Last week I finally got a chance to get up to Oil Creek to fly fish for trout. Oil is special to me as it is the stream my father taught me to trout fish on. I'd forgotten to call Rich the night before but figured there was a pretty good chance we'd cross paths somewhere on the stream.
1st trout of the trip
Well arriving streamside on Tuesday morning I started fishing and got into a nice number of trout and smallmouths. By the time I left the stream (around 1:30pm) there was no sign of Rich.
The next morning I planned to fish NIGHT CAP by riding my bike up the trail which cuts a 45 minute walk down to a 10 minute pedal. Arriving at the site there was no one around (perfect!). Unfortunately that also seemed to relate to the fish as I got nothing, no hits, no rises, nothing on my 1st pass thru the run.
After wading back upstream I took a brief water break intending to give the run another try this time with a different set of flies. As I prepared to rig up my rod a guy on a bike came flying down the trail, he jumped off his bike, and ran to the creek obviously boxing me out (I love people).
That bit of sportsmanship led me to decide to depart and search for 'less crowded' water. Arriving back at my car I was surprised to see Rich's truck parked right next to me! Since I had no idea whether he was upstream or downstream nor how far I decided to try leaving him a note.
Not having any paper, or a pen to write a note with I found an old business card with my cell phone number on it and put it under his windshield wiper.
I ended up driving down to Blood Farm and had a great time fishing the run just below the dam. Still, after several hours of fishing I'd heard nothing from Rich so I headed back to Titusville.
It had been a good trip but the hot weather was taking a toll on me so on Thursday I decide to fish for 1/2 of the day and then head home. Initially I tried a spot that was my father's favorite back in the day. Sadly, it has filled in since my last visit and after one pass I just wasn't feeling very confident so I headed back to my car.
Since I'd had success on Tuesday near Columbia Farm that was my next destination. Thankfully no one was in my spot and I settled in to fish. I'd picked up a couple of fish when a pickup truck went by. I didn't realize it was Rich until he'd passed me (saw his bumper stickers). I waved but when he kept driving figured he hadn't seen me.
A short time later a pickup was coming in the opposite direction. Again, I didn't realize it was Rich until he passed me. This time I figured he must have seen me and was going to park and come down to the stream. Wrong! He hadn't seen me and had continued upstream.
Around noon with the fishing slowing and the heat rising it was time to head out. I'd had a great trip fish wise but was disappointed in not having connected with Rich.
On Saturday my phone rang - it was Rich! He was washing his truck and found my card!
Maybe next time....