Just a Friendly Reminder

With the hurricane on its way, please be mindful of the flows. The Tully is already at 1700cfs (150 is normal) and the Schuylkill at Reading is 2210cfs (500-700 is normal).

Please be safe and smart; wait for the water levels to come down before going out again.

Stay in and tie a few flies :-)

Smallmouth on my mind!

This past weekend I traveled to Western PA to visit my girlfriend, and go to a Pirates game with her family. Naturally her dad and I decided to hit a smallmouth stream in the morning before going to the game. Before we got rained out and the buzzer went off Jim and I were tight to a few nice smallies. I was trying the Sage One for one more application, this rod is truly the "one" to do it all. I was throwing large mouse patterns and tungsten conehead Zuddlers with ease. I love that rod.

This morning I had the pleasure of rowing Dale Biegel down the Schuylkill River to try our hand at finding some nice fish after the past 2 weeks of high water. The morning started off slow on top with mice, the water was still a bit off color. Switching to subsurface it wasn't long before Dale had his first smallie on! As the morning progressed the fish seemed to be getting bigger and bigger each one more colorful and larger than the one before. I believe we had about 15 or so fish to the boat with a Red Eye or two in the mix as well.

With rain in the near forecast I would recommend getting out soon, the bite was good and should stay good. Also with the heavy rain and talk of a hurricane hitting the east coast in the next few days, be very mindful of the flow swift water can be deadly.

Hot Flies: Olive Zuddler, White Crystal Bugger, Chartreuse/White Clouser, Clouser Crayfish, & Pheasant tail

Featured Fly - The Lightning Bug

The Lightning Bug is one of my favorite patterns to fish year round. This bug can be very effective in the winter months when fish do not want to move very far for food, or in the summer when there isn't any major hatch going on. I like to fish this fly above a small zebra midge or pheasant tail. The Lightning Bug can be tied from a size 14 down to a size 20 or even a 22 if needed. My favorite colors for this fly have to been Red or Orange, with a side of Silver and Black.

The Lightning Bug

Montana in August

Joe and I had a great opportunity to head west for a few days of fishing during one of the best months of the year.

We were only able to be away from the shop for a few days so when the alarm went off at 2am on Friday I was up and waiting by the door for Joe to pick me up to head to Philly for our 6am flight. We didnt have time to make coffee or eat so we made sure to do so in Chicago between flights.

Once we made it to Bozeman we headed to a couple local fly shops to get license and check out a few...or should I say a lot of local patterns. Then we were Madison bound. Getting to the Madison round 3pm we fished until we could no longer see then it was back to the truck to open a fresh cold Alaska Summer Ale. Fishing near the famed 3 dollar bridge was amazing; the fishing was tough for this is one spot on the river that sees much foot traffic. Joe and I each managed a few fish each, Joe first fish was a very healthy Brown.

Getting up at 6 with the sun was a great idea; montana sunrises are something that has to be seen! On the way out we saw a lone Antelope sitting in the neighbors front yard, taking in the sight just as we were. We fished hard all morning until sun was high and the fish took a break. We fished back channels with hoppers, there wasnt much down time, the fish were hungry and wanted to eat the big foam bugs we presented them. Not many big fish but we had constant action all day. Then it was off to the local pub (The Gravel Bar) for a cold one and some grub.

At 4am on sunday morning Joe's alarm went off and we where up and packing for the long haul to Craig MT to fish the Missouri river. Joe has been dreaming about fishing this river for years and after the pictures Wes brought back last year I couldn't wait to get a shot at some big healthy wild trout. After almost losing a truck tire and about a gallon of coffee we made it to Headhunters Fly Shop where we rented a boat for the day. It wasnt long before Joe and I both fell in love with this river. The Mo is a dry fly fisherman's paradise, slow flat water that holds big fish. We launched the Adipose skiff at Holter Dam and started fishing. With no fish rising we put rigged up our nymph rods, within a half hour I had what I flew all the way to Montana for, a beautiful Rainbow! We started down river and it wasnt long before we found fish again. Caddis started to fly and the fish knew it, the rest of the day we fished a CDC Caddis and had great success.

The last day we both were a little slow getting out of bed due to getting back around 12:30am that night, but we packed our stuff and headed back to Bozeman to get onto the Gallatin for a few hours before our tour of Simms and our flight home at 5pm. The Gallatin is a beautiful stream running through the mountains with lots of boulders and pockets for wild rainbows to hide. Joe and I fished for about 2 hrs before we headed into town to meet up with the Simms crew for our tour. Around 330 we pulled into the airport parking lot with our rods still strung up to catch our flight. It was very hard to leave this fly fishing dream, but we know that we will be back sometime soon!

Check out Joe's Blog for his story!

Montana!!!

Joe and I are headed to Montana for a few days. There should be lots of pictures and stories to follow. The water has come down to a nice level and the bugs are flying, so lets hope the big guy in the sky will bless us with a few fish.

Talk to you all soon!

Delaware Team Meeting

This past weekend the TCO family met at the West Branch Angler for our annual company meeting to discuss the past year, and of course fish!

Paul, George, Trevor, Joe, and I all left a day early to get up there on Saturday to get a preview of the next 2 days. Joe and I arrived at the Dream Catcher Lodge around 6pm and were unpacked and geared up casting to our first risers by 6:20. Joe's Winston BiiiX was the first rod bent on the trip with a solid West Branch brown that took him into his backing. It wasnt long before I was hooked up with a younger fish to start off the trip. Once we could not see anymore we got the call from Paul that they were about 10 minutes out, so we took off to get some late night food and laughs.

Sunday we all woke up and headed to the West Branch Angler were we were meet by Jim Lewis and Lenny from the Bryn Mawr store. George and Trevor decided to use good time management and started nymphing while the rest of us waited with arms crossed for a few rising fish. Needless to say their time was well spent. It was awesome to see George and Trever work over a few nice fish. Patience paid off for Joe and I, we each had one nice fish to hand on Sulphurs.

After our Monday meeting with Simms we all headed back to the river till dark. Paul, George, Trevor, and Jim all headed up to the Dream Catcher to fish the water in front of the lodge for the evening while Lenny stayed at the West Branch while Joe and I moved the Jeep and trailer to the take out. As we pulled back up to give Lenny his car and launch the boat, we were greeted by a well bent Scott S4 in Lenny's hand with a solid brown stuck to the sulphur emerger at the end of the tippet.

We launched the boat and away we went. We didnt get far before Joe had a 20+ incher to the boat. The next hour we had 2 more solid fish to the boat with a few smaller ones. We Floated from West Branch Angler to Balls Eddy. It was an awesome float we had a few more fish to the boat. As the sun set the fog rolled in and we floated to the take out.

I had the great opportunity to fish the new Sage One this past weekend. A longer review to come, but here are a few quick notes. This rod is replacing the much favored Z Axis, it is a very smooth rod with good backbone to really bomb line. I had no problem working and holding fish in the 20inch range and the tip has great action and protected my 6x and 7x tippet very well. I didn't break a single fish off, with plenty of leverage to raise fish into the net off the boat. This rod will be available later this year.
 

 

Hot Patterns: Sulphur Emerger 18-20, CDC Sulphur Dun 18-20, CDC BWO 18-24, and Pheasant Tails 16-20