I love spring, and the bass that come with it

It hit 80 degrees today. That mean that the bass would definitely be fun. First, I had to take care of some yard work. I borrowed my stepdad's pickup and got to it first thing in the morning. Two yards of organic playground woodchips later, my kids have a badass corner of the backyard to raise hell in.


After I dropped off the pickup, I decided to hit this far up headwater of a local trout stream near their house. It's about a mile above the upper point of the state-stocked section, and it's separated by a huge dam that ensures no state-raised fish will make it up there. The owners of the stream dammed a quarter mile stretch of it for their cattle back in the 60s. I grew up fishing this water since I was 14 years old and I basically really learned how to successfully fish for largemouth here. It is full of them, and not many people know about this place, so they can be fairly easy to catch, but they can also be really moody at times. A private club used to stock it with trout when I was in my teens, but I haven't taken a trout from there since I was about 25. I doubt they are still around since it does get pretty damn warm in the summer.

I had just recently filled a fly box with terrestrials from two seperate fly swaps and I was dying to smack some fish around on topwater.



Unfortunately, the foam didn't do the trick. The water was a little murky from the rain earlier in the week and only a few tiny bluegills even took a shot at the surface bugs. The bass and panfish were however more than cooperative on bugskin wigglers.


After I headed home and did another 4 hours of knocking out things on the honey-do list, I headed out for some sunset smallmouths in the backyard creek. My legs were pretty ripped up from a long day of weed wacking, plucking weeds from the garden, and laying wood chips so It felt really nice to wade knee deep in some cool water. This stream was also a little murky, but I found a trib that was already crystal clear and I fished where the two bodies of water met. I picked a good spot.


I wound up having a last slamming these bronze hogs on small clousers.


That's about all I have for now. I'm sorry blog, I've been neglecting you. The fishing has been too good at night to make time to post. I'll try to be more proactive with the updates.

Also, I picked up a Go Pro HD Hero 2. Keep an eye out for some video footage 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!

Aim for the hole (that's what she said)

I hit my favorite bass lake tonight, to find it 100% overgrown.


There were a few small 2-3 foot wide holes that were reachable, but you need a flawless cast. Anywhere but dead center had you stripping a fly back with a bunch of salad on it. I managed to flip a clouser crayfish into a hole and pick up a small bucketmouth.



Not much else to report. I've also been hitting up a small local creek with some pocket water recently, and doing fairly well on the smallies on hoppers, but my camera is in the car and I'm too lazy to get it, so I'll save that post for later. Most trips to every other body of water this week have resulted in one or two dink panfish, or the skunk. It's tough to fish when the temp hits close to 100. I feel bad for the trout.


Well, I'm off to get packed. Finally got a full week off work and we're heading to the shore house. I'm gonna try to fly fish, but I know it will just wind up being bloodworms, bunker, and a spinning rod, hoping for a few kingfish or flounder from the surf.

I'm contemplating heading out with a guide for Sharks off the coast, or an evening trip to the bay flats for schoolie stripers on popper flies. We'll have to see how well I do at the Casino on Sunday. Watch out Atlantic City. I wanna fish and need some cash. I'm going to make you my bitch.