The Caddis Larva

     What can I say about the Caddis?  It’s one of the most reliable go to flies in a fly box.  The Caddis can be fished in several different ways, but the most effective way to fish them in Winter is the larva stage.  I had a pretty good day with one of these little green guys the other day, what a great pattern.

     Well I started my day of fishing about 10:00 am.  I figured it wouldn’t hurt to let the temps rise a little bit to get the trout active.  The water temperature was about 42 and the trout would probably be willing to give me a good time.  Now, given the time of year, I had to fish slow and not get to quick on the hook sets.  I decided to tie on a size 18 caddis larva with a few split shot and I was ready.  The trout were hitting softly and were just a little sluggish, but I was up for the challenge.  I was really fishing the water thoroughly with a few takes.  Finally one of the subtle takes rewarded me with a beautiful trout that gave a valiant fight.  I moved on, picking up a few more trout as I was heading up stream.  This was turning out to be a pretty good day, and I was enjoying it.

     Like I said, I was fishing a larva below the surface and picking up some fish, the other four fisherman I seen were all fishing dries.  Needless to say, I didn’t see any of them land a fish.  I did talk to one fellow and we had a conversation on how difficult the stream was fishing.  I shared some information about my rig and he was soon to change his set up.  I carried on and found some really nice water that I had all to myself, that’s one good thing about Winter fly fishing. 

     I started thinking about changing my set up to maybe a pheasant tail or hare’s ear, but thought why mess with what’s working.  A few more effortless cast and a nice drift and bang.  I raised the rod, the line got tight and the fight was on.  I could see this trout easily, it was thrashing about showing off his beautiful colors.  When I did get my hands on him I was really excited about the colors of this fish.  This brown trout had the colors of gold from head to tail and was about 14 inches.  Not the biggest fish, but one of the prettiest I’ve caught in a while.  After releasing the brown I fished a little longer and called it a day.

     It just goes to show you that winter fishing is a great way to get your fly fishing fix.  The fish have to eat, so why not fool them with a caddis larva.  I had a great day on the water and will hopefully have many more before springs among us.  Remember, in the winter, take your time with these fish.  They may not be as chipper as we like, but they will still bring you joy if you slow it down.  Subtle takes are just as rewarding when you bring the fish to the net, at least I think so!!!

     And as for now and always “Tight Lines”

     Rusty

Trout, Beer and Good Times

     Wow, where should I begin telling the tale of Potter County trout fishing?  First off, let me say that it’s one of the best places for a weekend outing with a few friends or a week getaway with the family. 

     I’ve been going to Potter county fly fishing for about 10 years now.  In this period of time my buddy Philip and myself had a lot of great trips.  The fishing is usually spectacular, but sometimes you hit that weekend that things just don’t click.  When one of these weekends hit, you can either fish til your arm falls off with little success or sit around your campfire telling stories about the great weekends in the past. 

     My last trip to our northern county was a great time.  Philip couldn’t make this trip, he was swamped at work, but my buddy John and I loaded his camper and set out for a weekend of trout, beer and of course “good times.”  We arrived at our destination ready to set up camp and hit the stream.  Our anticipation of the catch had us excited and ready.  After the camper was set up we headed out on our first evening.  Not much fishing was done that first evening, but some slight exploring showed us that we were gonna have some company on the stream the following morning.

     Now, back at the camp, we found some supper to cook on the fire and a few cans of that golden nectar.  The next several hours went by with many stories of past trips and just being in the wilderness by a warm fire, cold beer in hand.  John and myself were soon going to bed so that the trout wouldn’t have a chance the next morning.  Boy were we wrong.

     The morning proved to be super tough fishing with crowds of people in all the easily accessible areas.  We hiked up the stream a good piece and found some open water, but soon realized why it was open water.  Not a lot of activity in the catching department, although John did catch 2 really nice brookies.  A little more exploring and fishing and we called it a morning.  We arrived back at camp and had a much needed lunch and some more of Johns fresh ground coffee.  I’m telling you what, I’ve had some good coffee before, but my god was this coffee good.  Couldn’t wait til the next morning to have some more.

     That evening was pretty much the same as the morning, but our expectations were still high.  The next morning we went over the mountain to a camp owned by John’s relatives.  We hung around camp for a while shooting the breeze before we hit the water.  This was some really nice water we were fishing, with some unusually low numbers of fish brought to the net.  We tried everything, fished deep, fished on top, and fished hard with just a couple trout to show for it.  Decided to call it a day and head back to camp for a few coldies and some supper.  Log after log the night grew late telling stories and having a few beers.  Off to bed, had to try again in the morning.  You didn’t think a few slow days would make us quit did you?

     The next couple days passed with the same results.  We fished hard and only caught a handful of trout in our 4 day outing.  That doesn’t mean we didn’t have a blast.  This was a great trip, just goes to show you that fisherman don’t have to catch a bunch of fish to have a good time, although it helps.  We had a great 4 days, couldn’t have asked for much more.

