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:

Featured Fly - Fish Mask Deceiver

This guy is tied just like Mike Schmidt's double deceiver, however it is only the back half of the fly. There are many different colors, styles, and sizes of the deceiver, but one this will always be the same, I love this fly. I fish deceivers for everything, trout, bass, stripers, and pike. My recent trip to VT, is the motivation behind this fly, on top of Fish Skulls new sick product "fish masks". We have had great luck with smallmouth using this fly, and going to VT and watching the pike destroy anything orange was just crazy, so here we go.

Materials:

Hook: Partridge Predator - 2 to 6/0

Tail: Schlappen Feathers - Color to match Deer Hair

Flash: Flashabou or Holo Flashabou 

Body: Deer Hair - 2 Contrasting colors 

Head: Fish Skull - Fish Mask (Coming Soon)

Step 1: Tie in 2 Schlappen feathers.

Step 2: Tie in 2 more feathers.

Step 3: Add a clump of flashabou, making the length of the flash about 1 inch longer than the feather.

Step 4: Tie in a small clump of deer hair, on the top.

Step 5: Tie in a clump on the bottom.

Step 6: Repeat step 4 and 5.

Step 7: Repeat step 4 and 5.

Step 8: Repeat step 4 and 5.

Step 9: Tie in some flash as accent.

Step 10: Repeat step 4 and 5.

Step 11: Repeat step 4 and 5.

Step 12: Tie in 2 longer barred hackle feathers, then add a small clump of red deer hair for the throat.

Step 13: Put a little CCG, and slide fish mask on, hit it with a uv light.

Green Mountain Adventures - Weekend in VT

It was about 2 months ago now, Steve and I were up on the Delaware for a Patagonia Dealer Camp. We were floating down the river, frog hoping another blue raft like mine. We had about 30 mins to be 2 miles down river for dinner, so we finally talked to the guys fishing out of it. "Hey we gotta blow by you, have to get down river", i said, "where you taking out?" they said, I told them the West Branch Angler. Next thing I know we are drinking PBRs on the river, and we are both now late for dinner.

Its funny how friendships start in this industry. Steve and Jesse from VT, Jesse being the manager and Steve being the owner of Middlebury Mountaineer, welcomed me up to VT this past weekend. In conversation planning this trip, Jesse told me "we would get after it the whole time you are here.", Yup he meant it. We slept about 3 hours a night, fished 12 hours a day, drank for a few hours and slipped some food in when we could. It was a great trip, fishing was awesome, weather was great 100% chance of rain, and nothing, gotta love the weatherman.

Day 1, started at 5am after staying up until 1:30 drinking beer and telling guide stories about our season. We fished the White River for bass and trout, it was about 5 mins into the trip and we had 2 fish in the net, a sweet smallie and a bad ass rainbow. The action continued pretty much all morning, some of the sickest takes I've seen from smallmouth, and some very hungry, or maybe angry rainbows. Wildlife was out and about as we floated, Bald Eagles, Beavers, and Ducks everywhere. It was awesome, fishing slowed as the sun came out, but that was cool, we sat down and cooled off with a couple beers. We picked up a few nice fish in the afternoon, and had the boat out just in time to drive back to camp before dark.

Day 2, 4:20am, I flipped the coffee maker on and went back to sleep for 5 mins, it was Toothy critter day! Steve met us before the sun was up and, we fished hard for about 4 hours for musky with no love. Steve had to do the whole family thing, so we met up with Dave another GMA guide, and hit the creek for pike. Now the background story for pike, Jesse tells me it hasn't been good lately, "yeah I don't care, lets just go for it." I don't know, but we must have done something right, we smoked pike all day. It was awesome, some of the sickest takes I've ever seen. Musky are awesome, but Pike are insane, freaking awesome time.

Day 3, 5:00 am the coffee maker went on, and after a cup, we were off to musky country again. No love, but it was a sweet spot, I cant wait to go back. After that, Jesse had to open the shop, so I went along, I had to check out the shop. If you're ever in Middlebury VT, go check it out, they have everything you need to fish, camp, hike, Kayak and well do just about anything outdoors. WWW.MMVT.COM

Have to give a big shout out to Jesse Haller, dude is a master at vermont fly fishing. He put me on fish the whole time, and caught some nice fish when I could convince him to fish, that it was ok for me to row the boat. Thanks Pal!

Ok so now the pictures