Time to Hit the Reset Button

I was sitting on the drift boat last week with Andy and Austen, we were about to partake in our first smallmouth trip of the season. We had the deck stacked against us with high water, winter water temps, and 30mph winds, but we didn't care. It wasn't long after fishing the first hole with tubes, live minnows, and of course flies, that we realized it wasn't summer yet.

So with no fish at this point, we were all just talking about life and other random thoughts, when Andy started giving me crap about not writing my blog anymore. I responded with a few excuses about life, lack of time, and no motivation. That's when I decided to make a bet with Andy, "if we catch fish today, I'll blog about it".
Andy said "deal", Austen just kept fishing, and I picked up the fly rod and went to work.

They managed to get fish on tubes sporadically through the day, but I was hard headed and stuck with the fly rod and spent most of the day fishless. About 10 mins before we called it because of wind and lack of all around comfort, we slid down into an eddy where the water was all but motionless and I finally went tight to a solid smallmouth...

So Andy won, and here is my blog post.

 

Moving on / Fishing

Hello All,

Some of you may have already heard the news, however for the rest of you, here it is.

As of April 1st, I have stepped away from my management role at TCO Fly Shop. After over 8 years in the shop, I am leaving to peruse my true passion as a full time guide. I have started Relentless Fly Fishing, which will continue to work directly with TCO. I will be managing all guide trips out of our Boiling Springs and Reading locations. Thank you Tony Gehman and TCO Fly Shop for all that you have done to get me to this point in my career!

I have also started a website to go along with my new business. You will be able to stay connected to the blog, watch tying videos, see photos throughout the season, and even purchase some of my custom tied flies.

Click on the link to check it out today!

WWW.RELENTLESSFLYFISHING.COM 

Now to some photos from the past few trips out. We have done a couple recon missions for early season smallmouth in between guide trips. The early season smallmouth fishing has been great, and is only getting better. We will be floating some small tributaries to the bigger rivers this spring in search for some serious trophies. Come join me, and support your local starving artist :)

Spring is know for as trout season, and that it has been. We have been splitting time between Reading, Boiling Springs, and State College, everything seems to be fishing well right now. 

Forgotten Post - Final Smallmouth Float

Through my thoughts and travels of great lakes steelhead, I have forgotten to post about an epic season ending trip for smallmouth bass. Andy and I decided a few weeks ago to take the clacka for one more float before putting her to bed for the winter. We had made the decision that if it was our last float we should do an exploratory float of a section of the Juniata that neither of us had floated before. The float quickly became my favorite with some fast and technical water and some amazing smallmouth. We never changed flies, all we fished was a white Roamer that was about 5 inches long. We put about 6-8 fish in the boat with at least that many more eats that we never connected with. That was until the end of the float, about 100 yards from the take out when I got crushed by an amazing 19 inch smallie and then Andy a few minutes later popped a 20 incher. Needless to say we reeled up and floated to the launch with large smiles on our faces and satisfied with our smallmouth season.

Late September Early October

We finally got some water! That really got the fish moving, they are starting to school up for the winter, but that doesn't mean they won't eat a fly. We had some killer days towards the end of the month despite the low and clear water. A few trips had to be postponed from all the rain, but we were ok with that. It meant the fish would be back on the banks and some of the grass was kicked off the bottom. We have a few more trips this month, so we are hoping the weather stays a bit on the warm side.