Did it

Well went fishing maybe a little later than I wanted to but with a new knee things take a bit more time. Arrived at Bald Eagle to a load of rising trout and a good Trico spinner fall going on. Got dressed and in the process of putting my waders on (hard to really bend for them to get in the legs) I noticed that I put my size #10 Simms felt sole leather wading shoes in the tub- they were not "WET", what a hell of a time to get them on, must have looked like a 85 years old walking down the street! When I got to the stream bank, oh boy it is very steep and it must have looked bad as I went down it but got down and into the water- all is good. Fishing rising everywhere, picked a few good ones out and everything was good except on the first few I was just to fast setting the hook. Most of the fish in Bald Eagle now are browns and not the same rainbows that were there other years and that is fine because the browns are much larger. All in all I took over 14 fish and had no problem wading around the ledges but that darn bank was staring me in the face, slow and steady did the trick. Back at the car still had a heck of a time to get the wading shoes off, note to self pack the size 11's next time.
   Got some lunch and wanted to fish a heavily wooded section of Spring Creek but when I got to the parking spot I noticed that Steve S. from Flyfishers Paradise was there, oh well maybe next time.
  As a side note I did tie up 24 new Trico spinners that have larger dark olive bodies and have to say did not notice any refusals from the fish, maybe all those years of #24-26 thin bodied spinners was just in my head. I have to say the fish in Bald Eagle at this time of year can be really picky and you need to have a good pattern and most importantly a good drift or they will not look at it. My experience the other year with shitty store bought spinners has opened my eyes, the fish do not mind the pattern as long as it is close but the drift has to be perfect.
  Went to Penns to fish tan caddis a few days after and had no problem with size "11 wading shoes! They was a very good Paralep. spinner fall going on when I got there and the tan caddis did start to come off as usual, nice colored and very fist browns at the junction pool with Penns and Elk Creek. Then "3" new fly fishers just came walking and fishing downstream with no idea of what they were doing, oh well I just gave them the time of day and decided to quit and go home. All in all not bad for the first couple of time wading after total knee replacement.