     Trout- beautiful fish that call Pennsylvania home and have been fooling anglers for years.

     Beer- the drink most outdoorsman and women, enjoy by the fire after a tough day in the wilderness.

     Good Times- See text above and pictures below!!!

     And as for now and always, Tight Lines!

     Rusty

Sunshine, Solitude, and Steelhead

     The year is winding down, the streams and rivers are full of hungry trout and a few beautiful days are still ahead of us.  This is such a great time of year for a fly fisherman.  The trout fishing is excellent and the steelhead fishing can be dynamite.

     My fishing companion and myself live for fly fishing.  Fly fishing for trout is a normal with the two us, but when the steelhead run, we seem to get a little more excited at the idea of landing monster trout in big numbers.  We have tried several different areas and went on several different journeys with mixed results.  This year we thought if we could hike farther then normal, which is usually a good jont anyway, we could find a little more solitude.  Nothing left to do now, but go fishing!

     This fall we decided on an area in New York that we had never fished before, but were willing to try something different.  Normally we go to Northwestern Pennsylvania for these steelhead, along with thousands of others.  Knowing that the river we were going to fish was a demanding hike into good fishable water, we went prepared and ready for anything. 

     Upon arrival into New York, the skies were beautiful and the breeze subtle, great fly fishing conditions, so we hoped.  Armed with nothing but our 9 foot 6 weight rods and some beef jerky and Gatorade to keep us going, we started our journey into what we soon realized was greatness.  After the 2 mile hike was over, we started fishing, and it was hard to concentrate.  The unbelievable valley was a sight that I won’t soon forget.  The 250 foot canyon walls and the color of the fall leaves made a unforgettable vista.

     The fishing stared out a little slow.  We fished some very nice water with no results and were starting to get a little worried.  I kept thinking that I drove to New York to get skunked, but was very optimistic that some steel would reach the net.  We kept fishing and moving up river until we found a great area that had several steelhead jumping the falls and shooting upstream.  This was pretty amazing to watch.  These fish are just so powerful and make it all look so easy.  The one thing that wasn’t easy was the hooking of fish, but that was gonna soon change.

     The river we fished was super cluody with about 15 inches of visibility, which meant slow presentation was gonna be a big factor in the fish finding the fly.  It was now about noon and no fish had rewarded us yet, but as soon as the clock hit 12:00, the magic started to happen.  The first fish that I hooked was and absolute monster that proceeded to break me off after a 10 minute battle.  Wow, these fish are strong.  I think these fish fought twice as hard as the steelhead in Erie, which we’ve caught several times.  Not long after I lost that first fish, Philip hooked into an acrobatic slab of steel that was just amazingly strong and colorful.  When I finally netted it for him we were so excited and ready for more.  This first fish was probably 24 inches and about 8 pounds. Simply amazing fish.

     The fishing started 2 get better and better as the day went on.  We hooked several others that out witted our fighting abilities until a huge female steelhead took my egg pattern and the fight was on.  I just couldn’t believe the power these fish had and the strong water current gave them the upper hand.  This fish was ripping line of my reel so fast, which was music to my ears.  The battle went on for what seem like forever until I finally became the victor and was rewarded a huge fish.  Philip had trouble netting the fish because it wouldn’t fit in our inadequate net.  He landed it for me with his hands and we admired this LOG for a bit before releasing her back into the depths of the river.  She was the biggest steelhead I ever landed, it was 33 inches and 16 pounds, what a fish.

     Well I was still excited about the last fish I had caught when Philip hooked another nice fish.  It’s hard to talk about all these fish in depth because they are all big fish and we hooked so many of them.  I would say on average these fish were 8 to 10 pound and we landed about 15 of them.  If I had to guess I would say you land about one out of every five you hook, at least using 6 weight outfits.  That’s one thing we need to rethink next time, heavier fishing outfit would have been nice.  Using a 6 weight did make it more interesting though.

     This was such an amazing trip, the weather was perfect, the fish were cooperative and the people were non existant.  I know that I paid for the long hikes we took, the next couple days, but it was sure worth it.  This is one of the best trips Philip and I ever had, and I think we owe it all to Sunshine, Solitude, and Steelhead.

     “And as for now and always, Tight Lines”

     Rusty

The fishing game

Rusty and i hit one of our favorite rivers yesterday with the kind of weather that fishermen dream of. It was cloudy all day and in the 70’s with a gentle breeze. We knew the river was going to be lower than we’ve ever fished it before and the Army Corps of Engineers that manages the dam and flow rates had just dropped the river by 50 cfs the day before, but decided we wanted to see the river low so we could better understand some of the deep pools. Normally, this river runs at around 300cfs, and they have whitewater releases in the 1000 cfs range. We fished it at 148cfs and it proved to take some of the fun out of this river.

