The Lunker
Let Them Eat Fish
By Fred Metarko

The first few weeks of trout season in Tioga County, Pennsylvania, is always quite hectic. Anglers filter in from all over the state filling area camps along with the available hotel and motel rooms. The stores and restaurants are also busy selling supplies and serving up meals.

Most anglers fish for hatchery-stocked trout that are placed in the streams in March by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission with the help of local volunteers. During opening week, you can drive the roads in the area and tell where the good spots are, cars will be everywhere and parking will be at a premium.

My choice is to avoid the crowded stocked areas and head for the smaller streams that are more remote and less visited, hoping for a place where some natives or holdovers from last year’s stockings might be lurking. During high water in the spring, some fish find their way from the larger streams like Pine Creek, where they were stocked, to the smaller feeder streams where they live during the summer.

Years ago, my brother George and I would fish the Genesee Branch near Gold, Pennsylvania, on the first day. Stockings were done in the fall, and the fish would be nice, healthy, and good sized on opening day. Filling a limit with fine fish was easy.
Fishing is enjoyable for more than catching your limit or catching the lunker of the day. I have experienced many memorable moments during my time out fishing in the woods and in the boat on the lakes.

One time I was fishing Long Run near Morris with my neighbor Mike. We were returning down a trail when we heard something crashing through the woods. Standing still, we observed a mother bear and her two frolicking cubs as they came from the ridge above and passed right ahead of us.  Mom kept close watch over the cubs as they moved down the hill and out of sight. We know you do not want to get between a mother bear and her cubs.

Turkeys are often heard and seen, and when a grouse takes flight from a tree above your head it scares the daylights out of you.

I tell my wife, Linda, how peaceful it is walking through the woods and along the stream listening to the water and all the sounds of nature.

She went with me to Big Run near Blackwell. It was a bright sunny day and the fish were biting. She was really enjoying herself. Just then, she noticed three baby raccoons playfully moving toward us along the stream bank. They were rolling around and bouncing off each other as they climbed over the rocks and branches. We stood still as they came closer, right up to us. I was wearing hip boots, and they were trying to climb up my leg.

Attempting to shake them off and pushing them with my fishing rod, they still persisted. We ran along the stream and even crossed to the other side, but they kept up with us. They were fast little critters.

We finally decided they could smell the fish in my creel. When they caught up again, I threw a few fish out on the bank. It worked. They stopped to eat, and we moved quickly up the stream.

I caught more fish to make up for the loss, and we enjoyed the walk through the woods back to the car as we pondered this unforgettable experience.

The Lunker is a member of the Tioga County Bass Anglers (www.tiogacountybassanglers.com). You can contact him at lunker@mountainhome.com.