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.

Weekly Recap - in pictures

I spent New Years Eve in Skunkville.

And spent New Years Day playing in the snowy mud.

I tied lots of these.

And got lots of good mail from this guy, and this guy, and this guy, and this guy.

And finally, I had a week long love affair with one of the best video games ever made. I seriously almost teared up at the end. If you game, you owe it to yourself to hunt this down. I played it on 360, but you can even get it in your PS3,  iphone or ipad.

Heading out west, where hoppers rule and rattlesnakes scare the sh*t out of you

I was invited to be in my friend's wedding so last week, I traveled solo to Sacramento California, fly rods in tow (or... at least in baggage claim).

 I arrived Thursday just in time for the rehearsal dinner, and had the wedding on Friday. The wedding was very close to Napa Valley and as you can imagine, the wine was incredible, as was my hangover on two hours of sleep on Saturday morning.

 My flight was leaving at 6am on Sunday so I fought through the jet lag and alcohol poisoning, and headed almost two hours northeast to fish the Yuba River. I was pretty amazed when I got there. The river bed itself was probably half a mile wide, but the actual water was only about 40-50 yards wide at the most. As I walked over the ankle breaking dried river rock, I heard someone playing the maracas. Turns it that sound was a rattlesnake. And then another one. Much different than the scariest thing you'd encounter when fishing around here, which would probably be a wasp.

 It was cool to do some traditional western hopper dropper fishing. What was really amazing to me was the fact that I'm in desert high country, with sweltering heating approaching 100 degrees, but I'm seeing Salmon jumping and starting their reds. It was an amazing site. I didn't last long. It was too hot and I was too hungover, but I did put in a good 2-3 hours. I hit a few spots, but the fear of snakes and my chosen attire of shorts, ankle socks, and sneakers didn't make a hike through the high brush sound too safe. I fished hoppers, and various droppers. I lost a nice fat slab on a hopper juan, and another on a psycho prince. The fish fight much harder out west than they do out here, that's for damn sure.

 I walked away empty handed, but I didn't mind. It was a great experience and I'd love to go back and spend more time there when I'm not dry heaving and dehydrated. Here's some pics of the journey. I only had my iPhone with me so they aren't that great, but it will give you an idea.

There were lots of huge stonefly shucks on the dried rocks. I can imagine that certain times of the year would be great fishing with them.

Downstream from the Route 20 bridge

These small lizards were all over in the rocks.

A couple shots from Sycamore Ranch. I saw quite a few salmon trekking up this way.

The sun rising over the Sierras the next morning from the airport at 6pm. You win this time Yuba, but I'll be back.

Amateur Hour

I was really excited today. I haven't really fished in two weeks (unless you count a quick late night run to the local creek in search of stockies. Lost one, but that's a whole other story).

Nick, Bob, Jack, and I decided to hit the Pohopoco, a tailwater at the foot of the Pocono Mountains. I checked the gauges, and I knew it was going to be tough fishing. The water level was the lowest it's been in weeks, and it was only 34 degrees. We were going to have to work for them.

The spot that Becker had shown me last fall was now posted, so that lead us to another spot we had success at before, although it was all with small fish and somewhat boring water.

Did you ever have those days where you just suck at fishing? It happened to me today. It was cold and windy. My hands were freezing, even with my half gloves on. The fish were holding tight against the far bank under lots of mountain laurel and low hanging branches so it required some casting skills and proper presentation to avoid getting caught up. The wind kept fouling my cast and I'd wind up stuck in the tree about every 4 to 5 minutes. After checking my fly box, I lost two Czech nymphs, three Vladi worms, a Copper John, three San Juan worms, a CDC n' Elk Caddis, a Griffith's Gnat, and two Baetis nymphs. Yep, it sucked. It was amateur hour all day, at least for me.

None of us had any luck all morning, besides a few hit and misses. Nick and I decided to hike up this small trib to check it out. It was really beautiful and I did see a few fish, but they were spooking when you got within 20 feet of them.



