Fishing in Paradise 2024

Fishing in Pennsylvania is always best in the Spring to early Summer. Over the last few years, the annual IV Street Club fishing trip has been combined with a Summer golf outing at Saucon Valley. This year we split the golf and the fishing into two separate trips.

The change allowed us to schedule two days of fishing in May, a month earlier than in the recent past. And we have scheduled two days of golf at Saucon Valley to be able to play all three Saucon courses. (The Saucon Valley golf will be July 16 and 17.)

Judging from the enthusiastic response of both the IV Street anglers and fans of Saucon Valley golf, the two-trip format is looking like a big success.

Nine IV Streeters fished two great Pennsylvania trout streams on Wednesday May 29 and Thursday May 30.

Brook Trout from the Little Bushkill Creek 5/29/24

The trip began with four of the group trying our luck at the pristine and beautiful Little Bushkill Club thanks to IV Street and Little Bushkill member Larry Richardson. Besides Larry, Alan McIlvain (another Little Bushkill member), Bill Lynch and Eric Rabe fished there Wednesday morning. The Club owns more than two miles of the stream and about 1000 acres with plenty of bird and other hunting available. We didn't shoot, but each of us caught fish.

The Little Bushkill Club property is much as Mother Nature made it. "The boardroom" is the most notable man-made "improvement." It is a group of several picnic tables. The creek flows immediately beside the boardroom, and the Brook trout above lives there still.

With a quick stop at a Wawa market for a sandwwich, we four drove the 50 miles southwest to the Pohoqualine Fish Association, where we planed to fish before cocktails and dinner Wednesday evening.

Pohoqualine is the traditional site of our annual IV Street Club fishing, and the food, accommodations and fishing did not disappoint. Only two weeks before our trip, the Pohoqualine clubhouse looked like this as PennDoT put the finishing touches on a six month project to replace a bridge over McMichael Creek.

Rt 715 bridge next to the Pohoqualine clubhouse in mid-May 2024.

That proejct was complete by May 29 when IV Streeters Cliff Cheston, Bob Drury, Eric Noll and Peter Wilmerding as well as two Pohoqualine guides met the Little Bushkill anglers at the Club..

Pohoqualine asks that we limit guests to 10 for dinner and overnight accommodations. Nine IV Streeters joined this year's trip. One of the highlights is always the Pohoqualine dining room, presided over by manager and chef Eric Anderson. After a splendid dinner of grouper the night before, and a cozy sleep with the windows open, we joined for a breakfast made to order on Thursday, May 30.

L-R Rabe. Richardson, Drury, Noll, McIlvain, Wilmerding, Lynch, Cheston. Not shown, Lisle.

The morning yielded a number of fish for each of us who could stay, and lunch was stream-side at "Camp Alice."

Rainbow, a Brown and a Brook all from McMichael Creek

After the trip, Bill Lynch reflected the feelings of the group: "I had a blast! The fishing was incredible. My only regret is that I haven't been able to join the group on past visits. I won't miss another!"

The Pohoqualine toast, "Many Happy Days," was a wish that came true for IV Streeters this Spring.

Eric Rabe

ATTENDING

First name	Last name
Cliffe	Cheston
Bob	Drury
John	Lisle
Bill	Lynch
Alan	McIlvain
Eric	Rabe
Larry	Richardson
Peter	Wilmerding
Eric	Noll