Cold Day, Warm(er) Water and Dad make for Fishing Awesomeness

My parents are in town, so naturally I wanted to drag my Dad fishing. Being a fisherman, he's always up for standing in the freezing cold trying to catch fish. But he did warn me that the cold weather, and therefore cold water, would make for trickier conditions. To which I answered: what if I could get you access to 65°F water? With that, I had his attention.

The spot I had in mind was near the 4 Mile Run Treatment Plant, which has outlet that pumps 1,700 gallons of 65 degree water into 4 mile run every minute. My Dad could definitely see the fish being active in that area.

This morning at 7am, we parked 4 Mile Run and made our way to the steaming chute of water. This is clearly a common fishing area, as the grass around the area was trampled and there was plenty of debris along the bank. Though for today, we had the area all to ourselves.

My Dad went to work trying to catch fish. Nominally, I did the same. I also spent a good amount of time snapping pictures, looking for interesting rocks, and trying to figure out how to tie a Uni-knot (which my Dad would go on to effortlessly demonstrate). At one point, David gave me call. As I was explaining how there was clearly no fish to be had, my Dad naturally caught a fish.

OK, it was clearly time to focus. In a classic Dad move, it he updated the tackle on my pole to match what he caught his fish on and pointed me in the right direction. I made a few more casts. Nothing. He caught another fish. Then another. Finally, he just handed me his pole and took mine. I tried a few casts with his setup, again, nothing.

We switched back to my pole and then I had my first substantial hit. Fish on! I reeled my catch in:

Yeah, that would be a glove. We kept at it, and finally, success! A real fish:

After about an hour and half of fishing, we had to call it a day. Something about going to work or some such nonsense.

I've seen plenty of fishermen along 4 Mile Run, and now I can pile on and say that we've had success there, too. If you find yourself looking for warm water on a cold day, I've got your spot. Just make sure you bring along your Dad to have maximum success.