Event: TIE ONE ON 2 - 3/8/14

It's been a long winter. You need to get out of the house. If you're not busy on March 8th, feel free to stop by. I'll be drinking beer, tying, and doing demos on a few different patterns.

"The second annual Tie One On event is upon us! Come hang out while some of the great fly tyers share their secrets... bring your own vise to follow along or just to tie with some like minded people. We will be giving away some amazing door prizes and have cool merch, great food and of course beer available for sale! This is a FREE event!!! So come on out and Tie One On with us! 

All ages welcome, and please invite anyone you know who is into or looking to get into the fly fishing scene!"

You can visit the Cro Flies FB Event page for more information.

The Deer Lake Pub is located at 1596 Centre Turnpike, Orwigsburg PA, just north of Cabelas in Hamburg PA.

You can also visit the CroFlies blog for even more info and tons of other great reads. Hope to see you there. If you would go, what patterns would you like to see tied?

Battling Chrome and Cold - The Salmon River Recap

Life has been pretty hectic so far this year. Endless work hours, time with the wife and kids, constant traffic jams, and more snow that I remember having in PA in a long time. We've tried to head to the Salmon River in NY three times since October and for one reason or another, the trips always got cancelled.

Things finally fell into place this past weekend. We were able to take off work, it looked like our wives and kids wouldn't get hit with a snowstorm while we were away,  the weather up there was cold but looking mostly dry, so we made the journey. Along for the ride was my brother in law, Nick, and our good fishing buddy, Bob from Just Another Fishing Blog. We headed up Thursday night. My step dad, Jack, and his neighbor Ken were planning on heading up Friday morning to meet us.

We arrived a little after 11pm and it was in the single digits. I forgot how damn cold it was up there. We met up with Nick's family in Mexico where we'd be staying, and started cracking beers. And more beers. And more beers. I'm not sure what time we got out the door on Friday morning, but it wasn't very early.

We met up with Jack and Ken in the parking lot in Altmar and got to fishing. Bob lost one right off the bat, then Nick moved in and brushed off the multi-year steelhead skunk with a little baby.

As for me? Well....I started early...and pretty much continued all weekend.

Fish for half an hour, drink a beer. Fish for half an hour, drink a beer. I was feeling pretty good around 4pm and not really caring that I didn't get into any fish and then I started to feel even better when I felt the switch rod bend.

I too brushed off my steelhead skunk with a nice slab of a fish and holy shit, it felt good.

He took a blue estaz stonefly nymph. I hooked another immediately after him but broke him off. John Ryan, Nick's cousin, centerpinned all day and nailed a ton of fish. Damn beads. Jack, Bob, and Ken walked away empty handed.

We headed back to the tackle shop, hung up the waders, and pounded a ton of beer.

I think we were up fairly early Saturday morning, but I honestly don't remember already. I know we met up with Jack and Ken at McD's for breakfast, and then hit the water.

We fished hard in the morning. I opted to stay in the lower fly zone while the majority of the crew trekked downstream. Beers started happening around noon and  I wound up sitting with John Ryan and his dad in the Altmar hotel getting lunch since the rest of the crew were down somewhere between the schoolhouse and Ellis cove. As we were leaving, they were walking up. Nick told me that Jack got a fish, and from the look on his face, I could tell it was a nice one.

I owe a lot to Jack. Besides being an amazing step dad, he also gave me my first fly rod 5 years ago, and the rest is history.  He even gave me my first vise. He's came along with me 4 or 5 times up to NY, but has always walked away empty handed. He's an amazing fisherman but just couldn't shake the steelhead or salmon skunk. I don't think I've ever seen him so happy  as when he was telling me about his fish. From the sound of it, it was one to remember. Unfortunately none of us were with him when it happened, and he cared more about getting the fish back in the water than a hero shot, so there were no pictures. I've been kicking myself in the ass for not fishing near him when he landed it. Hopefully there will be more.

After lunch it was back to fishing. About half an hour in the water and I felt a slight pop, and then my boot FILLED with icy cold H20. Yep, bye bye waders. My leg was soaked.

I pretty much gave up on fishing for the rest of the day and headed to the car, where sweet, sweet IPA awaited me. About an hour later when I could officially not feel my foot, I went to get Nick to head back to the house. As I cross the bridge and look down, he's into a MONSTER, and his uncle and cousin were hooking them left and right as well. Bastards.

