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!

A quick trip to brown town

The weatherman lied once again about the beautiful weekend we were supposed to have. I don't think it broke 50 and stayed foggy and drizzled all day yesterday, but a quick one hour trip to the stream turned out to be pretty damn productive. Four browns and a bow came to hand, all beautiful wild browns too. Griffith's Gnats, a Slumpbuster, and those new mealworm patterns were all productive.

Also, while I'm on the subject. I've gotten quite a few inquiries about these flies, and have a bunch of custom orders in. SBS and video coming soon. If you're interested in ordering some, I'll add them to the shop section of the site shortly.

Never tie one on....

That is... never tie on a fly until you get a good chance to examine what's going on. I got to the stream today, and it was windy as hell. I didn't think there would be a chance of anything on the surface. My common sense said to knot up a nymph and egg rig with some split shot since the flows are still ripping from Sandy in the wind-free front seat of my car, but I opted to leave my leader naked until I got stream side. I got to the hole and I couldn't believe it. My timing couldn't have been more perfect because there was a great baetis hatch. Some 8x tippet, and a size 22 CDC olive later, I brought my first fish to hand, followed by another. Then just like that, the hatch ended. I'm glad I wasn't fumbling around trying to clip off the nymph rig and store the flies back in a box. After the hatch ended, I picked up another 3 or 4 on midges and eggs. Fun day on the water for sure.

The leaves are turning, and the trout are looking up

It was a perfect day for fishing. It was too cool for shorts, just right for jeans; too chilly for a t-shirt, but just right for a light windbreaker.

I packed light, only carrying two fly boxes instead of my typical five (yes, I have issues), a couple spools of 6x and 7x tippet, and some floatant, dry fly powder, and some shot in my windbreaker pocket.

The air was about 60, the clouds seemed like they didn't want to let the sun peak through, the leaves were turning yellow, and I just knew there would be mayfly action.

Although I'm not a hunter and I pretty much despise being anywhere near a firearm, I always love when deer season starts in PA because the trout streams are empty. I pretty much had the place to myself, besides one other angler, who made the trip from up near NYC just to fish the Little Lehigh. We had some good conversations about various fishing locations while picking off fish.

Oh yes, they were looking up. Olives and Midges were coming off all afternoon, and oddly enough, Sulphurs starting making an appearance around 3:30pm. I've never seen them that late in the year. I wasn't complaining. I lost track at 5 fish, the biggest a fat healthy rainbow around 17 inches. I caught them in various spots, up and down the stream.

After a few hours, I headed home for some family time. One of the funniest things I've seen in weeks was watching the two little guys go crazy in the bathtub tonight. They are getting so big. Ethan is only 9 months and he's just about walking and constantly saying Dada already.

 I'm taking Michael fishing tomorrow with his uncle and cousins and I asked him "Do you want to use your Spongebob rod with worms and a bobber? I know you love playing with worms."

 His response?

 "No daddy, I want to fly fish like you." He's only three, and wise beyond his years.

(p.s.) Check the fly shop link up top. Some new patterns rolling through pretty soon...)

Springtime photo dump

I realized today that I've had no time to really update this blog, and unless you're on Instagram or occasionally seeing my Twitter posts, it seems like I haven't been up to much of anything.
So yeah, here's a quick springtime recap and a massive photo dump of fishing and family stuff.


I knocked out about 40 bugs for two separate terrestrial swaps. I can't wait to get my flies back.



I hit one of the most epic midge hatches I've ever seen at the Little Lehigh and had a ton of fun with wild brown trout and small dry flies.




We took Michael to the Camden Aquarium for his birthday. That place is so badass.






My stepdad and I hit a local secret spot for some great March largemouth action. He slammed a nice one.



Easter with the kids was pretty damn fun.



And last but not least, the ride got the massive fly fishing bumper sticker treatment last weekend.


Happy Friday!

A new brown midge pattern

This is my latest brown midge pattern. I've fished the Al's rat for the last year or so and it's been very effective. It opened my eyes to how well a basic tiny brown midge can be. I wanted to change it up and make it a lot more flashy. I took some wire ribbing, added a tiny bit of elk for the wing, and some flashy dubbing. After a few failed attempts and some minor tweaks, this pattern actually worked for me this past weekend, so I whipped up some more. It was the addition of the hair wing that actually had a fish take it. I fished a heavy anchor fly and had this trailing in the middle of the water column. Tying in hair on a size 22 fly is a little tough, so remember you only need a few fibers.

Size 22 Tiemco TMC2487 scud hook
Uni-Thread dark brown 8/0
Performance Flies Copper Wire (I'm done with Ultra-wire after using this stuff. It's awesome for small patterns)
Yearling Elk Hair - Put it in the stacker backwards and tie it in so the thickest butt section sticks out the back.
Jan Siman Peacock Bronze dubbing
Dark brown glass bead



Also, stop back tomorrow for a stacked foam beetle tutorial that's super easy and makes a great looking bug. More later.

February Dry Fly Fishing and Goodies in the Mail

Nick and I decided late last night to sneak out to the stream today, going against the wishes of our wives. These things unfortunately happen sometimes, and there's not much that can be done about it. :) When we got there, we realized we had the entire stream to ourselves. We had an inch or two of snow last night, and that usually turns most people away. Although it was still snowing, it was almost 40 degrees around 2pm, and actually quite comfortable due to a lack of wind.

