Fall Days on the Water

Yes, all the mayflies are done hatching, and the smallmouth have gone deep; but who says we have to call it quits on our favorite local water? Not us, fall means a lot for us, musky fishing is just starting to pick up, trout are eating midges, and steelhead are starting to run. We are still doing trout trips on the Tully, and the fishing is only getting better as the temps drop. With the water at an awesome 234 cfs, the fish are eating like crazy, even the freshly released fingerlings are munching down. Musky fishing, well its musky fishing, but with cool nights and warm days, we can only hope to put one in the boat very soon. But lets not forget whats rapidly approaching right now, steelhead, we are getting mixed reports from day to day, but the fact is they are coming in everyday. I can't wait till next weekend to get up there and try to find some hungry fish.

Mudslide Musky Fishing

We were off on an adventure, to find a hungry musky; we found all of that and more. Emerson and Joe hopped on the boat with 10wts and nothing smaller than a 3/0 hook. Water was up and muddy, but a friend of mine sent me a text with no words, just this picture, so off we went with high hopes.

One thing I love about musky fishing is when an aggressive smallie decides to munch on a musky fly. The spring is a great time for this, because these fish are going into spawn mode and can be extra aggressive. Even when fishing with 10wts these fish can double the rod over! We have no pictures of the musky from this trip; however we do have one hell of a story. We did hook a very hot fish about 8 hours into the trip, this thing erupted out from under the boat and crushed Joe's fly. Now the one thing I'm not telling you, Joe wasn't even stripping the fly, it was just hanging in the water as we rowed over to the bank to get a fly out of the tree (Emerson's Fly). I stopped rowing to slide slowly toward the bank, when BOOM, Musky out of the water and fly in the mouth. We fought it for about a minute, had an air show twice before it spit the hook! Freaking Awesome, we were all shaking after that!

Sticks and Leaves

Sticks and Leaves, thats how Lenny got out of a ditch on Penns Creek yesterday, we can talk about that later. This post is about an inspiration, that was much needed. Looking back at last months post, it is easy to see I couldn't find much to write about. I spent a lot of time at the vise and very little time on the stream, single digit temps may have had something to do with that. It wasn't until today that I really got excited about being on the water, and the up and coming season. However this story really isn't about me, its about my buddy Corey "the other guy" Siple, a fellow musky addict from Western PA. Corey and I met last year, when I was invited to our State College store to tie musky flies, and listen to Corey and his buddy Todd give a presentation about fishing for musky with a fly rod. We met up once last summer and did a float for toothy critters, that landed me my first Pike. Since then we have kept in touch, trying to get together so I could repay the favor, by rowing him down a river on the East side of the state. Today was it, we hit the water.

Corey and I had a rough year last year, him hooking nine fish and loosing them all, and I hooking three and loosing every one as well. Today the dry spell lasting over a year and a half was finally broken! Corey hooked into a hot musky, and held onto it long enough for a photo shoot! Hell Yeah man, you called it! Today was in fact "A Good Day!!"

I have to give a big thanks to Lenny for also pounding the banks with us, and rowing so I could chuck a chicken at the bank for a bit! This was the exact trip I needed to get jazzed up and inspired to start writing again!

Featured Fly - Foam Headed Musky Thing

So, I will start by saying "I'm Sorry", this post is going to be really long. As I was saving photos I realized the last number was 27, 27 photos to tie this thing. Anyway, now I'll tell you about it, this is not my pattern for say, but I did design the heads to go on them. This fly is basically a Brad Bohen fly, revers tied deer hair, some flash and feather. Basically, I want to make as much noise under water as possible, I designed this guy to move all over the place, and the foam wants to head to the surface, I fish it with a deep sinking line, giving it awesome action in the water. SO here we go...

Materials:

Hook: Partridge Predator Hook - 6/0 &8/0

Feathers:  Any Saddle Hackle you can Find

Flash: Holo Fly Fiber -  Black 

Bucktail: White for the rear 

Bucktail: Purple and Black for Head 

Step 1: Tie in a small clump of deer hair straight back. Then tie in some flash making the guide to how long you want the fly.

Step 2: Tie in 2 feathers as the tail. One on Each side.

Step 3: This step is the bulk of the fly. Reverse tie a clump of deer hair. Spinning it around the hook shank.

Step 4: Bring your thread forward, warp back over the deer hair, making it fold backwards. keep wrapping until the hair is folded back to where you want it.

Step 5: Repeat step 3 and 4.

Step 6: Add a few more strands of flash.

Step 7: Tie in two more feathers, you can change the color, to accent the fly.

Step 8: Repeat step 3 and 4.

Step 9: Repeat step 3 and 4.

Step 10: Add a bit more flash.

Step 11: One more set of feathers. Whip Finish, Cut off, and coat with head cement.

Step 12: Take 50-80 lb wire, and join the back hook to the front. Beads are optional. Coat with Super Glue.

Step 13: Repeat step 3 and 4.

Step 14: Repeat step 3 and 4.

STEP 15: Add two more feathers. I like to shorten them up for the front half.

Step 16: Repeat step 3 and 4.

Step 17: Repeat step 3 and 4.

Step18: Add 2 more feathers.

Step 19: Add a bit more flash. But not too much.

Step 20: Repeat step 3 and 4.

Step 21: Repeat step 3 and 4.

Step 22:  Repeat step 3 and 4.

Step 23: Add two more feathers, changing the colors again.

Step 24: Tie in the accent color of deer hair, only on the top half, and this time tie it back.

Step 25: Tie in the second accent color on the bottom, blending them together on the sides.

Step 26: Repeat steps 24 and 25.

Step 27: Take your pre-made head, coat the inside with super glue, then slide onto the fly. Make sure the head is centered on the hook eye. After the super clue cures, take a UV curing glue, and fill in the front gap, securing it to the hook, and adding a bit of weight.

The finished Fly.