West Virginia’s Back Country: Simply Amazing

     Now that I have calmed down a little from the fly fishing trip this weekend, I can share some of it with you.  My good friend Phil and I decided to try out some West Virginia streams.   Since we have never been there  fly fishing and only heard other peoples stories, we had to give it a go.  The easy access areas were very much your typical stocked trout waters that can fish very well, but with miles and miles of wild trout water in the area had us ready to explore. 

     Let me first say that if your gonna explore wild trout waters in the mountain, be ready to put on some miles.  Even though you have to work hard for these fish, it is well worth the work.  The absolute beauty of these fish are indescribable.  The main stream that we fished had both 100% wild brooks and rainbows.  The colors of a wild brook is amazing, but these rainbows were the prettiest I”d ever seen. 

     So Phil and I started our Saturday with a strong cup of coffee and a stern breakfast.  We needed to have a good reserve of energy because the walking was gonna be killer.  The first pool that we actually got our lines wet in was incredible.  It had two main currents, one from the head of the pool and one from a small spring feeding the edge.  The depth of this pool was about 8 feet deep and full of trout.  You may think that’s crazy deep for a mountain stream, and it is very uncharacteristic, but this was an amazing place.  This first pool rewarded us both with a few trout to get the day started off positive.  In most wild trout streams the fish are very spooky and even though several more fish made this pool a home, they shut down after a little disturbance.

     We made our way farther upstream to find nothing but great pockets, pools, and riffles with cooperative trout.  We took turns fishing and had a blast doing so.  Phil was fishing a gray caddis dry while I was fishing a tan caddis emerger.  Several times through the day we caught fish in the same pools on both the dry and the emerger.  These fish were really smart and to catch them effectively, you had to be stealthy and present a well placed fly.  The neat thing about wild fish is that if you can be undetected, you can bring trout to the net all day.  Wild trout aren’t to picky,  if you’re careful, if not it’s gonna be a long day. 

     Well, now we had made it about 300 yards upstream with a dozen under our belts, and it just kept getting better.  Have you ever had one of those dreams that when you wake up your upset?  Well this was one of those dreams that progressively got better.  We found ourselves catching 2 to 3 brook trout at every pool.  The farther we got upstream the nicer the fish got and the first wild rainbow was captured by Phil and it was amazing.  These rainbows were in such good shape with superior strength for their size.  The average size fish was probably 8 inches with a few smaller and a few larger. 

     Now we are a mile from the truck and we have been fishing for hours, but it was so rewarding to catch these little guys.  We knew about some impressive waterfalls upstream, but we fished to slow and never made it that far, next time.  The day was starting to come to a close with the satisfaction level super high, when Phil hooks into three more rainbows in one riffle.  The  rainbows must have liked the dries, because my emerger didn’t get any.  Not that I’m complaining about catching all brookies, but it would’ve been nice to land a bow.  At days end Phil landed five bows and a bunch of brooks.  I landed a bunch of brooks and had a great time doing it. 

     This was one of the best times I ever spent on the water.  I have been to Montana, Wisconsin, and several other places that have trophy trout, but this day of hiking and catching truly wild trout surpassed them all.  The number of trout that Phil and I caught this day probably got close to 80 or so, but who’s counting.  If you want to find beautiful seclusion and catch a mess of wild trout in the process, give West Virginia’s Back country a try, I know I’ll go back.

     And as for now and always “Tight Lines”

     Rusty

Great fly fishing ebooks!

I have a long commute everyday and usually fill the time with podcasts and books.  There’s somewhat of a lack of good digital fly fishing books out there and I was looking for something to fill my commute time and came across a great package of ebooks.  You get 7 books which are all really good for the cost.  The author was selling them individually, but decided to sell it as a package.  It makes for good reading to fill the time.  You definitely get some good tips.  It’s a good value as far as I’m concerned at $27.95 for all 7 books.  You could print them out if you wanted to also.  Here’s the site: Powerful fly fishing tactics

LOGS

     Well let me get started by saying that this is gonna be a little different type of article.  It’s actually been a long time since I have put an article on the site, sorry for that.  This past year has been a particularly busy year with work and home life, but hope to have a good showing this year.