And so ended day 2 of fishing with Bob and I walking away empty handed.

But the day was only half over. Jack and Ken came over to the house for dinner. A ton of wings, pizza, and beer was consumed, following by dick jokes, really bad IPA farts, Suicide Girls Instagram comparison, and a fly tying marathon.

We whipped out some bugs, and got completely trashed. Zero f*cks were given. And we realized that with his Buff on, Bob is definitely an understudy for Reno 911.

We went to bed at varying times between 1 and 3:30am (of course I'm the last one up and listening to snore-a-thon) with the alarm set for 6am, knowing sure as shit we weren't gonna be up then.

9am rolls around and we get out to the river by about 10:30. Jack opted to head home early with Ken because a storm was rolling through NY and PA. We decided to fish anyway. We fished hard until about 1:30. I was hooking up nonstop with some fish. Here's a nice male I brought up that unfortunately took a hook in the fin. John Ryan got a few as well

We then packed up and headed home, only to drive through the entire freaking snowstorm. The typical 3.75 hour drive turned into 6 hours. Roads sucked. Snow sucked. It was awful.

All in all, it was an awesome weekend. Memories were made, as were flies and hangovers. Nick and I broke the skunk. Jack got his first one ever. And Bob...well you can read his version of the trip here. At least he was the only one that got a fish last year.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a better group of dudes to fish with.  Thanks so much to the Lutz family for putting up with our smelly asses for 3 nights. I look forward to the next trip.

T shirts anyone?

In the past few weeks, I've had a handful of people say they like the logo and asked if I'd ever have shirts for sale. If I'm gonna do them, I want to do them right. I'd get a quality tee with the full 3 color design. If I have enough people interested to keep the cost low enough, I'll place an order. So, anyone want to rock a DTT tee? Drop a comment below and let me know the size if you're interested.

F*ck January

Seriously, eff this stupid damn month. I think this will be the first month in the last 3 years I haven't caught a fish? Why, well...we had the holidays, which I usually post about but was too busy this year. Then, since I work in the weight loss industry, it's our busy season with "New Years Resolutions" so I pretty much haven't had a day off in the past two weeks. If I could have found time to fish, it wouldn't have mattered because it's been -234234324 degrees F around here and everything is colder than a witch's tit and frozen solid. I'm ready for caddis hatches and fishing in sweatshirts..Hell, I'll take a 20 degree weather steelhead trip in 2 feet of snow right now. Anything...

At least when I do get to fish again, I have a new stick to test out. Merry Christmas to me.

Also, to everyone who won contests and ordered stickers that I need to mail stuff to: Sorry dudes. I'm getting there. Been swamped. Soon. I promise.

Oh and by the way...I'm really sick. So that sucks too.
Now, have some 1993 Brooklyn Gabber to rage out and twist some bugs to.....

Hershey....fishing not that sweet....

I'm at Hershey Park for the weekend with the family. I snuck off yesterday in the snowstorm to hit up a small trib with the Risen ITB I'm testing. It was very cold and the only fish I really saw did take a caddis pattern but got sawed off on the shelf ice at my feet. Awesome. Well, back to eating chocolate and watching the kids sit on Santa's lap again and again. Enjoy your Sunday.

Back to the streamer box (and a new day 1 contest winner!)

Ed, the dude that won the day 1 one contest, I'm sorry man. You never got in touch and I can't find a valid email for you. I tried the various social networking sites with posts and you never came forward. That means Swamp Yankee is our new winner. Check out his blog, even if the name is a little um..interesting.

So yeah, send me your address man.

Moving on, I've been meaning to sit down and fill the streamer box this fall. Picked up some of these new fish masks to try out. I've loved fish skulls, but I find that throwing them on anything smaller than a 5/6 weight is scary. These give you the small, arguably nicer, look, without all the extra pounds. I could chuck one of these articulated beasts on easily on a 4/5 with an intermediate sink tip.

I only tied one articulated meaty monster so far, but I really like the way these things look.

Have you used them yet? any tips, tricks, suggestions?

I'm a film critic, a winner announcer, a drunk, and a fisherman.