She runs through a gorge and drops in elevation a fair amount over her 10 mile course from the outflow to the confluence of another great river in the area. Huge bolders and deep fast pools are what this river is all about. On our last trip to this river, Rusty stumbled on a “hot” fly pattern that produced a lot of fish for us. We hit the river armed with this fly en mass. We walked about 1.5 miles down river from the car and got in at one of the big holes that produced good fish on our last trip. Right off the bat Rusty landed a 19″ beauty of a bow.

We thought this was an indicator to the day to come, but it didn’t really work out that way. We landed a few more fish each over the next few hours of fishing and I think we each had some nice fish on, but it wasn’t the numbers from the last trip. We left pondering the situation and what exactly had caused the change in the fish’s behavior.

Thus the great fishing game continues. There are so many variables in flyfishing. Everything from weather, stream flow, water clarity, water temperature, time of year, the amount of sunlight during the day, insect activity and possibly even moon phase, play an important role in our days on the river and our success. Dealing with these factors only helps to enhance the challenge of the sport, and make it all the more desirable to attempt to master. It’s what makes flyfishing so great, and why so many pursue it as a sport.

We definitely both felt that we’d rather fish the river with a little more flow than it had yesterday. Just when we thought we had figured out a few of it’s secrets, this river showed us that it is a force to be reckoned with , and that it isn’t done throwing us curve balls. Whether it was the 1 day drop in water flow the day before, or that there were quite a few more people on the river yesterday than usual, or that the air temperature had dropped slightly over the last days, the fact of the matter is that the river didn’t produce as good as it has in the past.

I think we can only hope to come to terms with the reasons, and not necessarily master them. We can take the factors into consideration, and formulate reasonable decisions around them, but we can never fully understand them or overcome them. The largely unknown nature of trout is what makes them one of the most difficult fish to take on the fly, and why we pursue them at such length.

Philip Light

Old Reliable does it again

     It’s been a few weeks since Phil and myself got to fly fish together, so when we got the opportunity to do so, we didn’t hesitate.  We decided that were going to fish a tail water river that we both enjoy.  The great thing about tail water fisheries is that the water temperature remains pretty much the same year round.  This type of everyday consistency makes the fishing good all year, unless it’s really raging.

     Now let me get started by saying this is probably one of the hardest eastern rivers I’ve ever fished.  You can literally pound the water all day and come away with one or two trout landed, or have a absolute great day and land 20.  Yes, I said 20.  I know that doesn’t seem like a lot, but for this river, that is a top notch outing. 

     We started our day fishing some streamers with little to no luck.  A few fish gave chase and a few landed, but nothing great by any means.  As we continued to try different patterns and approaches we couldn’t believe the difficulty we were having.  We stopped, sat for a while, watched the water, a few trout taking emergers here and there, but nothing to get excited about.  We pushed on trying various patterns, then all of a sudden I rolled a nice fish in a fast run.  That made me a little excited knowing that nymphing may be the key to success today.

     I then tried an old standby that Phil and I used for years, but not a lot lately.  This old reliable fly is the San Juan Worm, wine in color, about a size 14.  I fished a cast or two and was immediately rewarded with a nice rainbow about 14 inches.  I can’t get over how powerful these tailwater fish are, but what a blast.  I continued fishing and before long another, then another and soon a nice rainbow, about 22 inches, smoked my fly and it was time for some arobatics.  Phil was slightly upstream when I hollered for him,  and he soon caught a glimpse of the fish on one of it’s many jumps.  He started toward me with the net to try and land this log, but after 8 minutes the fly pulled out and he was of to fight another day. 

     The day is starting to heat up now with several fish cooperating, along with a heavy trout that Phil hooked and lost.  He said it had some good weight, and by the amount of rod bend I seen, I’d say he was right.  We caught a few more then decided to go to one of these big holes Phil told me about.  He wasn’t kidding either, this was a massive hole with a lot of depth and current.  Standing there thinking about the potential this had we couldn’t wait any longer, and started fishing.  This is where it got really fun.  I made my way accross some swift and slick current to fish the far side of these headwaters.  Phil said he landed a few nice fish there the previous time.  I got set and made a cast, my indicater twitched and I nice rainbow shot out of the water and started stripping line.  I knew this was a nice one, but the strength of these fish is incredible.  Phil made his way to me and landed in with his net after a good 5 minute battle.  This was the fish of the day, thick and about 18 inches.  After releasing that fish we took a little break and enjoyed a few more before heading back to reality.

     This was one of those days that make you realized how great the outdoors really are, and spending time doing what you love with friends and family is what it’s all about.  So old reliable came through for us today and made a not so productive day, an absolute great day!  First and foremost, don’t rate your fishing days on the amount you catch, but on the amount you learn.  You can never know to much about fly fishing,  just ask that 22 inch rainbow that got away! 

     And as for now and always “Tight Lines”