently eagles are their main enemies. Now, evidently eagles don't vote or have to pay taxes, so they don't seem to abide by our federal regulations. Besides, they're protected species themselves. Fortunately, eagles seem to be coming back here in PA.
Come ON Eagles ( and I don't mean the ball team).
tl
les
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Originally Posted by RG/AR