So, I kind of ran out of steam with this whole contest thing. Admittedly, I got pretty drunk on Saturday night (more on that later) and I slacked on announcing the winner. I'm pleased to announce that my good buddy Dean over at Gin Clear won the Eat My Fly Outfitters shirt and hat giveaway.

As for contest Day 7....to be honest..I had something to give away. And now I can't find it. I think my kids stole it. But anyway, as soon as I find it, I'll post it. Or I'll just tie up a shit ton of flies to give away. Either way, Day 7 will happen. Just not today. You should all go enter Cameron's contest. He's got some pretty amazing stuff.

So yeah, back to Saturday. We had a friend's son's Bar Mitzvah at Citizens Bank Park on Saturday night. Shit got crazy. Like real crazy. We wound up hitting a few bars afterwards. I don't remember much, but the Philly Phanatic was raving out. It's always a scene when they turn a baseball stadium into a night club.

I did manage to get a little pickerel fishing in before we left. Only had a follow, but the peace and quiet was much needed to level myself before a night of insanity.

As I spent yesterday and today recovering (yes, hangovers last two days now that the late 30s is upon me) I watched a few fly fishing flicks.

First up, "The River Why". I want the two hours of my life back that I wasted on watching this shit movie. I read that someone said this film was going to rejuvenate fly fishing like "A River Runs Through It". Well, Buster did not want to fish. He wanted to watch 2 hours of no plot, HORRIBLE acting, and  a bunch of steelhead getting bonked on the head. I'm not even going to post a video clip of this film because it was so damn bad and I'm angry because I heard the book is great but this movie ruined it for me. I can't bring myself to read it now. The only reason to watch this movie is Amber Heard's beauty, but you can just google her instead. WTF was up with the  guy from The Walking Dead and his chair rocking dog? And the random nonsensical words that Gus mutters? Or the clay wrapped around the worm? I feel like you had to read the book to understand half the stuff that happens.

Next, Low and Clear. I wasn't expecting much from this film and I wouldn't exactly call it a fly fishing film. I'd called it "An Anti-Bromance that takes place on a BC Steelhead trip". If you want to watch the intricacies of a 25 year old relationship between two guys unfold in front of you while one gets skunked and the other slams fish all day, go for it.

In all honesty though, it wasn't bad. There are some beautiful fish caught, the scenery and music are both excellent, but I felt it does move a little slow. If you're expecting nonstop fish porn, go somewhere else. If you want some thinking man's fly fishing art house film, this is for you.



So yeah, keep an eye out for contest 7, and if you're the dude who won day 1, You have until tomorrow to claim it or I'm picking a new winner.


Seacrest out.

Day 6 giveaway - Eat My Fly Outfitters (and Day 5 winner)

Congrats to my homie Matt Koloch for winning yesterday's drawing from Strip'n Flywear!

Up today we have a long sleeve Catch and Release tee (Size L), along with a New Era Flex Fit cap from someone newer to the game called Eat My Fly Outfitters. This guy is out of NJ, and has some quality gear already available.  I was contacted by them to review their new Flex Fit caps and they graciously agreed to throw in a shirt for the giveaway.

These caps are solid. I have a gigantic sized skull (Wear a size 8 fitted hat) and the L/XL flex fit cap fit me just fine. They have the look of a decent trucker hat that most of you fly fishing types love so much, yet the flex fit mesh protects your head from wind, sun, etc. WIN-WIN in my book. The stitching is top quality on the front and the brim has a slight curve to it. You'll look like a sexy beast on the water! It is the season of giving, so I'm going to give away the hat along with the tee! (reel in picture not even included so don't even go there!)

By now...you know the drill..

Rules:
1.you will get one entry in the drawing for commenting on each giveaway post. For every FB share, tweet, or Instagram post about it, you'll get another entry. My Facebook account link is at the top of this page for easy access to sharing.. You can find me on twitter via @dubthethorax and Instagram via @mike_phazeone. I originally didn't say anything about G+ but what the hell, tis' the season, right?

 2.You can only comment once here so make sure you include where you shared this in your comment.

 3. The maximum amount of entries is four per comment. (Comment examples-"Hi this is John Fisherman, I shared on twitter via @jfish, shared your FB post, and tagged you in my instagram photo" - He just earned himself 4 entries)

4.Please only post ONCE and list everywhere you shared this. If you have problems posting, please email me or post on the DTT facebook wall so I can count your post.

