More Smallies

Even with the weather man calling for 50% plus chance of rain, we decided to gamble yet again. From the moment I got in the car yesterday, I couldn't help but think top myself, damn lost again. It rained the first 3 hours of our trip, fishing was slow, but we made the best of it. Then coming into the last half of the trip, the rain stopped and the fish were on. Its hard to say if it was exactly when the last raindrop hit the water, or a few minutes after, but it didn't matter, the bass put their feed bags on.

For the past couple weeks, We have all been putting in a lot of time floating the Schuylkill, The bass are hungry and getting bigger. This year has been an awesome year so far, we have 2 more months to go, ill be praying that it doesn't slow up. Casey and Kyle have been floating every Saturday for the past month, so I can say someone from the shop has fished the Schuylkill at least 4 days a week, some weeks hitting 7 days.

Beautiful  scenery, very few people, and happy, healthy fish, I love this river.

High Sun, but Happy Fish

Six out of the last nine days, I've spent on the river. High sun and random thunderstorms, have made it a tough few days, but if you stick with it, you will get rewarded. We have boated a few nice fish so far this year, and our average fish are getting bigger. Its hard to say if its just the new water we are fishing, or if the system is continuing to get healthier. Either way, happy clients, make happy guides, and I'm happy! Yesterday was an awesome day, I floated solo for most of the day, bring a few nice fish to the boat, and one monster. On top of that, the number of big fish that have been seen is promising for a great season. Casey and Kyle met up with me around 5:30, and the rest of the evening proved that even the "pros", if you want to call us that, can have a rough time on the water. Kyle getting stuff about 100 times on the bottom, Casey wrapping is fly line around a log, then almost loosing 3 sections of his fly rod, that ended with him going swiming to get his line unwrapped. Me, well my morning was about the same, rocks, trees, and a broken fly line. Ha, but it was still an awesome and beautiful day on the river, I can't get over how beautiful the river is above Reading. Its just worth floating to look at the surroundings, oh yeah, and the Bald Eagles. OK enough typing, enjoy the pictures. 

 

Hot Flies: Clousers, Zuddlers, Deceivers. Colors: Chartreuse, White, and Olive 

Stripers!!!

There is nothing like a trip home to see the family, but when that trip entails new rods, new flies, and stripers, it can't be matched. This time of year, where we fish, most of the fish are no bigger than 18", so when my little sister reeled in a 24" fish , were very presently surprised. We preceded to catch about 8 fish over 20" with only 2 under. It was awesome, new flies, new rods and awesome fish, what a weekend. On top of that, mom made my favorite meal of all time, Cream of crab soup, cheese burgers, and french fries. Thanks Mom!

Oh yeah, and you have to go fish for some largemouth bass in Maryland, so we did that too.

Montana, Idaho, and my Good Friend Tom

Saturday evening, as many of you already know, I boarded a plane for the west. I was flying into Spokane Washington to meet up with an old buddy of mine, from my guiding days in Alaska. Tom Larson, is a great friend if mine, when he is not guiding and fishing in Alaska, be is a resident of a small Idaho town, Kellogg, and fishes the the local rivers around his town. So when I decided I wanted to head out for a pre-runoff fishing trip, he was the first person I called. We made plans and off I went.

Boarding the plane we still didn't have a set plan on where we would go, but either way it was going to be awesome. Arriving the conditions in norther Idaho didn't look great, so we loaded up the the truck and headed east into Montana. Bitterroot and Beaverhead were the two we wanted to fish the most. Skwalas on the Bitterroot, and wadable flows on the Beaverhead, lets see what happens.

Well two days on the Bitterroot only rendered two fish, we were, as they say "a day late and a dollar short". Skwalas were over and the fish were full. So it was off to the Beaverhead, after a beautiful drive over the Bitterroot mountains and through the Big Hole valley, we were sitting on the banks of the Beaverhead looking down river at, what I would say, was the coolest river I've ever seen. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story. But I will say, only seeing three boats, and two other people in two days, was nothing short of amazing.

Then it was back to Idaho for sate number six in my ten state quest for 2013, everything was high and blown out. But I did manage to find a small gem, check it out. East coast meets West coast.