MICHAEL GARRIGAN
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ALONG THE RAFTMAN'S PATH

January Thaw

1/23/2018

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Shadows on snow.
This weekend was beautiful. It seems like every year we have at least one weekend in January that feels like spring. This was it. I explored a small crick on Saturday for the few hours I had to fish. A class A brown trout stream, I was surprised that my first catch was a stocked rainbow. He had to swim pretty far to get to the hole I pulled him out of. I did finally catch a nice little wild brown before heading back home to make some burritos. 
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I had more time to explore on Sunday, so I decided to check out a new section of a larger limestone creek that I had fished a few times previously. This stream is often overlooked; though there is one particular spot that seems to get the most attention. I didn't see anyone else on the water. 
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Since this was new water to me and the levels were a bit up, I slowly worked my way out to a long mellow run tight line nymphing. On the set as I was lifting the rod to cast, I felt what I thought was a rock when it rolled over and shot downstream. I kept working him back over closer to the bank, trying to get upstream of him as we coasted down under a bridge. After about 50 yards, I finally, kind of, netted this beautiful rainbow. Though stocked, this dude had definitely been in the water for a few years. Beautiful colors. I've never hit the 20" mark this early in the year. I love the back and forth of a good right. There is a metaphor here that I'm going to keep working on. 
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After the rainbow and the adrenaline, I realized that my left boot was leaking. I kept fishing, but after another hour or  so, my foot was completely numb so I got in the truck and drove upstream to warm up a bit. I fished one last section as rain starting gathering through the valley and landed a handful of wild browns. They all took big tungsten nymphs on the bottom. I'm ok if January freezes up again. I'll be waiting for the next thaw. 
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    About

    I stumbled upon the name "Raftman's Path" walking the river trail that traverses through the little town I live in. It was named during the days when lumber was a huge commodity in this area. The Susquehanna River was an industrial thoroughfare - bearing down loads of lumber from the northern reaches of Pennsylvania towards the Chesapeake. Marietta was a stopping point, a place for the lumber either to go to the mills lining its banks or shoot further downstream through pig iron smoke. Raftmen would guide the lumber down to the mouth of the Susquehanna into the Chesapeake - an estuary of salt, water, lumber, ore, eel and shad. When their job was done, they would walk the raftman's path back through the Susquehanna Riverlands of Lancaster County towards their homes. The path is now wooded and meanders through some of the only "wild" places left in the county. 

    Sketches & scatterings. Rooted in Pennsylvania along the Susquehanna River. All words  & photos by Michael Garrigan unless otherwise noted. 

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www.mgarrigan.com by Michael Garrigan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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