 5.This contest will run until 12am EST. I will assign everyone entry numbers and use a random number generator to choose the winner tomorrow.

 6.if you're outside the continental US, shipping costs may apply.

7.Bonus entries for today - Make a blog post on your blog about this and get an additional entry, which means you can max out at 5 entries.

Day 5 Giveaway - Strip'n Flywear Shirt (and Day 4 winner!)

First off, congrats to Garrett over at Fumbling The Fly for winning the Tailwaters book. Send me your address!

For today, the crew from Strip'n Flywear are back again this year with a free T-shirt. This one is the Streamer junkie, for all you guys who love to toss big chunks of chicken at monster browns. You can pick the size of your shirt. You should all head over and check out their designs. They aren't for the tweed wearing crew. I have the Obey Spey and the Beasties shirt and I love them. They are heavyweight Hanes cotton tees with minimal shrinkage so they will last a long time.

 

Rules:
1.you will get one entry in the drawing for commenting on each giveaway post. For every FB share, tweet, or Instagram post about it, you'll get another entry. My Facebook account link is at the top of this page for easy access to sharing.. You can find me on twitter via @dubthethorax and Instagram via @mike_phazeone. I originally didn't say anything about G+ but what the hell, tis' the season, right?

 2.You can only comment once here so make sure you include where you shared this in your comment.

 3. The maximum amount of entries is four per comment. (Comment examples-"Hi this is John Fisherman, I shared on twitter via @jfish, shared your FB post, and tagged you in my instagram photo" - He just earned himself 4 entries)

4.Please only post ONCE and list everywhere you shared this. If you have problems posting, please email me or post on the DTT facebook wall so I can count your post.

 5.This contest will run until 12am EST. I will assign everyone entry numbers and use a random number generator to choose the winner tomorrow.

 6.if you're outside the continental US, shipping costs may apply.

7.Bonus entries for today - Make a blog post on your blog about this and get an additional entry, which means you can max out at 5 entries.

Day 4 Giveaway - 50 Best Tailwaters Book by Stonefly Press (and Day 3 winner!)

Up first, the winner for our Day 3 contest....You guys and gals were WAY OFF!!! There was a total of 404 bottle caps in the fish! (and believe me, it was not fun to count it twice.) This means our winner is DonFishin! (This also means I drink a lot) Congrats Don.

So for day 4, we have The 50 Best Tailwaters to Fly Fish by Terry and Wendy Gunn from Stonefly Press.

This book was provided to me to review and I thought it would make a nice giveaway. Then I started to really read it and I immediately regret my decision to give it away. I think I'm honestly going to buy another one.

Unfortunately where I live ,there are not many opportunities for tailwater fishing, but I have experienced it a few times on some small streams on the Pocono Mountains. There's nothing like wet wading in water that's only 55 degrees with prolific insect activity in 90 degree heat. This book celebrates that, and shows you the best places in the country to do it. This isn't a typical fly fishing how-to book that covers the basics. They cover the details on every single tailwater, including great stretches, flies to use, hatches, access points, and even lodging. I think my favorite part is the section that tells you where to get a stiff drink near each of these waters.

This is a nice sized coffee table book, and yet extremely informative. The photography is amazing, and you'll probably recognize a few familiar faces in it. I especially liked the section on the Upper Delaware, which I plan to fish this spring.



50 Best Tailwaters to Fly Fish from Kitchen Sink Studios ®, INC. on Vimeo.

If you don't win this contest, do yourself a favor and pick up this book.


Rules:
1.you will get one entry in the drawing for commenting on each giveaway post. For every FB share, tweet, or Instagram post about it, you'll get another entry. My Facebook account link is at the top of this page for easy access to sharing.. You can find me on twitter via @dubthethorax and Instagram via @mike_phazeone. I originally didn't say anything about G+ but what the hell, tis' the season, right?

 2.You can only comment once here so make sure you include where you shared this in your comment.

 3. The maximum amount of entries is four per comment. (Comment examples-"Hi this is John Fisherman, I shared on twitter via @jfish, shared your FB post, and tagged you in my instagram photo" - He just earned himself 4 entries)

4.Please only post ONCE and list everywhere you shared this. If you have problems posting, please email me or post on the DTT facebook wall so I can count your post.

