Savage Chub

Son #1 and I went for a bike ride Labor Day. This is a new thing. We have not done much biking together. Any concerns I had about my 7 year old keeping up were very quickly erased as I hustled to keep up with him.

We rode to Hidden Valley Park and while James played at the playground, I took a look at the creek running through the park. It is a small, clear and cold stream. It looks like just the place for a brook trout to call home. Alas, no trout in these waters. James and I then explored some trails along the creek.

We came to an open area with a bend in the creek and some deeper water along the bank.

When I was looking around I saw some fish at the bottom of the pool. Two were suckers, but there was another  that was holding to the bottom. It didn't scare away with me standing over it. I had my tenkara rod along and decided to see if I could catch whatever it was down there. I floated a dry fly gnat right over the top of it. I tried a grasshopper and an ant. I put a pink squirrel right in front of it's nose. I could see it feeding on something down there, but not what I was giving it. It was time to get going, but I decided to try one more thing, a pale green scud. I cast it a bit up stream from the fish and the scud drifted right by. He turned his head and sucked the scud up! I got it! James helped me land it. It was a nice sized creek chub.

It was a very fun little outing. Biking, fishing, exploring, all with my son. I couldn't have asked for a better Labor Day.