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.

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.

New school, old school, and.....Ben Vereen?

I had posted here before that I was doing the Step Out Walk for Diabetes and thanks again to all of you that donated. Well, the event was Saturday, and I was up bright and early in the steps of the Art Museum.

 Oddly enough, the guest speaker was Ben Vereen. I don't think I've even heard of the guy's name since the 80s. I think I'm the first person to mention this guy on a fly fishing blog and if you can prove me wrong, I'll tie you some monster streamers.

After sticking around for two hours waiting for the walk to begin, I was ready to get out of there so I wound up running it. Turns out it was only around 2.5 miles and I knocked it out in under 25 minutes. After that, it was 10:30 and I felt a I deserved a beer so it was off to the nearest watering hole, which to my surprise, was already full of alcoholics slamming beers. They did have Racer 5 so I wasn't complaining.

I then hit up the Orvis shop in Plymouth Meeting. They were having "Orvis Day" and the food spread was awesome, as were the deals. I wound up picking up a digital camo slingbag with a $25 discount. I like it for the most part so far, but I'll do a full review later. I'm not so sure on digital camo. It feels very new school, and I'm not sure how it helps on the stream unless you're being hunted by the Terminator or something.


After getting a hipster sling pack, I felt the need to get a little old school. I stopped at The Classic Fly Fisherman, feeling the need to pick up a new reel to match the 70s fiberglass Fenwick I got for my birthday. Bob helped me pick out a nice Marryat from the 70s that fits perfect with it. The drag on this this is so sweet. I even got some line and backing for it. The whole setup casts pretty sweet, but I gotta get used to using a slow rod. I cast way too fast and with way too much force. Time to slow my roll.


The rest of the day evened out with rooftop tacos and an IPA at Whole Foods, watching some idiots battle with foam weapons at a flea market, and my son putting together some weird twisted toy orgy in the bathtub.


Once the kids were down, I tied a few bugs and went night fishing. I got the skunk, but I came up with a pretty dope new streamer pattern. I love these eyes. Need more ASAP.

No fish, so taking a stupid picture of my feet and some fly line was the best I could do.

 Today was family time, with a small window of opportunity to hit the stream. I only caught one fish, but he was smart as hell and it took 30 or so casts to get him. Took a size 20 CDC BWO Comparadun.

Now it's time for Dexter and Homeland. Enjoy the remaining hours of the weekend.

When you run out of scud back...

Ziplock bags will work in a pinch. Since I've started tying these back in the fall, they've outfished pheasant tail nymphs 2 to 1.