 5.This contest will run until 12am EST. I will assign everyone entry numbers and use a random number generator to choose the winner tomorrow.

 6.if you're outside the continental US, shipping costs may apply.

7.Bonus entries for today - Make a blog post on your blog about this and get an additional entry, which means you can max out at 5 entries.

Day 3 Contest- Flies, Tying Material, and those Sticker things (And Day 2 winner announced!)

First off, congrats to Jordan Viveiros! You won the Infantry Co. watch from yesterday's drawing!

Thanks to everyone who's commented, shared, etc. Social media must be angry with me by now!

On to day 3. Today, we have an assortment of flies, materials, and stickers.

I sat down at the vise last night and whipped up half a dozen flies. There are 3 AZ Mini Hoppers, and 3 Beetle terrestrials, all made with my racing stripe foam. 

I've also include 15 (3 of each color) stacked Chernobyl bodies. These were handmade by me and helped me slaughter everything from trout to bass to bluefish this summer. Tie whatever you want with them, and be sure to send me some pics. I'd love to see what you come up with.

I've also included some sticker love from Uprising, Alaska Fly Shop, High on the Fly, Hardy, Risen Fly, and yours truly. 

As for the contest, let's do something a little different today. I have a giant glass fish sitting at my bar in the basement. Over the last year or so, my friends and I (well, who am I kidding..mostly me) have been feeding the fish with beer caps. For today's contest, the person who guesses the the closest number of bottle caps in the fish WITHOUT GOING OVER wins the package above.

Ground Rules:

1.This contest will end at exactly 12am EST. Any entries past that point will not count.

2.You get one guess just for commenting. Social media sharing is  also still in effect. For each social media share you have, you get an extra guess. You can get a total of 5 guesses. (Acceptable sharing includes Facebook, Instagram, G+, Twitter, and a post on your blog.) 

3.Make sure you tag me in your social media share. You can find the FB page on the link up top, twitter at @dubthethorax, and Instagram at @mike_phazeone. For your blog post, leave a link to your blog in your comment.

4.You may only comment once. Please include everywhere you shared, and your blog URL in the comment. Then include your guesses.

5.In the case of a tie, I have something up my sleeve.

6.Remember that if you go over the correct amount, you lose.

Good luck and let the games begin.  Now I'm going to have some pancakes and go fishing, although I wish it were these type of pancakes.

Day 1 Winner Announced and Contest #2 - Infantry Co. Watch n' stickers - Sign up and win!

First up, the winner of yesterday's contest. The random number generator at random.org came up with 14! That means. our winner is...

ED VANOVER!! 

Ed, please use the email link on the side to send me your address.

Now for today's giveaway - Us outdoor types do like the color green for some reason. I have a green military reissue watch from Infantry Co.  It's got GID arms, stainless steel back, and the band is canvas on the outside, and comfy leather on the inside so it feels nice to wear. I have one of these as well and I've been testing it for the past few weeks. I dig it so far. It will also impress the ladies. (well...depending on the type of ladies you're after..) I'll also throw in some sticker swag from me, and various other fishy friends.hihinng friends.

Rules:

1.you will get one entry in the drawing for commenting on each giveaway post. For every FB share, tweet, or Instagram post about it, you'll get another entry. My Facebook account link is at the top of this page for easy access to sharing.. You can find me on twitter via @dubthethorax and Instagram via @mike_phazeone. I originally didn't say anything about G+ but what the hell, tis' the season, right? 

2.You can only comment once here so make sure you include where you shared this in your comment.  

3. The maximum amount of entries is four per comment. (Comment examples-"Hi this is John Fisherman, I shared on twitter via @jfish, shared your FB post, and tagged you in my instagram photo" - He just earned himself 4 entries)

4.Please only post ONCE and list everywhere you shared this.  If you have problems posting, please email me or post on the DTT facebook wall so I can count your post.

5.This contest will run until 12am EST. I will assign everyone entry numbers and use a random number generator to choose the winner tomorrow. 

6.if you're outside the continental US, shipping costs may apply.

7.Bonus entries for today - Make a blog post on your blog about this and get an additional entry, which means you can max out at 5 entries.