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.

A double digits day and one of the patterns that did it

Something told me to go fishing today. I'm not sure what it was, but I had a hunch that I would catch fish. I decided to take a vacation day and get to the water at 9am.

We've been bombarded with snow, ice, sleet, and all of a sudden on Wednesday, it rained. Flows have been really low, but I was keeping an eye on the CFS of the stream and I figured Thursday would be muddy runoff, and Friday would be high, fast, clearer, and oxygenated, or in other words, the perfect storm for fly fishing.

Well, I was kind of right. It was fast, at least in the morning, and it was clear, almost gin clear. But surprisingly enough, it was still kind of low. After an hour of being skunked, I connected and landed a few fish on eggs. It didn't seem like that great of a day, but then I saw a rise. Then, another rise. It was one of those rare occasions where I was in the right place at the right time. I switched to midge dries and emergers and started working my way down the stream. I honestly lost count around 8 or 9 fish and I'm guessed I landed somewhere between 11 and 13. It was one of the best days of fly fishing I've ever had, and it came in the middle of February on a surface bite. There were some small fish, but there were also some of the biggest fish I've ever pulled out of that stream. Here's some trout porn:









Now, here's the pattern that worked the best today. I don't quite know what to call it, but it's hands down my new favorite midge. I kinda came up with it last night while messing around at the vise at 1am.

Size 22 emerger hook
Body - Uni-thread, black, 8/0
Wing sprouts - CDC puff (natural, looped )
Thorax - sparsely dubbed with muskrat underfur (stole this from the Al's rat)



You can also break up the CDC a little bit to make a crippled version.




I was fishing these guys using 7X, and trailing off a bigger fly. My best luck came from starting off with a size 18 Adams dry. The trout would come up to check out the Adams, nose it, back off, and then rise up right away and smash the midge. They were truly taking it as food, not just biting and throwing it. Quite a few of them had it pretty far back in their mouth when I landed them.

After a long day of fishing, I had to come up and take my whole PC apart. I had a corrupt video card. Dual DVI monitors can burn them out quick. I just got done installing a new Radeon and I dig it so far. I'm tired and need a good night's sleep. Plus, there's fishing to do tomorrow!

Well....as long as Ryu doesn't blast us again..

Fish Porn - now on DVD

I just finished watching the 2nd edition of Trout Bum Diaries for at least the 4th time and I have to say, it gets me psyched to go fishing every time I watch it.

If you haven't see these films, you should hunt them down. It's a group of guys who call themselves the Angler Exploration Group that pretty much get paid to go on an extended vacation and do nothing but camp out and fly fish. The films aren't really educational, but the scenery is beautiful, the soundtrack is amazing, and they catch some absolutely MONSTER trout.

Volume 1 takes place in South America and follows the crew as they travel down to Patagonia and land some sea-run brown trout (Think of a steelhead, only chrome with brown spots). Volume 2 is called Kiwi Camo, and the fish are even bigger. Watching one guy spot and another guy casting a 15 foot leader with a giant rubber legged dry fly is intense.

I would highly suggest hunting these down. Their website is no longer functioning and forwards you to the Fly Fishing Film Tour website, but hopefully they will make more videos in the future. This is fish porn at it's finest. Here's the trailers for you to check out.

Trout Bum Diaries Volume 1 - Patagonia


Trout Bum Diaries Volume 2 - Kiwi Camo


And while I'm on the topic of porn, this fly fishing website from Ohio has a feature called fly box porn that's worth checking out. It's pictures of fully loaded flyboxes and some pattern recipes.

One more day until the weekend, and a chance to try some new patterns.