I Haven't been blogging because....

I've been fishing nonstop. Between epic midge hatches and hungry browns on dries, monster carp at night, panfish on hoppers, and saltwater stripers on clousers, there's been no time to post! In fact, yesterday was the first day I didn't fish since the end of February!

More detailed updates soon but here's a few shots from over the weekend....

Gear Review: RIsen Ichthus Reel - my night fishing companion

I was provided with the Risen Ichthus about 4 or 5 months ago to review. I received the 3/4 and I wanted to really test it out on dry/terrestrial fishing before I had a chance to write about it.

Risen is a new name to the fly fishing world. They sell quality products at decent prices. I heard a lot of people starting to mention how nice the reels were, so I was looking forward to getting a chance to test one out.

Here's the specs:

Precision machine cut from pure aerospace aluminum bar stock and stainless steel for maximum strength and corrosion protection 

Large diameter Cork/FXB polymer disc drag delivers ultra smooth, low start-up inertia 

Two sealed, precision, stainless steel ball bearings

Fitted with one-way roller bearing

Quick left and right hand handle reversal

Counter balanced spool

Large arbor design

Easy drag adjustment

Drag clutch with zero-backlash

Silent retrieve with a crisp out-going click

Quick release spool

Exposed palming rim for additional control

MODEL	GEAR RATIO	BALL BEARING	INNER DIA (in)	OUTER DIA (in)	WIDE (in)	VOLUME(in3)	WEIGHT(oz)
Ichthus 3/4	1:1	2+1	1.65	2.87	1.06	4.33	4.06
Ichthus 5/6	1:1	2+1	2.00	3.50	1.06	5.00	6.17
Ichthus 7/8	1:1	2+1	2.36	3.74	1.30	6.29	7.76
Ichthus 9/10	1:1	2+1	2.00	3.74	1.30	7.32	7.76

After spending the last month night fishing with this reel with surface flies, I can honestly say, you won't find a better deal for the price. I have the brushed metal finish, and it's very nice looking. It's also pretty light compared to some other $100 reels I've checked out.  I've caught fish from 3 to 17 inches on it, and it's handled perfectly fine. The drag is decent, and it strips line nicely.

My only complaint would be the handle. When I first got the reel, it was very stiff on rotation. It was nothing that a tiny shot of WD40 and a little counter clockwise twist of a screwdriver didn't solve though.

The Ichthus is currently 30% off at Risenfly.com for their grand opening sale, and they even have free shipping until 4/26. Tell them I sent ya :)

And by the way, when I said I caught fish that were 3 inches long on it, I meant it..literally.

disclaimer- This product was provided to me free of charge for review purposes. As always, I try to keep my reviews as honest as possible. Feel free to contact me with any further questions on the product and I will do my best to honestly answer them.

Getting craptastic

Michael has been asking me to take him fishing since the opening day fiasco. I think he was mad that he dove into the water and forced us to leave we didn't catch anything and wanted revenge. I told him I would take him out yesterday. The only problem was that we got about 1.5 inches of rain in like an hour the night before, and everything was high and dirty.

I opted for a trip to the local lake in search of bass, pickerel, or maybe crappie. He wanted to use his Star Wars rod, so I figured bait would be the easiest thing for him, while I grabbed my 6 weight and a sink tip for streamers.

We stopped and picked up some fathead minnows, got to the lake and set up shop. By the time I got his line in the water, he was already splashing in the puddles, soaked up to his thighs. At least it was a little warmer...

I didn't even have time to strip out some line before I saw his bobber shoot underwater. He ran over, grabbed it, and reeled in his first crappie. He was scared of it for some reason and refused to touch it.

I started fly fishing and then he told me he'd rather use my rod and proceeded to dump out all the minnows into the water. Good boy! While reeling in his Star Wars rod, we picked up another small crappie.

I handed him the rod and helped him with a few roll casts. He managed to get one out just far enough and BAM, a nice crappie smashes my EP fiber streamer. This time, he wasn't so afraid of it.

He then started to lose interest and went back to the puddles. He was starting to get wet and I knew it wouldn't last too much longer. Luckily, daddy was able to get on the boards with a quick crappie as well.

It was an awesome day. There's nothing I like more than seeing my kid reel in some nice fish. I might have to get him a fly rod for Christmas.