We decided to head back upstream to the starting point and fish for another half hour. We saw some greyish-tan midges coming off but rises were extremely sporadic. I missed two in a row on a Griffith's gnat, only to get it stuck in a tree a few casts later. I was about to give up and I heard Nick holler from upstream. Someone finally got a fish. Nick landed a wild brown on a size 14 Czech nymph. He then caught a wild rainbow a few minutes later. That would be the only action we saw all day.


Congrats on the fish, Nick. I dig his new Columbia chest pack, but with the yellow fishing license in the front, he kinda reminds me of Plex from Yo Gabba Gabba. (Sorry, but he caught the only damn fish all day and needs his balls busted)


Well, I have to get my fly boxes restocked with some of these. Goodnight.

A small amount of time

I was on my way home and I only had a small amount of time to wet a line. The sun would be gone in half an hour so I had to act fast. I picked a spot closest to my house out of convenience and to save time, although I knew from scouting it on a regular basis that there were only 4 or 5 trout left in the 100 yard section I would have access to. They were rainbows that were still holding over from the stocking three months ago.

There was no time for waders, and I chose a small tan bugger. Stockies are stupid and will typically chase them across the stream.

I slid down a steep bank and hopscotched across some wet rocks to a spot where low hanging branches wouldn't annoy me. My feet got a little wet but there was no time to think about that. I stripped line as fast as possible and rocketed a cast. The bugger had a splashly landing about an inch from the opposite bank.

I started to strip line and I noticed a dimple. Then another. Then another. There were at least two, maybe three fish in the back corner of the pool, sipping on size 20 tan midges in slack water. I pulled the bugger in and started to string up some 7x tippet. As soon as I got a fly tied on, my phone rang. My son was sick and fatherhood waits for no one. I sulked away, back to my car, sadly watching those fish continue to sip. There's always tomorrow. Maybe.

Realistic Worm Pattern and a fly giveaway contest

The idea for this pattern came to me on Sunday. I was fishing for some SUPER SPOOKY stocked rainbows in the creek behind my house. There's about 4 of them left and they dart under a bridge into slack water that's impossible to catch a drift though as soon as they see you.

I crept up and waited the 15 minutes for them to get unspooked and then started drifting eggs and san juans in front of them. I hooked in to a couple on eggs, but didn't get solid hook sets. After that, I was literally bouncing flies off their lips and they weren't taking them. I then tried caddis larva, mayfly nymphs, midges, and even some buggers with no luck.

I was about to pack it in when some guy sets up immediately across from me with a spinning rod and a container of drift worms. First cast and SMACK!, a rainbow takes the worm. He lands the fish (and kudos to him for releasing it) and casts again. Second cast, same thing. He hooks and lands the biggest of the 4 fish, also released.

This made me realize that maybe coming up with a realistic worm wouldnt be such a bad idea. I was at Dave's in Doylestown earlier in the day digging through their clearance bin, and I found a pack of Orvis bright red nymph skin with glitter flakes in it for $1. I bought it thinking I could maybe use it on some steelhead patterns.

Well, something made me try it tonight. I took a 4X streamer hook and bent it, Vladi worm-style. I made a fat clitelum with some .30 lead wire and built the body with some 3/0 monocord. I tied in a strip of the nymph skin and some 5X mono tippet. I made loose wraps with the nymph skin, and then ribbed it with the mono. After whip finishing, I colored it up with a brown Prismacolor marker, and hit the fattest part with some bright orange. Then I slapped on a coat of Hard as Nails and that's it. I think I need to find maybe a lighter colored tan marker instead of the dark brown, but I think this fly is gonna work.



Now I just need a name for it, so here's the deal. Post your name suggestions in the comments and I'll mail out 3 of these patterns (and some bonus surprise flies) to the person who came up with my favorite suggestion. I'll let this run for a week before announcing the winner.

So yeah, back to Sunday. I didn't catch anything, but my god, it was a gorgeous day on the water. I walked away with some nice pictures.

