I took a trip to the Walnut Gun Club Access. There was only one
fish-car in the lot. Good news, not a good chance for crowds. The
lone fisher-guy was fishing the tubes under Rte 20. The only fish I
saw. I decided to head upstream and let him enjoy the tubes to
himself. I walked and I walked, I guess over 3/4 of a mile, I'm not
really good with walking distances, to maybe a mile. I started
getting that Dave Lewis feeling -- like I was the only one to be
there. All I saw where minnows and my second red squirrel of the
day. At the very top of my travels, I found signs that someone else
had been there, but no idea how long ago - two sets of footprints and
that was it. I was sort of depressing, it would've been nice to
actually see a fish though ... but that happens when you're
exploring, though I doubt that Mr. Lewis would admit to a fishless
day. I'm not sure it'd happen that often either. Scratched out with
the fish in the tubes as well. Not that I fished them very
hard. Just one set of drifts through the tube and that was it, I
didn't even concentrate on the deep pool at the tail out. I'm not
very confident on how to fish those and if anyone's willing to share,
I'd surely appreciate it.
Moved down, and I mean DOWN to the Conrail tubes. The valley that
Walnut goes through is well over 100' below the rest of the
surface. The train tracks are built up to match the rest of the
elevation, you have to take a trail ride down and it's definitely NOT
for a low-riding car. The Exploder didn't let me down, on either
trips. The hole below the tubes had some fish schooled up, but not
really biting. It was another one of those slow moving, wishing I
had a worm, spinning gear and a big red and white bobber. I would
get a nod or two from a fish or two that was suspended midway up the
water column, but no takers. Started talking with a local. Very
friendly chap and we hit it off though he was noodling it with
minnows and I had my 10' TFO and floating line. He mentioned on
moving and I agreed that I wasn't gonna hang around where there
wasn't much action either. He mentioned Elk Creek at Platz Road
access. I knew the place and had fished it a time or three before.
At the Platz Road parking lot (it's a dead end, no winter service
type of road), there were more cars than visible fisher-folk. Platz
is a good place to start and walk. I know, I've done it too. The
hole where a bridge used to cross Elk was holding good numbers of
fish and there wasn't many people around, me and local guy doubled
the number of fishermen on our side of the hole. It was a good sized
hole, we were all standing double pole lengths apart and the
conversation was amicable. Local guy, the only one on our side using
bait, showed off by having the first hookup since we got there. I
had one questionable hookup next and the tail of the hole. It ran
well through everyone else, but swam tail up and towards me, a
typical sign of a foul hook. I don't like to fight foul hooked fish
until they're tired, so I broke it off. My buddies fish from 4 weeks
ago fought the same way, but was a fair hooked fish. I wonder now if
I made a mistake by busting that one off. The other guys on our side
finally hooked up on minnows too and kept their keep, as I would've
if mine were legal as I like a fish for the smoker. No luck on my
end though, maybe next time.
It was still a good day and worth the trip, no matter what the
locals say about not making the trip and saving your gas money. I'll
do it again as soon as I can. Thanks for listening!!
-->Garry
