The Drought is Over

Swinging flies for lake run fish is rarely a numbers game.  That being said over the years, I've had more successful days than not.  This pattern held true until the fall of 2015.  I think I've fished 7 or 8 days since then with a couple of tugs but no hookups.  It all started in the summer of 2015 when I visited my sister and brother in law in Oregon.  I met up with a virtual online friend and fished for steelhead in mid August for one day.  Neither one of us had even a tug. I recall saying to  my friend that I almost always get a fish back home.  Well from that point onward its been scarce, so much for bragging.  I hadn't changed what I'd been doing and I know I wasn't alone.  The drop in returns of Lake Ontario fish to tributaries, has been well documented.

So the other day my friend Matt and I head to the river and hope for the best.  We fished hard and had a great time.  The few other anglers we talked to said it was slow also.  We only got one fish but it was the largest brown I've swung up on the Salmon.

 

Surveying the river, eager to get going

Two hands needed to get a good grip

 Oh yeah!

Deep sides on this fish

The tub fly free from the hook

Freeze dried fish

 

 

Its a State of Mind

This past weekend I had plans to hit the coast for more saltwater action but gale warnings kept me closer to home.  With a wide variety of options and too much sun I decided to go trout fishing.  Had the weather been cloudy there were other options I would have explored but when life gives you lemons one makes lemonade. While I love so many different species trout fishing always feels like coming home especially in the fall. 

 pseudo's were out and small fish were on them.  

 Even some larger fish were on the pseudo's

 Well looky here

 A closer look

Beautiful bows put me in a joyous state of mind

Insect Eaters

Large insect eating Brown Trout are immensely fun to fish for, catch and are great to look at. 

 

 

Tis the Season

It is upon us, the time of year that warms the heart of every dry fly fisherman.  Getting reacquainted with old haunts, holding lies, new water and familiar water.  Here are some pics of the season so far.  It been a season full of well earned fish.  Nothing has come easy, but it is still early season. 
 

 Bugs

 Changing flies

 
 

 Target spotted

 

 Yes!

 

Spey Nation getting it done

Bacon

 A dozen eggs, 2 pounds of bacon an 4 hungry anglers does a streamside brunch make.  Bacon cooked to perfection streamside, well my linguistic skills fail to adequately describe that. The fishing was tough but enough fish were had to make it a stellar day. 

The arsenal

 
 Oh yeah! Photo courtesy of Mike at the Rusty Spinner Blog.  Check out his excellent writing.

 

 Working the wood

 Found a brookie!

Just a little deep

 

Need more bacon

Fly Fishing Tribes

Each so called genre of fly fishing is represented by its own so called "tribe."  Each group has their own distinctive look, gear, lingo and ways about them.  When it comes to fly fishing I originally belonged to the adipose fin tribe.  If it didn't have an adipose fin I was pretty much not interested in catching it.  Since that time I would like to say that I have matured as a fisherman and now greatly appreciate what different species have to offer.  Variety is the spice of life is my new mantra.  As a result I find myself as a member of many fly fishing tribes. 

This post will highlight some of my time when I was a full blown trout weenie.  My dress has changed from non-breathable waders to the much more comfortable breathables.  I still have my original Columbia vest in storage, but I now use something completely different.  I had a pair of Thomas &Thomas wading boots made by Weinbrenner, which were by far the best wading boots I've ever owned. They lasted through 4 seasons of guiding in AK which is  amazing.  I still have them and need to take them to a cobbler for some ripped seams and break them out for summer fishing.  They are light weight and felted but most importantly I can feel the bottom with them and hence they make me a better wader.I used 2 piece rods as 4 piece rods were not on the scene yet.  We had those old huge polarized glasses that weighed a ton and fit on one's nose like a square on a circle.  Back then I even had hair!

During this time I traveled far and wide to chase fish with adipose fins.  My travels took me to Oregon, Montana, Alaska, British Columbia, Argentina, New Zealand and Nova Scotia among others.  All of these pics are scanned from slides so the quality isn't so great.

                                                                 A good Ak bow

                                                                Argentine brown

                                                     My friend Bob working down a run

     Sunset at the Boca of the Chimehuin, famous for it's huge spawning browns.  I wasn't there in     prime time but it was beautiful.

                                                    Another Argentine Brown

                                                                   An King in AK

                                The famous Leopard bows of AK.  Followed by some piggies

                                                        A New Zealand piggie

                            Love the old glasses that we all wore.  This fish fell for a dry.

                                                               Typical NZ brown

                                                Some better fish from down under

                               The king of fish from Nova Scotia

                                My first steelhead, I worked really hard for this BC steel. 

Over the next year I will be highlighting my own fly fishing "tribal" affinities in a number of posts as the seasons change including an updated trout section.  As such consider this the introduction to my tribes. Up next Spey fisherman aka speynerds.

Trout Camp 2014 day 1

My son was going to overnight camp for a week , my wife was working so I pondered what to do.  Enter the time machine and poof I became a trout bum for  four and a half days.  I hadn't fished like this for trout in over 20 years.  As the date drew near excitement inched upwards.  I was going to hit the Delaware River with a new plan.  I have fished it during the summer for a day or so but this time I was going to fish it hard.  With the cool temps it opened up a whole new world of possibilities.  My plan was to break each day into 3 time periods.  Fish the am with the switch rod swinging soft hackles, then midday hit the sulpher hatch and then find a new locale for the evening and hopefully a spinner fall. 

On departure day the weather was looking sunny and pleasant.  After a few hours behind the wheel I arrived at the river, donned my gear and was greeted by an empty river surrounded by beautiful scenery.
 

Since I didn't really know what I was doing I decided to do what I normally do and that is to start at the top and work my way down.  Given the size of the run this was going to take a while.  I put on a medium soft hackle and started working my way down, cast step, cast step. 

 

                                                     A little action shot of the swing.





 Not too far down my reel started singing and a nice healthy rainbow came to hand.  A good fish and a good omen for the trip. 

 A little while later another good fish came to hand.

 

This was working out better than expected. During my efforts I also had two taps from fish that didn't actually take but that meant I was getting their attention.   Near the end of the run another fish hit and it was a big fish as I could barely move it.  After about a minute of fighting it the hook pulled free.  A part of me wanted just to see it but if that had happened then I'd be saying I just wanted to touch it, if that had happened I would have wanted a picture.  You get the idea.  It's often the ones that get away that keep us asking what if questions forever.

Lunch time approached so I headed up river and it was full on sulphers.  They were everywhere so much so that the ducks got in on the buffet line.  

 The action on this day was short in duration.  I couldn't get them to hit what normally works so I tried so alternative flies and found success.  I got three hits within a half hour and only landed one ~18" brown.  The other two that broke off were likely in the same range or slightly bigger.  All in all this was a great day.
 

As things settled down I checked into my room and headed off to a different part of the river.  Unfortunately not much happened at dark so on of my time slots didn't pay off but 2 of 3 was good by me. 

It was weird in that there were bugs but no noses except for the one hit wonders.  Nothing to really cast to. I even swung some soft hackles thinking I'll at least present something to them.  But nothing happened.  That is one of the mysteries of the Delaware.


 
Waiting for the action. 

With day one in the books it was off to bed and to get ready for day 2.  More to come on that later.