Trying to get around the blowout

With everything looking like chocolate milk out here from 2-3 inches of rain yesterday, I headed an hour north to a tailwater that wasn't too blown out. We nymphed some deep pools, and threw CDC Caddis at sporadic risers until dark. Shane landed the only fish of the day, a small wild brown. I walked away with the skunk. No fish, but I love trout streams in early fall.




If you look down below the bridge in this shot, you'll see the where the creek leads into the Lehigh River which was absolute white water.


I lost this fly today to a bad tangle, a hot spot pheasant tail jig. It was my last one and I just whipped up a dozen more. Post shortly.


There was also one hell of a sunset.


Speaking of blowouts, this popped up on the iPhone shuffle rotation today. I miss the 90s.

Barely any fish, but still a nice weekend

I spent Friday afternoon alternating between weather.com and the USGS online water gauge for the Little Lehigh. There was a 40% chance of Thunderstorms/Flash Flooding, and of course, it happened. The stream was running around 68 all day, and then between 7 and 9pm it jumped up to 130. The last time I tried for tricos during high waters was a pointless trip, so I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice.

I decided that I was going to hit up a tailwater in the Poconos that's only about 20 minutes north of the Little Lehigh that I knew wouldn't be washed out. Luckily, Becker, one of the guys over on the PAFF forum that I met once on the LL lives right near the tailwater and offered to help put me on some fish. I wasn't going to say no to some top secret fishing holes!

Well, he did show me some nice water. We fish a deep pool with some braided water and a nice smooth tailout. I came across a giant swarm of tricos while I was waiting to meet up with him around 7am so I was hoping it would be a good day. When we got there, we saw all kinds of mayflies, even some blue quills, which I've never actually seen up close before. We fished for about 4 hours to some sporadic risers. Unfortunately, I got the skunk. I had quite a few takes, and had a couple on for a few seconds, but it just wasn't my morning. Becker brought in two, including a nice wild brown. All I've ever caught on that stream were 8 inch rainbows, so I was surprised at the bulk on this fish. My apologies in advance for the picture quality. I forgot my camera in the car and only had the i-phone with me.




Although I didn't land any fish, it was still a beautiful day on the water. I'll definitely be back to that stretch again. We also hiked downstream about half a mile and found some really nice holes that I can't wait to go back and hit again. I might try for next weekend.

Since I was out for a good part of the day yesterday, I decided to get some father and son time in this morning. I took Michael on his first trip to Cabelas. He had a blast. He got his first encounter with the toothy monster in the aquarium and couldn't stop looking at him.




We walked around for a while, and I picked up like $40 worth of tying material, but unfortunately, no grizzly hackle. I did manage to find some really nice dun colored elk hair. Expect some BWO comparaduns shortly! He had a good time and told me he wants to go back again to see the elephant :)

Speaking of grizzly hackle, if you want to know what to get me for Christmas, you can start with this:


This evening, I spent two hours organizing all my tying stuff. It looked like a flock of birds exploded at my desk. It was a total mess. I now have everything nice and organized. This will probably only last a week, but for now, I'll enjoy it.

Weekend Recap - Outfished by a 2 year old!

Yep, my son turned two on Sunday and he outfished me this weekend, even with opening day!

Nick and I were on the road with the boys by 7:20am on Saturday to make it to the kids trout derby before the 8am start. We got there and it was ABSOLUTELY MOBBED. I've never seen anything like it. The place was a small pond, about 1/4 of an acre at the most. There must have been over a thousand people surrounding it.

The derby was supposed to be for kids 16 and under and the only thing adults could do was cast the line for the kids. We got there and noticed all the adults that were supposed to be "watching" the kids fish had rows of chairs set up to block out their area. Plus, there were quite a few 17/18 year olds there fishing. No one would let two little kids in to wet a line. It was disappointing. We finally walked all the way around and some nice guy let us squeeze in a tiny 3 foot space to let the kids cast, one at a time. Once 8am hit, it was amazing to see how many adults were just "holding the rod" for their kids. That really pissed me off.