Dub the Funcrageous Fly Fishing Bowtroutaholics (a.k.a the SE PA blogger fishing jam)

So, Mike from Troutrageous is heading south to Florida for his job (and hopefully changing his blog name to Snookerdoodle). He threw out the invitation to take a few of us for a "guided" tour of Valley Creek before he heads off to get a year-round tan.

Valley Creek is somewhat of an oddity to me. It's located only 20 minutes outside of Philadelphia and is in the middle of Valley Forge State Park, which is just dripping with history. There are literally no other wild trout streams around this far south, yet this spring fed little stream is home to a population of wild brown trout that have somehow beaten the odds and fought off some horrible pollution a few decades back to thrive in this little stream. It's kinda weird to think that you're fishing in a stream that George Washington took a piss in (and most likely drank from.)

I had to take my kids to swim class so I couldn't get there first thing in the AM, but my car was fully loaded and ready for the day.

I showed up a little late to the party, and Mike, Matt from the Functioning Fishaholics, and Steve from The Fly Fishing Bowhunter were already on the boards with a handful of fish. Matt and I opted for dries, while Mike and Steve waved around the weird Tenkara thingies. WIth all the rain, I was expecting a muddy shit show, but it was quite the opposite. The water was only slightly off color and wound up almost clearing by the end of the day. We wound up having a very successful day, with probably 20-30 fish landed between the 4 of us. Mike was an amazing guide and knew exactly where to go to put us on fish.

In poor blogger form, I didn't capture many pictures, except for a few of the prettiest browns I caught. These fish were beautiful with bright yellow bellies. It was a beautiful day, and I loved the fact that I didn't have to tie on a subsurface fly all day.

After fishing, we head off to the Tilted Kilt for some dinner and beers. The view on the creek was beautiful, but nothing compared to the view at this place. It was hard to focus on the food.

Overall, it was an awesome day of fishing with some cool peeps. Good luck in FL Mike, and hopefully we can get out one more time before you head off to gator country.

How time flies....

I can't believe Michael is now a four year old. Happy Birthday little man. Daddy loves you more than anything in the world. There is no one else I'd rather take fishing.

And P.S., the night fishing has been spectacular thanks to stupid stockies. I lost count last night from 9-11pm. For some odd reason, they were keyed in on white egg patterns.

Opening of Trout Season 2013 Top Ten List

Here is a list of random things that happened/I saw or overhead while heading out during the Southern PA opening day of trout season.

1.A guy walking by with 2 suckers on his stringer saying he couldn't believe he caught two browns under the stump upstream.

2.Local idiots camping out in a tent the night before on a stretch of stream that was about 12 feet wide and in between two housing developments, right off a main road, just to hit some 8 inch stocked fish.

3.One of the above idiots drunk as hell yelling "F*CK OFF" to every car that went by and beeped at the 300 people fishing at 8:15am. When I finally asked him to watch his language around all the kids he was like "Why don't you watch all the rock throwing from your a**hole kid". My 3 year old was throwing pebbles into a puddle behind me, not even in the stream. Needless to say, I left before I killed him. I later drove by and saw the  cops with him. I hope he got arrested. Dick.

4.My three year old decided to dive waist deep into the water about 20 minutes later at another hole because he saw a rock he "really wanted".

5.Carrying a shivering three year old and three fishing rods over a mile back to the car.

6.Heading out later in the afternoon without the kid and absolutely slaying trout on Greenie Weenies and Black Buggers while the bait guys watched in awe as I released every fish.

7.Spin fishing guys asking me if they could "fish a woolly bugger with a split shot" and if they could buy some off me.

8.Heading out around 10pm on Saturday night after the kids were asleep and hitting almost another half dozen on hoppers in the pitch black darkness

9.Twenty guys ganging up on one Palomino (golden rainbow) and one saying "Keep pissing him off and hitting him with lead. He'll eventually just bite".

10.Hitting a semi-crowded stretch on Sunday morning and seeing no one catching anything but fish rising like crazy to midges.. I cleaned up for an hour straight on size 22 Griffith's Gnats.

11.(I know I said 10, but this one is too good.) One of the spin fishing guys tying on a giant size 4 Royal Wulff, and casting it out with a bobber after seeing me smack fish on dry flies.

Yep, it was an opening day weekend to remember. Here's a few pics of the insanity.

17 incher on a Greenie Weenie

Fell for a dry

Michael, with his Anakin Star Wars rod, pre-swimming.

Quick, smash the Palomino!