My experience on this stream in February over the last two years told me that I needed to have some dry midges, but I wasn't 100% sure that would be the case today. As we rigged up, I refused to put a fly on. If I don't see bug activity right when I get there (the parking lot is very close to the stream), it usually means nymphing, but something told me I needed to check upstream before I busted out the lead and tungsten. A short three minute walk put us on some rising fish. I quickly picked out a size 18 Griffith's Gnat. These fish were pretty reckless with their rising, and I didn't think size would matter that much. I was going for a midge cluster, and it worked.

Within about 5 minutes, I was in to my first fish, a wild brown trout, about 10 inches, who was coming up every 15 seconds from behind a big rock. He took my fly on my second cast. As I brought him to hand, he did a quick head jerk and swam off. Not-so-long release, and I can live with that.

In the next hour hour I have two more bigger rainbows do the exact same thing, spitting my fly as I'm beaching them. I then finally realize that I had crimped the barbs when I tied these gnats. That explains it! It also reminds that I shouldn't leave for the stream without my net. Lesson learned.

I obviously didn't get pictures of these fish, but Nick actually took some video footage. I just got my hands on Adobe Premiere, so it will be a good way to get my feet wet with some advanced video editing. More on that later.

Nick unfortunately didn't have any small dries on him, so he had a tougher time. I gave him one of mine and he lost it in a tree. He headed out after that. I continued upstream and found another pod of fish rising. I brought a small brown to hand, and popped the fly without touching him. When they are only the size of your finger, it's better not to even get them out of the water.

Then it started to get cold, very very cold. Wind picked up. Snow picked up. The rises eventually stopped and I switched over to a smattering of midges, eggs, nymphs, and worm patterns. I covered a lot of water and threw a variety of flies at every feeding lane and holding spot. I picked up two fat rainbows, both of which I let go without snapping a pic because my hands were too cold. Not only did I forget my net, but also my half gloves.

So although this post isn't too photo-heavy with fish porn, I did snap a couple shots of Nick to test out Instagram's new filtering options with. I dig how they turned out. (see above as well)


When I got home, I was greeted with an envelope stuffed with stickers from The Fiberglass Manifesto. My ride is going to be covered with them. The new round pumped fist sticker is amazing. Thanks Cameron.


I've also been meaning to share a shot or two of the net I won from Tenkara Talk. This thing is beautiful and I almost don't want to use it. It might hang on the wall at the bar in the man cave until I get the balls to get it wet. Being a dumbass on Youtube can pay off once in a while.



Also as a reminder, if you are in to fly tying and want to join a terrestrial swap, head on over to OwlJones.com and sign up. Now, back to the beer. It's IPA nation tonight!

Snowy Sunday

Nick asked if I wanted to fish on Sunday. We had gotten about 4-5 inches of snow on Saturday. It was brutally cold. I'm still really bummed the hell out over Jake's passing. But, I went anyway, thinking it would take my mind off things for a short while.

Well, it didn't really help. I miserably stomped around in the snow for an hour to catch one brown trout before packing it in due to depression and the lack of feeling in my fingers. I lost a fly box a few weeks back on the LL and I was hoping that at least the fly shop would be open so I could see if someone dropped it off. Nope, of course not. Lady luck has not been on my side recently. Sorry for the poor pictures. I just wasn't in the mood.

We had the stream to ourselves.


Here's a half-assed photo of Nick gearing up.


The anti-skunk savior who took a small flashabou midge


The only redeeming part of the afternoon was a few cold Lagunitas Maximus IPAs, and this little goofball waiting for me when I got home. I can't believe how big he got. He's almost a month old already.



Also, in case you missed it, thanks to Jason over at Tenkara Talk! Making that embarrassing video was worth it because I won the Tenkara USA net! This thing looks so nice that I don't even want to use it. I might just have to hang it on the wall of my bar.


And keep an eye out for a post about the first official Instagram fly swap once I receive my bugs! Gin Clear did a great post about it, so you should just head over there to check it out. I really need to get tying. I'm also involved in a fatty streamer swap over at PaFlyFish that I need to get going on!

That's about all I got. I have to speak at the funeral tomorrow and I could really use a good night's sleep. Maybe I'll catch up with some of you at the Fly Fishing Show this weekend?

A small amount of time

I was on my way home and I only had a small amount of time to wet a line. The sun would be gone in half an hour so I had to act fast. I picked a spot closest to my house out of convenience and to save time, although I knew from scouting it on a regular basis that there were only 4 or 5 trout left in the 100 yard section I would have access to. They were rainbows that were still holding over from the stocking three months ago.

There was no time for waders, and I chose a small tan bugger. Stockies are stupid and will typically chase them across the stream.

I slid down a steep bank and hopscotched across some wet rocks to a spot where low hanging branches wouldn't annoy me. My feet got a little wet but there was no time to think about that. I stripped line as fast as possible and rocketed a cast. The bugger had a splashly landing about an inch from the opposite bank.

I started to strip line and I noticed a dimple. Then another. Then another. There were at least two, maybe three fish in the back corner of the pool, sipping on size 20 tan midges in slack water. I pulled the bugger in and started to string up some 7x tippet. As soon as I got a fly tied on, my phone rang. My son was sick and fatherhood waits for no one. I sulked away, back to my car, sadly watching those fish continue to sip. There's always tomorrow. Maybe.

Black, white, and 59 degrees

You couldn't ask for a better day in January in Pennsylvania. It was crowded so the typical great holes all had idiots wading in the middle of the stream, but the trout I came across today absolutely loved that red midge from my last post. Now if only I would have noticed the trash stuck in the bushes before that last shot...