The Spawn is On

Tried to fish Bald Eagle on Saturday Nov. 5th with no sucess, the water is still really up and the push is just to much to handle, it needs another good week to get into shape. Normaly the Eagle comes up and goes down the same as most freestone streams but not this fall. Spring is still up a bit maybe 20/30 cfs but thats not eought to hurt the Eagle. Just could not get a good grip on the bottom and the pressure was just to great to wade to spots where we know fish are.
  Ate lunch and went to Spring Creek to look at the overall population of spawing fish, they are there in wonderful numbers, maybe not quite at full spawn yet but close. It is a wonder where the heck some of those fish hid thru the year. Some of the hens are quite impressive just to see the size of them, the males are not of the same size but it is wonderful to see how they pair up in regards to size. At one spot there was no less than 20 redds in a small area of maybe 30-40 yards, quite impressive. No wonder Spring seems to have a great population of smaller browns, sure beats dumping hatchery fish into our streams.
  Sunday found my wife and I walking the dogs from the FFF parking lot upstream to the Fish Commission cabin, water still high and not a thing rising. Our kids ran around and of course swam in the pool, walked back and took them to Johnson's to rinse the dirt off, the air was filled with midges, small tan caddis and olives but no risers, water level is just to high for that but in normal years Nov. is midge time on Penns, the water clears and the wading is easy as the trout rsise all day long if the sun is shining.
  If we have a good drying week we should have great levels to deal with, it's great to see most of the guys hunting and not along the streams.