     So, many of you probably seen the title logs and didn’t think about fly fishing, unless you are a hard core nymph fisherman.  I have two things to say about logs in our trout streams, one is that they are good cover for our trout, the other is the trout that gets large enough to be classified as a log.  I know that this may be a funny name for a large trout, but is it really?  I suppose you can continue to call them Lunkers if you want, because that’s not a silly name for a trout at all! 

     Basically this is a little refresher telling you that early spring is a great time to catch some big fish, or Logs.  My favorite way to get on some big fish in the early spring is with a streamer.  Now most of you will say “Who doesn’t know that?”  But the fact of the matter is that if you can pinpoint what depth of water the big boys are hanging in, then you have a great chance of catching several trophy fish a day, instead of that lone Log you may hook into.  The size of the streamer doesn’t have to be a huge attractor, but a larger size is always good for larger trout, especially browns. 

     Their are so many different techniques to fishing streamers.  A good technique that everyone has tried is the downstream swing, that produces some nice fish in the spring, or anytime of the year.  Next time you find yourself at a nice pool, run, or riffle, give a straight, cross current, strip back retrieve a try.  Now I’m not saying that this is gonna put you on multiple fish, but I am saying that once you detect the depth the Logs are feeding in, this technique is easy to repeat over and over. 

     Landing a large fish in the spring can be interesting since the water is usually up and we all know how those big trout will use current to their advantage.  If you are caught in a situation that your Log you just hooked is running downstream, run with him, unless you don’t want to see the fish or fly again.  Large fish are also very smart, they didn’t get that big by being stupid.  Always take precautions when landing and releasing your Logs, because even though they are big they still are a fragile part of the underwater life that others can enjoy someday.  Not doing anything tomorrow?  Go Logging and hold on, it’s gonna be fun!!!

     And as for now and always “Tight lines”

     Rusty

Rain swollen streams with unusual deadly results

     Well as I got off work this morning I couldn’t help but think about fly fishing.  The streams have been pounded by rain for the last several weeks and this week was no exception.  I arrived to the stream about 8:00 am to find that I had it to myself, no big surprise since the color of the stream resembled most mud puddles, but I thought I’d give it a shot. 

     I studied the water a little bit and realized that if I drifted nymphs or streamer low and slow, I thought I could pick up some fish.  Even though the skies opened up as soon as I got set to go, the morning proved to be a success. 

     I started with a fly that I thought would be a visual advantage for the trout to seen in the stained, or should I say muddy water, a wine colored San Juan Worm in a size 14.  After I fished for approximately 30 minutes I realized that this could be tougher then I first expected, but I pushed on and was rewarded with a nice brown that made an aggressive strike.  I no sooner released that fish and was quickly rewarded with the fish of the day, a nice 16 inch acrobatic bow.  Fishing the same run where the previous 2 fish came from, I kept dredging and a really nice fish hammered the San Juan Worm.  This fish was never seen but I had plenty of time to feel the weight of the fish and it was definitely a nice one that I would’ve loved to get my hands on.

     Now that I broke off I thought I’d try something else, so I tied on a size 14 olive soft hackle.  I fished pretty hard with the soft hackle and managed a few more nice trout.  That’s 2 different patterns that have produced on this raining day.  Being completely honest I can say I didn’t expect much to happen in the catching department with the conditions the way they were, but as long as the fish were active I wasn’t leaving. 

     Well the rain continued to fall, now at a pretty steady pace, and the trout kept feeding.  I thought that since I caught fish on 2 patterns, I’d try a third, so I tied on a size 16 caddis larva, green in color, to see what would happen.  After fishing the previous flies slow I really knew I’d have to slow it down with the caddis larva because of the small size and the discolored water.  I fished this low and slow and believe it or not, caught more fish with the caddis then I did with the others.  It just amazed me at how good a trouts eyes are to be able to pick up a size 16 fly in the muddy current, decide if it’s food, and strike.  I picked up several more trout with the caddis larva before deciding to fish a streamer.  Now I really don’t like fishing streamers and only go to them as a last resort, but today was such a good day I thought it was worth a try. 

     I fished the streamer for no more then 5 cast before the first of many browns became a victim of my olive Matuka streamer.  The more I fished the streamer the more I started to like fishing it, probably because I was catching fish.  Now this is the 4th fly that I have had luck with this morning, and I always try to tell people that the fly isn’t the most important thing and that proved right today. 