Anyway, Nick takes Rowan over to wait on the picnic bench, I rig up Michael with a nightcrawler on one of my old ultralight spinning rods and cast out. I remember trying to get him to fish last year and he couldn't grasp the concept of reeling in. I handed him the rod and to my amazement, he had no trouble at all. Another line caught us so I reeled him, untangled and cast back out. I hand him the rod again and he starts ripping in line like crazy, doing a great job. All of a sudden I see his rod just bend and start bouncing! I kept telling him to reel in faster, and he did. What he brought in wasn't a trout, but I've never been so proud of him in the last two years. We took a few quick pictures before letting it go.





He kept jumping up and down clapping and yelling "Fish! Fish!" It was awesome. Then we backed up to let Rowan have a cast. By that time, everyone was rigged up with lines in the water and it was next to impossible to do anything.


Nick trying to avoid the 1400 other lines in the water


As soon as they got their line in the water, Rowan ran off because he had to pee, and Michael had enough and wanted to leave. This was at 8:07am. :) We packed it up, took the kids to the playground, and then to a diner for a nice big breakfast.

Later that afternoon, I thought I'd hit the stream behind my house for some stockies. I got there around noon and it was pathetic. The night before, I had scouted a pod of well over 100 fish with some pallys mixed in holding in a small run above a foot bridge. By the time I got there at 12:30pm, there were two fish left in that hole. One was a pally, which had literally at least 20 guys throwing gobs of powerbait the size of Ohio at it. Very depressing. I walked upstream and it was the same thing. Two pallys with people literally hanging from tree branches to get a cast at them.

I found some stretches of open water and had a few taps, but that was it. I headed home to prepare for Michael's birthday party the following day.

My little guy turned two. I can't believe it. Time flies. Happy Birthday Michael. I love you! We got him a Thomas the Train Hot Wheels bike, among other things, and made him his favorite breakfast, chocolate chip banana pancakes.


His party was a blast. There were like 60 people and the kids were going insane in the moon bounce all afternoon. He was so tired from not napping and going crazy all day, that he was miserable on Monday morning. We had planned to take him to the Phila Zoo, but we opted to stay local. We went to this giant kids playground in Doylestown called Kids Castle. He had a great time.


After some lunch, we took him home for a nap and I figured I'd FINALLY get to do some fishing without all the rednecks in camo jumpsuits and hot orange baseball hats. It took me twice as long to get to the spot I wanted to fish because I was stopping and picking up trash along the way from all the weekend warriors. I found 8 cans of almost empty powerbait. Awesome.

I finally got to the run and to my surprise, there were fish rising like crazy behind a rock in this channel. No bugs on the surface..The only thing flying around are size 26 midges. hmm....I opted for a size 20 Adams dry. After 3 casts and 3 rises to my fly it was obvious that these weren't trout. I got in closer because I no longer worried about spooking them and realized that they were big shiners! I took off the dry fly and moved on.

There were still about 20 other people out so my usual open spots were mostly still getting hammered. I tried swinging wets, streamers, and a few natural looking nymphs with only a few taps. Then I figured I might as well throw some junk. All the powerbait I saw floating downstream was either pink or chartreuse, so I opted for an orange egg, followed by a pale yellow one.

I popped on a thingamabobber and settled in for a boring afternoon bobber fishing slow water. Then I look upstream and see this guy coming past me.



Seriously, who kayaks in a 15 foot wide stream when there's much better water around? It actually turned out that he was good luck. A minute after he went through, I FINALLY caught my first fish of "trout season". It was a little stocker bow, who was really spotted up.




So yeah, I did catch one fish, but it was the start of the new week so my son still outfished me!


Also, expect some posts from the land of Steelhead this weekend. I leave for the Salmon River on Thursday night until Sunday night.

Here's a peak at some of the new ones in the box.

I've been on a soft hackle kick recently. Here's a big soft hackle Stonefly. This thing is a paperweight.


Also did a version of the hot wire prince nymph with some palmered feathers from a pheasant rump.


Filled the box back up with some size 12 Copper Johns. I know these look pretty bad. I was definitely in quantity over quality mode when I knocked these out.


And last but not least, Nick tied me a few woven golden stones. These things are sweet!