September Smallmouth

Eric Snyder from Maryland came up yesterday for a full day float. Eric is a repeat client from last year, and a commercial fly tier, he specializes in foam topwater bugs. TCO has carried a few of his patterns in the past, and will be carrying more next year.

Ok back to the fishing, the water was the lowest I've seen all year, it was a bit sunny out, and gin clear. Despite the odds, Eric fished hard all day, good things come to those who wait. We ended up landing one of the biggest bass of the year, had a musky follow a huge crayfish, and saw at least 4 other musky in one hole. As the sun went down, the fish got a bit more active and we managed a couple more fish. The water is cooling off nicely, hopefully with this next storm rolling in, we will get some water, and the fall feed will be on. I also got some awesome shots of crayfish yesterday, and a couple darters (little baitfish), anyone that tells you there are no crayfish in the Schuylkill are dead wrong, I counted over 50 right at the launch, then at least that many, when we stopped for lunch.

Hot Flies: Crayfish, Zuddlers, and Mice

Here are a couple examples of Eric's work:

Another Two Awesome Days

Everything went as planned, thats what I said to myself as I pulled the boat out after the last 2 trips down the river. Great Clients, awesome fish, and perfect water. Matt Grove, a repeat client, and long time TCO customer, had an awesome morning on the river Tuesday. We had smallies on all morning, with a couple solid fish. The double deceiver became Matt's favorite fly, almost every fish regardless of size ate it. On top of that, we had a sick musky follow right to the boat, Ill take it! Way to go Matt!

"0% Chance of rain until 1:00 pm yesterday", thats what I said to myself at 8am, when the rain came down in buckets for 3 hours. Lee another repeat client, and his friend Ralph put their rain coats on and both smiled saying "well beats sitting in the office", I had to smile. It was a slow start with the rain, but poppers kept the action going, until the rain stopped. It was like a light switch, rain stopped, fish started, the conditions were perfect, clear water, zero sun, and zero wind. Lee, had the first smallie, it was only about 6 inches, but it was a smallie, then Ralph took over the show. The olive zuddler minnow, couldn't be stopped, small fish, big fish, and really Big fish, they all ate it. Ralph was the first to get into a monster, 17.5 inches on the rod. Then we were rowing through some fast water, I was trying not to hit rocks, as Lee says "got one", I look up to see the line flying past the boat, once I got out of the fast water, I dropped the anchor, stood up, damn another awesome one! We had fish the rest of the day, lost a couple other big ones, and landed a few other nice ones. Awesome day Lee, and Ralph!

Schuylkill River Float X 3

The past 3 days have been busy, I have been on the water every morning guiding, the fish, the weather, and the river were happy and ready to please. Friday I had the O'Hnadley party from New Jersey, I met them at the Fly Fishing Show in Somerset. We had a great day, filled with laughter, fish and a couple new stories to tell. Saturday was a 2 boat float with both Gavin and my Outcast boats. We switched clients throughout the float, fishing was great. Today I had repeat clients from last year, the original float plan was the schuylkill but high water detoured up to the Tully. This year the weather held off so it was back to the Schuylkill, fishing was great yet again. We landed a dandy on a frog popper that made the day, and made me go a little crazy until it was in the net safe.

Here are a bunch of photos from the stream. Looking at the photos is just another reason why I love smallmouth and the Schuylkill River.

Beautiful Smallmouth Bass

Look at that smile, Molly ready for another float trip

Reason 100 and something I love the river

Awesome Schuylkill Bass!!!

Nice Schuylkill River Smallmouth Bass

Hot Flies: Zuddler Minnow, Sculpin with No Name, Hellgrammite Fly Pattern, Packing Peanut Popper, Frog Popper, Clouser Minnow.

Smallmouth Summer Days

I've spent 3 out of the past 4 days floating the Schuylkill River. Each day it reminds me for different reasons why I love that river, and the fish that inhabit it. Friday I had my first float trip of the season, with the success of Mondays float in the back of my mind, I was confident we would have good action all day. Well maybe not, I woke up to a crazy lighting storm, that rattled my apt, rain came down fast and hard. By the time I got there it was starting to mud up, but we launched the boat and down river we went. It wasn't long till the Sculpin with No Name was doing its job, I thought to myself "nice, they are going to still eat in this muddy stuff". Well an hour later we hooked our next fish, it was slow for the fist few hours. As the day progressed the water slowly got clearer, and the last couple hours we had great action, landing a super nice fish the end the trip. Nice work Dave!

Perfectly placed Zuddler Minnow.

Dave with a great Scuylkill River Smallmouth Bass 

Sunday and Monday were just fun days with the Lenny and Jared aka J-Rod. Those guys headed out after work yesterday for an evening of smallmouth fishing and a couple good laughs, and yup we had both. The fishing was pretty good last night, but wasn't a banner trip, high sun and super hot air temps can turn the fish off pretty quick. Even so we managed a few nice bass, a huge sucker, and my new fishing partner Molly got her first ride in the boat.

Jared with a nice Smallmouth Bass 

Nice Schuylkill River Smallmouth 

Then Finally around 9pm last night as we rowed under the 222 overpass we decided to go for a third trip in the morning. After a night of tying flies and watching fishing videos, we were back to it. Today was a much better day, we had constant action all day, including rising 4 huge fish that we couldn't connect with, well Jared and I each stung one, then flat out missed the others.  Molly did much better today, for her second time out on the water ever. Oh yeah I guess maybe I should tell you who Molly is, Molly is my new roommate, fishing partner, and hiking buddy. She is a 3 year old Siberian Husky, that I rescued from an organization called, Tail of the Tundra. She is an awesome dog, does great in the shop, and is getting much better at riding in the boat.

Lenny's First of the day  

Molly guarding the rods, or is she sleeping?

Not huge, but very pretty Smallie 

Nicely colored smallmouth bass

J-Rods last fish of the trip, Always fun when they crush a frog thing 

Joey also decided to fish the river tonight, when I asked how he did, this is all I got:

Joey's super nice smallmouth bass, and it fell to the McGinley special 

All in all a great few days on the river. Hot flies included: Sculpin with No Name, Zuddler Minnow, Sculpin Helmet Flies, Frogs, Clouser Minnows, and a veriaity of new Orivs patterns we just got in the shop.