Isn't she pretty?

My newest addition to the arsenal. It's a new Ichthus 3/4 weight fully machine reel from Risen Fly. I paired it with a 7 foot 2 weight Onyx rod I just picked up, and a Wulff Triangular Tapered Floating line. And for an added touch of sexy, I put a small amount of hot orange backing.

I can't wait to test this baby out. Full review coming soon. You should check Risen Fly's site because everything is 30% off right now, AND THEY HAVE $10 FLY LINES, which I also got in a 4 weight and strung up on my Sage 1810 (line review coming as well!).

Yep, I'm looking forward to doing some fishing in the snow tomorrow. I even busted out the GoPro today for some sledding action with Michael.

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?

Beautifully skunked

I snuck out for an hour yesterday to the stream behind my house. I knew I'd be skunked trying to fish for the handful of trout that survived the ice over and the bait dunker stringers but it was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and the air was just warm enough to be ok with a windbreaker. I didn't mind not catching anything. I chucked double buggers to any open water I could find, but no luck.

I've been on a black and white photo kick recently. I just love the contrast of it in the winter and the iphone pics desaturate well in Photoshop.









Also, this is cruel, but I have to admit that I was laughing when I saw it.

Bear tracks, boy scouts, and skunks

Yep, that picture above is supposed to be a waterfall. It's more like a ski slope. We got up this morning and hit the road at 7:30am to fish the Bushkill up at Resica Falls Boy Scout Reservation. We got a tip from someone that it might be good right now. Little did we know, it was about 70% frozen. There was also about 15 inches of fresh snow on the ground.

We gave a donation, filled out an accident waiver, and started the hike. Getting down the hill to the stream wasn't a problem. But, you know when your grandfather used to say "You kids don't know how good you have it. When I was your age, I used to walk to school uphill both ways, barefoot, and in the snow"? He should have changed barefoot to felt wading boots with about a foot of hard packed snow stuck to them. Then it would have been really awful.

One thing we noticed right away were bear tracks. I'm not talking some tracks with drifted-over snow where a bear might have walked. These were fresh bear tracks, probably made about an hour before we got there. I saw three sets of them and luckily, I didn't see a bear.

Finding open water wasn't too difficult, the first mile below the falls had sections of open water that were anywhere from 5 to 20 feet wide. The problem was finding open water you could safely cast through. There was about 10 feet of ice protruding out over the water on both sides. We wound up slowly going out on our hands and knees to distribute the weight, and for the most part, staying on our knees to fish.






As for the fishing, yeah, that's where the skunk came in. We were fishing on giant icebergs, so I didn't expect much, but we did connect to fish. I had a few strikes on midges, as did Nick. Jack fought one that took a midge but the fish ran him behind some floating ice and he lost it. I also fought and lost a small rainbow on a woolly bugger about half as big as him.

Did we catch fish? No. Did I have fun and find a stretch of water that will be awesome once the ice is gone? Absolutely. Nick also got this awesome shot of some ice over top of the water.

I love elusive snow trout, midges, and typing "not skunked"

I got a small window of opportunity to hit the water late this afternoon. I was the only person there, and hiking knee high in snow was NOT fun.

I was amazed when I finally made it to the water that dozens of fish were AGGRESSIVELY feeding on midges on the surface and in the film, right in one small little run. Unfortunately I didn't have many midges on me. I tied on a tiny size 18 BWO, and trailed it with an Al’s rat. After about a dozen casts I connected with a 13 inch rainbow on the rat. That fish being caught spooked the whole stretch so I moved upstream. I saw two more fish rising. I switched to a WD40 and got a tight roll cast right where it needed to be. I immediately connect with a brown no shorter than 22 inches, and he proceeds to break me off by hitting some fast water. I was using 8x and wasn't expecting any big fish so my drag wasn’t set. DAMN! I then had another hookup on a smaller fish but lost him. Not a bad day on the water and I avoided the skunk.

Now, I learned my lesson and I'm knocking out lots of tiny dry midges. I feel a new post coming on....

By the way, if you're not familiar with Al's rat, here's a youtube video of Al Miller tying it.

My first fly swap - flies completed

I've been in a funk with tying since Somerset. I've been experimenting with all the new materials I got and nothing I've tied seems to look right to me. I get 3/4 of the way through a fly and then it gets tossed into that giant pile of "**ck up flies" that I always say I'll strip down some day to get the hooks and beads back. Yeah, that never happens. I think the pile is close to 100 flies right now.

I did however to knock out some midges. I decided to join a fly swap on the PAFlyFish forum, and the subject was midges. You have to do two patterns, 15 of each fly. I decided to go with the rubber band midge I posted earlier in a size 22, and a zebra midge in size 18 with a hot orange tungsten bead head. I've had luck so far this winter with a hot spot zebra midge, and I have yet to catch a fish yet on the other pattern but A)I think it would work and B)I only tried to fish it once. I want to see if anyone else has luck with it.

Here's the results

Hot spot zebra midge
size 18 curved scud hook
black uni-thread 8/0
UTC copper wire - sm
5/64 Rip Lips hot orange tungsten bead


Rubber band midge
Orvis size 22 scud hook
Black rubber band (body/ribbing)
black superfine dubbing
Uni-thread - iron grey 8/0

They do look pretty sexy all lined up in a fly box. I'll have to knock out some for myself.

Well, that's about all I got. If you need me, I'll be snow blowing for the next week. There's almost a foot out there since 6pm! I need to fish this weekend. It's been almost two damn weeks.