My son and I hit two creeks over two days on what I like to call my birthday weekend. For those that think having an entire birthday “weekend” is extreme, I have a friend who has proclaimed the entire month surrounding her birth date as her “birthday month”. Ha. ha! Ok… back to the story at hand… I can’t think of a better way to spend my birthday weekend than on the water with my son.

Day one we fished Lycoming Creek. My neighbor Dave who is an excellent winter stick came along to assist in our exploratory trip. The creek is not known for its’ wild trout population and primarily relies on stocked fish. There is a decent delayed harvest section but because of all the snow fall our ability to find a safe pull off in the area that we initially wanted to target was pretty much impossible. More on that later!

The day started with a lot of jokes and high hopes as any fishing trip should! My son and I sported matching hats for the occasion. Ha ha! I think he looks a lot better than me in what we deemed our “Elmer Fudd” hats. I will say one thing… If you are looking for a warm winter fishing hat, these Filson hats are the absolute bomb!

I must say Lycoming creek is truly beautiful. The pools and deep rock filled runs looked fantastic. That’s the funny thing about fishing though. Fishy looking water doesn’t always produce. This was definitely one of those days. Despite our best efforts, we drew a blank. My son can be seen here chucking a streamer to cover water while I was nymphing every nook and cranny behind him to no avail.

We may not have caught any trout but fishing the rural creeks of Pennsylvania is always an adventure! When we got to the creek I had to pull into some deep snow to get a safe distance off the road. My son and my neighbor Dave expressed a little concern over my choice of parking spots but I confidently replied, “we can figure it out when we are done fishing”.  Well, upon our return to the jeep, it was obvious I had plowed a lot of snow and “high centered” the jeep. I always say that you learn something new every time you go fishing. We learned today that landing nets also make nice snow shovels. Thirty minutes of digging snow from underneath the jeep , Dave adding some extra weight to my bumper and some creative driving got us back on the main road!

We ended our first day of fishing at a local watering hole. The name alone “The Crippled Bear” makes the stop worth while. More importantly though, the great food and friendly service guarantee that we will stop in again when we are in the area.