     I only fished about 100 yards of stream today because of the muddy conditions I had to fish slow and present the fly to the fish in a way that appealed to them.  Lets rewind here and remember I caught about a dozen fish, lost about 8 others and did so with 4 different flies.  If you ask me that proves my theory of Presentation is #1, and is something that I will always believe.  Next time your really itching to go fly fishing but the water conditions just aren’t right, fish low and slow and I promise you’ll catch fish that you thought couldn’t see your fly.  Also, the fly your fishing doesn’t have to be big, but it can help when the water clarity is a factor.  The size 16 caddis larva I was fishing found several trouts mouths, so just believe in the trouts seeing ability and fish your fly the way the fish want to see it.

     And as for now and always “tight lines”

     Rusty

Spring, fishable water, first timers and mushrooms

Finally, a day on the stream worth writing about.  We’ve had a wet spring here in western Pa, and when the water wasn’t high and muddy, there were weddings and first day crowds and work.  Rusty and I attempted to break in 2008 last weekend (4-20-08) but the streams were blown out, and the tailraces were packed with people.  We agreed to wipe that outing off the books.

This weekend was the next attempt, and was to be a unique first day out as I wanted to get a co-worker, John Z, out fly-fishing for the first time in his life.   Rusty got called to work, so it was just John and I this time.  We met up early and walked the 3/4 mile from the hard road down through the woods to the stream which was running at a decent flow and pretty clear for this time of year.  A big relief after last weekend’s blow out when the same stream looked like Nestle Quick.

This was the first time that I’ve gone out fishing with a first timer.  John was eager to learn though, and it was a perfect day to get someone on fish.  I don’t consider myself much of an instructor, and honestly, I think fly-fishing is something that just takes time and practice to learn.  I did my best to give him some basic tips and point him in the right direction without being too overbearing.  Being a nymph fan (highsticker), I pointed out that we’d be fishing deep as opposed to dry which is what everyone thinks of when you mention fly-fishing.  We turned over some rocks to illustrate what the nymphs were designed to replicate, and it was on to fishing.

The water was in perfect shape with a good flow and just enough tint to help our situation.  The fish seemed to want to cooperate right off the bat.  In the first hole we had several takers on the tandem rig I set John up with which was a very basic nymphing rig.  A #16 bead head hare’s ear with a  #18 gunmetal flashback beadhead pheasant tail (see movies section).  I could see John looking at me funny when I tied these on and could tell he wanted to ask if the fish could see them.  He made a comment about that later in the day.  It still amazes me that they can matrix out a #18 mayfly nymph a foot above them in the water colum flying at them at what would probably be 60 mph to us and manuever themselves into position to eat the bug/fly.

Watching John reminded me of when I started out.  It’s a daunting sport to jump into, with all the equipment, insect biology, water reading etc. and then enter the fact that you’re in a stream with other fishermen around watching you, and you’ve got a down right nerve wracking experience.  I guess that’s what defines us eventually in this hobby.  The ability to ignore all those factors and move ahead or to give up.  Regardless, John did great for the first time he’d ever casted a fly rod.  By the end of the day I could see a huge improvement in casting and line handling.  It was great to watch, and I’m glad I got to be a part of that.

John was able to land one fish, and had another one for as long as I would consider a “caught” fish, so we’ll say 2.  I had a few while poking around.  I was more interested in being out on the water on a nice day, helping John learn, playing with my new waterproof camera and just relaxing than slaying fish.  It’s funny, to me anymore, it’s not about numbers.  I’ve had those days of 30 – 40 fish each with Rusty, and they are fun.  This same stream last year wore Rusty and I out.  I still don’t know how many fish we caught that day, but it was simply amazing.  Sometimes though, it’s nice to take it slow, catch a few and just enjoy the outdoors.

We saw a lot of fish, and a lot of fish swinging at flies.  I rolled a huge bow at the last hole we fished, and I’m sure if I would’ve pounded the water to a froth, I could’ve managed a few more.  We hiked the long hike back out and I just couldn’t resist poking around in the leaves under the apple trees near the lot.  John took off, and I stayed for another hour harvesting wild mushrooms.  Morel mushrooms.  If you haven’t heard of them or seen them, they’re great!  You can only find them for a few weeks during the end of April and beginning of May (in Pennsylvania), and you can only find them in very specific areas like the North side of a hill with aged apple trees.  They’re really hard to see too, so the pic below should help  you find them.  Here’s a link to a site about Morels.  http://thegreatmorel.com/index.shtml