Schuylkill River mixed with Salmon River

Five days, two states, and I'm still tired. The week started off with a couple awesome bass trips, and ended with two days in New York on the Salmon River. It is fall, and the smallmouth are putting their feed bags on, with the water low and clear, this is the perfect time to sight fish to monster bass. The only problem with watching a big fish eat your fly, is when you jump the gun and pull the fly right back out of its mouth. This happens all the time, but nothing gets me more jacked up then, watching a 16 inch plus smallmouth suck down your fly sitting on the bottom. So when you connect and that fish goes ballistic, you may find me dancing in the middle of the boat.  

So, its the end of September, and the Salmon River should be filled with fresh King Salmon, and the added bonus, steelhead. After two days of pounding the water, and teaching four new fly anglers the art of casting a switch rod. All we had to show for it was two baby steelhead, a broken leader (from a salmon), and a bunch of empty beer cans. The one good thing about all that, it equals four smiling clients that just had the time of their life floating down the river, fishing for salmon and steelhead.

DONT FORGET! - Rich Strolis

TCO Fly Shop - Reading: Saturday Sept. 27 | 11am - 3pm

TCO Fly Shop is proud to host another one of the industries most creative fly creators...Rich Strolis!
Rich will be showing his Streamer Presentation from 11am - Noon and will then be demonstrating how to tie 4 of his famous streamer patterns (Headbanger, Ice Pick, Masked Avenger and a Triple Juggernaunt) from 1-3:00.
This event is free to the public. 

About Rich: Rich Strolis grew up in the foothills of the Berkshires in western Massachusetts, cutting his teeth catching native brook trout on the many small mountain streams that littered the hills near his parents house.  As he grew up he moved on to the many rivers of Massachusetts where he fine tuned his skills on the water and later at the vise, tying his first fly at the age of 11.  It was no coincidence that he landed his first fly caught fish on a muddler minnow, something that carved his path in the realm of fly tying.  In his early twenties he moved to Northwestern Connecticut, setting up shop within minutes of the Farmington river, a place he calls home and guided on for little over a decade.  Many of his fly patterns were built around figuring out several problems he encountered on the water with clients or on his own. In time, he branched out fishing dozens and dozens

of rivers and streams across New England, New York, Pennsylvania, the midwest and Alaska, often spending countless hours fishing on little sleep and lots of coffee. Over the past five years Rich has penned several articles detailing some of his patterns in Flyfisherman Magazine and Eastern Flyfishing.   Some of his patterns have also appeared in a variety of other publications including Caddis Flies by Thomas Ames Jr., Flyfishing and Flytying Journal, On The Water Magazine, Flyfisherman and many other smaller lesser known publications.  It’s safe to say that he is passionate about all things fly fishing, always striving for something fresh and outside the box, running the gamut of simple to complex patterns merging natural and synthetic materials.    Although he enjoys every facet of trout fishing, his true love is chasing trophy trout with larger streamers, and he has built a variety of small to larger streamers that do just that.  When not chasing trout you can find Rich throwing flies the size of small animals for Northern Pike, another species that he has grown increasingly fond of.  Rich is currently working on a book with Stackpole detailing dozens of his proven patterns that is slated for release in the near future.

3rd Annual Drinks for Dinks - Movie Night - October 11th

Frank "Chip" Swarner

David Troop

Location: TCO Fly Shop - Reading Store | Time: 10am - ?? (Movie starts at dark) | Email or call for more info

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Please join us on Saturday, October 11th at our Reading location for this super cool event! This is the 2nd year of the "Drinks for Dinks" program in which we raise money to continue the stocking and re population of the Tulpehocken Creek (Tully) with fingerling trout. These 4" trout are float stocked in the Fall of the year and will grow to almost 8" by early Spring. We have already landed some of these fish from last year in the 12" range! This fingerling program is important to the Tully as these fish thrive in this environment and become "almost wild" in both appearance and behavior.
By attending this event you will show your dedication and support for the Tully and the effort put forth to maintain this incredible fishery. Prizes, Raffles, Great Beer and food are all part of this fun day. The proceeds from many items sold as well as the raffle fun all goes to stocking these fish.
*This year our local Trout Unlimited Chapter has agreed to partner with us and match the funds raised to DOUBLE our yearly stocking!! This means we will stock about 3,000 fish this year... maybe more if YOU come support this cause!
Event Details:

• Casting competition – All Day - $5 entry – winner gets $50.00 TCO Gift Card There will be a distance competition and a accuracy competition. Rods will be your choice of Orvis Helios2 5wt
  or their New Recon 5wt.
  
• Fly Tying Competition – All Day - $5 entry – winner gets $50.00 TCO Gift Card The theme will be steelhead flies. You are allowed 10 mins to search through the random materials on the table and tie a fly. The winner will be announced right before the movie, Winner will be picked by popular demand.
  
• Fly Tying Demos – 10am - 5pm - Frank “Chip” Swarner – Great Lakes Steelhead Flies
  Chip has been in the TCO Family for many years now... his flies are simply AMAZING! Don't miss this one.
  
• Fly Tying Demos – 10am - 5pm - All Day – David Troop – Musky Madness David Troop is a local musky addict who also ties flies for the shop. He will be tying his favorite musky flies.
  
• Swag Raffles – Patagonia, Airflo, Orvis, Scott, Hatch, Simms – Raffle will take place throughout the day.
  Prize drawings will be held before the movie starts... around 7pm.
  
• Beer Tasting – Victory, TCO Beer (Shane's Secret Stash), along with a couple other local brews. We will have 2 types of beer locally brewed by Shane and Jake from TCO Fly Shop - an IPA, and a Golden Kolsch
  
• Movie – Leviathan The lure of the unknown is what drives fly fishers to explore and to seek out the largest fish of a species, not for the trophy but for the challenge. LEVIATHAN documents epic fly fishing battles with these modern-day aquatic monsters in a global tour-de-force.
  New Zealand is recognized as a mecca for giant brown trout, we descend deep into hidden spring creeks to shine some light on these enigmatic beasts. Next are the giant rainbow trout of Patagonia's fabled Jurassic Lake, undoubtedly home to the largest trout on the planet. In the South Pacific, the giant trevally demands instant respect - follow fly fishers as they lock horns with these mighty fish in the coral reefs of French Polynesia and Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Finally, watch gigantic tarpon crush hapless baitfish in the delta of Costa Rica's Rio Colorado (NZ - Argentina - Tahiti - Costa Rica - Australia)

Schuylkill River - Low and Clear

Well the water is now at an all time low, it is gin clear and sighting big fish is easy. However they can see you too, the first couple days after that last rain storm was a bit slow, falling water had made the fish very skittish. Now that the water is low and clear, but stable the fish have started to feed well again, it is fall and the fishing is slow in the mornings. The later in the day you go out, the more productive the fishing will be. The same flies that were working in August are still working well now, one good thing about the fall, you can now start to target the aggressive, bigger fish, fishing larger flies and moving them a bit faster. The top water bite has been pretty awesome too, a lot of "big hearted" fish, with a few super nice ones, the last couple hours of light the past couple evenings have been perfect for frogs and mice!

I had the chance to row one of my buddies new toys, the NRS Freestone Drifter, and Inflatable drift boat. Super awesome, fishing was very slow, but it was fun to row a drift boat again!

Inflatable Drift Boat, NRS Freestone Drifter

New NRS Freestone Drifter