Happy Friday

After 35 years of marriage, a husband and wife came for counseling.

When asked what the problem was, the wife went into a tirade listing every problem they had ever had in the years they had been married.

On and on and on: neglect, lack of intimacy, emptiness, loneliness, feeling unloved and unlovable, an entire laundry list of unmet needs she had endured.

Finally, after allowing this for a sufficient length of time, the therapist got up, walked around the desk and after asking the wife to stand, he embraced and kissed her long and passionately as her husband watched - with a raised eyebrow.

The woman shut up and quietly sat down in a daze.

The therapist turned to the husband and said, "This is what your wife needs at least 3 times a week. Can you do this?"

"Well, I can drop her off here on Mondays and Wednesdays,

But on Fridays, I fish."



Stolen from a forum but it made me laugh. TGIF.

Two of my favorite things....

There are two things I love about warm weather; dry fly fishing, and wearing flip flops. Saturday was in the low 60s and beautiful, but I couldn't get to the stream because of my nephew's birthday party. (which was a worthwhile excuse. Happy Birthday Bass!)

Sunday, was a little cooler, but still gorgeous. I knew the bugs would be out and after getting spousal permission, I donned my Reef sandals and headed to the stream for an hour (I think most of my posts mention asking the wife, don't they?)

I got on the boards quick with three fish on size 18 CDC comparaduns, BWO style. Nothing huge, but my feet were exposed to the breeze, and the fish were looking up. I couldn't complain.

Once the Baetis calmed down, I decided to test out a new shiner streamer pattern I've been messing with that has some huge eyes. I tied it for Pickerel, but wanted to get a sense for it's motion in a stream. A fat bow inhaled it on the swing during cast #6, but I wound up having to do surgery to get it out, and I didn't wanna stress the fish while fumbling for the camera. Here's a pic of the fly though.

Not a bad afternoon. Before I go, I received a few questions on where to get some DTT stickers. As a reminder, they are available in the Fly Shop section. I'm starting to run low and I probably won't be printing more so If you want some, jump on them soon.

I love seeing the kids twisting up bugs

I hope he doesn't mind me posting this, but I saw my bro-in-law's Instagram feed last night and he had some awesome pictures of my niece and nephew with the flies they tied. These are too cute not to share. Watch out for Ruby and Sebastian. They are gonna be badass fly tiers someday.

Hoppin' and Poppin'

Spring is right around the corner (even if we are supposed to get 4 damn inches of snow today), and with daylight savings time this weekend, later evenings means quick afternoon bass trips on the way home from work. I've been working on filling a bass box off and on for the past few months. I painted some popper heads a few weeks back and finally got the time to finish them last night.

I also knocked out a couple AZ Mini-Hoppers with the racing stripe foam.

It won't be long now......

It's so close that I can feel it....and the toothy critters are alive

This is the worst few weeks of the year. Everything is deader than dead. The ground is beginning the thaw and it is spongy with mud. It's still cold and damp, but we know winter is just about to head on out to make away for spring. It might hit 45 degrees, but the wind cuts right through you. Clouds seem to permanently stick around as if to let you know that we're still in the 7th inning stretch of winter.

 The only signs of life are the return of a few songbirds, and a few overly-eager tulips beginning to push up through the muddy popsicle we call Earth.

I'm ready for the trees to bud, the green grass, the hatches. It's so close I can just feel it. Just a few weeks away now.

My spring fever today brought me to an iced-out local pond/small lake on my way home for  5 minutes. I tied on a huge articulated streamer, roughly 8 inches, hoping I might find a toothy critter trolling the shallows for food. I stood sinking into the mud on top of dead brown grass, with the wind pelting my back with a touch of snow flurries, making it difficult to cast such a big fly with a 5 weight.

I knew I wouldn't have to cast far. They love to patrol the banks and structure this time of year. I know this water well and there should be a pickerel right around here.....YEP. There's a follower. I strip my fly in, faster now that I know he's in pursuit, and watch as he erupts on it about a foot from the bank, right in front of me.

It was not much of a fight since these fish are still pretty lethargic from winter, but it gave me hope that it won't be long now until I can fish in a t-tshirt and jeans again.

Some new foam - just in time for Terrestrial tying

I have new colors of the racing stripe foam available in the fly shop for a limited time. Head on over to check it out.

I also have custom cut Hopper/Chernobyl bodies available!