Guiding and Exploring

This past weekend I had the pleasure of fishing in a blizzard with a great Bryn Mawr customer Mark Johnson and his buddy straight from Texas Tony. We looked at the forecast and it said 4 to 6 inches of snow, perfect steelhead weather. Well after the fist 6 inches came down, we just laughed and kept of fishing. The fishing was pretty good considering. we ended the day with 3 hook ups in about 40 minutes. Only one of those fish made it to hand, but like the others from earlier in the day, they all jumped and we got eyes on every one. It was awesome!

More pictures to come.

Chip was up for a few days, trying some new stuff, finding it very successful. Kyle and his brother were also up this weekend, they fished with Chip on Saturday and Kyle got is first ever steelhead, on the swing at that. Way to go Buddy.

After driving through the blizzard Monday morning, I found myself at Chris's house with my eight weight and my sinking line. We were off to Jersey to try to find a couple stripers. We were only successful in finding a couple new spots for the spring. The water was still super muddy from Sandy, remanence of her furry littered the sidewalks and street corners. So no fish pictures from Jersey, but it was fun none the less.

Thank you Chris and Kyle for your photos!!!

Michigan for Steelhead? or Just a Good Story?

Joey, Leland and I decided a few months ago that we were going to travel out to Michigan for a long weekend of steelhead fishing on the Pere Marquette, we would take Joey's boat and float for 2 days and wade for a half day o the third day, getting us home just in time to sleep a little before work. Well all went as planed until we finished the first day and not a single steelhead in the boat, lots of small wild trout, but no steelhead. After talking to a few people, the story was the same, low, clear water, and no fish. Needless to say our spirits were a bit low that night, heading to the only place in town to eat, burnt burgers and warm beer... yeah it was time to just cut our losses and head to bed.

We woke up the next morning, after a lot of discussion on where to fish, we were in route to the Big Manistee River, new river, more water, and a full string of steelhead be carried up the boat launch by a local, yup it looked promising. Two trout, a crazy interaction with a guide (Joey cutting a hook out of his face), and a moldy King salmon follow later, we were scratching our heads. We rowed out with about 2 hours left till dark, we aren't giving up just yet. We headed back up to the dam, it wasn't long before I had a fish jumping a running around on the end of my line, I got it in, Yup its a steelhead, but its only about 18 inches. I'll take it!

That was the only steelhead we landed in 2 days, so it was back to the bar for a couple beers and a burger, then a couple card games and some beer back at the cabin.

I would love to go back, The PM was an awesome river and we saw about 10 people all day, steelhead sightings were about 10, but hey what can you do.

Little wild Manistee Steelhead

Salmon River Weekend

This past weekend I had the pleasure of fishing with Bart and Mark, two fishing buddies that met in college. Bart and Mark, are both very good TCO customers, who have been making the trip north to the Salmon River for over 15 years, despite all those years of fishing between the two of them they have only floated the river once. Thats where I come in, I floated them from Altmar to Pineville for a half day float. The fishing was spotty, but we managed to get into a 5 fish, only landing 1, but either way it was an awesome morning. The fish took a wide variety of flies, from eggs to stoneflies.

Down river in the DSR, Tony and Chris were wading around looking for a couple fresh steelhead, so after my trip was over I dropped the boat off and meet up with them for lunch and stories of the morning. Tony landed a nice chromer just before I got there, the fishing pressure was high, but after lunch we managed to find some open space down below. For the rest of the evening we had awesome action, including a fish that took Tony about 150 yards down stream to land. Same program as up river, the fish were eating lots of different stuff; Thumpin Jack Flash Stones, Hot Beadhead Prince and PTs, Sucker Spawn, and, eggs.

Thank you Tony and Chris for your awesome photos!!!

Photos from Friends

Frank "Chip" Swarner sent me over a few photos from his last NY trip, he fished the Oak and the Salmon, having great success at both.

Jack Brown a long time customer and good friend of the shop's sent me over a few photos from his fall trip to Montana, Jack an his wife Susan spent some time out in Yellowstone National Park, while Jack spent some solo time on the Madison each morning. Here are some awesome, none fishing photos from their trip.

Thank you Chip and Jack for your photos!!!

Featured Fly - Do It All Sculpin

Going back to the beginning of Keeping it Simple, here is an awesome sculpin pattern that is pretty quick to tie and works well for everything. I will be swinging these this weekend on the Salmon River, and the Pere Marquette in a couple weeks. Steelhead, Trout, and Bass all love sculpins, so thats how this pattern got its name. Tie a couple up, whether you are headed to Penn's Creek or the Salmon River these little guys should be in your box.

Materials

Tube: Pro Tube - Flexitube - Med

Thread: UNI Thread 6/0 - Brown

Tail: Rabbit Zonker - Olive 

Under Body: Ice Dub - Olive 

Throat: Ice Dub - UV Red 

Legs: Hareline Sili Legs

Collar: Guinea Feathers - Fl. Orange

Head: EP Tarantula Hairy Legs Brush 1" length 

Step 1: Slide on Drop Weight (optional), start your thread base at junction.

Step 2: Tie in the rabbit strip, adjusting to the length you want it to be.

Step 3: Dub the body, moving forward about a 1/2 inch. Slide drop weight to meet ice dub (optional)

Step 4:  Dub over drop weight.

Step 5: Center Tie in a clump of red ice dub for the throat.

Step 6: Bring the rabbit forward, tying it off right over the throat.

Step 7: Tie in 2 rubber legs, ends first, then a Guinea feather, tip first.

Step 8: Wrap the Guinea feather until you get to the marabou part of the feather.

Step 9: Tie in the EP Brush/

Step 10: Wrap the brush 2 or 3 times, picking it out each wrap. This will help make a larger, fuller head

Step 11: Whip Finish.

Step 12:  Cut the excess tube from the front and gently burn the tube.

Finished:

 

Great Lakes Weekend

Well after a nice joke by they guys, landing me an extra 20 mins away, somehow I still ended up at a Hampton Inn with no windows or a paved parking lot. Mean while from across the street Joey, Leland, and Gavin, were looking out the window laughing. HA nice guys. I made it up to the room, to instantly hear stories from the day. Sounded like an awesome day, they fish Sandy Creek, Browns, Steelhead, and even a Domestic Rainbow. Here are a couple shots from Joeys Camera, thats buddy. Also Check out his blog for more photos: Joey's Blog

The next morning we decided to hit the Oak, well it looked like everyone in NY had the same idea, we walked all the way to the dam and back to the parking lot, just to find one small spot to fish. Well we were there and didn't have all day, so we fished. It was pretty good, white steamers, eggs, and brown stoneflies were the ticket. After about 2 hours of that it was off to Sandy again, same program, a million and one people, but we found open water and made it count.

Leaving early to go help my sister move, I had plans to fish the Salmon River on Monday, I got a late start but fished till I couldn't see anything. I fished for about 3 hours and had decent action, moving around a couple times to find open water. Once I found it, Stoneflies, and Sucker Spawn did the trick.