Record Breaking Day!!!!!!

Well I just wanted to throw up some pictures of the Rainbow I caught today. It ran the tape out to 24'' exactly. This is the largest Rainbow I have landed, and to do it on my favorite stream in Pennsylvania makes it that much better.

Bite Guards

Well I now know that I am in need of one. Don't worry..... I am not talking about the ones for protecting my teeth while sleeping, I mean the kind that protects my tippet. If you follow my blog, you know that this summers goal is to catch a muskie, pike, or pickerel with my fly rod. Today I had an hour or two before dark to hit up a section of the river close to home to strip a few streamers in search of accomplishing this task. Well my first cast, was parallel to the tail end of a weedbed, and after the first few strips, I saw the tell tale wake heading towards my streamer at a 90 degree angle. Well I am sorry, I sadly do not have any pictures for you! That stinking muskie hit like a battering ram. It decided that it not only wanted my prized articulated streamer, but it wanted to continue on its straight path. While traveling this route, it felt the need to go straight through my 0x tippet. I stood there with my best friend Ethan, in awe that another muskie slipped through my fingers. Well, I currently have a steel leader on its way, so hopefully that takes care of that little issue.


I did manage a beauty of a chain pickerel on a fluke and my baitcaster. Sadly I left all my fly fishing stuff in the car and just took my 8 wt along with the intent of making a few casts. After the muskie biting my line, I honestly didnt want to make the walk back to the car to get my tippet and a new streamer. The evening also produced about 30 or so smallmouth. This spot is pretty special, because every night approximately 30 min before dark the bass run baitfish right up on the bank. This always makes for a fast paced finish to the night if you fish smaller baitfish colored flukes.

Here are a few pictures I took of the Pickerel

The way it should be

2100 miles and 3 days later I have arrived back in central Pennsylvania. After spending the last 2 days catching up on sleep, I felt it was time to go hit a mountain stream close to home with the hopes of catching some wild Brookies.

This is exactly what I needed to relax. This past semester has been a stressful one, I have been trying to figure out what my career goals really are, trying to put some money away for a rainy day, and my classes were on the tough side. I honestly do not think that there is a better way to relax than watching a beautiful 8 inch brookie take your dry fly off the surface. Well here are a few of the better pictures from today.

The wild trout ranged from 3 inches up to 9"

I also picked up a few stockies in the 9-11 inch range left over from the spring stockings. I really wish that this stream would be taken off the stocking list so that it can be protected a little better. This would without a doubt be a Class A stream if it was not stocked.

Another great part of the day came while I was working a little riffle. I knew there would be a fish holding in this little pocket. the first drift produced a take and after the short little battle, I brought this little gem to hand.

In the 10+ years that I have fished this little freestone stream, I have Never caught a wild brown. Not only did I catch this guy, but a few holes later I caught another a few inches larger. Sadly I dropped him while unhooking him and didnt get any photos. Either way, this was pretty special to me, because I love brown trout. Some would be furious about this and say that the fishery is ruined but I feel differently.

On a side note, I was trying to achieve my goal of catching a few toothy fish on the fly rod this morning on a local lake but the stars didn't align. I had one really nice chain pickerel about 19 inches or so on a for a few few and that was it. It hammered my streamer, and I have no idea how I lost him.
Hopefully I can make it happen next time I am out.

Streamers!!!!!!!

They have become my go to fly. Even on small creeks they seem to catch better fish. Shane and I fished a small Idaho freestone creek and managed some great fish. I pulled out one bow, a cutt, and a BEAUTIFUL brookie.

 We were told that this creek held some good fish. This nice bow was a confirmation of that when he annihilated his articulated streamer.

This is probably the best wild brook trout that I have landed in Idaho. I have caught a few tht were longer, but the colors and the shoulders on this guy were superb.

The past 3 weeks

Well It has been a while since I have had time to do a new write up on the fishing trips. Sorry for the long drought, hopefully I can make up for it with some good stories and pictures.

Typically, This is the time of year that I am fishing my 5 wt. The Drakes are here along with PMD, caddis, flavs, and a whole lot more topwater action which makes for some amazing days on the Henrys Fork. Salmon flies are going strong on the South fork of the Snake, and all the small streams that I love to fish are open and fishable now that runofff has come and for the most part gone.

This rainbow was one of the few trout I have taken on a dry in the past 3 or 4 weeks. It also was trout number 1200 for the year, which has me right on track for my 2500 trout goal.

Like I said, Typically this is dry fly time, well this has not been my typical fly fishing year in any way, shape or form. The past 3 weeks has been nothing but BIG fish on streamers. I fished my 5 wt with a dry a few days ago for about 5 minutes and put it down and busted my 8 wt back out and went hunting for big fish again. The 5 just felt wierd in my hands. I never thought I would say those words, but the 8 wt feels at home currently. Right now you are probably asking, Why on earth is he fishing an 8 wt for trout? Well the simple answer is its alot easier to chuck 2 articulated streamers on an 8 wt and when you are hooking up with many fish in the 20-24 inch range, its a little easier to control them. Here are some of the fish from the last few weeks that shane, Chris, and myself have brought to hand.

This isnt even remotely close to the amount of fish that we have got into lately. I kinda got away from taking photos for a while because it was getting boring. I would hook into a good fish and think in my mind, "man not another 20 inch cutt, I have enough pictures of them." I guess looking back on it now, its a great problem to have.

I have learned so much over the past 3 weeks about streamer fishing. The thing I have learned I feel is most important, is the speed you are stripping corresponding to depth. I notice the deeper the water the slower the fish want it. Another thing is you need to find the "Streamer water" in a given river. Not all holding water is alike when fished with a streamer. We have been doing great where there are sharp ledges that drop a foot or two in depth. Also any kind of pocket water going back under willows or brush consistantly produced fish for us.

Over all I guess I cannot complain about the fishing the last few weeks. It has been nothing but EPIC!!!!!! The takes were amazing, most fish would hit the streamer like a torpedo, sometimes coming from 4 or 5 feet away to take it. It really doesnt get much better than that.

On a side note, I will be headed back to Pennsylvania the last week of July through the first week in September, and will be home chasing Carp, Muskie, Bass, and of course trout. I will be sure to post some reports and photos while I am home. My number 1 goal while home is to get a muskie on the fly so stay tuned.

I am so grateful for the time that I am able to fish. Its funny, I am known everywhere on campus as the fisherman. Its all I do when not doing school related stuff. This year has been stellar in so many ways. I landed a job helping to teach the fly fishing class on campus. What an awesome job! its extremely rewarding to teach others to fly fish and pass my knowledge on to them, but also frustrating. Its really hard trying to get students to make their casts count and to fish effectively. It was really good to see their progression over time though.

 One of the perks to the job!!!!!! I get access to these!!! I am really enjoying getting to learn whole river systems over just the sections you can wade.

Here are some of the students from this semesters class and some of the fish they caught. Their faces show it all if you ask me.

 Me (second from right) and half of the students for the spring semester class

 Students on this trip got to experience salmon flies!!!! how awesome is that?

I love my Job!!!!!

A LITTLE HELP PLEASE!!!!!

I am in a photo contest currently and could use all the votes I can get. Please follow this link if you have Facebook and like my photo. You guys are the best and thank you in advance.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=352321854837865&set=a.348896558513728.71235.101549669915086&type=1&theater